I'll be checking out and hopefully purchase this Jag. The seller says"like ne/clean" and no engine rebuilds or modifications to the car. My question is, are there things I should look for as like red flags, as to if ther car is well kept and maintained...has about 86K miles on it. any info and all info will help,


thank you

 

Hi divinci,

Welcome to the Jaguar Forums! It's great to have you with us.

If the car has been well-kept, then hopefully the seller has a full service history with receipts. That will be a great start to determining what repairs have already been done.

In general, the XJ40s are durable with a few common issues to be aware of. Off the top of my head:

The head gaskets are known to fail at around 100K miles. Many owners have done the repair themselves, but if you have to pay a professional to do it it can be expensive.

The differential output bearings are part of the rear suspension so they are under more stress than on most cars and tend to fail. Clues are a growling noise from one side of the rear end and/or oil leaking from the output shaft seal. Replacing them is not difficult but requires a hydraulic press. Also, the pinion bearings wear and whine. Replacing the bearings requires dropping the independent rear suspension to remove the differential and either rebuilding the diff or buying a professionally-rebuilt one.

Front wheel bearings require adjustment and re-greasing more frequently than on most cars.

Suspension components are isolated from one another by rubber bushings that deteriorate with age. Knocking noises from a front or rear corner usually indicate failure of an upper shock bushing. Many of the suspension bushings can be replaced by capable do-it-yourselfers.

Check for rust around the windshield, backlight, wheel wells and undercarriage.

Most fluid leaks can be rectified but some are more expensive to solve than others.

The original exterior door handles were weak and easily broken. The handle should be centered in the escutcheon with an even gap all the way around. If the gap is uneven, the handle is broken.

The instrument cluster uses vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) technology, and a common problem is poor solder joints on the circuit boards. If you're handy with a soldering iron, you can usually restore proper operation.

The original white plastic radiator fans are known to crack and disintegrate and cause damage to the hood and other components. The fans turn yellow with age. The Jaguar replacement fans are black, so check the color of the fan in the car.

Many electrical gremlins were caused by the original Hella relays with snap-on blue covers.

Most of the original Jaguar service documentation is available from this forum, jaguarclassicparts.com and other sites, and the XJ40 eBook at the Jag-Lovers forum contains a lot of helpful information:

Jag-lovers' Ebooks Book Index

I'm sure I've forgotten some things but others will hopefully fill in the blanks.

Cheers,

Don

 

Not to interrupt, but I too am looking at a XJ40 model (this one a 1993 VDP) and have a question about diagnosis of what is one of the possible issues quoted.

The seller says there is a sound (I do not have a description of the sound specifically), and says that it starts at 45mph. Does this help ID the issue?

 

Hi Fast71SS,

We'll really need a better description in order to give you any helpful input. When you drive the car, listen carefully to the sound and try to determine the following:

From what area of the car does the sound originate? Front, rear or middle, left or right?

Is the sound a constant volume and frequency or does it vary with engine speed or road speed?

Does the sound change while cornering left or right?

Does the sound occur mostly while accelerating, holding the car at a constant speed, or when you let your foot off of the accelerator pedal (trailing throttle)?

Cheers,

Don

 

Thanks for the help and offer of future help. I didn't buy a car yet. I made an offer on anoter and I am waiting to see. I had been look at X300, possibly extending search to include XJ40. Why do they call it XJ40? Does it say that on it or X308 (the boot emblem I mean.)

 

These are Jaguar factory project codes, used in the company's internal planning but not used in public marketing of the vehicles. Other manufacturers have their own internal model designations (BMW E30, E46; Mercedes Benz W124, W210; etc.).

Here are the Jaguar codes by U.S. model year (models were introduced a year earlier in the U.K.):

XJ40: 1988-1994 most have the AJ6 six-cylinder engine (the V12 was available some years)
X300: 1995-1997 AJ16 six cylinder engine (R models are supercharged; the V12 was available some years)
X308: 1998-2003 AJ26 and AJ27 V8 engines (R models are supercharged)

The later years of each model tend to be the better ones in terms of development and reliability, so in general, low-mileage '93-'94, '96-'97 and '02-'03 cars are preferable, all other factors being equal, but don't let that scare you away from a well-preserved earlier model. A full service history is especially valuable.

Cheers,

Don

 

Did the VDP have flip down trays on the XJ40 models?

 

Yes, the XJ40 VDP and Majestic models had "picnic trays."

 

Don, several Canadian model Sovereigns had them (trays) also - I saw a '92 on the weekend that had them and the early ('88) breaker had them too. Oddly enough, my parts car, a '94 Sovereign, didn't!

Up till seeing them in that '88 I thought it was just the VDP's that had them fitted.

cheers

Larry

 

When a company builds four distinct body styles from 1969 to 2009 and badges them all as XJ6, it's a recipe for chaos.

Jaguar Dealers and the forum use the original factory project codes to distinguish between them.

The XJ designation (simply meaning Experimental Jaguar) goes back many years and was applied to projects commencing with XJ3 for the S-Type in 1963.

There is a complete list in the appendix to Jaguar Design - A Story of Style by Nick Hull published by Porter Press in 2015.

Graham