Hi, i recently asked about the ignition problem a XJR that i intend to buy was having, and noq, nitpicking this important decision in my life i have found one more thing my newbie knowhow cannot answer, all the VIN numbers match however, looking into some XJR's of other members i see that they tend to start with SAJJPA while the one i intend to buy has all the vins with the sovereign SAJJHA , it-s a late 1990. it's Vin is SAJJHALD4AK608XXX and can clearly be reah on the windshield and the b pillar so is this normal for XJR's to have the H instead of the P sometimes cause i dont understand how VIN cloning is done and the rest of the codes match E.I. the trim and the rest so i would really like to hear from someone who knows i want a Jaguar badly but not a tampered or worse yet, stolen car!

thanks in advance, kind regards

Stefan S.

 

Hi Stefan,

Here are a couple of links to VIN decoders plus three attached documents that may be helpful:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/vindecoder.php

https://www.vindecoderz.com/EN/Jagua...aign=referrals

You might also read the XJR section of the Wikipedia listing to see if the car conforms with other details specific to XJRs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_XJ_(XJ40)

Please let us know what you learn.

Cheers,

Don

 

Thanks for the reply, i have looked at these and that is why i am asking about it because in the vin decoder you sent me it says that XJR's are with a P in theri vins and up to 93 sovereigns have an H so i am asking is this a mistake, a common practice or the sign of something shady?

 

Stefan,

For XJ40 1993/94, the fifth VIN character is Model Range. H = Sovereign which is a trim level.

Graham

 

Not all VIN decoders work correctly on all VINs.....because not all VINs are written in the same language, so to speak.

Jaguar and others assign VINs that comply with the legal requirements of market the car will be sent to. For example, USA has certain requirements. I believe Japan does as well. Probably others as well.

Many VIN decoders out there on the internet are USA-specific. Entering a non-USA VIN will give all sorts of strange results.

Sometimes Jaguar's own technical and parts literature does not account for these differences. Frustrating.

Some of the older Jags (like my old XJS and Series III cars) actually carried two VINs on the car. One was the 'born with' VIN stamped into a plate on the firewall. The other was the 'USA VIN'....which was on the windshield pillar, door jamb labels, etc.

Cheers
DD

 

Thanks a lot, that was the sort of veteran info i was looking for, so i shouldn't be worried about it? it was originaly sold in Italy so that is probably the case here that the VIN is different, one more question if i may, where is the firewall VIN on an XJ40? i couldn't find one, might be worth checking out just in case... and again, thanks!

 

THE VIN SAJJH means the car left the factory as a Sovereign, not an XJR. Presumably the body kit and interior of an XJR have been fitted to a 4litre Sovereign. If the car was a genuine XJR it would have a VIN starting with SAJJP. This is not uncommon, since the XJR is worth significantly more than a Sovereign. Equally, quite a few Sovereigns were 'upgraded' by fitting XJR body kit and better interior many years ago just because the owner preferred them. The problem comes now that a real, factory XJR is worth quite a lot more than a Sovereign pretending to be one.

The XJ40 has a VIN on the windscreen, on the left hand door pillar between the front door and rear door and on the top of the right hand inner wing under the bonnet.

 

Thank you so very much for the reply i thought that all of them had SAJJP But because i am from Serbia, my guess was that yet again i stumbled upon a car stolen in the 90's , however since all the VINs you mentioned match and i checked the national and internstional registres for stolen cars by VIN and it is not stolen, i thought that there must be something i don't know about it, this comes as quite a surprise as it has all the badges, sport dash, sport seats, the XJR original leather bag with all the original papers and manuals including the service history and maybe most important of all an XJR 4.0 sport engine.... So did someone really change the engine just to make it an XJR seems like a lot of work and the asking price, since its a restauration job is very low.... I can add pictures if it cpuld help, this is very strange to me...

 

I don't think the VIN being for the Sovereign model rather than the XJR means the car is any more likely to have been stolen in the past. I think it is more likely that someone has swapped over the XJR specific parts from a crashed or rusty XJR on to a Sovereign which was in better condition. It could even be someone owned both and transferred the desireable bits from their rusty XJR on to a Sovereign they also owned which was in good condition - rather than anything sinister.

As far as I know, the actual engine fitted to the Sovereign and XJR is fundamentally the same one - with the XJR engine being fitted with different, more aggressive cam shafts, a different cast and shorter inlet manifold, different engine management, MAF meter and an exhaust manifold down pipe with lacks the catalyst, with only the under floor catalyst being used. It could therefore be that the engine in your car is the original one fitted to the Sovereign, fitted with the enhancements (XJR cylinder head, manifold etc.) rather than lifted from the XJR in it's entirety and fitted to your car . I don't know whether the XJR engine was given a model-specific engine number, but I suspect it was just numbered according to its (4 Litre) size and production sequence etc. as with other AJ6 units - rather than as specifically an XJR unit.