Howdy All,

I'm picking up my first Jag tomorrow (new member intro); a car sold as a '93 XJS 4.0 convertible. I'll get the title and VIN tomorrow, which should give me a more precise idea of the car's origins.

This car appears to be a reasonably well-running driver, but it's definitely a lower-end market purchase that has plenty of low-hanging fruit for repairs. Ready or not, I will be taking this car on as a daily driver, and I thought I'd use this thread to vent my frustrations record my adventures. (where are teh bb codes? /cry /cry )

Here are some of the seller's pics of the car:

 

Paint still looks good....that's a huge "plus". Nice Jag....just needs love :-)

Cheers
DD

 

Nice looking car man. I saw that one for sale down there while I was looking for my coupe.

Have fun with it! It'll be nice to have another 1993 4.0L around these parts.

 

Last night's storm front cleared the decks, and today is a gloriously clear sunny day in North Texas for buying a convertible jyaaag. Perhaps this was meant to be.

I finally got a proper drive today without the missus in the car with me, where I could really concentrate on what was going on with the car. I won't even attempt the whole laundry list of to-dos yet, but oh my lawrd this is the floatiest tank I have ever driven! Thank goodness the rudder works properly. So the shocks are climbing the priority chart with a bullet. Here's my starting issues...

Top 3 Mechanical Concerns:

• Fluid drip from the front (smells like engine oil).
• Moist-looking around the back (no drip though).
• Bounce-house shocks.

Top 3 Driver Annoyances:

• OMG, those shocks!
• Broken driver's-side mirror (adjusts great, but the glass is broken and the whole assembly lists a bit).
• Fuel gauge no bueno (seller claims it's a sender problem).

Here's the vinfo (no surprises, really)...

Jaguar VIN

• Manufacturer: Jaguar
• Marque: Jaguar
• Model: XJ-S
• Class: USA spec with driver airbag.
• Body Type: Convertible
• Engine Type: 4.0 4Y
• Trans & Steering: Auto LHD
• Year Change: The 10th character is 'P', which if I understand correctly indicates 1994.
• Emissions: The 11th character is 'S'; I haven't found a mapped value for that yet.

USA VIN

• World Region: United Kingdom
• Manufacturer: Jaguar
• Model: XJS, XJ-SC, 2 Door Convertible
• Engine Size: 4.0 Litre 6-Cylinder
• Year: 1993

Now I've got to clear a bunch of space in my garage.., arg!

 

Beautiful looking car!!

 

Thanks for the comments, guys. The nice things about the car include good sheetmetal (with only a very small dent in the leading edge of the hood), decent paint, and no rust that I could find top or bottom.

Plus, the top was replaced last spring. So I've got that going for me.

Next up, I'm going to put this thing in my usual local shop, and have them look for that oil leak.

 

Sharp looking XJS. Check the steering rack bushings. I bet they're shot.

 

I remember seeing this car for sale in the local "list". It looked promising. I have a buddy of mine who is dismantling two 92 XJS in Dallas TX so if you need parts like a mirror, let me know.

Those engines are bomb proof, rear shocks are no fun though

 

Thanks, alabbasi! I took a pic of the broken mirror and started a new topic for that problem here.

 

Yep, that's broken alright Bill has an ad posted in the Dallas Craigslist. You should be able to reach him through it if you need another mirror.

 

Welcome to the world of Jag-U-Wer! Be prepared to buy 6 shocks. There are 4 in the caboose. Looks like an early '93 so it will have inboard brakes. I would strongly suggest inspecting the pads and rotors. Separate pads for the parking brake. While looking at the rear rotors/pads, look for oil. Indicates leaking rear shaft output seals. Common problem. Don't worry. All this stuff is cheap!

Also, run a can of SeaFoam through the gas tank and change the rotor, cap and plugs. This really is an inexpensive "starter" tune up.

Congratulations!

 

OMG, six shocks? I was prepared for four, LOL. Yes, it has the inboard rear discs. I found paperwork in the car where a previous owner spent some decent scratch on the brakes 3 years ago, including the ABS, so I'm crossing my fingers on the brakes; they seem to work fine so far. However, I think there is absolutely some kind of leak back there, it's just not a dripper.

I will definitely look at your starter tune-up, but I'm still in triage-mode at the moment. There are a ton of issues with this car I haven't mentioned yet, including the fuel system.

I finally found a reputable shop not too far from me that will look at the car (a British-specialty shop). I'm not currently setup with good garage space, much less metric tools, for doing my own work. It needs a professional going-over anyway, I think.

I just paid my county and state overlords for the privileged of an owner's title for a 20-year old cash car, and now I can add two more shocks. My wife is going to kill me!

 

[/I]. My wife is going to kill me! [/QUOTE]

Don't worry ..............mine felt the same, til she saw the interior finished, and then took a ride in it ............somehow she came round, and now she thinks it is beautiful .........trouble is, I think I overheard her telling someone, that she can't wait to drive it, and telling her friends she'll be picking them up in it ..........Doh !!!!!

 

Hahaha, I know y'all like to talk about your wives driving the Jag, but I insisted my wife test drive this car. We're trying to be a two-car household, and I need a car she can drive when I need her's.

One of my goals with this car is to make it solid and comfortable enough for her to drive at least occasionally.

 

It took a few days, but I finally located a quality specialist shop not too far away, and I am finally getting some data regarding the state of this car.

It turns out that the steering bushings were the one thing that had already been replaced in the front with poly, LOL. The front shocks and most other bushings are worn and old but still functional for the moment, with the notable exception of the upper control arms, which are totally shot. I just posted a new topic regarding the suspension.

The oil leak turned out to be o-rings on the filter adapter for the oil cooling lines (did I get that right?). This sounds like something I'd try to fix myself some other time, but it's only an hour of labor at the shop, so I'm having them fix it. The shop manager claims these AJ6 engines almost always have a small oil leak, but "drops not puddles". I'm getting small 1"-2" puddles on a single park, which I'm not happy with. He was very explicit about this leak causing "most", but not all of my oil drip.

I caught an engine light the day after I bought the car (but of course!); this turns out to be an EGR problem. So that's dropped waaay down my list, and I will probably attempt to resolve that myself, later. I'll get the specific fault code from the shop, and ask about it again next week.

 

My wife hates my car. I keep it because I enjoy it and it is a nice father son bonding thing.

My wife gets a new car 2-3 times a year therefore she has no right to complain about my old car. Since the Jaguar is a third vehicle, classic car insurance is dirt cheap. Actually it is the only car insurance I have.

 

I got another update from the shop today regarding a couple of other issues I found.

After I bought it, I topped off the tank with fuel. The fuel gauge does not work, and the kid I bought it from just used the trip odometer to keep track of the gas. I wasn't taking any chances, so I went ahead and filled it up on the way home.

The gas fumes with the top down were horrendous. After about 20 miles or so it became less bad, particularly with the top up, but still bad.

This turns out to be the result of previous attempts to work on the gas tank sender. The shop performed a smoke test, and found there was not only missing screws and duct tape (!) back there, but the ORVR tube was loose, allowing raw fuel vapor out.

So that, and the fuel sender, are both getting fixed at the shop today.

Also, the top has to be manually operated. It turns out that someone seriously bent the right-side ram. The shop says these things never really fail, so they speculate someone tried to open it on the road or something similar. The top itself was replace this year, but I don't think the power has worked for years.

The shop is trying to locate a new ram, but they think the supply of new ones in gone. I'm not in a huge rush to fix this (the rear suspension is a higher priority), but at some point I'll want to address the broken ram.

 

Hello! Nice to have another Texas member!

I don't know about the 93's, but a problem with the fuel level on 94-96 cars is almost certainly the anti-slosh module....owners who replace the senders on these last model years to try and fix the gauge find that a)the original sender is fine, and b)the new one does not fix the problem.

It seems like Jaguar used a much better float material for their senders on the last years of production than what they had before.

 

Kurtomatic & Alabassi - any recommendations for the shops you are using in the DFW area?

I also remember seeing this car listed, it looks great !

 

Thanks!

There seem to be a handful of shops in DFW that have expertise and a willingness to look at older-model Jags. My car is at Motorcars Ltd in Carrolton right now, but until I get the car back I can't really offer a true recommendation.

The fuel tank sender replacement did apparently fix my fuel gauge problem. So far, so good.