Hello all-

I am considering buying a 1994 XJS 6 cylinder 2+2 115,000 miles good body new top wire wheels around $3500

The seller claims the car runs good with the following problems

I am looking for typical repair costs at a typical repair shop

Leaky valve cover gasket (he also claims you should replace rubber gaskets for spark plugs??)
Very small leak on front seal (do you have to remove radiator to put in new seal?)
Air conditioner works sometimes but has intermittent electrical problems turning on and off (how much of a nightmare can this turn into to fix?)
passenger side door window works but has intermittent electrical problems
(if you slam door it will start working)

any advice or links to previously posted answers is much appreciated

KG

 

IMO, keep looking.
Electrical problems are a pain in the neck.
BTW, where you at in So. IL?

 

@KG

Welcome to the forums.

Unfortunately the range of answers could be quite large, depending on if you are doing the work yourself and only buying parts, or if you have a local indy Jaguar mechanic, or if you need to go to a Jaguar Dealer.

The biggest problems would appear to be the valve cover gasket and front seal. I had the valve cover gaskets done on my XJR V8 (so it has 2 banks v's your 1 bank) and the bill was $600, so dividing by 2, you should be around $300-$400 at an indy mechanic.

The front seal I don't know what is involved so can't guess. FYI I just had a $12 seal replaced on my transmission which took 10 hours of labour to take out, so the bill is over $1k. I would throw some stop leak in and see if the front seal leak improves.

A/C --> sounds like it "could be" something simple, I would personally start with the switch itself. But if it's not, it requires removing a lot of the dash and interior to get at parts of the A/C system, which adds up. Then again, depending on where you live, you can use the natural A/C on the convertible, ie put the top down ! I ran mine for 2 years like that

Passenger window..... probably would need to remove the door panel and look at the wiring. I would anyway start with cleaning the switch in the center console as these are known to have issues and the slamming of the door could actually be impacting that switch also.

I may get flamed for saying this, but for me, I would never buy and XJS of any description if I wasn't intending to do at least some of the work on it myself. If you need to rely on dealers or mechanics, these cars can get extremely expensive to fix. If you set yourself up right by getting the available documentation for these cars (JDHT CDs, Repair Operations Manual) read these forums and ask for help if you get stuck, you can do a lot of things yourself.

To be honest, if thats really all thats wrong with the car, it's not a long list for a 17 year old XJS. Unfortunately you may find that list is much longer once you see the car and test it properly. It is very common for these cars to be neglected and have maintenance skipped on them, so you would need to catch up on these things if you were intending to keep the car for a while. For some thats kind of the attraction of an XJS...... you bring it back to its former glory.....

There are lots of XJSes about, especially the 4.0 litre cars, so shop around, see as many as you can and become familiar with the cars

 

Sarc is right on the money - if you don't plan to work on the car yourself, you have no business being in the old car game. His $12 seal for $1000 shows you exactly why.

If the car is cheap enough, buy it and learn - but don't ever think you can put an estimate on paying someone else to work on your old car of ANY make or model - you will simply be handing money over to them constantly, until you get sick of it and sell off another now-ruined old car.

 

The valve cover and spark plug rubbers is like a $20 part (give or take) and took me thirty minutes to do. Don't know about the front seal. The AC might be easy or might be difficult. That said, a mechanic (even a 'jag' one) probably won't know much about this car and will spend a few hundred just figuring out where this stuff is. If you're willing to do it yourself and learn, none of the repairs sound that expensive or difficult (again don't know about the 'front seal'). If you're going to have a mechanic do it, I'd say keep walking.

BTW, the black ring in this picture is the spark plug ring for reference.

 

i can say from personal experience that the best solution is to run far away from a Jag with electrical problems.

 

Welcome KG, First let me say that the purchase price of an XJS will most likely be the smallest expense especially if you buy one with problems, That said however thay are about the best car I have ever owned to drive any long distance .

Check the car over with a fine tooth comb look in all nooks and crannies for signs of RUST, especially if the car has spent its life in a sowy area. It is highly unlikely that ANY XJS unless it has had a very privliged life is rust free.

The AC can be a nightmare to faultfind mine has never worked correctly.

Window is most likely a bad connector in the door very common. Also the window switches are dodgy on the XJS. These can be cleanded and/or modified.

Most of the problems you will encounter will be electrical in nature,

I know the front seal on the V12 can be replaced insitu not sure about the I6.

It really comes down to if you can live with some of the issues and/or if you can fix them yourself or pay someone to fix for you. Bear in mind if you have to pay someone people with knowledge of these cars are getting thin on the ground.

I am not trying to paint the XJS in a bad light here I absolutely love mine and will never part with it. But it is all too easy to jump in and buy something that requires a little bit of work only to find out later that it has more issues than you first thought.

My advice is have a good look around and take your most picky/critical friend with you.