Leaping Cat and all that!

[Steve79]

For the past year I've been going backwards and forwards trying to find a car that I really would bond with. The closest was my 2.5td safrane but alas a blown turbo and bodywork maladies that would make a car pushed off a cliff look mint, meant that it was sent to autoshite heaven.

 

I'd had a 96' Jaguar XJ6 (X300) 3.2 sport a few years ago, and whilst it was a complete dog, with headlights that worked intermittently, alarm issues, and a front drivers floorpan that had such a hole that Fred Flintstone would have felt at home and very tatty bodywork, I loved it dearly.

 

So decision made, another xj6 it was then. However, the days of £300 long mot'd cars appeared to be over. Try as I could there was nothing under £700, and even at that price they were all either very high mileage, half leather (not wanted), no mot or soo run into the ground that the work required at the next mot would be horrific.

 

I'd been to see a '97 3.2 executive in a very fetching shade of deep met blue in somerset by a private seller on gumtree for £895, which turned out to actually be a trade seller related to NM JAGS (google them, nuff said!). Very high spec with every option including front and rear heated seats and 9mths mot. However, what wasn't mentioned was the huge rust bubbles in rear door shuts, hole in drivers wing and the huge perforations underneath the passenger front floor pan, which wasn't mentioned on the last mot done 3mths previously. It was enough to put me off as something just didn't felt right so I left well alone.

 

So the hunt was on again.

 

A friend who is only too familiar with my car perversions and does a lot of work on my cars, offered some sage advice. "Steve, stop pissing round with stuff that's only going to cost you double what you paid at mot time and buy something which isn't going to need the work in the first place". This meant an increase in budget which didn't initially appeal to the tight arse in me but did make sense. So by increasing my budget I was now into tatty XJ8 territory!

 

Now, having done the research, I know that the early XJ8 suffered from timing chain tensioner issues, nikasil problems and various electrikery gearbox problems. Nikasil shouldn't be an issue as anything that's survived this long has either has a new engine from Jaguar or has been unaffected. Timing chain is an issue up to '99 when they fitted a more robust unit. Gearbox issues i'm not going near and anything post 2000 has OMGHOWMUCHTOTAX!

 

After a bit of searching, the bay of e conjured up a likely candidate only 3 miles from my house. 2000X (cheap tax) 3.2 XJ8 Sport. I made an arrangement to go on a ridiculously cold morning in mid january to view. The seller Luke was a top bloke. He'd had the car since September but was selling as he'd just bought a van for the building company he'd started. He literally just spent over £500 on new discs, pads, tyres and servicing. The car drove perfectly and is a completely different beast to the XJ6, the engine is smooth as glass and its just a much, much nicer drive and place to be. It had 88k on the clock and it had had a new water pump, timing chains and tensioners fitted less that 10K ago at a cost of over £650 and had full history (WIN WIN WIN).

 

The car had 3 days left on the auction and was on £900, and I had a feeling that Luke wanted way more than the £950 tops that I wanted to spend. So after the test drive, I sheepishly said what my top end budget was and got the expected reply that he was really looking for about £1500 (much less than the £2000 he bought it for in Spetember 2016). But fair play, he said it was no reserve and that if I bid £950 and won it then good enough!

 

So a bid of £950 was placed, and got sniped at the last minute by a trader for just short of a grand!!!! GRRRR!!!!! So that was the end of that!

 

Or was it?

 

Five days later, Luke phones me. "Mate, look this guy who won it has made no contact with me, not paid, has very bad feedback and is taking the piss so are you still interested?" Umm OMGOMGOMGYESYES!

 

So went round later that day, and said "look all I've got is what I originally offered". He accepted and even had the car valeted when I picked it up. Sorry no pez shot as half tank included!

 

So this is what I ended up with (sorry about some of the photo's I can't get them to display the right way up)

[eddyramrod]

Bloody hell that's nice.  I do like a Jag.

[tommotech]

Shit the bed! That's a great deal of car for just under a bag, well bought. Enjoy it

[dollywobbler]

Tasty!

[phil_lihp]

That looks like a stonking bargain, well done!

[DVee8]

12.3mpg that going some.

i once had 9mpg from my s-type r.

 

best colour and trim.

[billyboy406v6]

What a lovely car ! Well bought, at 12.3 MPG the pez shot will soon be taking place ?

[chodweaver]

Nice. Well bought I say. I like these too so will be looking for updates..

 

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

[Guest Breadvan72]

Bargoramatroid!

[Skizzer]

That looks gorgeous, especially for the money.

 

The only bit I'm struggling with is the concept of somebody running a building company and not driving a Jag.

[Felly Magic]

Well boughtificated sir, looks a good un, and a bargain at under a grand

[STUNO]

Me jealous ? nah, not at all. 

[Steve79]

Cheers guys. 12.3mpg is a tad salty but its maginally better than what i was getting from the xj6.

 

Got a bit of work to do. Aux drive belt is squealing so definitely a new belt and probably a new tensioner. Headlining is in true x300/x308 style totally fooked! Luckily new ones can be obtained on ebay for £180. Parking sensors aren't working but probably will need a clean, and aircon works intermittently (telltail light flickers)

 

Main thing is when the car is turned on a message appears saying trac not available. There isn't any warning light and i think this and the flickering aircon light is related to the aux belt slipping and chucking an error so need to sort this asap.

[Guest Hooli]

That is spunktastic!

 

I wonder if the sensors, aircon & Trac are all related? did they carry the traditional shite fuseboxes over from the XJ40 to these? (pretty sure they got carried over to the X300).

[Cheezey]

That is lovely. I wanted an XJ8 just because V8 but ended up with an XJ6.

[Steve79]

XJ6 and XJ8 are mega fussy with batteries and charging system. If there's even a sniff that the battery isn't getting enough charge then they'll chuck error codes aplenty!

 

Considering the aux belt on this drives the water pump, aircon compressor and alternator, and that its got a slight squeal and slip, probably is the cause of the issues. I'll get a new belt and go from there.

[Steve79]

Yep still loads of fuse boxes

[Guest Hooli]

Not the same fuseboxes then. I was thinking of all the problems I'd had due to cracked connections in the fuseboxes hidden in the kick panels. Not to say they didn't keep the fault as it was traditional...

 

Can't say I've heard of it on those though & your idea about the belt does make sense. Trac is probably linked to the gearbox thinking about it, so your gear selection problem could be the cause.

[djimbob]

bloody lovely that

[RoadworkUK]

Utterly excellent. I'm even starting to like that design of wheels.

 

However, that V8 badge really needs to be carefully removed and remounted on a toilet cistern somewhere.

[Steve79]

Gear selection is perfect with no issues and drives fine. Only comes up with trac not available on screen when starting up, doesn't put on any warning lights. Asc still cuts in when it should. Going to chuck the obd2 wifi dongle and torque on it and see whats what.

[Steve79]

Yep that v8 badge is going straight in bin, although might put it on the accord for extra bhp

[Guest Breadvan72]

Weren't leapers OMG illegalz by then as well?  If it is an add on, bin because Barry?

[Guest Breadvan72]

Yep still loads of fuse boxes

 

 

My XJS has more fuses than Buck House, and more boxes than a Manchester knocking shop.  Seems to be a Jag thing.

[djimbob]

Weren't leapers OMG illegalz by then as well?  If it is an add on, bin because Barry?

 

I think you can buy ones that kind of snap off on impact, or I might be totally wrong, I'm sure Magnificent Rustbucket will be along soon to give the definitive answer

[Steve79]

Nope leaper is staying put. Going through the history file there's a receipt (among many others) from HA Fox Jaguar main stealer in Guildford for about £125.00 for this about 5 years ago. Its spring loaded so if i decide to run over lesser mortals they won't be too badly maimed.

[Isaac Hunt]

Ooooph that's one nice motor for less than a 'bag o sand'.  

 

Do keep us posted on your progress.  

 

How many miles to you anticipate 'wafting' in it a year.   I had a 57 Plate XJ for a while and it was like driving your armchair to work, there is not much than comes close, maybe a Roller or a Bentley perhaps, but i've never driven either.

[Steve79]

Driving it as often as possible, although i'm an area manager so have a company car as well, plus the accord which despite 208k on the clock drives like new. Probably will do about 3-5k per year. It'll also cost me about 3-5k on fuel as well! 😀

[Steve79]

The only other car i've had which came close for comfort was a 2000 plate landcruiser amazon with the 4.7 v8 petrol. Soo much powahh and comfort but 10mpg; 6.5ft wide and the feeling of driving your whole living room down the road got very trying. Narrow roads - forget it!

[Guest Hooli]

Gear selection is perfect with no issues and drives fine. Only comes up with trac not available on screen when starting up, doesn't put on any warning lights. Asc still cuts in when it should. Going to chuck the obd2 wifi dongle and torque on it and see whats what.

 

 

Ahh, I'm thinking of the wrong Jag thread. Too many of the damn things on AS now!