Jaguar XJ6 (X350)

[Wingz123]

Right then, as many will know I have been down in the South of Spain for the last 3-3.5 weeks and I committed to purchasing this car early August. Today was the collection day and I took a train from Reading up to Birmingham where I met gadgetgricey who I must say is an absolutey terrific chap. Very friendly and nothing was too much trouble. At one point it was slightly misinterpreted that I was going to buy Sims Audi wheels and he even offered to go and collect them for me whilst I was away on holiday so they too were in the boot when I came for the car - What a fantastic chap, as I say quite literally nothing was too much trouble for him! I give you an A*** for Autoshiting.

So onto the car.....as stated in the listing, gadgetgricey very kindly left it with a full tank of LPG in for me to make my way back down the M40 with. As I thought it would, these Jags seem to change you the driver. Once aboard you do not want to rag it about, drive quick or blast around everywhere, it is just not that sort of car. You want to waft about and I was quite happy sat at 70mph all the way home overtaking the odd truck and coach here and there. I think it is the supreme silence in the cabin that contributes to this newly found driving style. 

So if we assume the tank was filled to the brim (LPG tank) when gadgetgricey started it this morning when he left to come and collect me, it has been into and out of the centre of Birmingham, back into the centre of Birmingham (as I was going to get it MOT'd but garage couldn't fit me in), down to Reading, along to Slough and back home again and I can report loosely that if the assumption stated is correct that it took 33.5 litres of LPG to fill back up. My local garage (of which there is only a choice of two in Reading that sell Autogas/LPG) sell it for 64.9p per litre so it cost me £21.75. There is an app called FillLPG which I have that tells you the location and prices of LPG garages all over the world (this will help me when I take the car down to the South of Spain again in December of this year) however, in comparison in Birmingham the price of LPG is about 52p per litre. Filling up at a 52p per litre garage would have saved me approximately £4.50 which when you think about it could add up to quite a bit but as mentioned with the choice of only 2 garages - one selling at 64.9p and the other at 65.9p I am a little stuck for options and clearly you wouldn't drive 30-40 mile round trip to fill your LPG tank up....I have entered the figures into one of these MPG calculators and I'm not entirely sure it is adding it up correctly....it is coming back with an average mpg of 22.1 mpg......total estimated miles - 163. - there are a lot of unknowns however with this calculation and it is probably best we start again as have just brimmed the tank. 

Also it is a bit funny with LPG - whereas when filling with petrol it clicks when you get to the full mark with LPG it basically slows down I.e the rate at which the gas flows into the car slows right down and you can find yourself holding the button in for say 2 mins to put in half a litre at the end so where do we say the full mark is? As I say take the 22mpg with a pinch of salt and I'll do a proper test in the coming weeks....

So over to the people of Autoshite for your opinion please.... I give you two options and I'd like to hear which you would prefer.

Do you want me to -

A) Start a thread on this fine car highlighting the highs and lows of owning a 280* mile Jag (* because history actually says that the engine fitted hasn't actually done 280k miles) - The thread would include all shenanigans - servicing, cleaning, plenty of pictures, etc.etc. I would also document all of the repairs.

B ) Not bother and just get on and drive it....hey its a 280k mile car how much longer will it last (well it could be quite a bit longer taking into account the above fact)

The car is to be my weekend car as I drive the Gen3 Prius during the week, my thought process behind the purchase of this car would be that it would reignite my love for driving in that come Friday and I'm sick and tired of driving in central London stuck in traffic 99.9% of the time, I will actually look forward to the weekend and the chance to drive my JAGUAR! MY BABY!! as it is a true waft-o-mobile and will be used for the odd long trip and our weekend running about.....I want comfort and this provides that in spades!

I am very happy, Autosol, another tin of Collinite 476 and some Bilberry Wheel Cleaner was ordered whilst I was away in Spain ready for when I got back to give it a good going over and get some protection on it ready for the winter weather. Ohhhh and I also picked up some wet and dry for the headlights too from Halfords the other day - used my trade card which brought the price down a bit!

Let me know what you think and maybe I'll start a thread.....

 

James

[Eyersey1234]

I for one would love to hear more Jaaaagg adventures, please keep reporting. 

[Fat_Pirate]

Yep, thread please.

[Broadsword]

I too would like to read the shenanigans associated with owning this high mileage hero. Well done on getting it bought and welcome to the wonderful world of Jaaag ownership! 

[Isaac Hunt]

Ducking Bell, a thread would be awesome.  That is a a lot of Jag

[Wingz123]

1 hour ago, Isaac Hunt said:

Ducking Bell, a thread would be awesome.  That is a a lot of Jag

"Then a thread you shall have!"......said the seamstress.

Ok ok ok ok right ......mpg is making a bit more sense. Bloody hell what was I thinking....I was looking at it expecting LPG to be returning an increased physical MPG over petrol but it doesnt. It returns about the same as petrol (maybe 5%) less but costs half the price hence the journey cost is less. 

An example if I have just made a right cock up of explaining....

 

You have 10 litres of normal diesel in car 1

10 litres of RED diesel in car 2

Car 1 and car 2 are identical. 

Red diesel and normal diesel both return the same mpg when in the cars. Only difference being RED diesel substantially cheaper than normal diesel therefore costs you less to do the journey.

So where we are getting 22mpg in the above I am in actual fact getting more like 44mpg. As said though in the above I should have more accurate figures over the coming weeks. I am keeping a note of the exact mileage covered as I want to try and get this as accurate as possible. 

Most of today was motorway cruising however and these cars being that they are aluminium shelled and weigh approx 1500kg should be able to return circa 30mpg. So the 44mpg should be a bit better....

As I say.....stay tuned for further results! EXCITED!!!? 

[Broadsword]

It's kind of the Nirvana of Jag ownership, bombing around in a full fat XJ with a proper sized engine but getting over 40 MPG. I tried for a while to get an LPG X300, but it never worked out. My XJR is averaging 18.5 MPG mostly on shorter trips at the moment..

[gadgetgricey]

Woo Hoo....

Good News  

[lesapandre]

Be interesting too please to hear about a transcontinental trip to Spain too. Did you buy a place there?

I know nothing about these ally XJ's. I know there were some diesels. I hardly ever see one on the road. Last of the 'traditional' 3-box Jags that started with the 50's MK1 so be good to hear about ownership.

[GeordieInExile]

I wish this were mine. Almost was. Well bought!

[Wingz123]

What defines a 'waftomobile' for you?  Well for sometime I had been after a car to waft around in to re-enthuse my love for driving. So with that said I shall share with you my criteria...

Automatic - CHECK

Near silent at motorway speeds - CHECK

Sits at 70-80 at about 2000rpm - CHECK

Effortlessly cruises - CHECK

Bonus feature - costs the same amount to get to Birmingham from Reading as my Prius (£11/12)

The MOT was up on the Jag middle to late September so I thought I'd get in early and get it done. Up in Birmingham for 8.40am and drove it straight onto the ramp. Went away and did a tea run for the boys in the garage and came back 50 mins late (yeh alright I might have had some breakfast at a cafe too!) And she was all done and on the road outside. 

Verdict - "had some money spent on it that Jag" - MOT man.

Next stop - pick up a bumper for my Prius. I caught the bottom of it on a bump in Hackney yesterday and its split the bottom. It was cheaper to buy another bumper (as mine is Silver and quite a few bumpers about in Silver) so I thought I'd just swap it and all the grilles over rather than pay more to have it repaired.

I have a cunning plan as the replacement bumper has holes for headlight washers which mine doesnt have so am going to buy 2x generic Toyota headlight washer covers, paint them silver and glue them in place....hey presto you'd never know....

Last stop fill up with LPG as it's cheaper in the Midlands compared with down where I am. So after consulting the 'Fill LPG' app on my phone the cheapest filling station was coming in at 50p a litre!!! 64.9p where I am in Reading and only 2 in Reading! 

So if you have an LPG car and find yourself in Brum give this place a try. They are open every day of the week (until 7pm Monday to Saturday and 5pm on a Sunday) - they are on the same site as a hand car wash and they take card. Guy is a nice guy, hes an old Asian grandad - lovely guy. 

I pulled in and the guy was just filling up a 3.5 v6 Nissan Elgrand. Once he shifted out the way I got chatting with the chap who owns the place and he was very friendly. Had a look at the LPG system in the Jag and tells me it's a 67 litre tank and they normally allow you to fill to about 80% of that capacity to allow for expansion depending on weather and temperature etc. So for just over half a tank I paid £15.51. 

On the subject of mpg I am a complete doughnut - the figure of 22mpg I got above I thought was a bit low and it turned out I had the 'sport' button on so at 70mph was only in 5th out of 6 gears. With that said the revs were higher which is why I was only getting 22mpg. I turned that off today and got 28.3mpg with a bloody quick blast too so double that because the cost of LPG is half the cost of petrol and we're looking at 56ish mpg!!!!

I was giving a new Range Rover a run for his money earlier and I can confirm that it will do 120 and still pull.....................on my private track....even at this speed all you hear is a bit of wind noise! Waftomobile confirmed!

If your brain like mine works on how much 100 miles would cost you its about £11 in this Jag - Find me another car that would do it for that.....a fiesta tdci? My Prius? 

Anyway, back home now and I've a list of jobs I want to tackle on the Jag and they include....

Change the piston ring in the Webasco Air Compressor for the air suspension

Change the front brake pads

Full service

Gearbox fluid and sump change (these have filters built into the sump) - I suspect I may need a hydraulic lift for this as it would make it a lot easier. 

Can you see the bonnet is not latching down on one side? Some shenanigans going on with the bonnet cable.

Drivers side mirror glass has tanned

Convince mrs we are taking the Jag to Spain and not my Audi A6 Avant which has 4x the boot space....I'm slightly worried about boot space in the Jag :s I've got to get luggage for a family of 4 in the boot and Christmas pressies!

I will also need to do my homework beforehand too and suss out where I can fill up the LPG as I make my way down through Spain from Bilbao. I arrive at 4.00pm Spanish time (GMT+1) so will have to avoid the smaller places as they may be shut and I dont really want to have to run this on petrol all the way! As a last resort I will but not ideal! LPG is a little bit cheaper in Spain than here as well which is a bit of a brucey!

Have some pictures....

The car is in desperate need of a valet but I just haven't found the time! I dont want to run the risk of taking it to a hand car wash for fear of them pressure washing the car too close and stripping the paint off the bubbly bits......as said in an update above, have gone and bought (what I deem to be) fairly expensive wax and so want to give it the 2 bucket treatment ideally! ?

See....very dirty wheels....

[Schaefft]

I'd definitely like to hear more about your ownership experience. I've considered one of these as winter beater (as an alternative to an A8) before since both are aluminium bodied so it would be interesting to see how you get on with it, especially at that mileage.

[Wingz123]

15 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

I'd definitely like to hear more about your ownership experience. I've considered one of these as winter beater (as an alternative to an A8) before since both are aluminium bodied so it would be interesting to see how you get on with it, especially at that mileage.

They weigh about 1500kg's so that's about the same as an Astra? A tad more? Hence the circa 30mpg on petrol which is achievable from these things...

Also the car has done 280k BUT there is a receipt for a replacement engine and judging by the way this car drives and picks up I wouldn't be surprised if it's closer or just over 100k

[Broadsword]

Excellent update. It’s sounding like you are really enjoying the car, and that is the point after all. Double excellent on getting it through an MOT. I think I had a look at it earlier and thought some of the advisories would have turned to fails (subframe rust is a weakness on these so get out the rust killer if you are keeping it!).

On the matter of the bonnet not shutting properly: I’ve been there before when we had a 3.6 V8 X350. I did a video on how to fix it.

I’m very envious of the running costs!

[Isaac Hunt]

3 hours ago, Wingz123 said:

What defines a 'waftomobile' for you?  Well for sometime I had been after a car to waft around in to re-enthuse my love for driving. So with that said I shall share with you my criteria...

Automatic - CHECK

Near silent at motorway speeds - CHECK

Sits at 70-80 at about 2000rpm - CHECK

Effortlessly cruises - CHECK

Bonus feature - costs the same amount to get to Birmingham from Reading as my Prius (£11/12)

The MOT was up on the Jag middle to late September so I thought I'd get in early and get it done. Up in Birmingham for 8.40am and drove it straight onto the ramp. Went away and did a tea run for the boys in the garage and came back 50 mins late (yeh alright I might have had some breakfast at a cafe too!) And she was all done and on the road outside. 

Verdict - "had some money spent on it that Jag" - MOT man.

Next stop - pick up a bumper for my Prius. I caught the bottom of it on a bump in Hackney yesterday and its split the bottom. It was cheaper to buy another bumper (as mine is Silver and quite a few bumpers about in Silver) so I thought I'd just swap it and all the grilles over rather than pay more to have it repaired.

I have a cunning plan as the replacement bumper has holes for headlight washers which mine doesnt have so am going to buy 2x generic Toyota headlight washer covers, paint them silver and glue them in place....hey presto you'd never know....

Last stop fill up with LPG as it's cheaper in the Midlands compared with down where I am. So after consulting the 'Fill LPG' app on my phone the cheapest filling station was coming in at 50p a litre!!! 64.9p where I am in Reading and only 2 in Reading! 

So if you have an LPG car and find yourself in Brum give this place a try. They are open every day of the week (until 7pm Monday to Saturday and 5pm on a Sunday) - they are on the same site as a hand car wash and they take card. Guy is a nice guy, hes an old Asian grandad - lovely guy. 

I pulled in and the guy was just filling up a 3.5 v6 Nissan Elgrand. Once he shifted out the way I got chatting with the chap who owns the place and he was very friendly. Had a look at the LPG system in the Jag and tells me it's a 67 litre tank and they normally allow you to fill to about 80% of that capacity to allow for expansion depending on weather and temperature etc. So for just over half a tank I paid £15.51. 

On the subject of mpg I am a complete doughnut - the figure of 22mpg I got above I thought was a bit low and it turned out I had the 'sport' button on so at 70mph was only in 5th out of 6 gears. With that said the revs were higher which is why I was only getting 22mpg. I turned that off today and got 28.3mpg with a bloody quick blast too so double that because the cost of LPG is half the cost of petrol and we're looking at 56ish mpg!!!!

I was giving a new Range Rover a run for his money earlier and I can confirm that it will do 120 and still pull.....................on my private track....even at this speed all you hear is a bit of wind noise! Waftomobile confirmed!

If your brain like mine works on how much 100 miles would cost you its about £11 in this Jag - Find me another car that would do it for that.....a fiesta tdci? My Prius? 

Anyway, back home now and I've a list of jobs I want to tackle on the Jag and they include....

Change the piston ring in the Webasco Air Compressor for the air suspension

Change the front brake pads

Full service

Gearbox fluid and sump change (these have filters built into the sump) - I suspect I may need a hydraulic lift for this as it would make it a lot easier. 

Can you see the bonnet is not latching down on one side? Some shenanigans going on with the bonnet cable.

Drivers side mirror glass has tanned

Convince mrs we are taking the Jag to Spain and not my Audi A6 Avant which has 4x the boot space....I'm slightly worried about boot space in the Jag :s I've got to get luggage for a family of 4 in the boot and Christmas pressies!

I will also need to do my homework beforehand too and suss out where I can fill up the LPG as I make my way down through Spain from Bilbao. I arrive at 4.00pm Spanish time (GMT+1) so will have to avoid the smaller places as they may be shut and I dont really want to have to run this on petrol all the way! As a last resort I will but not ideal! LPG is a little bit cheaper in Spain than here as well which is a bit of a brucey!

Have some pictures....

The car is in desperate need of a valet but I just haven't found the time! I dont want to run the risk of taking it to a hand car wash for fear of them pressure washing the car too close and stripping the paint off the bubbly bits......as said in an update above, have gone and bought (what I deem to be) fairly expensive wax and so want to give it the 2 bucket treatment ideally! ?

See....very dirty wheels....

Awesome buy this.  I saw it, saw the miles and figured it must have had some care to get to those sort of miles.  Then I learn it isn't on a replacement lump, top winnah.  Car will respond to a really good clean, DIY, why pay more at a MegaWash Superstore.  Mind you that tyre is coming to the end of its trailblazing days.  Could Loose Vroom Too.

[Cavcraft]

Oh, how lovely is that? Well bought, captain.

[gadgetgricey]

Saw this thread and thought of you.

Not sure if its compatible though.

[Wingz123]

So a shit end to a long hard day.....came home and noticed passenger side rear has dropped..... ? NO NO NO and NOOOOOOO - I dont need all this!

Still that leaking piston ring in the pump....? That wouldn't cause it to drop on one side!?

Anyone any ideas other than a leaking bag?

And this is the non-dropped side

[bangernomics]

Check the block in the boot, but likely the bag. If you have a slow one you’ll be ok if pumps been done. Otherwise bag will kill pump.


First check block and tank in boot

[Wingz123]

When you say if pumps been done are you referring to that piston ring that needs changing?

[bangernomics]

When you say if pumps been done are you referring to that piston ring that needs changing?

Yes that’s what I meant

[bangernomics]

Also look at the height sensor it may be on its way too. If you’re near to Manchester I can always plug it in and see what the heights report back as.

[Asimo]

Probably best to jet wash the paint bubbles off. The aluminium seems to corrode faster under bubbles full of  salty water than it does in the open air.

[bangernomics]

Or flog it to me

[Crackers]

That is glorious. I want one.

 

Wouldn't have one without LPG though