 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Car Forum / Jaguar Cars / March 20041988 XJ40 VDP
Gave $1600 in "sweat equity" (no cash). (Im a house, etc. remodeler/carpenter). 145K on the odo. Has already had a lot of work done on it by the previous owner. No dents, a lil rust on the boot lip, brake pads low, slight "whine" somewhere in rear at highway speed upon deceleration, otherwise runs/drives great. I think I got a deal though. I read that there seems to be some bugs in these, whats the general opinion on this model? Thanks, Nathan good opinion here ... except for the door handles ... and the air bag suspension in the rear > Gave $1600 in "sweat equity" (no cash). (Im a house, etc. > remodeler/carpenter). 145K on the odo. Has already had a lot of work done on [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Thanks, > Nathan If you do not want to break the door handles, keep them, the linkage, and the locks clean, lubricated and adjusted. If the door lock doesn't open with a light pull, DO NOT pull hard. Open another door and/or use the inside handle until you can fix it. Congratulations and good luck, Don Young > good opinion here ... except for the door handles ... and the air bag > suspension in the rear [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Thanks, > > Nathan Nathan, I agree with what has been said by the others on the door handles. Keep them well lubricated. At 145K, you are just breaking it in. Rust on the boot lip is normal and irritating. The whine from the rear end is most likely the stub axle bearings. A $200 repair if you do it yourself -- $600 if the dealer does it. The whine could also be the wheel bearings. $100 total for both side if you do it yourself. You will have other little niggles to look out for. Warnings on this car will pop up from time to time and it is a 50/50 bet as to whether they are actually warnings or not. The big thing you have to look out for is the head gasket replacement if it has not been done as of yet. These AJ6 3.6 litre engine are nearly bullet-proof except the original head gasket was not of high quality. Once replaced, the engine will go nearly forever. The transmission has a small weak point in that you do NOT want to run it at high speed in for long at all in Park or neutral. It is the same ZF transmission as used in BMW, Volvo and Mercedes and you will burn it out if it is reved in neutral for more than a minute. I tell them in my inspection station not to rev it for more than a minute to get the emissions readings. Thankfully I only have one more emissions testing on it before North Carolina drops testing on cars that do not have a computer plug-in for emissions readings. Read the book at http://www.jag-lovers.org/modern/xj40book/book_index.html to get a better idea of what you may be in for AND how easily solved the problems are. Remember rule number 1 about these cars: Never take it to a dealership for any repairs. Cheers Webserve > Gave $1600 in "sweat equity" (no cash). (Im a house, etc. > remodeler/carpenter). 145K on the odo. Has already had a lot of work done on [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Thanks, > Nathan >Remember rule number 1 about these cars: Never take it to a > dealership for any repairs. My gosh, what great advice! (SERIOUSLY!) My father bought an 85 xj6 new.... he stopped taking the car to the dealer less than a year into the warranty. He would bring it in for a minor quirk and it would come back worse than before. I talked to a mechanic (recently) who worked at Checkered Flag Jaguar in Virginia Beach, Virginia around the time my dad bought the car... He admitted nobody knew what they were doing in the shop. I'm afraid they are not really much better now... but I wouldn't go back anyway, regardless. Thanks for all the great advice! I do have a right rear door that is VERY hard to open from the outside. Will check into fixing that. As for revving the engine in Park, I have, when the battery died about a month ago. Completely dead. Boosted it off, and had to keep it at a good 1600 RPM for a good long while as it would die instead of idle. It was choking it down that much electrically. Just driving off wasnt an option as it would just die and need another boost off when put in gear. After about 15 minutes the battery charged up enough for it to run reasonably normally. I know that sounds quite brutal, but I live in the boonies and its 30+ miles to get a new battery. But a new one it got, and I can tell no ill effects from the experience. I have a second car, but its at my jobsite 50 miles away. 1983 Buick Lesabre Estate Wagon with a quarter million miles on it. Starts and runs good too. Figures :o) I do plan to do most of my own work on the Jag, nobody in my local area would know how anyway :o) Thanks again, Nathan > Thanks for all the great advice! > I do have a right rear door that is VERY hard to open from the outside. [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Thanks again, > Nathan FWIW, bad exterior door handle design (along with about 60 other unfixable issues) was a "no extra cost" feature on all 88-89 XJs. The little pad that presses down on the inner release lever isn't up to the job, replacing it (if you can find a door handle assy these dyas) is a waste of time & money. The best fix I ever saw, a guy drilled a small hole in the door skin right where the inner release lever is, and sprayed bicycle chain lube on the whole works once a month. Works like a charm. As for the battery, HAH, welcome to XJ-40-land! The quiescent drain (resting current draw) on an XJ-40 is huge, and murders a poorly charged battery in short order. The original car came with a blur, Chloride-produced battery that was the devil's own. Most didn;t make it 1`0k miles before being replaced, a good Interstate battery may last a while. These things aren;t worth anything because of all their issues. However, they're great drivers when they run. The engine/trans are relatively bulletproof and can be made to run forever. I wonder if Jaguar ever get this sort of info/feedback and whether they do anything about it. From a business viewpoint, their dealers seem to be mostly 'suicide assistants'. > >Remember rule number 1 about these cars: Never take it to a > > dealership for any repairs. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > were doing in the shop. I'm afraid they are not really much better now... > but I wouldn't go back anyway, regardless. They may not care. I know my 1988 VDP cost someone $52k when it was sold new, the guy I got it from paid $10k in 1997, and its apparently worth no more than an old 88 model Chevy car at this point in time. They must make a great profit up front, and dont worry about repeat customers. A bad business plan, I agree. But Ive had GM dealers that werent any better..... Nathan I have always been of the opinion that the reason Mercedes has such a good reputation is not the quality of the motorcar produced, but the quality of the care after the sale. After World War II, Jaguar certainly had a leg up on the Germans coming out of the war. The Mercedes people vowed that they would make customer service the number one priority after the sale. I can still remember at one point that Mercedes made a point of making sure you rarely -- if ever saw a Mercedes at the side of the road broken down. There were even urban legends about Mercedes going around to junk yards and paying to have old Mercedes destroyed so no-one would see one in dis-repair. Jaguar, on the other hand, started an attitude of arrogance at dealerships that has lasted to this day. Even today, they would rather replace an entire system that try to diagnose why the system failed in the first place. I ran into a woman with a brand new XJ8 who was complaining about the dealership because she had brought the car in for a routine oil change as prescribed in the owners manual and did not get the car back for 3 days. The reason: She had not bought the car from them so they continually put their customers ahead of her. AND they made point of telling her this!! Not withstanding the poor dealerships, the Jaguar is one of the best -- if not the best -- engineered cars made today. With the help of lists like this and jag-lovers.org, there is very little one can not tackle and resolve with the operation oft heir car. > They may not care. I know my 1988 VDP cost someone $52k when it was sold > new, the guy I got it from paid $10k in 1997, and its apparently worth [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > better..... > Nathan >I have always been of the opinion that the reason Mercedes has such a good >reputation is not the quality of the motorcar produced, but the quality of [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >about Mercedes going around to junk yards and paying to have old Mercedes >destroyed so no-one would see one in dis-repair. More likely so there were no used parts available. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.