LOL Groover. You took the words right out of my mouth … 
One thing, though … I notice Moonr uses the term “miles” and not “kilometers” in his post(s) … I’m confused . I thought Ireland 
also uses kilos, as does Britain 
? 
I dunno about that. It’s easy to check the condition of the accumulator. Turn on the ignition, listen for the ABS pump, wait until it shuts off. Then apply the brakes until it comes back on. It should take about six applications. If it comes on with fewer applications of the brake, it’s weak. If it comes on every time you apply the brakes, the accumulator is already shot.
If you need to replace it, finding an original would be tough. However, several people have identified accumulators from other cars that will work (and cost less!).
Or course, I wouldn’t even spend that much fixing the Teves III. I’d be ripping it out. That system is just too dangerous IMHO.
Nice car, clean engine, pristine interior and beautiful colour.
Seems like a very good buy.
Too bad for the rust at the sills, but it doesn’t look that bad either.
Good luck.
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@AttyDallas Cheers! It’s a 1989 so bang in between the the post-87 mk1.5 update and 1991 facelift. I’m pretty sure that the wood is as new. It’s burr elm so I would expect it to be light in colour. The car has spent the majority of its life shut in a garage so little opportunity for the sun to get to the paint and woodwork.
It’s strange to me to see things from the US point of view, because (I think I’m right in saying) all UK-spec cars left the factory with the losenge-style single headlights, and the 6-cylinder AJ6 engine was available in the UK from 1983. The lattice-style wheels were also available long before my car was made - maybe they appeared in the 1987 mk 1.5 update? Someone will know 
@Grooveman I paid £9,250 for the car which I’m very happy with. It does need a few thousand spent on it though - possibly another £5000 to get it into A1 condition.
And yes, I’m in England so we tend to use use miles for long distances, metric measurements for short distances, degrees Centigrade for negative and low temperatures but Fahrenheit for hot weather. Everything’s in ml or l, unless we’re drinking our warm beer, in which case it’s pints. You get used to it…!
@Kirbert - I’ll carry out that test and act on the findings. Out of interest what is it that makes Teves III too dangerous - should I really be considering downgrading to the older non-ABS system?
@Aristides - Great to hear from you Given time I hope the sills will look as good as those on your beautiful XJ6!
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BTW, I said in an earlier post that there weren’t many receipts for work done to the car… Well last night I opened the green Jaguar documents folder and checked its contents. Among all the pristine handbooks, wiring diagrams and other guides (including the original key codes sticker and CATS code sticker) was a pile of invoices from the early 2000s, when it had an unbelievable amount of work done.
It was the 60,000 mile service, but clearly done on a time basis as the mileage was 21k at the time. The total bill was £2654.49 and work included
- Radius arm bushes and arms themselves painted in Hammerite
- Modified Coolant Temp Sensor
- Rear brake adjustment
- Injectors removed and cleaned
- Front discs and pads
- Front wheel Bearings
- New window regulators
- Remove Front Subframe and rustproof
- PolyBushes fitted to upper and lower front wishbones
- PolyBushes fitted to steering rack
- Front Subframe Bushes
- Front Subframe Rear Mounts
- Front and Rear Metalastic Bushes
- New Central locking ECU
- Oil/Filter
- Gearbox Oil
- Plugs/Filters
- Front brake dust covers
- Wiper Blades
- Air Con Belt
- Brake Fluid
- PAS Fluid
Then (and this is the one I was really pleased to find) in 2003, it was back for a complete new clutch with a skimmed flywheel at the same time.
I guess that a lot these may need looking at again pretty soon as although they were less than 10k miles ago, 20 years has passed since then. I’m thinking mainly about the suspension bushes - obviously it’s going to need a full service as a matter of course.
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Put 20 or 30,000 miles on it then start tearing it apart 
Just a pretty period car.
GTJOEY1314
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definitely change fan blade and fan clutch right away… you don’t want the blade throwing itself into the radiator or hood
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£9,250 is about $12,000? But UK market is totally different - I’ve heard XJ-S’s are worth more because high demand and low supply. Complete opposite in the US, which is why we can still find them so cheap.
Also, UK cars tend to have rust issues due to the road salts used there, especially in the north. You are lucky the car is not totally rusted out! Wheel wells is simple to deal with. Although you should probably inspect closer now that you have the car.
Very lucky to have all that done for a 60,000 mile check. That in itself is worth several £1,000.
And now I see why the straight 6 is more popular there. Could you imagine filling up a V12 car at UK Gasoline prices?!?!?!?
here’s da math:
UK: £1.45/liter for petrol = $1.96/liter for gasoline
x 3.785 liters/US Gallon = $7.41/gallon!!!
Currently in my neck of the woods, gas is about $4/gallon
The 3.6 had burr Elm rather then Walnut as in the V12 so it is natuarally a lot lighter in colour.
It will have faded a bit though, if you lift the cubby box lid there will be an original piece visible as it is shielded from the light.
Here is a list of the 3.6 ECUs
CONTROL UNITS-PI 3.6 LITRE
Part No Description Change Point Remarks
DBC 2911 Auto with catalyst Up to (V)144596
DBC 3711 Auto with catalyst From (V)144597 Use DBC 4411
DBC 4411 Auto with catalyst
DBC 2735 Manual with catalyst
DBC 2910 Non catalyst Up to (V)144596
DBC 3710 Non catalyst From (V)144597 Use DBC 4410
DBC 4410 Non catalyst Use DBC 4910 (for auto)
DBC 4910 Auto
The later ‘microfuelling’ engines like this one used the DBC 4410 (Manual) and DBC 4910 (Auto).
The auto version reduced the rev max to protect the ZF HP22 auto box. Neither have the vacuum connection or the problems of the early 3.6 units.
The ECU is under the passenger footwell and can suffer water damage to the connections. It is well worth checking for any corrosion on the two connector plugs.
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Discussed on these forums at length. If you blow a brake hose to a front brake caliper, you will have no brakes. The rear brakes cannot function without the front brakes, completely defeating the intent of dual brake circuits. Retrofit the earlier vacuum-boosted brakes, so when the brakes at one end fail the brakes at the other end still work.
BTW, a viable alternative is to upgrade to Teves IV – which is an excellent system, offered in perhaps the last year of XJ-S production. Harder to find the stuff for the conversion, though. And visually under the hood the Teves IV looks just like the pre-ABS system; neither have that accumulator ball.
Beautiful car / congratulations!
You have a “late” 3.6 which has a MAF, like a US market XJ40 had. The vacuum signal and subsequent ECU issues are with the earlier cars.
You got a great deal. I recently sold my ‘85 grey market 3.6 manual, here in the States for $20k, they are hens teeth here of course (forbidden fruit), so the few that came in and were Federalized, are worth much more than their V12 counterparts.
Here is a pic of my engine compartment for comparison / you’ll note the intake is completely different.
Cheers and enjoy that gorgeous car!
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I hate to spend another man’s money BUT $12,000 sounds like quite a deal to me.
Lets say you spend $6000 getting everything repaired and you have a great car
for $18,000 … now add in the $2,000 for the last things you didn’t know you needed
to deal with and your car just moved up to super great.
So now you have a factory fresh Jaguar sports car (I repeat it’s a JAGUAR) for $20,000
with only 31,000 miles (31,000 after 3 decades !!!) that’s totally reliable and you’ve paid
less for it than a used family sedan. HAPPY MOTORING
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Jeff - that’s a lovely car, such a good colour for it! My old car is an 86 and has the same earlier intake system. It had been modified with a larger trumpet in on the air box and made a really lovely growl at high revs under acceleration. Mine had the same seats as yours, too, without the sports pack.
I’m glad you think it’s not a bad deal @Grooveman. I think it’s about right given the car’s condition, I certainly don’t feel like I’ve over-paid. I base it on the fact that I was offered a 68k mile 3.6 manual by a dealer for £15k last year, which I nearly bought. It would have been totally sorted, rust-proofed etc., but in a colour I couldn’t live with. It also had the later interior which I didn’t like very much.
I reckon once this car is all sorted, repaired, serviced and rust-proofed, it’ll have cost me in the region of £15 to 18k and it’ll be less than half the mileage of that other car, with a better provenance, in a better colour, nicer interior etc. I’m happy with that and will thoroughly enjoy driving it.
The only problem is that I used to properly hoon around in my old XJS when it was safe to do so and I will have to treat this one in a more sedate and gentle way, as befits the kind of car it is!
In the UK the XJS is extremely undervalued IMO. Take a look at what is being asked for the likes of a Rover P5, Ford Escort or even Morris Minors for instance.
Perhaps the perceived complexity of the XJS puts people off or maybe that in the day it was the unloved child of the E Type. Either way it is becoming slowly recognised for the brilliant car it is and as such good originals can only increase in value.
I picked the car up today - it was a great feeling to be back behind the wheel of an XJ-S again. I drove it fairly gingerly because it was clear from the outset that the brakes aren’t what they could be. I think the pads were last changed in 2002 and it’s not done many miles since so a thorough brake service is well overdue: Pads, hoses pistons, seals and fluid. I’m getting 6 - 8 pedal presses before the Teves pump kicks in so the accumulator seems fine.
I spent this afternoon doing a few odd jobs to the car and familiarising myself with its condition and any defects. WD40 in the window channels seemed to get the windows moving properly and I made a start on replacing the damaged bumper corner and rust-proofing the bumper brightwork.
I’ve just spent a happy couple of hours scrubbing the radiator grille with toothpaste to remove all the tarnishing and bring back the shine.
I recently had a workshop built so that I could look after and work on my cars properly - here’s the XJ-S in its new home, with my two other cars. The other blue one (an Austin Maestro Vanden Plas) will undergo a bit of restoration soon, too.
The bumper and grille will go back on tomorrow, once the POR15 under the bumper brightwork has dried.
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Ut oh … it even has the headlamp WWers … I always thought of that option as Jaguar’s most extreme “flamboyance” (akin to the “picnic tables” on the backside of the fronts seats on the VDP sedans) … 
btw, I thought all “bright-work” on the XJSes (and sedans as well) was composed of polished SS. ? So is “rust-proofing” even needed for it? And, if so, how do you achieve it?
If you ever spent much time “winter driving” in Europe you wouldn’t think of the head lamp w/w as a flamboyance. Coat up rather quickly with gray crud from rain/snow/sleet and road dirt…to the point of hindering lamp from doing its job. I had an American car when I was stationed there in early 70’s. Wished on more than one occasion I had them washers
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Yes - I thought it was Stainless used for the bumper bright work, but it turns out to be chromed mild steel. The front bumper parts are surprisingly sturdy and held on with what seems to me a surplus of nuts and bolts! The underside was just painted with a thin layer of grey paint.
The non-damaged corner of my car had visible pitting and the beginning of rusting through from the back to the front (or bottom to top) so whilst I had it apart I coated the entire underside of the 3-piece chrome bumper with POR15.
I was unimpressed to see the light wipers as I had originally wanted to convert to US-style double lights, but having seen the originality of the car, I think it would be a shame to meddle with it so UK-stule lights and wipers will remain.
It’s ironic in some ways as @JimD_in_Alabama points out - the washers are useful in bad weather. With all the salt that is spread on the UK roads in winter, there’s very little chance that this car will see those conditions in my ownership!
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