Had a couple of very disturbing incidents arise this past week when trying to buy a used rack & pinion for Scrapper from local salvage yards. On the first, my runner happend to go by a yard to look for one JUST as they were loading a late model XJ40 into the crusher. He said the car looked to be in very good shape - no idea why they were crushing it. He was able to convince them to put it off until the following day, but by then we had cross-referenced the parts and found that the rack in the salvage car would not work in an X-300. My runner then located an X-300 in another yard (using Car-Parts.com) and arrangements were made to pick the rack from it up the next day for only $75.00. However, when my runner went to the yard to get the part, they discovered htey had goofed and the car had actually been crushed a few days earlier. They had forgotten to delete the car from their inventory system.
The above incidents got me to wondering, so I checked Car-Parts.com to try to find out how many XJ8s were in yards w/i 100 mile radius of the Dallas metro area. I was stunned to find pictures (only a few of the listings had pics of the entire car w. them,btw) of no less than a dozen XJ8s, none of which appeaed to have any body damage, looked all to be in very good shape and w/o missing parts. I’m thinking the likely reason these cars were in the yards is something went amiss with their engines, possibly the timing chain tensioner thing (although some of them were post-2001s).
This also got me to thinking how profitable it might be for one to buy these XJ8s up cheap, install good used salvage engines in them, and “flip” them. The runner I was using is also my tech. He says he could find the cars and do the work at his place, cranking out at least one XJ8 a week. I would handle the detailing and sales. We could split the profits. Good idea or not?
Hard to say. Assuming that there is nothing else signifcantly wrong with the junker, you would have the cost of the new or rebuilt engine, and the labor to install it and advertising costs to cover to make a profit. Obviously, like you, I think that XJ8’s are great cars but they didn’t hold their original value, so unless you got the junker for little more than the scrap metal value, you might have some difficulty making much of a profit. As an example, my 2002 VDP originally sold for something like $65,000 but when I bought it three years ago, its KBB value was only about $6500. And that was for a car that was mechanically sound and had a very good interior (minor cracking on the front seats and console, rear seat like brand new) and body (no major dents or paint chips–a couple of parking lot door dings-- and the paint was like new.
Well, the engines would not be “new or rebuilt”, just good used engines from salvage (if they are to be had, which may raise another issue). I’m also wondering how much labor time is involved in r/ring an XJ8 engine My tech does have access to a car lift and engine stands, which should help speed things along. Question is also whether one man can do the job, or whether he would need an assistant. I guess if the whole thing were only up to me, I would do it more for the love of the marque rather than to make $$s, but then again that type of attitude is often a big mistake in business.
There are also other fixes that can be used to revive devalued X308 Jags - the throttle body fix and the ABS module fix. Throttle bodies can be fixed for ~$700 + 30 min. labor. ABS modules can be resoldered with 1.5 hr. labor (including removal and refitting) and .50 in solder, electricity, and electronic-safe silicone sealant (call it .75 if you want to amortize the cost of the hacksaw blade needed to cut the module open.)
But it would be better to get those cars cheap after they’re about to be abandoned by the owner after those problems surface. After they hit the auto recycle yard, the expensive leather interiors deteriorate quickly (especially in the dry desert states, which otherwise are desirable due to less corrosion.)
The tensioners and throttle body are enough to cause someone to ditch a nice $5,000+ value X308 for parts. The ABS, an owner can live with, but I would think would devalue the car (I wouldn’t want to pay market price for a car that is telling me ABS/ASC is non-functional.)
If one could do that, there might be a nice business in refurbishing these. Encourage buyers to have them inspected so they know there are no nasty code faults and the engines are sound.
Egads! So, if mine doesn’t have any problems @ 170K miles, does that mean the P.O. must have had any such issues fixed, or could I still experience one of them down the road? < fingers crossed >
I don’t know. Read the TSBs/Service Actions and see if your car falls into the VIN range of any of them?? They made the cars from 1998-2003. Different cars had different issues.
Mine had a problem with the throttle position sensor. The car would start and run normally for days or weeks and then, suddenly without warning, at any speed, the engine would suddenly act like it was running on three cylinders, the car would slow to a crawl and the warning, “Limp Home Mode” would come on. I’d pull to the side of the road, shut the engine off for about 30 seconds and it’d fire right up and act as if nothing had happened. The solution was a new throttle position sensor which was only available attached to a new or rebuilt throttle body. No repeat of the problem in the year and a half since the replacement.
Wow, that sounds very similar to the chronic transmission problem I have been having on Superblue, my '94 XJS (AJ6 engine). The transmission warning/limp home light comes on, and she starts shifting VERY hard between 1-2 gears. Shut her off, wait a few, re-start, and the problem is gone for the moment. I’ve tried replacing both the TCU and the ECM, still to no avail. I’m just now, after several months of putting up with this cr**, getting a T.P.S. error code via the Jaguar Diagnostic System on the radio dial, although the engine continues to run smooth as silk. Someone suggested I try replacing the T.P.S., as it could theoretically be causing this trans. problem.
I bought an OBD II reader and it found a code for the throttle position sensor fault. HF has several models ranging from about $45-$140. Even though I don’t do anything at all involved on my VDP (it’s my daily driver and I can’t having it languishing unusable in the driveway for days or weeks like I can for my E), I find that it’s well worth the money to know what’s wrong with the car and be ready to talk to (and not be taken advantage of) the mechanic when I take it in. I’ve used it plenty of times on my cars as well as the kids’ and friends. If your problem is the TPS, it should have a stored code in its memory even if the CEL isn’t on.
This has been discussed repeatedly. Use the search function and enter “throttle position sensor.” You might be able to get by with just a good cleaning (discussed on one of the threads) but I was getting tired of SWMBO’s wrath when it would cut out 300 mile from home.
Unfortunately, our '94s didn’t come with the OBD II system. Lesson learned - I will never buy another pre-'95 Jag for the simple reason that the OBD II is critical to being able to diagnose precisely what’s wrong whenever something comes up that is not obvious. I’ve had no less than 3 shops (inc. two transmission shops) give up on diagnosing Superblue’s problem b/c they could not track it down w/o an OBD II system.
Obviously, I know nothing about pre-'95s and damned little about the MY’s that I own. I’m slowly learning but I’ve reached the age where I can’t remember what I learned. Or maybe it’s just plain stupidity.
I’m thinking the likely reason these cars were in the yards is something went amiss with their engines, possibly the timing chain tensioner thing (although some of them were post-2001s).
I’m just now, after several months of putting up with this cr**, getting a T.P.S. error code via the Jaguar Diagnostic System on the radio dial, although the engine continues to run smooth as silk. Someone suggested I try replacing the T.P.S., as it could theoretically be causing this trans. problem. 
Lesson learned - I will never buy another pre-'95 Jag for the simple reason that the OBD II is critical to being able to diagnose precisely what’s wrong whenever something comes up that is not obvious. I’ve had no less than 3 shops (inc. two transmission shops) give up on diagnosing Superblue’s problem b/c they could not track it down w/o an OBD II system. 