I'm thinking about purchasing another Jag. It's a mint '98 XJR. In doing some research I've found that there has been several XJR with a throttle problem that causes the vehicle's engine to stop running when cruising @ 50+ mph. To repair can be very costly. Has anyone heard of this? What is your overall rating of this awesome looking cat. Thx!
Submitted by saadi7@msn.com on Wed, 11/10/2004 - 11:31
All '98 XJ-8 models suffered from this problem, and it can be fixed for no $ out of your pocket. Before buying the car, take the VIN number to your local Jag dealer and see if it qualifies for the recall to replace the throttle body. Hopefully your dealer is up on things to know what to do. After that has been replaced, when changing your oil, which I recommend @ 5,000 miles with synthetic oil, have the part load breather cleaned out. If you do the above, you will not have any stalling problems.
But friend, the larger problem with this car is that Jag used inferior timing chain tensioners that crack and eventually will cause the timing chain to jump and then there goes your engine. Not to be alarmed, for preventive maintenance a good Jag dealer for about $1,500 can replace the old style tensioner and guides with new ones before they crack and ruin your engine to the tune of $5,500 to rebuild or $10,000 for a new one. Some dealers want to charge more to do this preventative maintenance, so shop around!
That being said, this it is not a bad car. Use the cost of the preventative maintenance as a bargaining chip.