2001 Jaguar XJR

I was loving the cruise back following my wife in the X350. The noise the XJR was making had me grinning ear to ear! The supercharger whirring away up front and the stainless free-flow system growling and burbling out back. Bloody brilliant! I was also surprised at the toys, I figured I'd be taking a hit in the toy department going from the X350 to the X308, but I was made up to keep making little discoveries; auto lamps, auto wipers, memory/heated seats, auto dimming mirror, heated windscreen. Made up! So made up in fact that I whacked the heated seat on coupled that with the novelty that was cold air-con, and continued to enjoy the new car bonding experience - genuinely excited about the 3 hours that lay ahead!

However, about 30 minutes into the drive home things went a bit Pete Tong. A few messages popped up on the dash; ABS not availible, TCS not available, check rear bulbs etc. Now, had I not had my X350 I would've worried that everything had bust on it, but I'm aware that Jags get all confused when the battery voltage is low. I turned off a few gadgets and the messages went, but we were just heading on to the motorway! I tried to call on the hands-free but my phone wasn't working! It was getting dark so we needed lights but that wasn't going too well, as you can imagine! I tried flasing but there wasn't enough juice for the main beans! Dash lights fading fast, miles from home, and no way to contact the car ahead, it was all getting a bit stressfull!

Anyway, lots of pulling alongside and shouting across the motorway later, we were parked up in a dark, rainy layby on the outskirts of Birmingham. Ah well, best laid plans and all that.

I knew it had a new battery on it, so it must've been the alternator. Still presented us with the issue of being 3 hours from home at 6.30pm on a Sunday night with our 10 month old daughter. Sweet! I'll spare the rest of the rescue details but we had white chocolate buttons for tea, the AA were called, they took ages, and we eventually arrived home at 1.20am. Not the best new car bonding session then!

I've not even managed to have a proper look at it yet! Took a couple of pics on Monday morning though:










Found this cheeky chap in the history folder, too:



Here's the general lowdown:

It's been modified by a tuning company called Paramount Performance. It has a smaller supercharger pulley, stainless free flow exhaust, cold air intake, and an ECU remap. It sounds immense.

It sits on beefy looking, massively kerbed XK8 alloys.

It has a few rusty bits and a few scrapes here and there.

The headlining has dropped.

It's had a recent engine and gearbox service.

The alternator needs replacing!

It sounds immense.

I've just ordered a new alternator, so will be attempting to change it at the weekend. I'll update the thread as and when things happen, as usual!

That looks like a great buy minus the alternator!

Just bought this little fella:



Hoping for good weather over the weekend to give it a bash. I've read it's a bit of a curse word in term of placement so I'll just bring all my best swear words along and I'm sure it'll be ok!

I hope so!

I love the xjr can't wait for this

Cheers mate 😊 😎
Yeah it was the wheel sensors on my x350, but when I had battery issues it lit up a Christmas tree! They only started flashing when the battery was on its last legs, so I'll just assume it's fine for now, but if not I'll give you a shout! Anything else I should look out for?

Many of things to look out for are also known issues with the X300's as they aged but there are also some things specific to the XJR.

Corrosion in the front wheel arches. There's a horizontal brake hard line that runs along the inner wing.... mud gets trapped behind it and rots the wing where the subframe mount is... the mount is a 3 ply steel creation and they are a known rot spot... not too bad to fix on the offside but tricky on the nearside.
Stonechips behind the front wheels, rust in the lips of the rear arches if the mud has been allowed to accumulate.
Diffs can wear due to all the power going through them.
As usual for Jags, they are heavy on the suspension... bushes, wheel bearings, balljoints, shocks... CATS suspension shocks are eye watering expensive to replace. If the front wishbone bushes are weak, the tyres will scrub their inside edge and the car won't handle well... they all tramline badly as it is.
Headlinings... if not too bad some superglue in a syringe to glue the lining back to the backing.
Supercharger duct seals can collapse... there's a modified set that Jag supply ( got mine from David Manners )
Throttle bodies need to be clean or else rough running/limp mode can ensue.
Secondary fuel pump ( which comes in high on the boost) can play up.

Timing chains are the big worry but if yours have been done then happy days.

Engine management lights come on for fun... a cheapo OBD2 reader will sort out generic 'nothing to worry about' codes out from proper issues and reset the EML

No. The SC uses the 4.2 found in the S-Type R and XKR.

This looks epic. I have been hankering after a X308 'R for a while, but ended up having my head turned by another straight-six. Such hardships...