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Buying a Jaguar XJ6 Series III
The Series III Jaguar XJ6 produced between 1979 and 19871 is one of those rare cars that can pamper you and provide you with an environment that makes commutes and long journeys alike a mood enhancing joy - a chance to work out some of the stress or conduct a little attitude adjustment by doing what many of us have done for a long time - going for a 'spin in the Jag'. The series III is a rare combination of smooth ride, comfortable interior, gorgeous lines, and (done right) value for money. Furthermore, intelligent ownership can help you to increase the time that it spends pampering you and reduce the time you spend attending to its needs. This article is our gift to all our Series III owners and would-be owners. We hope that some of this accumulated experience will help to enhance your enjoyment of these fine cars.
Buying a good example.
If you have not already bought your Series III, this experience should help you to find and land the perfect car. If you already own one, skip this section and find out what you can do to maximize your enjoyment of your car.
A good example has 3 attributes: It has been thoroughly and regularly maintained, it has never seen harsh service (snow, sun, owner abuse), and it has been garaged. While such examples may be found here in North Carolina, they are more plentiful in places such as Dallas, Miami, and Los Angeles. Cities where new car sales were concentrated, where wealthy owners garaged their cars and put only 7,000 miles a year on them. We see examples every day that clearly were not good buys for their owners but without a lot of experience with this model it is too easy to be taken with a fancy paint job or a low price. The bottom line for these owners is likely to be a year or two of very expensive repairs or some very unsatisfactory and unrewarding transportation.
So how do you find a 'good' one. Well 1985-1987 models are the best (and last) years. Build quality had been improving consistently since John Egan went to Jaguar in 1980 with the directive to make the company well or close it (and continued steadily after Ford of Europe gained financial control of the company in 1989). The 1984 and 1985 cars are good prospects but the 1986 and 1987 models were the best and benefited from the improved paint process installed in May 1985. The Vanden Plas (VDP) model are nice, came with some colours that were not available except on VDPs but do not spend much for the distinction. It makes more sense to spend more for good condition rather than extra features.
I think that buying a low mileage example is over stressed. It is not as important as buying a well maintained one. Given that the cars we are talking about are all now 9 to 12 years old, 90,000 miles is low mileage. Search for a car that has up to 100,000 miles but has a proven history of thorough maintenance. See if the Passport to Service book is stamped and signed at every interval for required scheduled maintenance and has bills for repairs from reputable looking garages.
One piece of advise I give to all prospective owners is: Don't make an offer on a car until you have driven at least six examples. Inspect - and drive - cars that are advertised for sale privately and by dealers. By the time you have driven six, you will be a much more discerning and critical customer. You will be looking beyond the paint work and starting to have opinions about the feel of the car on the highway, how it smells inside, whether the leather is still supple, and so on.
Finally, (and I recommend this when purchasing any 'mature' car) if you have say $10,000 to spend, buy an $8,500 car and put $1,500 in a 'repair' account. Use that for repair surprises and for bringing the car up to your specification (a new headlining? better sound system? a leaping Jaguar on the bonnet?) but don't spend it on upgrades or gizmos until you and your mechanic both agree that the car seems to be sound. I do not recommend buying a warranty. Put $1,200 to $2,000 into the 'repair' account instead.
When you are ready to close on a car, get a Pre-Buy inspection performed by a garage that has a lot of experience with this model. It will cost between $100 and $300 but can tell you a lot about the condition of the car, will help you to be knowledgeable when talking with the seller, and will usually give you plenty of negotiating points to work with.
Getting to know the car
It is constantly amazing to all of us at Flying Circus how little many new owners know about the operation and maintenance of their cars. This can reduce your enjoyment of the car if you do not find out how the cruise control works or how to adjust the steering wheel. More important is the risk that damage might be done to the vehicle by not using the right fluids to top up brakes, engine and transmission or by not correctly inflating tyres. Start by reading the owners handbook and buy one if needed. It is actually quite brief and may even be interesting. Remember or put sticky notes on pages that have important data like what type of oil to use, where the fuses are, etc.
Learn as much as you can about your model from an expert: Join a Jaguar owners club2, or attend a tech session at Flying Circus or your local garage.
Effective Maintenance
Too many owners, even well intentioned enthusiasts, fail to understand the relationship between maintenance and enjoyment. Don't play Russian Roulette with your belts and hoses and don't ignore warnings when the car gives them. There are some important things to remember to keep you and your car contented:
1. If it ain't broke, don't fix it? WRONG! There are a very few people who have both a low expectation of service from their vehicle and an exceptional ability to recover from serious failures while on the road. I know, I used to be one of them and I was good at it but this article is for everyone else who chose their Jaguars in the expectation that they could enjoy a superior motoring experience. There are at least two compelling reasons to be proactive:
First, 'a stitch in time saves nine' and deterioration in items such as brake pad wear, engine oil level, coolant quality and fuel filter condition can cost you a lot if they are not remedied in time. You don't wait until you run out of gas to look for some more so don't let your catalytic converter clog up so severely that the engine chokes up and destroys itself.
Second: If you could drive a brand new version of your car and then drive your own, you would know how your car was deteriorating and you would be back to your mechanic asking "What can we do to make my car ride as smoothly" or "How can I get fuel consumption as good as the new car?". A car that is performing poorly is usually wearing itself out at a faster (and more costly) rate than a well running car. A good example is a wheel that is out of balance. While providing a very unpleasant ride, it is wearing out the tyre faster and more irregularly and beating your suspension bushes to blubber and shaking bits loose, and - well you get the idea.
2. Scheduled maintenance3 is vital to keeping your car purring. This is a prime example of where 'a stitch in time can save nine' and stumbling from one breakdown to another is not an intelligent maintenance alternative. The schedule calls for a different checkup to be performed every 7500 miles and spread over the life of the car are the replacement of several key items from spark plugs to catalytic converters.
I think that owners sometimes ask themselves if Scheduled Maintenance isn't overkill? After all, they reason, the car is 12 years old now and has 120,000 miles - Perhaps now scheduled maintenance is irrelevant in some way. Wrong! Scheduled maintenance is your friend. It is your opportunity to have the same shop recheck your car from bumper to bumper and identify anything that is urgent and if any new problems might be developing. Developing problems can be avoided before failure and, given notice, alternatives can be offered to the owner for implementation next visit.
Scheduled maintenance is also the time for planned replacement of spark plugs, catalytic converters and filters. Is scheduled maintenance expensive? No, if a car has been regularly maintained because most of the schedule is concerned with keeping pace with the rate at which the car is being 'worn out' However, the answer is 'Yes' if the car has been recently purchased with a backlog of imminent problems or has missed several service intervals. Another reason why a pre-buy inspection can be valuable in identifying the value of a car and prioritizing repairs that are going to needed.
3. Oil and Filter changes every 3,000 miles. If you follow the scheduled maintenance intervals, that takes care of half of the oil changes leaving you with the ones between scheduled maintenance. Do them yourself or go to a 10 minute oil change place by your office if you are short of time4 but do not miss this vital piece of maintenance.
4. Weekly do-it-yourself checks of your fluids (on level ground), tyre pressures, wiper blades, etc yourself. I know its a chore but make up your mind that it is saving you $100 each hour you check (almost certainly conservative) and use the check list at the end of this article to be sure you are monitoring the right things. Check your tyres for wear - they can tell you a lot about the accuracy of the front wheel alignment and tyre pressures. Read the Series III Handbook5 that came in the glove box of your car - It has a lot of valuable help for owners.
The owners handbook suggests that you operate your air conditioning system for 10 to 15 minutes each week on the cold season in order to keep the compressor in good condition. Easier said than done as it will not make cold air unless the outside air is warmer than about 50šF. So, take any warm conditions you have and turn the air on cold for as long as you can stand it.
5. Pay heed to any urgent signs of distress from your car. This is a situation where a stitch in time saves nine - hundred! We have all seen the car belching steam being driven to the next exit or heard the scraping noise coming from the brakes or passed the car with a violent wheel wobble. These are all signs that any further use of the car will result in expensive repairs! The steaming car could easily become a $2,500 cylinder head replacement. The scraping brakes could make an $80 brake pad replacement into a $350 brake disc replacement. The wobbling wheel could be destroying a $120 tyre in 50 miles. Series III owners should also act quickly if they feel the transmission slipping, smell gas fumes, hear and feel the power steering whining, hear the exhaust leaking, or find 'burned/smelly transmission fluid' on the transmission oil dipstick. and finally:
6. There is no such thing as a 'tune-up' for a Series III. If you think you need one it is probably because scheduled maintenance has been abandoned.
There are some other specific maintenance issues that fall to the owner to take responsibility for. They are important to the enjoyment of the car but they do not cry out for attention until it is too late:
To keep them supple, leather seats need to be 'fed' with hide food twice a year especially on those top surfaces most exposed to the sun's rays. Hide food is around $12 for enough for several years, the cream is best applied with bare fingers and left to soak in. The fabric headliner should be kept clean and fresh with a cleaning foam on the surface. Do not get it really wet as this will accelerate the fabricate becoming detached from its backing.
Veneered wood on the dash will crack and delaminate with age and there is not too much that you can do to delay it except keep the car out of fierce summer sun and winter cold. I do have 1 trick for disguising cracks that is almost a miracle: fresh 'Crazy Glue' (slow setting variety) fed into the cracks and the surplus quickly wiped away can hide them for a year or more.
Carpets can be vacuumed and shampooed as often as you wish and, of course, don't smoke! Take the insert out of the ash trays and use them for your business cards.
Last point: Windshield maintenance. My method is as follows: Clean the entire surface with a one sided razor blade held at about 15 degrees to the surface and lubricated with glass cleaner. When there are no more 'snicking' sounds, clean the surface with glass cleaner, dry it and finally apply Rain-X for a wonderfully clear, self drying surface.
Intelligent Driving that will prolong your enjoyment of the car
The passing of time and number of miles driven aren't the only factors determining the rate at which your car's useful life is being used up - YOU are a factor too! If you know these few simple facts, you can do a great deal to extend your car's life.
Starting a cold car. If your car does not regularly start in 1-2 seconds of cranking, find out why. Cranking is pretty arduous task for battery and starter system and a car that starts easily is a car that will last longer.
Revving the engine when cold is bad, primarily because there is not yet good lubrication for the pistons sliding up and down the cylinders and because the engine oil pump has not started feeding oil to all the places that need it6 . Significant engine wear can take place in first few seconds of running! especially in engines with old, oxidized oil. Best scenario is an engine that starts quickly and idles at 900rpm to 1200rpm. VERY bad is an engine that starts and immediately is made to go more than 2500rpm by the drivers foot!
Should you drive off immediately after starting? Cars with carburetters usually need to warm up for a minute. Most cars designed in the past 10 years are better driven gently away as soon as they are started. Your XJ6 is in the middle. After starting, let it idle for 30 to 60 seconds then drive gently away.
Be kind to your car while it is vulnerable. Minimize hard work for engine, transmission, steering while warming up. Do what you can to help in this by parking so that you can drive away down hill and forward (yes really! do a little thinking ahead). Avoid the need for load on the power steering while cold. Harsh driving behaviour is bad anytime - it is especially expensive when a car is cold. Don't slam doors, spin wheels, rev the engine, pull and hold the steering on full lock, or be hard on the transmission.
Drive with care for the car even after it has warmed up. A healthy well maintained car will accelerate, ride and stop easily but a poorly maintained, unhealthy example will gobble gas and wear itself out prematurely trying to do the same things - and will be unpleasant to drive. A frequent cause of this kind of problem in older cars is a blocked catalytic converter7. This chokes the engine's breathing and everything suffers - power, fuel efficiency and wear and tear. Catalytic converters are expensive and they do not very often cause you to breakdown, so it is tempting to squeeze more miles out of them or put their replacement off until we can afford to. Talk to your mechanic about any performance shortcoming, ask him to perform a back pressure test or drive some other Series IIIs so that you can be objective about the performance of your own.
Use the car for longer trips periodically. Fifteen minute trips barely get some of the important components up to temperature (brake pads squeal because the glaze never gets worn off, rear silencers rust out from all the cold condensate in them. Spark plugs, cylinder heads and exhaust system build up carbon deposits). and anyway it is a Jaguar - it needs to run and exercise regularly!
Don't brake late (and hard) and Think ahead and avoid potholes that pound your shock absorbers and suspension
Be aware of the fools around you. Don't let them cause you to drive badly, be hard on the car, or get into an accident. Be cool. Pull ahead or drop back and find yourself a space on the road where YOU are in charge or find a time and route where you have more control of your own journeys.
Plan long journeys before starting. This can help you accomplish the purpose of the journey in style, avoid the need for repairs under hostile circumstances and avoid repairs that are only band-aids. Prepare the car by inflating tyres, checking all fluids, cleaning the windshield and applying Rain-X the glass, cleaning and tidying the interior, and packing some important spares8. And I am convinced that if you wash the car and vacuum the interior you will drive better and get better gas mileage! If you are planning a trip, let your regular mechanic know and ask for his advice on needed preparation.
Park intelligently. All to often, parking is a haphazard process but it can be a way to save on running costs. At the very least you should park to avoid theft of the car or its contents. While this sounds too basic to mention, I am positive that there are many people who drive up their operating costs by being too casual about where and how they leave their cars. Find a place where hit and run damage is unlikely. Hide your valuables from sight. Leave your car where any thief would be observed. Avoid sun damage to the leather. Avoid leaving your car out in the rain at airports and avoid overnight freezing winds if you can park in a covered garage.
Never drive a sick or struggling car to the next exit to save inconvenience to yourself. It is too much of a gamble that you are doing major damage to something. Three or four $35 to $75 towing fees in your lifetime are a lot less than a cracked cylinder head or spun crankshaft bearings.
Buying Parts and Accessories
Gasoline: Use premium 93 Octane. If that is not available, use next highest octane available and drive gently. Avoid heavy acceleration and summer overheating situations and if you do hear 'pinking' or detonation, that is really damaging and you should stop and check the car's cooling system.
Tyres: At time of writing, we recommend Michelin MXV4 tyres because we know that they give a good ride and do not generate strange noises or bad handling characteristics. If you cannot buy tyres that you know are right then talk to your mechanic. Taking the recommendation of a tyre seller who is not familiar with the Jaguar or buying tyres that look nice could seriously spoil your enjoyment of your car.
Cellular phones. This is another area where we have seen some bizarre installation work including a phone that was drawing its power from the fuel injector circuit. We wondered what would happen if you wanted to make a phone call and accelerate at the same time.
Polishes and cleaners: For the exterior paint work of your car we suggest you wash the car regularly at one of those do-it-yourself car washes using NO soap and polish it monthly with one of the polishes recommended9 in a 1995 Consumer Report study which had good data to support its choices.
Stereo/sound system: Many of our customers want better sound or CD capability. An easy upgrade for sound quality in a Series III is to replace the 4 speakers with high quality, modern speakers. Beyond that, it is now possible to add CD player either in a new radio or as a changer mounted in the boot and playing through your existing radio.
Jaguar Parts or substitutes?: Sometimes, buying a non-original part (like a generic $29.95 fuel pump) is too risky to do but what about switching to 'splitfire' spark plugs or generic, $3 oil filters or parts store brake pads? Well, some of these products are probably OK but I do not know how the typical owner could do enough research to make these decisions and I strongly recommend that you place your trust in your regular mechanic or in your Jaguar club. We have seen far too many XJ6s that have unwisely been modified with inappropriate 'upgrades' or serviced with parts that are, in the long run, more expensive. To provide you with some guidance, the following lists give you my opinion on the examples of substitutions that are often considered.
Probably OK
Probably a problem
Don't even think about it
Other oil brands
Tyres
Engine components
Headlamp bulbs
Mufflers
Fuel pump
Air filter
Brake pads
Brake rotors
Spark plugs
U joints
Hydraulic parts
Battery
Oil filters
Switches
Wiper refills
Wiper blades
Wire wheels
In Conclusion
If you do not have a mechanic picked out, find one. Get their help and involvement in preparing you for the search and inspecting prospective cars. To see and drive the best, go to your Jaguar dealer or specialist high-end car dealer and revisit often. Do not get impatient and settle for something less than your goal. At time of writing (October 1998) Series III XJ6s are becoming scarce but they are not out of sight yet. The best can be had for $11000 to $16000 and there are hundreds on the market for $4000 to $6000. Join the Jaguar Club of North America2 (JCNA) which will include membership in your local club and get their help.
I am pretty sure that the XJ6 Series III is heading for the same revered status that the Jaguar MkII enjoys. Get yours today!
Alan Briggs
Footnotes1. Series IIIs were actually built through 1991 in XJ12 form but not for the USA market
2. E-mail the Carolina Jaguar Club or go to the JCNA Web Site or go to Jaguar Company web sites
3 In the glove box should be a booklet entitled Passport to Service. It specifies what must be done and when
4. Like many shops we prefer appointments but will always change oil and filter for a call in customer with 30 minutes to spare
5. Part No AKM4177
6. Some cheap oil filters allow the oil to drain back out of the oil galleries when parked. Subsequent starts therefore need additional revolutions of the engine to start oil flowing
7. Catalytic converters are the expensive muffler like objects that clean up the exhaust gasses. They are full of a honeycomb like material and can become blocked with age or by a badly running engine.
8. Attachment 1 is our recommended emergency kit for a Series III XJ6
9. For gloss and easy application, try top-rated Meguiar's Cleaner Wax Liquid ($5.38 for 16 ounces) or Turtle Wax Carnauba ($4.99 for 14 ounces). Although fourth-rated Nu Finish Liquid ($5.27 for 16 ounces) was especially easy to apply, it earned a mediocre score for gloss. If you hate to wax and won't do it often, consider Nu Finish Soft Paste ($5.97 for 14 ounces), which earned top marks for durability and cleaning. But, like its liquid brand mate, it left a weathered finish slightly less glossy than some of the other tested products. Source: Consumer Reports