Jag wrenching. It’s something that I have been focused on for the past six years of my life since I bought my first British Racing Green XK8 for ~$200 bucks. It’s also something that y’all have been asking for in the Comments on a few pieces I’ve written here for a hot min now. I had intended for that XK8 to be used for a series of fun wrenching articles, but time and life had other plans for me, and it’s been mostly languishing in my driveway for the past 6 years. Although I will say that it is running, driving, currently registered, and insured, which is always a huge win in The Great Land of Autopia.
It turns out buying and owning Jags is a bit of an addiction, so in that time period since the first, I have purchased five more! I know, I have a problem. I was able to chronicle my first X-Type here, followed by another X-Type that I have yet to write about. The other three include an XK8 and two XKs that I shared in our last Team Roundup here.
Well, this past weekend I finally got the chance to do some (unexpected) Jag wrenching! Namely on the $1,800 2007 XK hardtop. It had been sitting for so long that one of the tires went flat.
Flat Tire Repair Should Just Take A Couple Hours On A Saturday Morning, Right?
Removing the wheel, I was surprised to see that a previous owner had done some really nice-looking welding on what appeared to be two cracks on the wheel. I’m guessing that was a far more economical course of action than purchasing a replacement wheel from Jaguar. Purchasing pretty much anything from Jaguar is almost prohibitively expensive, and should be the absolute last option is what I’ve learned from owning these cars.
These cars also fit the bill as pretty Euro cars that sucker Buy-Here-Pay-Here “3rd Owner” shoppers in for a beautiful luxury ride that they can afford the monthly payment on, but not afford any unexpected repairs or costs.
Well, once the wheel was off, I noticed that the upper ball joint was not only completely missing its rubber boot, but that it was probably in the worst condition out of any ball joint I’ve ever seen. And I spend all of my weekends in junk yards, son! Well, it looks like I’m going to be spending this weekend doing upper ball joints, quite unexpectedly.
Jaguar, in their engineering wisdom, decided to make these upper ball joints socket out of aluminum, but use a steel ball – guess which material is going to win over time? My attempt to remove the upper ball joint was just in time, as soon as I placed pressure on the joint and a wrench on the nut, it separated (without removing the nut)!
Getting the 2 remaining bolts that held the arm into the body was an entirely different story, though.
You must watch the above video to get the full idea, but Jaguar mounts the control arms with bolts that go through the strut towers with nuts that are on the outside of each strut tower. That means on the right side of the car, you have to remove not just the overflow tank and strut tower brace, but also both windshield wipers and the wiper cowl in order to access the rear bolt!
That’s pretty ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as the left side of the car, where you have to remove the fuse box, fuse box mount bracket, and the PCM in order to get to the rear mount bolt!
Not the best design. Cars that are hard to fix with expensive parts live short lives, and it is unfortunate that beautiful cars such as these have consistently fallen into that trap decade after decade. Those beautiful cats fall far short when compared to the 178K-mile $220 Dodge Stratus coupe that I have daily driven for the past 11 years after easily replacing the head gasket in 2015; it’s a breeze to work on with cheap, available parts everywhere. It’s living a long life; the big cats usually don’t.
The left side ball joint was also so bad that I couldn’t get the stud to stop spinning in the socket, since the socket was so worn out. I had to pull out the big guns and create some sparks.
Once all of the above was complete, I had spent pretty much the entirety of my Saturday on removing to ball joints that I didn’t even know were dangerously bad. And this was on a car that has spent the past year stationary in my driveway. What else could be wrong that is either :
1) dangerous
2) expensive
3) very time-consuming
4) going to require some serious effort
The above list made me reflect and think deeply on my priorities and on the fact that there were 13 other cars in my fleet with Known Unknowns.
Wait, We Do This Every Weekend, All Summer?
Replacement parts should arrive sometime this week, and hopefully I’ll be able to get them in and get the car back together by next week. This job is only halfway done. Honestly, I have way too many cars (again) and need to get rid of a few. Working full-time and non-stop wrenching on the weekends is a full plate. An over-full one. Not much time left for family, relationships, or for writing these articles for y’all. David said something similar when he was non-stop wrenching on his then-massive fleet in Michigan years ago.
If anyone out there wants a low-mileage SL500, a Jag or two, a C320, Trans Am, LeBaron or a Stealth, hit up your fellow Autopian SWG and we’ll make some magic happen.
Buying cheap, broken luxury cars that you dreamed of in college becomes something of a reality in your 40s. But that reality also requires time, space and money, continuously. It’s important to keep things in perspective and not let your passions start skewing your better financial and life decisions. I love cars. I really love my cars. It’s important to do so in a responsible way.
A few of you have repeatedly asked for more Jag content, so big thanks to all of you (especially our beloved Members) for paying attention/caring, for being here, for supporting the site and for reading this. Knowing these ~20+yr old shitbox cars that I always have a ton to fix upon, I’m sure I’ll have more Jag wrenching content very soon. Until next time, my friends.
88mph into the future.
- I Took On A Bad GM Design In A Hail-Mary Attempt To Fix My Friends Broken Suburban But It Was Too Little Too Late
- Sparking Joy And Plugs: How To Repurpose A 31-Year-Old Junk Buick
- What I Learned Restoring A $600 Dodge Ram With A Burned Up Transmission And Ruined Interior
- How I Bought A Broken Version Of My Dream Car For $300, Then Nursed It Back To Glory And Let It Free
- Proof That A $700 Car Saved From The Junkyard Can Make Someone As Happy As A New Lambo Can
- How I Saved My Buddys’ SUV After It Died At The Most Embarrassing Possible Time
- Rescuing A 75-Year-Old Car From An Older Car Enthusiast Reminded Me How Important Every Minute We Get Doing This Truly Is
- How I Rescued A Long-Neglected Citroen 2CV Covered With Bullet Holes
- Kumho Flew Me To The Mojave To See If Their New ‘R/T’ Tires Are As Good As They Claim
- How Learning Saxophone in 1990 Led Me To Rescue A Dead Xterra From A Bouncer’s Driveway
Kinda scary how much your tastes align with mine. Luckily for my checkbook, I’m busy enough keeping my family vehicles running, so no projects for me until the kids move out.
My pride and joy is my Indy Red 2005 Stratus R/T Coupe 5-speed that I bought new almost 21 years ago. 260K, original engine and trans. The AC quit a few years ago, and I have replaced the radiator, alternator, clutch, and various suspension and wear parts. It’s getting a little harder to find some parts, but if I search under Mitsubishi Eclipse or Galant sometimes I have better luck.
Excellent story as always, the comments here are a refreshing reprieve from the doom and gloom of TMD.
Is that a crew cab F-150 in your driveway? I’m glad someone bribed Matt enough to let you write a Jag article.
Do you have a lawn, can we get a lawnmower article?
Oh that’s all?
“ How Two Bolts Can Change Your Entire Weekend And Put The Rest Of Your Summer In Perspective”
I was expecting the two bolts to be at the end of a con-rod.
Those are the bolts that I find perspective changing, although at speed the ones that hold the drive shaft to the u-joint or hold the wheels on can provide material for reflection at well.
Seems to me that just getting out the nut cracker and sacrificing the nuts would be expedient, you aren’t re-using those a-arms are you?
So SWG, is the hardtop listed?
That one is not, since I was planning on some the timing chain tensioners before listing it.
The focus currently is to sell the SL500, C320 and the ’07 blue convertible XK. All (except C320) are in the above-linked Autopian Fleet Rundown piece. The C320 had its own spotlight on Only Fanbelts 2 weeks ago. Thanks!
A Trans Am, you say?
Yep! Photos and details are in the above-linked Autopian Fleet article of you want to check it out- thanks!
Came here for hot, all-electric, Bolt-on-Bolt action. Flagrant false advertising.
SWG
When I was younger I wanted to own so many things ( Cars, RV’s etc.) and now that I am older and I do now own all of these things, I’ve realized that:
You don’t own them, they own YOU!
So, I get where you’re coming from Stephen.
Good luck with thinning the Jag herd!
P.S. I am a former Jag owner, 2002 XJ8 Vanden Plas, color: Anthracite. owned it for 14 years! So I get the appeal of the cars, but it sounds like it is time to move on.
Peace out Brother! ✌️
The older that I get and the more sore my back is after a day of wrenching (slightly more-so every additional year), the more I’m slowly realizing that there’s a lot of truth in what you posted above.
Thank you for sharing the above wisdom, for reading and for being a Member, my friend. It is very, very much appreciated.
????
Did I say something wrong?
No not at all!
my reply was supposed to be a single heart emoji!
I Don’t know why it turned into question marks! 🙁
I loved your response! ❤
(lets see if the heart shows up this time)
You don’t own them, they own YOU!
True, so true!! Wisdom comes from experience…
Sometimes you just have to know when to say enough. Because it frees up space and money for new toys 🙂
The location of those bolts seems…unduly punishing. Just be glad it isn’t a rust belt car, or you could add “seized” to the “inaccessible.” Servicability should be more of a consideration across the industry, IMHO.
“Unduly punishing” is a great descriptor.
“Wait, you gotta be kidding me! I have to remove the wipers and fuse box to work on the suspension?! WHAT THE HELL, JAG?!” -me, last weekend
Thanks for reading and for the Comment, Rollin Hand!
It’s the same my Toyota.
I’m sure it was easier to put together that way. The bodywork was probably in a different building when they put the A-arms together.
Old sports cars where there is no removable crossmember and the body is bolted to a complete running chassis, then wiring gas and brake lines are connected.
Either remove the body from the frame, or disassemble the interior to work on the clutch.
At least with practice to gets faster.
“Though my mind could think, I still was a madman
I hear the voices when I’m dreaming
I can hear them say
Carry on, my wayward son
There’ll be peace when you are done”
Big respect, but man, I’d go mad with that many projects at once.
I’ve found that now that I have amassed all the odd specialized tools, I don’t want any more projects. I’ve got 20+ years on you and still do brakes and suspension and diagnostics on my one at a time car now, max ever 3 cars and 2 motorcycles
And if I claim to be a wise man, well
It surely means that I don’t know
Kansas for the win! Thanks for reading and for the kind and wise words, my man.
I’m slowly getting to the place where you are. Only 3 cars sounds like a cake-walk! I’not sure I’d know what to do with all the free time that came alongside only owning that few!
I’m glad to hear you’re reassessing your priorities. That’s a lot of cars for anyone to handle and if they’re not making you happy, or if they’re interfering with other important things, it’s time to pare them back. Even the best hobbies can turn into work if you’re not careful. I wish I had the skillls and space to take something off your hands.
Thanks for the empathetic words. Yes, I agree and think that the higher the number of cars that you own goes, there’s an inverse reaction of a reduction in contentment.
There’s just one additional thing to fix, one additional cars on the insurance policy, 5 more tires to keep inflated, another batter to keep charged, another parking space, etc.
14 car is just a bit past my maximum; about 2 too many to derive any happiness from them, since I’m constantly in “Fleet Maintenance Mode”. When you only have 2 days off all week and both are spent running to junkyards, parts stores, Harbor Freight, wrenching, swearing, bleeding, jump-starting, watching YouTube repair videos and pushing off family and friends, then you know it’s time for a reduction.
I think that if I can sell that C320 and that SL500 I’ll be in far better shape and much happier.
Thanks again for reading, for listening to my above bellyaching and for being a Member, my dude!
So many Jags! You’re turning into a crazy cat man. Thankfully, you’re still one cool cat yourself. Putting out the positive vibes into the Autopian universe.
Thanks for another great read!
They fit my personal Venn Diagram for The Evil Wrenching Lair perfectly: they’re cheap, pretty, unusual/uncommon and usually broken. It’s a hard combo to resist. Especially when you know that you can fix them on your own.
It’s all about having the time and space (and money for parts).
I dig the positive vibes and thanks (as always) for reading, Commenting and for supporting the site by being a Member, my friend.
“These cars also fit the bill as pretty Euro cars that sucker Buy-Here-Pay-Here “3rd Owner” shoppers in for a beautiful luxury ride that they can afford the monthly payment on, but not afford any unexpected repairs or costs.”
Repair costs can be a killer for any old car but especially old luxury iron – to the point where my mechanic offered me a Series 3 XJ12 for free because a client dumped it on him after a $5k+ estimate for repairs.
What’s funny is that I “settled” for my Jag (’88 XJ6 / XJ40 code) because I could afford to buy a used Bentley Turbo R (believe it or not, in 2017 you could get one out of L.A. pretty easily for $25-30k) but wisely determined I didn’t want to afford keeping it running, let alone restoration costs to get the cosmetics completely right. Meanwhile my Jag has been surprisingly affordable to run and much more mechanically reliable than I expected but maybe not so surprising as I bought a really pristine example for the princely sum of $5600. In the subsequent nine years I’ve probably spent another $5000 but $1200 of that was wheels and tires.
I’m an electrical engineer so I haven’t been afraid to dive in on some electrical and accessory problems on my own; problems that would have been super costly at the shop but doable by me for the cost of parts and some weekend wrenching days. Some examples:
1) Replaced aircon blower (required nearly complete disassembly of the passenger side dash area)
2) Replaced fuse box in passenger side footwell (not much less disassembly of passenger side dash area than the aircon blower took)
3) Replaced radio antenna motor in trunk
4) Repaired malfunctioning CFD instrument panel
5) Worked on the ever-notorious Bulb Failure Modules, but I need to take another run at that. Pretty sure it’s the rear ones, and fortunately they are super easy to work on.
My personal advice for someone who is looking to buy cheap old luxury iron: spend a few grand more and buy the absolute best example you can. However, I know that’s not the SWG philosophy and I completely appreciate that you see value where others don’t and save cars from a premature junkyard fate. That’s a noble cause. I’m really glad to see you getting some time in on your kitties and very much look forward to more Jaaaaag content!
I have an X300 XJ6 and an X306 XJR, and all they ever seem to need is coils, batteries, and temperature senders… over and over. I’ve never seen cars so sensitive to battery condition.
Same deal with my two X100s: coils all day long. It’s odd that they don’t seem to last very long on these/our cars.
Damn man, that’s a commendable list! Being an Electrical Engineer is probably the perfect background/area-of-study to have as a Jag owner.
I salute you for fighting The Good Fight to keep beautiful, interesting cars rolling, bravo, sir!
Thanks also for reading, Commenting and for being a member, my man.
Buddy of mines dad bought a similar 1989 era xj6 xj40 jag when we were in school. Guy knew he was dying of cancer and wanted to bash around in a luxury car for a couple months. He taught me how to rebuild motorcycle carbs and set points ignitions on Datsuns so I spent a couple weekends helping him diagnose a never ending list of electrical problems. Some opaque control box was a common culprit.
He got a couple good weekends of cruising in before the end. But his wife ended up donating the car to npr after he died.
Another buddy bought a 2002 ish Bentley arnage red label around 2017. I ve towed it to 4 different houses for him in the intervening 8 years. Every once and awhile he tops off the hydraulic fluid and drives it to a specialty mechanics and drops a couple grand on it. Then drives it for a weekend on the blueridge parkway. And lets it sit until the cycle repeats. Nothing quite like sitting on parchment leather seats ankle deep in that navy blue British carpet to make you contemplate drinking half a bottle of scotch.
Dear SWG, I’m going to share a secret with you about cheap broken down project cars. The first one you buy as the project. The second one you buy is for parts. That cuts down not only on parts but registration and insurance as well as saving time in the salvage yard.
As much as I am tempted to take the hardtop XK off your hands, my wrenching lair doesn’t have the space for it.
That car really is a stunner. Glad to hear that there are other lairs with turning wrenches (and some evil involved – mostly regarding/referencing rusted bolts being removed by unholy means).
Thanks for reading and for the comment!
“Space is the place!” -Spacehog
A buying Jag inevitably seems to lead to a crying Jag.
Love the SWG content as always. My car go off it’s jackstands and driven at 1am on Easter morning. It had been in the garage since October when 3rd gear in the 5spd decided to leave the chat. One used NC Miata 6spd for a nice upgrade, until I realized the driveshaft didn’t fit into the new transmission output shaft. That was more money. I deleted the turbo kit the previous owner haphazardly installed. It was crazy fast but tuned badly, and it ruined the clutch and transmission. Yes, I bought someone else’s project car they were getting rid of for “reasons”. It’s been fun and a learning experience for sure. My son got to practice his welding on the exhaust and did a great job. No leaks!
Glad to hear your car is off the jack stands, Mike! Bravo on picking up a half-baked project also – that takes balls.
Thanks for being a Member, for reading and for the above Comment, my dude!
Yaaaaaay! We FINALLY got the…
JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG
article! The start of them, anyway. It’s a miracle…Thank you SWG and The Autopian! The best site ever
Very kind words and thanks for the enthusiasm, my friend! I’m going to try and make this a much more common occurrence, with shorter pieces (2-3 pages) instead of the previous 8-10 page term papers I was writing that took forever.
Thanks for being a Member too!
I hear you. My project Seadoo has likewise taken a death grip on my wallet and free time. It, too, has many janky non-stainless bolts and half-baked fixes that need to be properly redone. Plus age/hour due maintenance.
Doesn’t stainless hardware have a greater propensity to seize when joined to a non-stainless metal? I saw that once in a wrenching video and was reminded of it by your Comment.
Thanks for reading and being here, DBC!
Dude, galvanic corrosion bothers so much that my SO, doing some woodwork, was joining two dissimilar woods and there was a very real thought starting to bubble up about “hey you can’t do that!” right up until I realized how deeply dumb that would have been to say.
Good thing I never told anyone.
Yeah, you dodged that bullet…
which probably shipped with a copper jacket against a brass case 😮
That’s hilarious! “Dissimilar woods” for the win.
Yes, it will. I’m not sure how fast. The anodes are in great shape. The other metals are either painted or anodized which helps. Grease would help too. Anything to break up direct contact. 304 or 316 stainless is less reactive, from what I’ve read. This was a freshwater machine that will only be ridden on freshwater so 304 is fine. Plus 316 is hard to find while 304 is easy to source. Saltwater would make it way worse. The zinc plated hardware someone replaced some hardware with has rusted pretty badly. I’ll take possible galvanic corrosion over definite corrosion for zinc plated stuff in regular intermittent water contact.
It is always a great day when the Evil Wrenching Lair makes a return! The passenger side lower ball joint on my Corvette had its nipple snap off, so that’s probably on its way out. Hopefully it doesn’t decide to make an exit while on the interstate…
Evil Wrenching for the win!
Hope that ball joint gets you where you need to go safely before you have the time to get to it, BCT. Thanks for reading and for the Comment, my dude.
I think fortunately the cost of gasoline will stop my roll before the ball joint will
That sounds painful.
Thankfully my nipples are still perfectly intact.
If you’re serious about the SL500 I’m interested/masochistic
Dead serious. All the hard repairs have already been done (ABC suspension). I have it $4.5K under Blue Book at the moment and all the parts to get it 100% right sitting in my garage. 67K miles!
$175K MSRP in 2026 dollars when it was new is wild.
https://www.facebook.com/share/1CBWSFU4fr/
It’s okay as long as I tell myself it’s for my daughter right? That’s a valid reason to buy a car?
Actually, you know what. I’m going to ask her what she thinks. I had pictured her more in a Mazda, but it’s hard to beat that car especially from a trusted seller.
Wry smile. A friend of a friend married a lady with expensive taste. Working at a car dealer, he snapped up a nice Jaguar cheap. Only a few months later he had some expensive suspension components go bad. Then again in less than a year.
Turns out his wife liked the noise the car made when she hit potholes—so she went out of her way to hit potholes
Posted with no commentary.
She needs a W116 Mercedes – big sidewall tires, and the front suspension is stupidly overbuilt. You can run them up and down curbs all day and they just shrug.
I thought my 123s were pretty stout, but ended up becoming fairly familiar with the procedure to replace upper ball joints.
To be fair, I had them for 2 decades, and drove them like they owed me considerable sums 😉
For his sake, I hope he had a solid pre-nup and has divorced her.
He was all about form over function, so got what he played for
Ah yes, That mythical beast 🙂
No commentary necessary. There’s not much you can add to that narrative.
It seemed very odd that 2 Chevy Bolts could change your weekend. Oh, small b bolts. Sorry! Chevy Bolt owner here.
I didn’t know XKs had front-hinged hoods. What a cool heritage touch.
But nooo – not getting rid of the Stealth?! At least not without a story for us. Didn’t you pick up an R/T this time around?
Agreed that the front-hinged hoods on both the XK8 and XK are wicked cool.
I love that Stealth, yet I’m starting to realize that 1.5yrs has passed and I barely had any time to do anything to it. It needs a fuel pump and a tank clean-out. Basically a free Saturday.
I’d let it go to someone that would appreciate it and bring it back to its past glory instead of its current fate of sitting in my driveway. If not, I’m hoping to have time for it this summer.
Thanks, as always, for reading and for joking us in the Comments, Jack!
All I ask is at least one pic of her somewhere in a future piece, even in the background, before she goes.
At this point, they’re an endangered species from another time, a time when people reguarly said “you know, I’m going to daily drive a low, wide coupe b/c it’s cool. I can probably fit what/who I need to in there most of the time…”
I need the details on that Stealth…
I’m sure I’ve told this story before, but in the early 2010s there was an X308 XJR on a Carmax lot. Went for a test drive, and of course the battery had drained itself from sitting. Salesperson pops the hood, doesn’t notice that it popped up at the windshield, and tried to “lift” the hood by pulling on the Leaper. It pops off in his hand. “We’ll fix that if you buy it”.
But of course, the battery is in the trunk.
Love the look of that hard top Jag, plus the wife and kids would prefer to drive that as opposed to my 82 RX-7. Not sure if the garage needs another spot taken up with a summer car.
I miss my ’81 RX7, what great little cars.
It really is such a achingly beautiful car.
Those upper control arms/ball joints give plenty of warning, with rattling over light bumps. The OG Lexus LS400 has a similar upper wishbone/upper ballnjoint arrangement, with similar steps to R&R. Inspect the lower ball joints while you’re in there.
My XJ project is at a standstill, as I’ve been busy and I need to find a set of calibration files for JLR’s SDD software. Maybe I’ll have it driveable again before summer?