I have a line on one of these Ford kitties for a G. 125k on the clock, photographs very well in & out, parked in the fall & won't crank.
Am I an idiot to think I can drop a new battery under the bonnet or boot & have a reliable dd?
I know Dean loved his, anyone have any horror/love stories or "be sure to check the..." advice?
What year? Awd?
Need more info on what you are looking at but in general yes put gas in it add a battery and go. I am on my tablet so typing is slow. I can add a lot more info about these cars. I did a bunch of reasurch on them while I had mine and learned alot. There is a lot of myths but there are a coupple things that need special care and feeding.
Awd '02.
Going for a look see tomorrow.
It's the 6-speed & awd that compels me...that and the fact that I have a soft spot in my head for British cars.
dean1484 wrote: What year? Awd?
All X-types are AWD because Jaguar had a corporate policy (unspoken or not) that all Jaguars must power the rear wheels.
They're neat cars but I wouldn't own one unless I was paying someone else to work on it and didn't care that I was putting their kids through college. They are all of the maintenance nightmares of V6 Contours (which they are, chassis-wise) with the added complication of having had AWD bits crammed in.
The very first thing you need to do is see if the transfer case is leaking at the rear seal. If so get that fixed asap. An 02 will have the viscous transfer case. While some people say they like the feel of these better they are much more prone to failure. In on they changed to a standard geared transfer case that is more reliable. Again these can be killed as well. The biggest problem is a rear seal of the transfer case leaking. Since there is only about 3/4 of a quarter of gear oil in them they go dry fast and eat them selfs. So look for a sign of leaking there.
The transmission has a reputation for being weak. This is because it is advertised as a lifetime fill. HOWEVER I have the shop manual and it states that for normal use the trades never needs service then the next paragraph said that heavy duty or severe use conditions that the fluid should be changed every 40k miles. Reading on you will realize that anything other than idling in the driveway is considered severe use.
What I recomendation is servicing the transmission the transfer case and the different asap. After alot of reasurch on Trans fluid I would recommend Amesoil products for all of them. The jag fluid for the transmission was something like like 25 a quart and you need a case. I also found that Amesoil was the only manufacturer that specific lyrics said that there product was ok. All others either flat out said no or ducked and weaved around my questions about using there products in the trans.
Inner and outer tie rod ends are a typical ford ware item. Ball joints are as well but get the bolt in replacements from the uk for something like 60 a set instead of purchasing the a arms as assembled units at 150 each.
Another issue is the transmission will go in to save mode randomly. This problem is offensive diagnosed by professionals as transmission failure. The real cause I figured out is that the gas peddle fails. The computer sees this and puts the car in safe mode. Easy fix but many a x type end up getting scrapped due to this miss diagnosis. I actually first figured this out on another car not mine when a customer came to my friends shop and I was called in to see if I could sort it due to the dealer wanting something like 10k to change the transmission as that was there diagnosis. I actually had my friend ride with me with him data logring the car on his super duper diagnostic computer. And that is how we were able to see what was actually causing the car to go to safe mode. Then about a month later my car started to do the same thing and again we found it was the accelerator peddle. These are fly by wire units.
Alignments are absolutely critical in these cars.
The bushings in the upper arms in the rear suspension go bad and cause excessive camber in the rear. Easy fix. There is an issue with rear camber getting out of spec and there is no adjustments other than moving the rear sub frame around. The fix for this is get some Volvo s50 arms as they are adjustable and alow for fixing the issue and make future Alignments simple.
100 k sevice on these means taking the upper intake off to get at the rear plugs. Easy job in reality just not something most jag owners will diy. So use this as leveraged when purchasing one of these if the car in near 100k and it has not been done.
The adjusters for the headlights are plastic and are more than likely broken. There is an aftermarket fix but I found that bailing wiring them in place and leaving the back cover off worked just fine. I was going to up grade to the HEI ones so I did not care.
Dean - thanks for the info. You are talking about the auto trans though, right? This is a three pedal car. Neat to know about the little volvo wagon suspension arms fitting the rear.
FWIW, I have done not one but two engines in X-types. Both had slipped the timing sprockets on the camshafts. Make of that what you will.
Jag Duratecs had different heads than Ford models.
I just traded in my '04 three-pedal car with 90K miles. I had it for eight years and it never left me stranded but had a lot of little things that needed fixing when I dumped it on the dealer. I have a feeling all of them will need these items, most of which dean1484 mentioned. Mine had the bad bushings causing the excessive rear camber, meaning it also needed tires. It also leaked oil pretty bad. I think much of it was coming from the oil pan gasket, but I also think the transfer case was leaking. I think the transfer case was on the way out because it was starting to make a lot of noise when cold. I don't know how common it is, but mine also had the plastic thermostat housing fail and start leaking coolant. that was not a super hard fix, but the part was surprisingly expensive for what it is. It appeared to only be sold as a unit (thermostat, housing, and a few feet of attached plastic pipe and hose).
Plus some of the interior bits seem to not hold up... the headliner on the A and C pillars comes unglued. I reglued mine once and it was still not great. The defroster vents in the dash come out and break, etc.
I called the car my tank though. It felt very solid on the road and was a beast in the snow. I think familiarity breeds contempt because I thought the car was junk and destined for immediate auction, but the dealer detailed it and it has already showed up in their inventory advertised for quite a lot more than I thought it was worth. It looks pretty nice on their website! 
Forgot that this car is derived from the "C" word (C**tour).
Had one. Decent car but I bought it to flip, 2.5 Red sport package with chrome factory 17s and a MT.
Slow, brittle coolant overflow tank broke, transfer case that isn't easily serviceable made me nervous. (Former longterm Mitsubishi owner)
I wouldn't mind one with a blower and a 3.0 but that's only in my head. I wouldn't want to live with it long term.
crankwalk wrote: Had one. Decent car but I bought it to flip, 2.5 Red sport package with chrome factory 17s and a MT. Slow, brittle coolant overflow tank broke, transfer case that isn't easily serviceable made me nervous. (Former longterm Mitsubishi owner) I wouldn't mind one with a blower and a 3.0 but that's only in my head. I wouldn't want to live with it long term.
Did you make money on the flip?
Hmmmm....a car with the reliability of a contour, european car parts prices, that makes Mistabushing owner nervously hear the "footsteps"......why isn't the alarm in my head going off yet????
That is really really nice ford taurus you're looking at.
JtspellS wrote: That is really really nice ford taurus you're looking at.
It is more a Contour/Mondeo as previously mentioned.
I did make money on mine and drove it reliably for 3 mos in the meantime but i wouldnt live with one longterm.
I remember the rear brakes that I did had a weird reverse thread screw piston for them. That was kind of a pain.
Decent looking cars though. Here was mine. I really like them with the sport package body color trim instead of chrome.
I wouldn't doubt it if it shares most/all of its components with the AWD Mondeo that we didn't get here.
If you make the fix I noted using Amesoil in the transfer case they are virtually bullet proof.
These are getting cheek enough to get in to kids hands and if you start doing trans drops and hammering on the driveline they will hammer your wallet. Squeezing off the power and driving with a bit of finesses and an x type will be plenty fast enough and will be a very reliable car.
I was always careful not to shock load the drive line. There I no need for it. I saw many posts from younger kids saying I put it I sport mode to race a civic to the next light and it I now broken. This I code for I hammered the crap out of my car.
I forgot the motor. I really liked the 3.0 my car had. Really good power and toque. Probably one of the top three or four motors I have had. I just liked it. I was at one point considering buying my jag back from the insurance co and seeing about taking the motor out and putting it in my 924s. It would have worked very well in that car. And they are very compact units. Still might mess with one of those some time. Like sticking one in a escort or somthing would be fun. 
etifosi wrote: Forgot that this car is derived from the "C" word (C**tour).
It's a Mondeo, not a Contour. By the time this car was made, the gap between the two cars widened a lot- and were not the same.
The engine is about the only thing that came from the same base design, but that was a really good engine. It was in production for almost 20 years.
My bride bought one with 100k on the clock and it has a quarter million on it now. Yes, we did have to spend close to 3k on a centerdiff but that's been it for big stuff. Coils, a leaky valve cover gasket, and some annoying bits of loose interior gubbins has been about the rest of the story. For whjat it is, it handles amazingly well. I think for a grand you could do a whole lot worse.
I did the transfer case change on my car (purchased it that way). I got a low millage one with a 2 year 30K millage warranty for $1000.
It was a full two day job and I had access to a lift. Lots of stuff has to come out but not really all that hard. Most of the time was spent figuring out what I had to take apart and in what order. The reassembly only took a couple hours. . .. 3-4 tops if I remember. I bet I could do one now in a day now that I have done it. I did find one shortcut and that is to notch and snapping off the large triangular bracket that supports the transfer case on the passenger side as it was much easier to do that and then weld it back together once the new unit was back in place. The upper bolts on the bracket are dam near impossible to get to with the motor/trans in the car.
I was all set to get another one but then I discovered the S-Type and then I test drive a S-type R (STR) It would probably suck in snow but so much fun!! I still may get another X type it was a great every day driver.
I'm going to check this out while on the way to the hillclimb on Sunday. It's really hard to find sub-$1k cars around here that aren't rusty shells held together by the paint. I appreciate cars that are fully depreciated. Usually I drive cars that are almost beaten to death, I fix only what I need to keep them running and (maybe) safe and drive them into the ground. It's the only thing keeping my sense of adventure alive.
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