Hi fellow Jag owners. I am considering by a second Jaguar my XJ8 to replace my aging daily car. I am looking at a 2004 petrol automatic S type. Are there any pitfulls with this model that I should be aware of?

Hi Graham,

The s type can get some rust in the sills under the plastic covers.

The two petrol engines that you will probably consider are the 2.5 litre V6 and the 3.0 litre V6.  Both are very good engines but the 2.5 litre was discontinued in 2004/5.

Good luck in your search.

Regards,

Peter.

As they approach 100k the suspension will usually need looking at, there are lots of joints and bushes to wear out. This can be very expensive if you do it the way Jaguar recommend. There are much cheaper solutions though.

A code reader which does all the cars systems is almost mandatory, cheap ones don't. An old XP laptop running SSD/IDS software and a suitable OBD cable sounds extravagant but can be done cheaply if you're careful and will work out to be very good value.

You're probably best off reading through the S-type section to get a gist of the common problems. There's lots of good info hidden away in there.