122k - rod knock but still drives, VG body

ENGINE HAS A ROD KNOCK, but still drives.
Wanted to put that out there first so no one could claim they missed it.
I love this car. Bought in March of 2013 with 90,0xx miles for the princely sum of $6,009, here on eBay. The MSRP on the XJRs was $68,000 in 2000; the equivalent of about $95,000 today factoring in inflation (saving.org/inflation). So I was driving a $90,000 car for 6k. And not just ANY car, but a Jaguar. And not just ANY Jaguar, but an XJ8 saloon. And not just ANY XJ8, but the mighty, supercharged, 370HP, torque-curve-as-flat-as-a-table XJR. And the 5-speed Mercedes Benz transmission in these is as sweet as anything I've ever driven; you almost literally can't feel it shift in normal driving, and yet it's always in the right gear (at least when in Sport mode). And with all the torque of the supercharged engine it doesn't need to shift much. In this car you just *think* about passing someone and it's done. In my wife's Volvo XC90 you have to plan those maneuvers carefully. This beast does zero to sixty in 5.3 seconds, and the quarter-mile in the high 13's, all while packing a solid 4,000 pounds of rich leather and burl walnut. And cruising at 70 you hardly hear a whisper of wind or road noise. Want to lean your head back but the headrest is too low? Just push the button to electrically raise it. How cool is that?! Man I miss this car, but I'll be getting a newer one soon.
So last September-ish my baby developed a slight knocking sound. I thought maybe low on oil, but that wasn't it. An oil change and filter quieted it down some, but it was still there. And it's steadily gotten worse. Bad enough that in March I bought I an '05 X-type as my daily driver, fearing that this one might go at any time and leave me without a car. But I still drive it around Atlanta once in a while when necessary (like when the X-Type was in the shop for AC work recently), and it does alright. I try to not go above 2000 RPM and it doesn't sound too awful bad. But I've been around cars and rebuilt two engines myself and I definitely think it's a rod knocking where the connecting rod connects to the crankshaft journal, the bearing is probably wiped. I looked into buying a rebuild kit and doing it myself, but they're right expensive, and I didn't even want to think about machine work for a Jaguar engine. A junkyard engine was my next thought, but they're proud of those too, and in the end I just didn't want to mess with it. On a whim I emailed an Atlanta-area Jaguar specialist and was given a quote of "five to six thousand dollars" for a junkyard motor, and the car isn't even worth that anymore. So on the auction block she goes.
I'm starting the bidding at $1200 and won't entertain lowball offers (so don't bother), and here's why: the 5 XJR wheels (full-size spare in the trunk) ought to be worth 750, and the tires aren't great, but say another 100 total. The 6-disc CD changers are going for 100+ on eBay, with the magazines 20-30 more, and I have two. When I got the car the door speakers (Alpine) were all blown, so I put new Infinity's in all four, that was $180 worth of speakers. If you need pieces from the car all the trim is in good shape, the window glass (windshield is cracked though), headlights and marker lights, tail lights, etc are all good. The interior trim is pretty good, but some of the wood panels have cracks, and the shifter knob is cracked on the inside but you can't feel it. The driver's seat is rough, as is the center console, but both power front seats work well still, and the rear seat is in good condition. Some of the plastic damnits for the back seatbelts and car seat anchor points are gone/broken because my youngest daughter couldn't leave them alone. That daughter also broke the glovebox door handle off, so I haven't been in there in over a year, no telling what's in there. The auto-dimming rearview mirror had that broken/wavy LCD look when I got the car, so I sent the mirror off to be repaired, which was $97, but I don't think the auto-dimming ever worked. However the glass is good and you can see out of it clearly. While in there I fixed the rain sensor so the auto wipers work now. The A/C works, and the heat of course. I think I put a can of Freon in it once. The rear defroster works, and there's a newish retractable antenna. The radio works on FM, AM, and CD, and sounds really good. The power tilt & telescoping steering wheel (which I LOVE, btw) works, with no clicking or anything like some. I don't know if it burns oil, there's certainly no smoke from the exhaust, but it does leak from somewhere, as my driveway can attest to. The wiper works (there's only the one, pretty cool), the headlights work on both high and low beams, turn signals work, cruise control works, moonroof works and doesn't leak. In short, everything works that should, just the engine knock. Come to think of it, the cigarette lighter/aux outlet doesn't work; it used to work, so one of my kids may've plugged something in and blown the fuse, which I haven't checked for. And the trunk doesn't latch: you can push it down or slam it, lock the car or not, and still lift the lid without using the pushbutton. Never got around to troubleshooting that. The differential went out 3 months after I got the car, so I replaced that with a salvage yard one supposedly from a 2002 XJ8 with 43,000 miles. It's been doing fine since.Oh, the spare tire is burst, no good. The car passed the Atlanta emissions test last July, but needed a new oxygen sensor which I put in. And I replaced one on the other side the previous year. I did the front brakes in 2014, new cross-drilled and slotted rotors with Akebono pads. I didn't get to the rears before the knock started, but those rotors and pads will go with the car. And it comes with a car cover from Empire Covers, which cost $149 and wasn't used much, maybe 20 days total. From the pictures: the front bumper cover has come loose near the passenger-side front wheel, notice the gap there; I just never got under there to put a new bolt in. The front license plate holder, what you're seeing is double-sided tape. There was a chrome Jaguar plate there but it came off at some point. I took the frame off, but behind it are four holes in thefascia, so it looked better to me on than off. Note that the passenger-side exhaust tip is missing, don't know when/how that happened. The cupholder doesn't stay down; hit a bump and it pops up, scaring the bejeezus out of you, but they all do that. Under the full-size spare is the factory jack, lug wrench, and folding wheel chock. (Leave it to Jaguar to include a wheel chock, I've never seen that before.) CD player works great, only skips once in a great while over terrible bumps. The two cartridges/magazines go with it of course.
I live outside the Atlanta perimeter (I-285) on the southwest side, and if you want to come look at and drive the car you're more than welcome to. It still has a valid license plate until the end of the month (which is what's prompting me to finally sell it). Post a question or Contact Seller and I'll give you my contact information. If someone local were to buy it I wouldn't have any qualms about driving it 30 or 40 miles, and I'd even follow you or come get you if it breaks down. If you want to ship it I'll help with the logistics of that. You'd pay for it of course, but I'd take it somewhere or meet the driver at my home. I had a picture of the moonroof closed but it was real fuzzy so I'll have to add one for that. Almost forgot, the headliner is "loose" in places. Not laying-on-your-head loose, but it does droop down in spots.
Please ask any questions you have. The auction will run for 10 days, no reserve, and no, I won't end it early so please don't ask.Thanks for looking,Mike