New XJ owner with some questions

Picked up a '00 Sport yesterday and drove it back from PA to NY, about 120 miles. I knew it had some oil leaks but on the way home it started giving a nice smoke screen while cutting through midtown Manhattan to get back on Long Island. Pulled it over and saw oil dripping onto the exhaust crossover.

I took a peak under when i got home but could not identify where it was coming for sure. I cleaned up the grime that has collected over the years and will check again tomorrow. I did feel behind the valve cover and it was wet with oil..though im not sure if that was leaking enough to drip oil on the exhaust. Probably will replace the oil filter housing o-rings for good measure when i do the valve cover tomorrow or tuesday..and if it still leaks do the rear main aswell.

Another possibility was the transmission overflow. The ATF was overfilled by the PO and could have caused the dumping on the exhaust. With the car cold, the ATF is a little above the full mark on the dip stick and lord knows how much it expands when hot.

Also wondering about the keys, i understand the difference between the black and grey keys. I only got one key and remote...and honestly the key is a sort of a light brown / tan which i suppose could be a well worn grey key. Its a '00 and does have the immobilizer light on the gauge cluster that shuts off a few seconds after i start the car... i thought that was only offered on the '01, or was it an option on the '00 also? I got the long 3 button Jeep remote also (lock, unlock, panic).

Anyhow its an '00 Sport with just under 99k miles. Well maintained. Will be driving it down to Houston on wednesday.. 1700 miles. Just need to recharge the a/c and figure out what the oil leak is from. I also need to replace the oil pressure sender.. the gauge is pegged all the time.



Always wanted a XJ when i was a kid, my uncle had a pretty cool early body style one. My sister had a '00 Sport also but sold it about 4 years ago when she moved into Manhattan. Cant wait to bring it back up for some NY winters.. .

I hope you can get this straightened out before you have to drive it that far. Breakdowns on the road can get VERY expensive, like highway robbery. Pull out all of the spark plugs and make sure that they are not dark and oily looking. If you are burning oil like that (hopefully not), you may need extra plugs and some spray start to clean oil off of the plugs in route. Clearly, you also need to determine if you have oil pressure or not. You do not know this at all now. It could be the sender, but there are other possibilities too. It may have a sender in it now for a light, not a gage. The most direct fix is a mechanical gage. Good luck with your purchase. Buying a vehicle without knowing the oil pressure situation is risky in the least. There are many ways to cover this up. You don't want to blow the motor halfway home.

By the way, no "well maintained" '00 with 99k miles would be in the condition you described. My '00 with 120k miles has NO oil leaks and is dry underneath. I don't even think it was well maintained. Get the oil pressure question resolved first and take a look at the spark plugs.

If the tranny fluid is above FULL at cold you have way too much fluid. It will come out the dipstick. That would explain the smoke as well as the dampness behind the valve cover.

I'd dump the fluid and refill with the proper amount. If the PO overfilled then they might have put in the wrong fluid too. The correct way to check is to drive it for 15 miles and then check with the tranny in park with the engine still running

if its the tranny, it'll be red fluid... DUH!

welcome to the site. sounds like youve got this covered, just gotta check things off your list one at a time.

i prefer the rubber felpro valve cover gaskets.
stay the hell away from ATF4!!!

I would not be surprised if the oil was overfilled with the wrong weight too, resulting in the max pressure.