Your Jaguar is well known for it's robust construction and long life. However, proper care and feeding is a must and guesswork regarding it's many unique features really can't be recommended. Anyone contemplating performing their own repairs and routine servicing must invest in the appropriate technical literature.

If your Jag still has the original owner's handbook then you've got a great technical resource sitting right there in your glovebox ! These handbooks provide a surprising amount of technical and service information, almost like a condensed shop manual. If you have it, read it ! If you don't, get one !

Readily available and quite inexpensive is the "Haynes" repair manual. These manuals are written with the novice in mind and cover most of the basics fairly well. The problem is that coverage for too many models is condensed and generalized into one volume, the generic results leaving many questions unanswered and many stones unturned.

Your best bet is to purchase the genuine Jaguar shop manual, known as the "ROM" (Repair Operations Manual). It is the most complete source of technical information you'll find. Don't hesistate, don't try to convince yourself you don't need it. Just buy one ! You'll be glad you did. For the SeriesIII cars the ROM is part number AKM 9006. Several editions were released and the most readily available these days seem to be Edition 2 and Edition 5. Either one will do the job but I strongly urge you to seek out and purchse the Edition 5. It's revisions make it more useful than the earlier release. I might add that the ROM covers both 6 and 12 cylinder models.

As good as it is the ROM can be nicely supplemented by the Jaguar Parts Catalog. For 6 cylinder cars this is part number RTC9885xx, where the "xx" indicates the edition. I own and constantly refer to RTC9885CF which covers models made through August 1985. It is my understanding that later releases are out of print. The beauty of the Parts Catalog is it's superb illustrations. These illustrations are very useful when you are trying to understand exactly how things are assembled. It is a very useful reference and you'll learn a great deal about your Jag by perusing it's pages.

One shortcoming of the ROM is the wiring schematics. They are too small and difficult to read. Jaguar addressed complaints (generated by American technicians, as legend goes) by releasing the "S" series electrical guidebooks. A different guidebook was released for each model and for the Series III XJ6 you'll need "S57". In this guidebook circuits are individually illustrated on separate, full sized pages, a huge improvement over single, fold-out schematic in the ROM which requires that you ferret out the circuit in question from the entire car illustration (note: the edition 5 ROM is much improved in this regard). Also shown in the S57 are all the ground points, connector locations, and component locations. I cannot possibly overstate the usefulness of this book. Be advised, though, that the "S" books, to the best of my knowledge, cover only the North American models and won't take into account changes for other markets. The S57 covers the 6 cylinder models. I'm not sure if a 12 cylinder edition is available.

All of these books except the S57 seem to be available from many Jaguar vendors as well as Amazon.com, E-bay, etc. I suggest checking out the "Vendors" listings under the J-L Homepage or visiting the various mailing lists, as the subject of "Where do I buy a ROM?" comes up often.

The following magazines & periodicals are available in various countries around the globe;

Classic Jaguar World,

Jaguar Enthusiast.

The Jaguar magazine
Jaguar Driver magazine
Unique Cars
Australian Classic Car magazine

Hemmings, Jaguar World, Jaguar Driver

Thoroughbred & Classic Cars,
Jaguar Enthustiasts magazine
Occasionally Practical Classics

I could well be wrong but as far as I know only one vendor is presently offering the S57 books. Call Jaguar Services (located in Illinois, USA) at 800-842-0912 or 708-331-9151. You may want to check with the XJ list on this as there is one vendor in the UK that stocks the S57 from time to time.

I might add that a great number of postings to the J-L mailing lists are questions which can be readily answered by reading the correct books and manuals. Remember this: you can actually carry the books and manuals with you on a road trip ! E-mail may not be an alternative when you're broken down in the boondocks !

BACK