Greetings all! After a 5 year hiatus from my '97 XK8 that my wife insisted got more attention than the children, I have offered them all my wordly advice and will be turning back to the love/worry relationship with XK's. I picked up an 01 in MD with 34K on it (slate with light colored interior and black top). It was babied and the maintenance print out showed the hydraulic lines have alrady been replaced and a preventative water pump, thermostat, and metal thermostat housing were done a year ago. I dropped it off out there to get the secondary tensioners replaced. When they took the valve covers off the engine was unbelievably clean with no varnish or even dirty oil present. The tensioners were in like new condition but I still feel better with the metal bodied ones.

I found out the transport is not like the old days when you hung a cardboard sign "License applied for". The DMV wont issue a temp tag on a private owner sale (racket for the dealers!) and when I called the State Police they said I will get pulled over, and even with notarized title in hand, I will pay a ticket and get car impounded (and pay for that) until it has plates. So it was back to the Chicago area for plates and another plane ticket. I will drive the car home Wed.

I look forward to helping where I can. I figured some things out out on that '97 but I see that ground is well-covered here already.

 

Welcome to this friendly Forum and back to Jaguar ownership.
You probably know your car's section
XK8 / XKR - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum
-it sounds as if you've covered all the usual problems already.

 

Welcome (back?) to the forum Jacsun,

Sounds like you know your way around here and what to look for on the XK8. Also seems you're winning the battle with the bureaucrats to get it back to Chicago.

You could be living in the garage after this latest adventure with Jaguar ownership!

Enjoy the forum.

Graham

 

Welcome to back the forum Jacsun,

Good to have you with us.

Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.

 

Welcome back.

Best of luck with the trip.

Good to see you.

 

Graham,

I apprecaite your sense of humor regarding the garage...but just in case I spent this week-end giving it a thorough re-organization and cleaning!

 

Good to hear the humour traveled. Sometime what is funny on one side of the Atlantic can be offensive on the other and vice versa.

Have a safe journey on Wednesday.

Graham

 

Hi Jacsun & welcome aboard, good to have you here with us

Any useful information you may need such as how to post pictures, edit signatures, add videos, use the search facility etc, can be found here
Helpful_information

Why not drop in and visit the regional section for your area?
There are lots of members local to you with the same interests.
Regional - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

There's a really great mix of information, camraderrie and fun here....
I've manually upgraded you to full forum access so you can better view the whole site and all its features

Please Jump on in and enjoy the site.................

 

JimC,

Thank you for the status. I just latched onto that piece of information! Jac

 

Did you drive the car home yesterday as planned?

Graham

 

What a day yesterday. 5am ride to airport. Land in Baltimore at 10am (eastern). Meet owner, put new plates on car, and off I go. Thrilling anxiety is how I would describe the first hour. " I smell oil burning: wait thats the asphalt from the construction. I hear something: wait that's the car next to me"! That gave way to just thrilling. The weather was perfect the whole way and so was the Jag's performance: Thank you Lord!!

There was a bit of a wheel shake/vibration (will check for alignment, bushings this W/E) but the car ran perfectly and other than 3, 10 minute breaks it was straight through to Chicago area and home by 9pm (central). AC, CD's, windows, top, various odometer settings and everything else I could try worked perfectly. Averaged 26.1mpg on the computer and 25.6 pump divided by mileage. That's awesome for this type of performance. (Bear in mind this is nearly 100% highway for 11+ hours). I never enjoyed that much time in a car...in fact I never drove that long "straight-through" before. But why would I stop!!? This morning I checked the coolant and oil levels. Right to the top. Life is good: so glad to be back...with no tensioner worries.