Hello All,

First I want to thank you folks for having such a great resource for us Jaguar neophytes. I have been a performance car enthusiast all my life and currently have a frame off restored 1954 MGTF that I bought back when I was in college and maintained and drove ever since (I have owned it 34 years now).



I have also had numerous Corvettes over the years, but have always lusted after a Jaguar.

Well, because of your great posts I went into the purchase process knowing exactly what I was getting into.

Yesterday I bought a 2002 XKR



It has 46000 miles on it and I got it for well bellow blue book as I negotiated the price down to cover the cam chain and tensioner, water pump, and a bit in reserve, which it comes to pass is going to go for ABS module repair as that Gremlin waited until after the test drive to raise its ugly head on the hour long drive home last night. ( It may only be a low battery issue as the previous owner has not been driving the car since he bought a new Jaguar(same color scheme) in March. I will also clean the ABS sensors early next week and see if that does not eliminate the issue for the short run.

All your posts here gave me the confidence to understand that these little issues can bee overcome and result in a very reliable sports car that should last me many years.

So I figure I will have to change out he convertible top hoses as well since there is no record of this having been done before. I have not read the how to posts for this yet but do not think it will be a challenge.

During my search I showed up at a used car dealer who had a 2000 Blue/White XKR vert for sale and they had the trim all taken down to replace the top hoses. Seems a guy who had been there just before me had run the top up and down a number of times in a row and he got the green shower. Needless to say he left without the car, and so did I after I saw its overall condition.

Anyway, just wanted to say hello and thank you all for your participation in the forum. It really gave me the education I needed to make uninformed decision, and not have a heart attack on the way home last night when I got the ABS light and TRAC unavailable as well as ASC unavailable. Instead of turning around and demanding my money back, I simply drove home knowing I could take care of this and not have to worry about it.

I live in NorCal but work in SoCal so the car will be with me during the week in the SF Valley area.

Thanks all,

JimG

 

Welcome to the forum Jim,

Great Intro.

Those TF's certainly have loyal followers. A neighbour of mine has had his for over thirty years.

You've clearly done your research before buying the XKR and will know exactly where to find further info on the forum. Hope a new battery solves the ABS issue.

Graham

 

Welcome to the forum Jim,

Good to have you with us.
It sounds like you really did the homework before buying.
I've upgraded your pics, you'll need to wait for the Admin before you get an upgrade.

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

 

Welcome from another XKR owner - like you it was mainly thanks to this forum I bought the car.
I wouldn't change the top hoses, put a pressure relief valve in and hope for the best.
It's all covered in the XK8/XKR section - best way to find the info is to use Google not the site search engine.

 

Welcome Jim! Looks like you have my car's twin sister over there!

Love the MGTF.

I look forward to seeing you in the XK8/R section.

 

Graham, Norri, Stevieinfrance, and WhiteXKR,

Thanks all for the warm welcome.

WhiteXKR indeed it looks like we have twins. I was originally looking for a blue car but the white really made an impression on me when I saw it in person the first time.

Stevieinfrance, do you think just adding the pressure regulator will be enough to mitigate the top hose issue? I am pretty sure the hoses in my car have never been changed.

I'm looking forward to being able to contribute to the forum in the future as payback for all the good information everybody has shared here.

Thanks again.

 

Jim
A lot of us have done that, there have been a few failures but it works for me (so far!!).
Changing the hoses is a big job since some twerp decided to run them as flexibles right through the car interior rather than underneath like the brake lines.
If you open the top and remove the trim panel covering the latch assembly you can see the danger area which is the crimp fittings for the hoses. If there's fraying or signs of separation there you've got a problem.
At the same time apply your favourite grease/lubricant to all the acting surfaces of the latch - my experience from playing with the regulator pressure setup is that unlatching requires the highest pressure in the cycle so anything you do to ease it is good.

 

Thanks for the info. I will inspect the hoses first.

 

The good news is that after a good battery charging the "TRAC control and ABS unavailable"messages, and the ABS light have all disappeared. Yippee. Easiest repair I have ever done. Thanks all.

 

If your battery does not maintain at least 12.3 - 12.5 volts after sitting a couple of days without running, it is best to replace it. Many systems in this car have little tolerance for a marginal battery.

 

+1 to WhiteXKR's advice.

Battery life seems to be less on low use XK8's than on daily drivers. Five years is about the limit.

You can check battery manufacture date by the code stamped on top of one of the terminals. Format is WW/YY for Week number and Year.

Graham

 

As you have already noticed this forum is an excellent resource. Good luck!

 

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

Thanks for one of the best intros I've seen in a while, loads of info about you / location and your cars and history complete with pics............nice one..


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

Jump on in and enjoy the site.................hope you enjoy your time here

 

WhiteXKR and GGG,

Thanks for the info on the battery. The previous owner had put in a new battery last March but has not run the car much. I believe it just needed a good charging to get it back to snuff.

No issues since I've been running it and keeping the charge up.

Outrider thanks for the welcome.

JimC64, thank you very much for the upgrade to full access. I am very interested in WhiteXKR's Garmin nav and video upgrade and now I can see his write up.

The more I drive this car the more I'm hooked!

Thanks guys.