I am thinking about getting a 2010 XF and I would like to know what I should look out for.

 

Make sure the water pump has been changed recently along with the rear plastic crossover pipes. Check for any signs of coolant leaks and listen for timing chain noise.

 

Gary pretty much nailed it. 2010 means you get the 5.0 so no leaky diff but there are known water pump issues with that engine, so check if it's been replaced. While the rear plastic crossover pipe is a known failure item and over time would benefit from replacement, it's very unlikely that anyone has proactively done this, especially one that's been serviced at a dealer ("if it ain't broke don't fix it"), so don't be too put off if this hasn't been done. It's importance has been a little over-egged on this forum recently - all the plastic pipes on this engine are prone to failure, and that one is just particularly hard to get at or inspect. There's plenty of XFs of similar age running around quite happily that have never had the pipe replaced.

Timing chain noise is the other one but it's a hard one to diagnose as often the sound can be masked by/mistaken for direct injection noise. It's caused by the timing chain guides of earlier engines having a softer metal backing than the pin of the tensioner behind it, which caused the pin to wear a hole in the back of the guide over time, resulting in the tension being reduced in the primary chains. See if there's any timing chain noise at the front of the engine, or even check the history to see if they've been replaced - which would be good, as the redesigned timing guides have a disc over hardened metal on the back to combat the issue.

 

As Gary mentioned and Dave elaborated on, plastic wears in time and so do the timing chain guides.

I have been lucky as my 2010 has just over 200k kms on it and no major issues to date. I have the 5.0l NA Portfolio. I have changed out some of the console cosmetics and swapped the front cup holder for the cigar version so I can have another charging station to plug into as well as adding bluetooth audio for the long drives while keeping it looking OEM, the driver door locking mechanism needed replacing, parking sensors, upgrading the block heater (Our cold winters) and a failed passenger headlight.

I acquired the car with just over 121k kms on it, the water pump and plastic cooling assembly was already replaced along with injectors and spark plugs. I do have the pulling dash which I'll be removing to have it re-surfaced by an upholstery shop (Something I worked out with my local dealer when it is being serviced for the recall on the air bag, they told me they do not have to remove the dash but after discussions we worked out an arrangement. (Funny as this looks like the same recall I received for my Ford Fusion). I'm not sure if anyone else experienced this but I do have an issue with the clear coat flaking on the from bumper corners which will also be corrected once I pull the front end off to service the engine. (Still contemplating if I will try to perform an in-chassis or pull the engine like Dave did. .... really miss my shop now...) When I purchased the vehicle, the Sirius system was not used so the display did not show the ID number and I had to pull the driver seat out the recover this information.

Once I get more ambitious, I will post some of the work I did that I was able to record. Look at Dave's posts as they are extremely well done and informative.

Kevin