Hey guys, it's nice to meet you all, I am thinking of selling my 147 GTA as it's a 140 mile round trip to get the timing belt sorted and with my Dad now 70 years old, I dont want him having to follow me all that distance for something like that.

With this in consideration Im looking at a replacement, and that engine is just so sweet It would need to be a big supercharged V8 with lots of power to convince me to swap.
​​​​​​this has led me to the lovely XF, I would love an XFR but I hear the 5.0 motor has some issues with the timing chain tensioners. I really don't fancy having that risk, I'm sure it's maybe 1 in 10 or something but I would hate the thought of that looming over my head.

​​​​​​Because of this Im favouring the SV8, I hear the 4.2 sounds better and is also a bit more bombproof in comparison, 410 bhp or a bit more with a new supercharger pulley is more than enough for me anyway.

My only real concern, apart from missing the R body kit would be the seats, especially coming out of a hyper hatch, they just don't look like they will hold me in, which is kind of a must with all those horses, even if you aren't going to throw it round the bends like you know what!

Can the XFR seats be swapped into the earlier SV8 without aggro? I have done a seat swap and minor rewire on my Alfa 164 before, but the electric seats on that are no where near as advanced and I don't know if all the diagrams and instructions are as readily available for a modern car like this.

Please could you tell me if it's acheivable or if the XF SV8 seats are deceptively comfortable and supportive in comparison to their rather flat, plain look.

Thanks very much in advance for any help guys ☺️

 

Not just the look but the early seats are also shockingly uncomfortable.

The short answer to the seat swap is probably**. Take a look through this thread for reference on wiring and issues people run into, but it looks doable if you are determined enough.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...advice-181493/

 

Make sure you get as much of the original seat wiring & modules as possible, you often get people on the forums chasing the plugs/wiring that connect to the seat multiplugs!

 

The electrical reconfiguration to swap these seats looks like an absolute nightmare; I wonder if anyone has explored the possibility of instead swapping the XFR upholstery and cushion elements onto the XF seat frames, leaving all the XF electricals in place?
I find the XF seats very comfortable but they do lack lateral support.

 

I have the 2010 V8 SC (not XFR) and find the seats v comfortable. I drove it 6 hours on Saturday and no issues at all.

Not sure what your budget is like. They sorted the timing chains around 2013 so you could do more recent (but more expensive). Also note that a 2009 is getting on in age so hopefully you can do diy yourself or have a good Indy who knows jags that you trust.