How much of a project is it to inspect the tensioners in a 1999 XJ8 VP 4.0 I don't have a vehicle history and have aprox. 105,000 miles, the engine runs quiet and smooth. Is there anything to address while the engine is opened up. Just trying to figure out a budget. I'm also wanting to replace brake pads in the spring. Do I want to stay with an OE set up or does anyone recommend an upgrade, like drilled and slotted rotors, ceramic pads, calipers with more pistons? My brakes currently feel soft and have a lot of pedal travel. The braking is smooth though, but no real bite.

 

To inspect the secondary timing chain tensioners, remove the cam cover(s) and replace the gasket and spark plug boss seals. This would also be a good opportunity to replace the spark plugs since you don't have a service history. Use the 24mm bolt on the crankshaft pulley to rotate the engine in a clock direction ONLY when viewed from the front of the engine if you plan on checking the cam timing is correct.

Change the brake fluid if the pedal feels soft.

 

You can likely get a borescope in through the oil fill cap to see if you have the upgraded tensioners. If you don't have one and don't want to buy one, then pulling the passenger side (us) cam cover is the easiest way to go.

If you do elect to pull the covers and find original tensioners, I'd take a close look at the primary guides as well. Most at that mileage will be cracked slightly, if not heavily. While this doesn't seem to be an engine killer in terms of timing, it can result in pieces in the screen of the oil pick up. This is not easy to see, but with mirrors and a keen eye, you can see whats up.

Brakes. Drilled and slotted are useless for a street car. You could consider more aggressive pads such as a hawk hps or ebc yellow, but you may find some drawbacks in terms of noise and dust. Caliper upgrades will be expensive and while better, aren't going to be earth shatteringly different.

As noted by NBCAT, if you have a mushy pedal, you will want to do an extensive flush of your brake fluid with ATE 200 fluid or similar. This will give you a better pedal feel. Compared to my other sporty cars, the jag has a longer travel pedal, but once you get into them, they work pretty well.

 

What is the difference between bleeding the brake fluid and flushing it?

 

Bleeding is to remove any air trapped in the braking system. Flushing is replacing all the system fluid.

Replace the brake fluid beginning with the RH rear caliper on a LHD vehicle. Move to the LH rear, then RH front finishing with the LH front.

Replace the fluid from each caliper until the fluid coming out of each one is clean/clear. Top up the master cylinder reservoir as needed to keep air from entering the system.

 

depends from 300 to 600$ if you want original parts then there's only ford original parts there's rarely original jaguar timing parts usually it's repacked as christopher do

I bought secondary tensioner from christopher which supposed to be original Ford part but it was repackaged ebay tensioner I run ebay tensioner on my both xj8 but one of them have Ford primary tensioner

I did long search ebay tensioners run fine if you want better then Ford thunderbird/lincoln ls timing parts you will need the wide guides not the narrow one since you have old chain
do the water pump if it's old and new thermostat and front crank seal valve cover gasket both side run from fel pro get mahle new spark plugs autolite copper dirt cheap I didn't replace the timing cover gasket it was in good condition However I add permatex gasket maker
checkout ebay and rockauto and autohausaz