Someone mentioned early in this thread that one of the differences between the XJ8 and XJR is the XJR has standard rear parking sensors. Is this correct? If mine has them Im sure not aware theyre there. Ive also been meaning to ask, is there any reason an XJR would have a steering wheel and shift knob in a different color than the rest of the wood throughout the car? Mine is mostly almost black or dark olive in color, but the wheel and shift knob are a lighter brown color.

 

2001 M.Y. X308 was the last with the plastics tensioners. 2002 and on were metal. It's documented pretty well in this site. When I was buying my 2001 XJR, there was a 2002 R available but the owner was looking for $12500 partly because it didn't need the tensioners replaced. I bought my 2001 for $7250 and paid anothe $865 for tensioners/oil change.

However, car manufacturer anomalies are nothing new in this world and unless you owned the car from new or can be certain of its service history don't be surprised at anything...

 

Ross, thanks for your very informative response. I now intend to recontact the mechanics I spoke to and press them a bit. I might have phrased the question improperly (i.e. "Did the '04 year model have the metal tensioners...?") In any case, my car (sadly) must be among the 1/3 that did not get the upgraded set-up. And pardon my ignorance, but where will I find the EPC? The vehicle manufacture date in the door jam merely says, "August, 2001." Thanks again!

 

Mark:
The EPC (electronic parts catalog) is sometimes useful and downoad can be found here:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...uctions-48194/
I assume you already have the JTIS found in the stickies for this forum.
Apparently, Jaguar has had a history of using "left over parts" when changing model years, so you have to be careful of having the right engine code, which is actually a build date (also referenced in the archives).

The website I referred to was for a Jag indie in the SF area. A bloke named "John from California", who I am pretty sure never dirtied his hands on a wrench, told me that I was FOS for reporting the metal tensioners coming with my MY 02 XJ8. He quoted a website for the indie (named Carlos something) as his proof. Later he bragged that he was the author of their website. So, you see...

 

 

Beady has one for sale: spun rod bearing and sagging headliner, but repairable.

 

Extremely late to the party here but I was curious if your Jaguars had problems more frequently around 130-140K. I ask because I own/have owned 3 X308 XJ8s and 1 XJR. The first one I bought I sold recently with 135K with no major problems. I ran into some minor issues along the way but thanks to this forum and changing the fluids religiously even the original ZF 5 speed was going strong. Currently my highest mileage XJ is 148K and the other two are 92K and 68K. All have the original engine and transmission

I applied everything I learned on the first XJ to any other I purchased, upgrading tensioners, water pump and any other plastic parts with aluminum retrofits. The ABS issue is most commonly due to bad soldering in the ABS module, which can be fixed by a number of shops for $200-$300 (if you self remove/install). Restricted performance I have encountered was due to bad valve cover seals allowing oil into the spark plug wells. This would cause intermittent misfire that would fool my code reader. Other RP with no codes were the vacuum line for the cruise control (split rubber hose), brake position sensor under the dash and air leaks in either the intake, full load breather or dipstick o-ring. Never had a knock sensor fail but a mouse did chew through the wiring for one. Either way it was easy to remove and replace thanks to the tip on this forum of putting some grease in a socket to grab the nut without dropping it in the engine. I have had a replacement on there for 40K, no problems. Part was cheap too. Only once have I had an issue that made a jag undriveable. In short a .pdf copy of a Jaguar shop manual, a cheap code reader, jack stands, less than 1K in tools and of course this forum is all one needs to tackle most repair issues.

Sorry for the long winded explanation. I just really believe the X308s were seriously underrated mainly because of timing chain and nikasil issues (not an issue anymore since sulfur rich gas was phased out over a decade ago). I do work on all my cars myself, deferring to shops rarely when a lift or very specialized equipment is required. As a result I sunk about 1K upfront in every Jag I have bought for repairs/preventive upgrades and all have been very reliable for 20 year old cars. I would stack them against any car outside of a Honda or Toyota from the same era for dependability. Admittedly if you don't have the time or inclination to do your own repairs an average shop or dealership will charge you thousands for the timing chain replacement alone, as you likely are aware.

 

Way late here but the solution I went with was to remove the factory head unit, speakers and amp, especially if you have the harmon/kardon or alpine setup where the speaker wires are already running into the trunk amplifier. Audio components have advanced rapidly and trying to mate existing components into a modern Pioneer or Kenwood head unit is analogous to trying to play a PS4 game on an NES. Even if you get it to work the quality will be diminished, most notably the stock paper speakers stink.

I got a single din dash kit that looks almost factory and ran a Pioneer DPH-80 head unit to a 5 channel 1000W amp that fit neatly on the original amp tray in the trunk. I ran RCA cables to the trunk and was able to connect the speaker wires in the trunk directly to the new amp. I have a single 10in Sub in a box in the trunk and replaced all the speakers with Focals. All this can be self installed for less than 1K or closer to $400-$500 if you go with cheaper but still vastly superior to stock components. I could have installed a separate amp for the sub but I mainly wanted crisp sound with ample but not loud bass and USB/Bluetooth connectivity. Best part, the dash kit came with a wiring diagram and wire color decoder for easy splicing.