I am getting ready to buy an '07 with low mileage. Are there any known issues I should be on the lookout for or budget to deal with? On my '99 I had to replace the transmission due to the known failure. Thanks!

 

Welcome!
The one big one is a factory flaw in the AC drained pipe. It plugs and fills the passenger footwell with water. Jaguar has released a TSB for the fix which requires removal of the dash board (kA-Ching). Check the service records to see if this repair has already been done..


BOL
Vince

 

Around $1000 to fix and most likely will need to be fixed.

 

-Make sure the leather dashboard fabric is not lifting up near the windshield.

-Plan on a new battery; and a battery maintainer and/or AGM battery unless it is a daily driver.

-On convertibles make sure the rear glass is not detaching from the soft top.

-Plan on repacing the plastic thermostat housing preventatively within a year or two.

All in all though, a well engineered, reliable vehicle.

 

I bought by 07 coupe with about 5600 miles and sold it with 58K. During the ownership, I went through three batteries, three sets of tires and one coil pack. The car was bullet proof from a service standpoint! I had an extended service contract that I never needed.

 

Whitexkr,
Haven't heard of any problems with XK thermo housing (certainly have for XK8's), although my wife's 2001 XK8 has plastic housing & still going strong at 65K (maybe it's because I have a spare Al. one waiting for it!).
In fact I've never seen a source for XK Al. ones: is there such a thing?

Did have the clock spring in the steering hub fail at 31K, and added new batt. w/charger...

Curious, Adrian

 

On the suspension, the Lower Rear Wishbone bushes are beginning to show excessive wear at annual inspection (MoT) with early XK's in the UK.

Bushes aren't available separately from Jaguar but aftermarket ones can be found.

You'll probably be familiar with the regular Front Upper Wishbone bush wear issue on the your current XK8. The rear on the XK is a considerably more expensive repair.

Graham

 

Many of he plastic thermostat housings used on the normally aspirated 4.2 engines tend to fail around the 8-10 year age marker. The 4.2 XK uses the same housing as the 4.2 X350 XJ, which has been around since 2004. There have definitely been quite a few failure reports on these, so I assume it is just a bit early on the 2007 XKs, but we will soon be seeing more fail.

I think it is good practice to flush the coolant, and replace the thermostat every 5 years or so, especially since overheating can do a lot of damage to these cars. IMO, get the whole plastic housing and thermostat assembly which is about $115 at JPAM parts rather than just the thermostat alone.

 

You'll love the 2007. As others mentioned - service history is important. These cars are made extremely well and will last as long as they are loved.

 

Just to clarify for others, this only applies to XKs. XKRs have aluminum thermostat housings that do not fail.

 

I feel like a common problem that is underreported is occasionally screwy function of the throttle blipping function of the transmission in manual mode. Seems like many people never use the paddle shifters so they don't notice, but sometimes downshifting with the paddle shifter won't blip the throttle. Only restarting the car will solve this.

Also, other electrical gremlins like the car not starting the first couple of cranks (said to be because of the brake pedal starter interlock switch, but I doubt this).

Thermostats tend to go bad prematurely. Both 4.2L Jaguars I've had had bad thermostats under 60k miles.

 

Yup- Had mine go only a few months back.... Approx 60k miles on my 07.
Like Britannia, my clock spring also went around the 40k marker.

 

The replacement housings are still plastic? right.............

Adrian

 

I'd also look at the tread depth from only the center of the tire. Center wears out quicker than sides. Just looking at the tire and it'll appear to have tread, but in reality it does not have much. Assume on replacing the tires after taking ownership. My car has 29K and I am on the 3rd set of tires.

 

Yes, AFAIK.

 

Agreed.