Hello everyone.
I live in upstate NY and earlier this year I acquired a 2007 XKR convertible with 65k miles. The car is very clean and drives beautifully. The oil has 2500 miles on it and is still gold like new, which tells me this car has been cared for. I didn’t get maintenance records but the carfax shows regular oil changes. Besides fresh oil which I will do every year (3000 miles) what else should I do? Supercharger oil, air filters, transmission fluid ect?
Thank you for your help;
Steve

Welcome to the forums Steve,

If you had followed the request to newbies to post an Intro, I would have responded to it with some links to relevant information. One of these is the XK/XKR - 'How To' / DIY Repair & Maintenance 'sticky' at the top of the threads here. Section 11 in it leads you to the information you need.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...1/#post2173730

Graham

Welcome Steve,

I purchased a 2008 XKR coupe a few months ago. The car has 60,000 miles and did not come with any service records. To ensure I had a baseline for the maintenance of the car, I changed the:
engine oil and filter ($50)
spark plugs ($74)
air filters ($51)
cabin air filter ($27)
fuel filter ($35)
engine coolant ($74)
power steering fluid ($22)
brake fluid ($68)
transmission filter(pan) ($120), fluid ($124), mechatronic sealing sleeve, seal adapter, and (4) sealing sleeves ($56)
differential gear oil. ($32)

After inspecting the suspension, I found a number of torn, degraded, and leaking boots and bushings. I decided to replace the following:
two front upper control arms ($339)
four front lower control arms ($438)
front outer tie rod ends ($126)
front sway bar end links ($62)
two rear upper control arms ($408)
two rear lower control arms ($324)
rear sway bar end links ($60)
rear tie rod ends ($37)

The selling dealership replaced the front Alcon rotors, but I still inspected all of the rotors and pads while changing the brake fluid and bleeding the system. I found one of the pads ($55) was missing from the rear Brembo parking brake caliper. The piston from that caliper had been making contact with the rear rotor, so now I was in for a new set of rear Alcon-style rotors. ($152)

To keep the costs reasonable, I used Mahle, Motorcraft, and ZF filters, Lemforder, Eurospare, Motorcraft, and Moog suspension components, Castrol, Motorcraft, ZF, Motul, and Valvoline fluids, and Bork & Beck rear brake rotors.

The next thing I will tackle will be the replacement of the problematic cooling system hoses and plastic fittings. I'll replace the supercharger oil and belts at that time.

I hope this helps. Congrats on your new XKR.

Holy cow you must have had $5 grand extra into after all that

It wasn't quite that bad. I added the prices to my earlier post with the total being just over $2,700. I would add about 20% to that figure for shipping and tax.

If I had to purchase the suspension components again, I could probably save a few hundred dollars. I also had to pay $190 for a four-wheel alignment and $290 to have my seat control modules recalibrated.

Speaking of seat control module, the door mounted power seat switches on the drivers side are not working properly. I have obtained the same switch panel from a used parts vendor. Will the module recognize the replacement switches or does it need programming to do so?
Steve

Waldo.
Thank you for that list, there are a few items that I would not thought of. I will replicate your list and add 4 new MPS AS4’s and 4 wheel alignment. My suspension is tight however a few of the rubber boots are getting tired but that will be left for another year.

They are just switches so plug and play. The module itself, would require calibration and SDD. That said, are you sure the switches were the problem and not the module?

Yes. The seat bottom tilt switch is just flopping around and doesn’t do anything, Luckily it’s in a good spot however I don’t like anything broken on my pleasure car so I’m replacing it.
Thank you for the information.

Waldo,
Nice job and great list! Thank you.
(My experience with a similar vintage XJR covers all the same parts. Tons of fiddly engine coolant hoses also, plus three water pumps, thermostat, belt tensioners, idlers, belts, pcv valve, vac O rings, VVT O rings, fuel filter, SC coupler + SC oil. Use OE coupler. Trans cooling line flex sections on the X350's need doing too; not sure if this applies to X150's. I'm also a proponent of replacing brake caliper piston seals; they never leak but frequently drag. Knoxville Jag is a good OE parts source, and OE parts or Ford equivalents seem best by far)

What have you noticed after all those replacements, or was it mostly for your peace of mind? Honest feedback would be appreciated.

Because I didn't know the service history of my XKR, the fluids, filters, and spark plugs were changed to provide a maintenance baseline. Knowing what was in my car and when it was installed, not only gave me peace of mind but also provided some insight into the current mechanical condition of the car.

The selling dealership had just changed the oil, but I didn't know the brand, viscosity, or specification. Changing the oil also gave me the opportunity to look over the engine and look for leaks or anything else in need of obvious repair.

The engine air and cabin air filters were dirty but not horrendous. I doubt they were original, but there's no telling the last time they were changed.

The coolant was clean and orange. It looked relatively new with no evidence of oil contamination. However, there's no telling how long it had been in the car.

I removed the spark plugs to verify their condition and look for any signs of potential problem cylinders. All were of the same manufacture and looked to be original. The electrodes showed signs of use and wear commensurate with 60,000 supercharged miles, but they were still serviceable with no noticeable damage. After that many miles and years in a supercharged engine, I felt it made more sense to reinstall fresh spark plugs than the original plugs.

I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the transmission fluid. It was much cleaner than I expected after that many miles and years in the car. The fluid was dark amber in color and still transparent. It was definitely darker than new ZF fluid but not brown or opaque. The date stamp on the filter/pan indicated that it was original to the car. My assumption is that the fluid was original as well. The mechatronic sealing sleeve and (4) tube sealing sleeves were all noticeably stiffer and slightly smaller than the replacements I installed. I don't think the transmission suffered any ill effects from the age and condition of the old fluid, filter, and sleeves, but I feel much better for having changed them.

The old power steering fluid was old, dirty, and smelly. The power steering pump seems a bit quieter with new fluid.

The brake fluid was old and dark. I couldn't venture to guess the last time (if ever) it had been changed.

I noticed the biggest improvement after I replaced ALL of the suspension components. Prior to replacing the components, the steering and handling was vague and imprecise. The car felt like it wandered at highway speeds. I initially did not replace the four front lower control arms as they did not show any clear signs of wear or degradation. However, even after replacing all of the other items, the car did not feel as responsive and precise as I felt it should. When I finally removed and inspected the front lower control arms, I found they all had worn bushings that were not evident while installed. Once the front lower control arms were replaced, the handling felt much better.

Given the weight of the car and the construction of the suspension bushings, I have mentally prepared myself to replace the control arms (or bushings) in another 40-50K miles. I will consider this the cost of doing business in order to maintain precise handling.

I contemplated replacing the shocks but decided to hold off for now. The original shocks had some light weeping but still seemed firm. (I removed them from the car and spring assemblies to check them.) I thought the front shocks were bad but finally determined the shock mounting bushings in both lower front (rear) control arms were worn. Once I replaced those arms, I felt the stock shocks were able to effectively dampen the front end again.

Apologies if I rambled too much. I hope this helps.


2008 XKR

I was looking at your comprehensive replacement suspension parts list. In the front, it appears that the lower ball joint is part of the steering knuckle assembly, not the lower control arm. Did you replace those also, or were those ball joints and boots good?

The lower, front ball joint is part of the knuckle assembly. As far as I know, the entire knuckle/ball joint assembly is a Jaguar only part. I have not found any aftermarket manufacturers of the entire assembly. If I remember correctly, on-line prices for a new knuckle/ball joint assembly were in the $750 region.

I did find a company in England who sells replacement lower ball joints. They are roughly $40 each.

The boots on both of my lower ball joints were still in excellent condition. When I separated the the lower control arms from the ball joint, I was able to verify that the original ball joints moved smoothly and didn’t have too much play. I will most likely replace the lower ball joints the next time I refresh the front suspension.

I would be careful about which tool you use to separate the ball joint from the lower control arm. I was concerned about tearing the grease boot and used a CTA Tools 4013 ball joint separator. The grease boots survived unscathed. However, I found the arm that presses down on the threaded shaft of the ball joint wasn’t quite long enough and placed too much pressure near the threads. This resulted in some slightly damaged threads that needed to be cleaned up before reinstallation.

I appreciate your response, no amount of 'rambling' is too much information. I like that you pointed out the front lower control arms having significant effect over and above rest of the control arms/bushing replacement.

You mentioned that if you were to do it again you might source the suspension parts differently. Can you elaborate on that?

I had a bit of a learning curve when it came to finding the on-line vendors with the best prices for the parts I needed. After comparing prices and buying from several on-line vendors, I found the prices for suspension parts at FCPEuro and Autohausaz were the most competitive. (I am not affiliated with either company. I'm just a customer that sends them money.)

I also purchased Ford Motorcraft front and rear upper control arms. These control arms are cheaper then the control arms sold as OEM Jaguar parts, but still have "Jaguar" physically cast into the arm. If you can live without the "Jaguar" casting and/or packaging, Lemforder and Eurospare offer suspension components of comparable OEM quality at prices less than Jaguar and Motorcraft parts. There are a few threads discussing Lemforder, Eurospare, Motorcraft, Jaguar, and other suspension components in this forum. The next time I replace my suspension components, I will most likely order all Lemforder and Eurospare parts.

Great info. I got full records for my '07 XK NA, and used them as a baseline for various maintenance decisions. I've also replaced most of the suspension rubber, as well as the dampers. Note the Bilstein OEM active front dampers are getting very difficult to source, though the rears are fairly common. I did all four at 80Kmi, partially because I was concerned that OEM dampers would be harder to find. The Bilsteins are about 50% of the Jag branded units.