I've had a 2006 XKR Victory Edition convertible for 5 years. It now has almost 50,000 miles. I'm living with several strange things. The car decides not to start two or three times a year. Changed battery, exciter ring, keys, checked for loose cables etc etc no one can figure it out.
Every time I touch the brakes there is a chiming sound inside the car, like someone hitting a muted bell. No one has figured that one out. The inside liner of the top has what looks like rust stains in various places. I use a cleaner, the liner looks brand new. A week or so later the stains reappear.??
Last time I used the air conditioner, I was struck with little pieces of flying foam. It looks like some sort of foam liner in the air ducts is disintegrating and spraying me and my passenger with debri.
The head rest motors make a really loud growling sound but don't move. I guess they are dead (both of them?)
My transmission whoops now almost every time I push hard on the accelerator - I am told that is a sticking clutch but that it is cosmetic and that a transmission flush (or two) might fix it. Might.
The dash makes creaking noises but I shoved two rubber wedges between it and the windshield and the noises stopped. Doesn't look very elegant but at least that one got fixed.
Every other day the stability control warning light comes on, says there is a fault. The light goes away after I turn off the car and restart it. Dealer can't find any error codes, no evidence that it is doing this.
I've replaced costly air conditioning components, put on a new supercharger belt, repaired leaking steering components. New brakes, new tires.
The two part wheels have a stainless rim that looks pretty bad - rusty in some spots, losing its finish in places. Not sure what I'm going to do about that.


I'm sort of getting tired. Does this sort of thing ever end? I love the way the car looks and drives but I'm wondering if I'll ever reach a point where the car goes 3 months in a row without an expense. Does it get any better, or should I just expect this to continue for as long as I own the car?
I guess I'm just venting.

 

And to make matters worse, you inadvertently posted in the 2007-up (alloy-bodied) forum. You'll get better advice in the previous generation XK8/XKR forum.

 

If you look under Current, you will see that for some reason it shows XKR from 2006 on, not 2007. I thought that was odd when I posted but didn't realize I was in the wrong group due to this error in the website.

 

The 'new' X150 shape was released in 2006 (in the UK, at least), hence the "2006 on" - confusing, I agree.

To be honest, I don't know the answer to most of your issues, but they're not that unusual - what is unusual, to me anyway, is that you have so many of them in one car, and one of the last of that model too. Some thoughts:

• Brakes: could be a brake piston that initially sticks, then pops out and whacks the disc.
• Rust stains: probably coming from some of the framing, or from flakes that have come off that. I'd guess you'd need to remove the inner lining & attack the source of the problem.
• Aircon: There are foam seals between many of the separate bits of the aircon ducting, I guess one of them has disintegrated. That's not surprising, particularly as you live in a hot climate. Foam doesn't age well.
• Head rests: Sounds like the gears (probably plastic) have either become misaligned or have stripped some teeth.
• Transmission: That sounds like a well-known issue with the ZF 6HP26 gearbox, and it is usually cured by replacing the fluid.
• Stability warning: mine did that when an ABS sensor was faulty, but it also gave an ABS warning. The fact that there are no codes is odd - has the dealer read the codes while the warning is active?

You do seem to be having more than your fair share of issues. I had a '97 XK8 until last year, and while I had a few problems in the 13 years I owned it, I didn't have this many all at once.