Hi Everyone,

I'm an autobroker and I've been in the business since 2002. I've delivered over 5,000 cars, mostly new with some late model used cars. I also am a nut case about Alfas, but that's another story. I fell in love with Jaguars when I owned two XJ6's, a 91 and 96. They are special cars and I always said I'd get back into one. Well, my 2004 BMW 330i was totalled and I need a new car ... I don't need one, but I would like to get another car. That's where the Jaguar story comes into focus.

I found a 2002 XKR with 60K miles. From what I can see, the front tires look like they have negative camber, but the owner says that he just changed ball joints. Is this a normal look for the car?
It's a convertible, so I don't know what typically goes wrong with these. What should I be looking for? Any information about the plastic timing chain guides? I thought the problem was pre 2002, but now I'm hearing that this model has metal and plastic parts. I'm thinking it's a big job to fix it and with a supercharger, there may be a lot of plumbing that needs to come out. I also read something about water pump problems - I'm assuming there will be a warped head/bad head gasket if the motor overheats.

Experts, please chime in. I'm planning to see the car tomorrow.

Thanks in advance and if I get her, I'll be posting here!

 

It's most likely the upper shock mounts. But the springs do age as well. As for the water pump the engine coolant pumps are pretty good it's the supercharger intercooler pump that tends to go bad, you can replace it with the Bosch 010 pump which is better and cheaper. The 4.2 have a better timing chain guide setup so shouldn't be a problem. Just check for coolant leaks and oil leaks from the oil cooler hoses, there are 4 of them at the front of the engine. One of them is out of stock now but they can be made up by a hydraulic oil hose company or something. Transmission service, filter pan and fluid should be changed and so should the seals inside. It's not a hard job really. There is a hose that runs between the V under the supercharger that can leak and that would be a pain to repair requiring the supercharger be removed though.

 

I think this car has the 4.0 motor with supercharger. I read that there are still some plastic parts that should be changed. It's not as robust as the 4.2.

 

4.0 engines produced after aug 2001 has the metal tensioners and you should not have to worry. Yes the chain guides are plastic, but not that problematic.
There are no extra work even if it is a supercharger model, only one more serpentine belt to take off.
The camber issue is as Kuddleswoth says; upper shock mounts and springs.
An another failing item on these cars are the convertible top hydraulic lines, that often starts to leak after 20+ years, and in worst case give you the famous "green shower"

I bought my 2000 XKR three years ago and did change the timing chain, tensioners and guides, the upper shock mounts and springs, and the hydraulic lines. After that the car has just worked (nearly) perfect.
Every one of the issues takes some time, but are not that difficult.

 

When these engines overheat the valve seats often drop out when the engine stops so it's pretty obvious when it's restarted.

 

iirc correctly the magic date is Aug 13th 2001. my 2002 model year car has an august 1st 2001 engine. check the engine number
you can read it off without too much difficulty if you have a flexible borescope to get down to the engine number plate. there's more specific info on both the location and date on YouTube in a video on tensioners/dates. don't recall who did that but it's pretty easy to find.