Hello everyone,

I'm very new to this forum but the one thread I have posted received some incredibly helpful advice, so here goes again with a different subject.

I have been a long time admirer of Jaguars and just under a year ago bought a 2002 S type. The car came from a local garage, had only two previous owners and a full Jaguar service history right up until the second last stamp, on top of this the car looked and drove excellently. Long story short it has been an absolute nightmare, as soon as I sort one issue another arises, that being said I still love Jaguars. Which brings me to my question.

I really love the look of XK8 Coupe's. Can anyone advise me if this is a good idea or not, if it is then what should I look out for, and finally what year/engine should I be looking at?

Should have mentioned that this will only be a weekend car. I thought I'd been sensible by going for low mileage, service history etc. Never the less I still got badly burned with my last purchase. Any advice would be very welcome and please don't feel you are being patronising if you state the obvious, I 'obviously' need the help!

 

I'm in the car business. I sell new/used cars for a living. I did the research and asking for at least a month before I bought my 05 XK8. Reason for an 05? 6 speed trans with a better repair history. 4.2 V/8 not 4.0, better timing chain guides on a 4.2. Non R model. My thinking was less hard driving history. No navigation. The navi. is disc based and way outdated. No CATS air ride shocks. I drive my car 4 days a week to work. If you are less than a skilled mechanic, any 10 year old car will be expensive to maintain. IMO best years? 2003 to 2005. No Blower.

 

Thank you for your reply.

I take your point about 'anything less than a skilled mechanic'. My dilemma is this; I want a car to use at weekends and the odd weekday, going to and from the golf club. Something that looks good (to me), is a pleasure to drive and that I'm proud of to do about 5K miles a year. I am currently looking at an 04 with 69K on EBay for just under £13k, it has a FSH part main dealer part specialist. My thinking is that I could also chop in the troublesome S Type!

 

You can't go wrong with a low mileage coupe. Even the early ones can be relatively trouble free once the known trouble areas are addressed.

You want a rust free example #1, then the later the model year, the better. Choosing between a rust free '96 and a rusty '05, the '96 is a better choice long term.

I daily drive my 1997 coupe and don't worry about it. The timing change tensioners have been addressed and the suspension and brakes are new. I would probably worry more if I didn't drive it every day.

I'm a car guy but a complete Jaguar newb. My XK8 is one of the best cars i have bought. It sat at the previous owners for sale for nearly 2 months and no one wanted it. It drove like complete crap when I purchased it and barely made it the 37 miles home.. but everything was relatively easy to fix myself and parts weren't any more expensive than a typical Ford or Chevy.

 

Thank you for the reply, your car looks great!

Can you tell what are the issues with the suspension and brakes, I keep hearing people talking about CATS, but have no idea what it means? I've also heard there are water pump issues to be aware of, my mechanic says the impeller can shatter and fall into the engine. This shows no immediate signs of a problem except the fans running slightly more often, then unless you can diagnose the fault and retrieve all the impeller parts its a new engine!!

 

Don't dismiss the supercharged version - there really is no evidence that the supercharged cars are any less reliable than the normally aspirated cars and they are a lot quicker.

On the 4.0 cars the R version has a Mercedes gearbox and a metal thermostat tower - both improvments over the 8. The R also does not have VVT valve timing gear - do a search on the forum to see whether the VVT or the supercharger gets more threads and see the problems reported for both.

As has already been mentioned the car can look lovely and shiny on the outside, but be a rust bucket underneath and that is true for any model year/engine.

Whatever you buy be prepared to do some work on it as they are all 10+ year old cars now and the same rubber bits do fail with age irrespective of the engine type.

 

The #1 thing that goes bad in the XK8/R suspension is the upper front shock mounts. The springs/shocks are supported by a urethane foam donut that is sandwiched between 2 metal plates. The Foam crumble and compresses over time, allowing the shock to move around and metal to hit metal.

Because the deterioration is time related and not distance related, even low mileage cars can have bad upper shock mounts. Spotting a car with bad shock mounts is easy. If the nose of the car looks low it very likely has bad shock mounts. popping the hood and looking at the top of the shocks for crumbled foam and the shock nut not centered in the hole will confirm bad upper shock mounts.

The good thing is, most of the suspension issues are easy to fix with hand tools and a loaned spring compressor and the parts are not expensive.

Other things in the front suspension that can go bad (with relative difficultly of repair) are the Shocks (easy - need spring compressor), upper wishbone bushings (easy), Inner Tie rod ends (easy), Sway bar bushings (easy), sway bar end links (easy), Lower Wishbone bushings (a little harder), Upper ball joints (med to hard), Wheel bearings (med to hard - need press and Special tool), lower ball joints (HARD - need big press).

The Rear shocks also have an issue with urethane foam used to isolate the shock from the upper "top hat" shock mount. The foam deteriorates and the shock washer can hit the top of the top hat during shock extension.

CATS are electronically controlled shocks. On non CATS cars, the replacement Bilstein shocks are about $110 USD each. Because they support the weight of the front end, the Lower shock mount bearing is under a lot of stress and can go bad. On non CATS cars, its just easier to change the entire shock. On CATS cars, it would be over $1,200 USD to put on new CATS shocks, so its best to press in a new $30 USD lower bearing into the old shocks.

For the brakes, the factory Rotors are prone to deep scoring. Swapping in new rotors and pads is pretty cheap and easy, however.

 

I have just been through the same search as you ending up with a 2004 XK8. All the previous advice is spot on. Go post 2003 with the 4.2 and avoid several issues.

#1 thing to remember is that fixing leaking oil cooler lines or replacing shock mounts is cheap and easy. Buying a new carpet or a new seat is not. Look for a WOW interior and bodywork. They are out there. Keep Calm and be happy to say "NO THANKS" till you know you see the one you want, then pay up to 1.3 times the KKB private party value.

 

Mike is spot on. A great looking car can have easy to fix clunks, creaks, squeaks and rumbles and these can drive the price way down. An older, rich jag owner is going to say to himself, the car is beautiful, but I'm rich, I don't need to put up with the clunking.

He goes to trade it in, the car dealer test drives it, hears every clunk and bang and says they'll give him $3K for it, so he has his kid throw it on a autotrader website for $7K, but will take any reasonable offer over $3K.

Don't be too scared of the mechanical stuff as long as it isn't "terminal" (like motor knocks, grinding) if the paint, body and interior are excellent.

 

150FHC just posted a picture of a car he went from California to Portland, Oregon to get. Often you will not find a good one in your neck of the woods. I drove 100 miles for mine and felt lucky to be so close. For my last Land Cruiser I flew from John Wayne Airport to San Francisco and drove back in the day, and guess what. I went trusting the guy it was as he said because he was a cop and when I got there it was financed and he didn't have the title! Was I going to fly back? heck no but I kept the car hidden in barn for six months until he paid it of!