Jon - Thanks for the detailed answers to my questions. Still a novice here.
Enjoy - point noted. I still own the 2000. My current indie tells me tensioners don't need to be redone since there's no noise at start up or chain slap. Maybe he wants to rebuild the engine when they fail. Also recommends against changing trans fluid. I plan to do it. Agree w/ you that tensioners should be totally redone. Best quote so far is 3,200 for everything (chains, tensioners, guides). Shop has many years of working on Jags and this specific car. I've got a pre purchase inspect scheduled 4/5 for the 2006. Drove it for an hour so I've got some Jag miles. Lexus sales guy handed me the keys and said "come back whenever you're done". Probably helped that I drove a Lexus down to see the Jag.

 

3,200 from an experienced shop seems pretty good to me, I think. I don't remember what exactly I paid because one shop tried it, screwed it up, then I stole it back and got it towed to a different shop and got it fixed properly. I think maybe I was 2000-2500 all in? But that was a weird circumstance, and the first shop refunded me their labor, and I don't think the second shop had to re-do everything, per se. I tend not to mess around with timing stuff (meaning, I don't wait for symptoms to arise), but maybe I am just faint hearted (or too poor, being a grad student).

 

Bought my 2000 XKR convertible in March 2012. October 2012, with about 100,000 miles on it, my Bride and I drove through 14 states from Tennessee through New England. Camped all but two nights. Rained all but two days. Car was great in the rain, except for the drip when the door is open.

The only time it stranded me was 80 miles into a 150 mile trip a couple of years ago. Close to 140,000 miles by then. Fuel pump went out. Flatbed home.
replaced both pumps.

Great travel car. Debating whether to drive it or the Yukon XL to Montana this summer. It'll be me, a 10 year old, and a seven year old. Hmmm...

 

Well, David, we might see you there (planning to spend some time in Butte and Bozeman)! With the small kids, I vote take the XKR. The 7 year old should be ok the back, right?

 

definitely take the XKR. It will be a better adventure, even if it’s a little cramped in the rear. But shouldn’t be with the passenger seat moved forward.

you don’t want the kids growing up soft, do you. ??


Z

 

Hey Z
Impressive car history. Jag seems to attract hardcore car guys. My indie was able to pull codes (Jag SSD) and found the defective ABS module. Unplug and the car runs fine. Does a CAN problem limit P code retrieve?
The "I can't pull P codes" comment is frequent. Yes, it can be quality of reader, fuse, connections, etc. Now that I've driven one, I see why everyone likes these cars. Neighbor has taken each of his 3 kids back and forth
cross country (CA>MA>CA) on the back of an 800cc dual purpose motorcycle. A trip in the back of an XK sounds like a better adventure.

 

My first cross country was on my first vehicle, a ‘68 Honda CB-350. What a gas for an 18 year old. I decided to take a semester off between high school and college to tour the USA, thank you Easy Rider and Peter Fonda ! No one told me a 350 was too small for cross country, and even if someone had, I wouldn’t have believed them anyway.


i bought the thing in NYC, the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan. I had been working in the Catskills as a waiter and took the bus to NYC when my brother in law left me know about the Honda for sale he’d seen. I didn’t know anything about riding a motorcycle but the seller promised to give me a few quick lessons.

But when I forked over the $$$ , he disappeared never to return. So I just roared up and down his side street on my own, trying to master the clutch / gears / throttle / and brakes.


after about 90 minutes of this, a really hot gal not much older than me came out of one of the brownstone residential buildings and asked me if I was a cop. I suppose it was the white helmet. No I said. Then she asked if I could practice on another street as I was scaring away their customers (ha ha).


I decided I was ready for NYC traffic and headed out much to the relief of the johns and the working girls too. After the summer I drove it back to Oklahoma then back east as far as Hartford Connecticut, just looking the world over , and trying to participate in as numerous anti-war events as possible.

College could wait.


Z

 

My first one was in 1980, I was 25 and at that time a young police officer. I recovered a stolen MB 380 SL at the Montreal airport. It was stolen from Beverly Hill Budget rent a car and was used to smuggle drug in the spare tire. The car had to be returned and instead if paying employees, I offered Budget to drive it back with my wife if they pay all expenses.

This is where it start.
From Montreal to LA in 6 days, don’t remember GPS and cell phone didn’t existed yet.

I went at the MB dealer before leaving and the guys said: This is a Mercedes, you only need an oil change before leaving.

First stop, Indianapolis, yes it was a long drive but I want the get there for Indi500 Race Day. We slept at Terre Haute.

Saint-Louis where we took an helicopter tour over the arche and Baseball Stadium while Reds were playing baseball.

Oklahoma City, where we meet our first cowboy. The 6’4’’ guys with snakes skin cowboy boots really impressed us.

We tried to stay away of expressway, and stay as close as possible to old Route 66.

We stop for thé best steak ever at The Big Texan, this is where I saw my first Tomahawk steaks

Next stop Albuquerque New Mexico, then we head north to Flagstaff for a short night just on time for a sunset at the South ridge of the Grand Canyon.

Next day we stop at a rancher, I was looking for a cattle skull. The rancher took us in is pick up then he drove a few miles until we found a nice one the ground. I still have it on my living room wall.

Next stop was Vegas for one night but we went at the Siegfried and Roy show. He recently past away.

Next day we went thrue Death Valley directly to LA to returned the 380SL at the Beverly Hills Budget rent a car.

Then we had the VIP traitement. The let us have a Porche 980 (thé affèrerai were all booked) and they books a 5 star Westwood Marquis at Beverly Hills for 3 nights stay. Imagine a 25 years old couple in white T-Shirt and jeans at the hotel restaurant, everybody where looking at us trying to find in what film we were. I still remember at this time the cheese burger was 6,95 USD.

I still believe that this was the Road Trip of my life time. One night we had a Pizza at Numero Uno Pizzeria. The Chicago original (we went there 2 years ago at Chicago original pizzeria).

Since then we did Europe from Spain to Belgium and recently with my 2017 Jaguar XFS, Montreal - Orlando - Destin - New Orleans - Memphis - Chicago - Montreal.

This year will be Canadian west coast with my XK8 2006 Victory Edition.

My secret : use your GPS, but put on the set up « No express way ». This is the only way to see the back road and amazing village and meet people’s.

Every weekend we go, with the XK8, on one day road trip with pick nick and a good wine with friends.

Enjoy



41 years later, I still daily remember my 1980 road trip with this cattle skull beside my recliner

Michel

 

My first road trip was on a Kawasaki Z1. Had a blast. Rode from Mass to CA for a short vacation. It's been 30 years.

Well my Jag maybe closer to drivable. We're going to try a replacement ECU. My indie thinks the the ignition module inside is defective. Signal to 2 coils isn't reliable. Swap coils and the misfire goes to the same 2 cylinders.
If this solves the misfire problem, then I'll do deferred maintenance. Short trips after that to see how good the car is.

 

I've got a total of 50 miles so far. Car idles super smooth and drives well. Various neglected maintenance to do (including tensioners of course). Would love to do a road trip one of these days!

 

Am a couple of steps closer to first road trip. Car starts and runs well. Passed smog today so now the registered owner. I've done 100 miles so far and am starting to really like the car. Trying to figure a way
to justify spending 3-4k for tensioners on a car that's worth 10k. Started a thread on tensioners. The upper tensioners are most likely to fail. Replacement reduces the chance of trashing the engine. Good if
plan is to keep the car long term? Not really. Guides are plastic, new tensioners push harder on worn chains, etc.

 

with all due respect, this thinking is an example of false equivalence of cause and effect. New tensioners will not apply a degree of pressure that guarantees the “worn chains” and / or other original parts left in place will then become an issue. Countless owners have replaced tensioners, or had them replaced by a shop. As far as I’ve been able to discover, no one has had a subsequent issue with the original chains, etc after the tensioner replacement. No issues which can be linked in any fashion to the new tensioners.

Conversely, failure to replace the secondary tensioners is a near guarantee that engine failure is in your future.


Z

 

Zray thanks for your feedback. Totally agree w/ your "failure to replace secondary/engine failure" comment. Having a blast w/ my first Jag but hold my breath every time I start it. The "new tensioners/worn chains" came from a phone call today with the owner of a well regarded Bay Area Jag shop. He won't do just uppers. I started a "Tensioners - replace just uppers?" thread. Response 1 - he's done uppers on 6 cars w/o problems. Response 2 - a Jag tech who's done chains on 50 cars. "Can get away w/ replacing just the uppers". Best is still replace everything.

My local indie doesn't sound thrilled about it but may do. It will be top dollar (like 1,500). Still sounds better than 3.2 or 4.0 for a short term keeper. Good idea to drop the pan and check for plastic?

 

I can’t blame the shops for wanting to do the whole ball of wax. They are just trying to limit any possible liability on their part if there’s a tensioner and /or chain failure. In such cases it may be hard to determine what failed first. Something they did, or an older part that wasn’t changed.

Nevertheless the primary tensioners are not as infamous for no-warning failure as are the secondaries. If I was doing this myself and had the time and money, yes I’d replace everything, but if there any mitigating circumstances such as budget or time restraints, then I’d just replace the secondaries and drive the car as is. Enjoying every rpm shift without constant worry of what “might” happen.


Z

 

CA Jag: I have nothing to add to what zray said. He's one of those people that you just listen to!

Just got a call from my indie mechanic (I had dropped the car off so he could give it a look through before the road trip so that I could better figure out what I need to address before going on the trip). Pretty much everything is good to go. There is a power steering line that I'm having him replace, but other than that, not much else to do. Just need to pass my final exams...

 

Thanks for your feedback.Still new to XK's. I've looked at several possible buys. Some tops are noticeably slower. One hesitated. Mine was slow and has now stopped opening. Hopefully it's just low fluid and/or petcock valve. Any experience w/ the pressure reduction unit? Reducing stock pressure (and stopping it when latch closes) seems like a good idea.

Comments on front end issues noted.

RealGauges is a great idea especially since cooling system problems are so common. Problem is that I have Navigation. Any easy way to install? The non Navigation dash looks so much cleaner. Short term plan is the Torque app and Bluetooth sender that plugs into OBD connect. I can get real numbers.

 

I bought my car for touring as well. It's a relatively low mileage version so I'm hoping it works out well for my purpose. I'm currently trying to fix some existing problems so I can drive it without permanent white knuckles. Then I'll move on to improving the durability. I'm also looking forward to driving the car on the open road. It's been a while since my last road trip and this car has me jonesing for it.

It also seems like there should be a forum on this site for regional meet ups or regional tours for the XK/XK8/XJS crowd. It would seem like there are enough members around the country to make this a possibility. It might also make it seem safer to tour in a group of like gearheads where help and maybe even some spare parts might be available. Just a thought...

 

There are regional forums on the site. Members post local questions and form meet ups. If you are in Flordia yours should be US Lower Atlantic.

 

Didn't see it. 'General/Regional' tab. Thanks for the pointer.

 

Love your user name, Warren Zevon reference.
I wish I could have that level of confidence with my 97XK8 but right now I’m hoping a repaired ECU gives me confidence to get on Freeway to LA from Orange County (50 miles). Good Luck and make sure you have AAA Premier (200 Miles Free Tow) as a contingency. I’ve done that trip more than once but always with time constraints and without a Pandemic looming.