Hi all - please be gentle, first forum topic!

I have recently bought a 97 xk8 with 99k on the clock here in the UK. I bought from a reputable dealer of (only) used Jags in Bristol and its the first time I've bought a car that didn't have a disclaimer on the invoice saying 'Sold as spares only - I acknowledge this car is not fit for the road'.

I budgeted for the major work - tensioners, gearbox and wishbones for the first year. The only question is, although I am ok with spark plugs/oil changes/brake discs I'm not up for the tensioner work myself. I found on the DVLA's wonderful new computerised database that it failed the MOT last year on front suspension and a specialist replaced it. The mysteries of having a fully stamped history but no bills are always fun!

Racing Green in Hampshire come very highly recommended and said they will do the tensioner/chain/thermostat/idler work for 1100 GBP all in - 120 GBP extra if the water pump is shot. Should I do this ahead of the gearbox work? I've read a number of threads on the forum about the gearbox fluid and how a change at 99k (probably the first) could bring on a failure - is there much weight to this argument?

The car is very quiet, has no rattle audible at startup and no oil in the airbox. The gearbox has a slight whine in 1st and in 4th if cruising at 50mph, not much else. I'm sympathetic - my mother told me I whined a lot at 12 years old too.

Opinions very welcome & apologies for the length of post.

 

I would first check the integrity of the Nikasil engine and decide to rebuild or replace. As for the transmission, after my ordeal with mine and knowing what I know now and the noise you are getting I would rebuild it.

 

Almost everything you discussed will fail sooner or later. All can disable the car. The tensioners, however, can take out the engine in a few seconds making all the other discussions pointless. They are really the only thing that render the car beyond economic repair.

If you can change the spark plugs, you can replace the upper tensioners. An excellent pictorial can be found here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?mijhydngtog

 

ditto...

(1) tensioners, water pump, thermostat housing

(2) transmission rebuild, not just a fluid/screen service; rebuild with the ZF replacement parts

 

Blimey - thankyou for the quick responses! I'll circulate the timing chain guide amongst my friends and hopefully we can do it. A blow-by test was carried out by the dealership that sold it to me (all good) and they even gave a three month warranty - 10 weeks remaining on that so there's my time limit on a decision to give it to Racing Green or do it myself.

Will research more, study the guide and try and source the kit here in the UK.

Thanks once again everybody.

 

Good luck and welcome to the Forum!
Brian

 

Don't feel bad about that - I just paid a dealer to do my secondaries here in NC. I would rather have attempted it myself, but this is my primary ride so could not risk being without a car so had to cop out & hire a pro. But the dealer had the best price, believe it or not, and I know their shop does several of these jobs per year so no guess work or unexpected delays for parts, etc.

The damage was not bad and I probably could have gone several thousand more miles, but as you can see from the photo there were faint cracks that would eventually lead to trouble. There is just no way to know until you get the cam covers off, and by then you (or your shop) might as well go all the way since wear and tear is often hidden from full inspection. My car has just over 70 thousand miles. Since you have more than that already, you might want to think about tackling this job first. If it isn't your primary transportation and you can deal with a possible delay, it's a do-able job with the right tools, time & place, based on what's been posted in this helpful forum.

 

Just to update - I had the car booked into Racing Green here at the UK (well established Jaguar specialists who gave a good quote), however I decided to turn on the charm and open the service book to to get as much history as possible. I only had the stamps for full service history, not the bills.

Two hours later the latest garage confirmed that all the tensioner/water pump/thermostat/chain work had been carried out in Dec 2008! They even faxed me the receipts for all the work done, three years of service history for my file!

I still had Racing Green change the gearbox oil which hasn't cured the whine but eases my mind and provided slightly smoother shifting. The guys there were slightly miffed at me cancelling a large job a day before it was due to go ahead but hey, what would they do in my shoes?

Just goes to show - a phone call and socialising with other humans is sometimes good for you - I have a few A4 fax pages worth their actual weight in gold to me.

 

I have a 97XK8 roadster which I bought in 2000 with 25K miles, it now has about 47K miles.
In 2005, I had the tensions replacedand paid about 2100 US, I also had the water pump replaced at the same time since it requires removing some of the same components as the tensioner job. I think that added about 200US. So it seems your price is fiar value.

I also had to replace the A frame bushings at about 40,000 miles. I did this myself, so I replaced all the upper and lower bushings. In addition, I repaced the upper and lower ball joints and the wheel bearings at the same time. Again, since you have to remove the hubs and the wishbones to replace the bushings, it is worth the extra money to do everything. It cost about 1300 US including the cost of having a local shop do all of the pressing for me. So the only special tool I need was to remove the ball joints from the hub. I found an aftermarket tool on Ebay for about 25 US. I should caution that if you must have all this work done in a repair shop, cost may require a different level of replacement. I was quoted in the 5000US range for this work.

Good luck with your project.