Mileage isn't a big help, we're talking about old plastic here.

Cost depends on if you can diy or have to pay a mechanic and if the mechanic has experience and tools.

 

Just a guestimate? or what people have paid to get it done?
hundreds? over a thousand? Ok, it isa jag, theres always a 500$ minimum but.

I do computers, not cars so there's no way I'd do this work myself.

 

Poppa, The job is not that difficult, but time consuming. It would take an experienced shop the day to make the repairs. You may want to do the tensioners, as well as the chain guides in the front cover. They tend to crack as well. Also a good time to change the water pump as most had a plastic impeller that tended to fail. Find a local shop the does jaguar work, and I will guarantee you that they know all about this issue, and have experience to make the repairs quickly and correctly. One other thing... if you arent sure that the car has been upgraded with new tensioners, it isn't too pricey to simply pull one valve cover and look to see if the car has the new parts up top before comitting to the whole job.

 

49k miles. yeah, im guessing original.
here's hoping my credit card holds up long enough to dodge my own bullet

 

papadolittle is now riversiq.

 

Well, I picked up my XKR, early this afternoon, drove it all day long, over 125 miles, and I am happy to report that everything seems normal. I will check and see if my mechanic held on to the broken tensioners so that I can take a picture and post.

The build date on my car was 07/01 and the vin number ends in 22424, and the tensioners were definitely made of plastic.

Apparently, my luck may have been attributable to two things. First, I shut the car down before it engaged and in less than a half second. Secondly, it appears the upper driver's side chain snapped immediately after the tensioner broke and somehow got bound up on the broken pieces of the tensioner somehow preventing the valves from hitting anything.

The cost of the complete tensioner/timing chain set from Christopher's European Autoparts was $689.00.

This set included upper and lower tensioners, chains, seals, gaskets, shortened bolts,...everything.

I paid approximately $800.00 in labor. (It is approximately because I had my mechanic change the water pump and he paid for the pump, I had him take out my broken radio antenna and replace it with both the antenna and the labor added). So I got away with about a $1600.00 repair when all was said and done.

Frankly, since this car was serviced at a Jaguar dealership for its whole life prior to me purchasing it at 60,000 miles, I just don't understand how these were not replaced during its many, many trips to the dealer.

I will not, however, take it for granted ever again.

My cat's back home tonight for the first time in almost 2 weeks, and I missed her dearly.

 

My XK is a 2002 4ltr Coupe, the vin number ends A29753....so does that mean my engine will be OK as it's after the A24195? Can I find out more from the engine number?

 

From what I understand if you have a 4.0 engine the only way to be sure what tensioners you have is to check.
If I had a 4.0 and didn't know I'd be checking today.

 

I concur with Norri. Have it checked; it will take less than an hour of time to pull the covers. I was just dumb lucky that my car was parked at the time the tensioners and chains decided to break. Avert disaster.

 

Got my secondaries done for about $1500 a couple of years ago with about 80k on the clock. Done by a dealer who to my surprise was very fairly priced, so don't rule them out.

My tensioners did not fail, I just knew it was stupid to leave them be. Sure enough when the old ones came out they had very, very small but noticeable cracks in the plastic. Still have not changed the primaries, but I'm at 103k miles and at this point if the engine and/or tranny goes I'm swapping the lot out for a Chevy V8 conversion - time for more horsepower anyway...

 

I have a 1997 Jaguar XK8 with 53500 miles - what should I do about tensioners ??

 

Um, start by reading the posts....?

 

Check them quickly and change them if they are plastic.

 

And do it right away. You probably have a ticking bomb there.