I recently bought a 2000 XKR and even though the rest of the car appears well kept, the engine bay has a coat of grit on most everything. There's also a lot of surface corrosion on bolt heads and other things. Granted it has 100k on it, but it's a lot worse then any other high mileage car I've owned. I'm in the process of changing the secondary tensioners and plugs and I hate to put the cam cover bolts back in. I looked into replacing them with new, but it's over $200.00. I plan on cleaning them up and painting black with high temp paint. I thought it had something to do with the previous owner. But I noticed some of the same things on other peoples XKR's. I think the hood louver's could be the cause. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

Hmm... my 97 XK8 with 147k miles is relatively clean. My XKR only has 32k miles on it, so it's still clean. Sorry, I don't know if the louvers add to anything... but I'm willing to bet it does a little.

 

Sold my r with 64000 kms on it and you could still eat off the engine. Never saw winter though and little rain. When it did get rained on I wiped it down with mild cleaner. The XK8 has twice the mileage so not quite so clean but a little wiping is worth it.

 

My engine bay looks like new @ 59,000 miles and 16 years old. I don't think the previous owner(s) ever seriously drove the car.

I have noticed many forum members complaining about rusting bolts, etc. It appears that some of the metals in Jaguars are quick to rust, despite of the underside having so much aluminum pieces. The company should have put more thought into long term durability of the metal pieces.

I wouldn't be quick to use a pressure washer to clean under your bonnet, as there have been forum members complaining about electrical problems, etc. after a hard engine washing. You might clean it up with an aerosol cleaner/degreaser and rags.

I am not in the process of changing my tensioners, etc. I am going to pull a cam cover before purchasing the parts to visually inspect my tensioners. Then, I'll regroup and order my parts. I'll be changing the plastic thermostat housing, and visually inspecting the water pump to make sure it's got the metal impeller.

 

I bought the car in the mid-west and it was most likely driven in all weather conditions. Those louvers look great and it's nice that they are functional. Buy it only makes sense that all that open area lets a lot of grit, grime and mositure in. I think with average cleaning the average engine bay will stay relatively clean. But with the XKR I just need to clean under the "bonnet" on a much more frequent basis. After I bought the car I wondered why it was so bad. It wasn't untill all the time I spent researching and now under the hood working on the tensioners that I realized what I now think is obvious. I'm not looking forward to painting all those bolts.

 

I find the biggest prob with the louvres is sun damage on the cam covers and air box, they turn 'milky', as to dirt that is just the previous owners laziness.

You can replpace the bolts with stainless steel, you can knock/tap the old bolts out of there sleeves and use 6mm X 40 long flange heads, I have done it many times, it does mean the bolt does not hold it self in like the original but look a damn site better.
I have actually replaced every exposed bolt on my engine this way, the only OE bolts I kept were the long extended type for the loom to be fixed to under the super charger, only these I bought new.




And before anyone says anything, yes I have now changed the coil pack cover bolts to stainless too, the ones shown were temporary

 

WOW, And you were not afraid to buy that car and you are already unwilling to spend your first $200 dollar on that car!

I hope you didn't buy a lemon because repair costs are never sub $200

Are you sure about the mileage?
To me it sounds it has done double the mileage already.

I've got 100K Kms on mine and the engine bay it spotless.

 

Not my first $200.00. I'm just don't want to spend over $200.00 for bolts when I can clean them up for next to nothing.

 

Not sure if you meant 100K miles or Kilometers but if it is as dirty as you wrote, the car has probably been driven hard frequently.

Just clean the lot and see what happens. If the cam cover leaks your will smell it pretty soon

 

It's a 100k miles. I'm not concerned about the cam covers leaking. I just like things to look good when I put in the work and it's all back together again. It spent a lot of time in the extreme weather of Chicago. And maybe I've overstated the condition. The average person would think it was fine. But for people like us, we have a different standard. I've owned quite a few Lexus. And the engine bay always looked great. That engine bay was sealed up pretty tight. But with the XKR's louvers, its like driving around with your hood open.

 

David
Mine has 80,000 and it was a one owner out of Dallas The cam covers look new they're not faded and the engine compartment is spot less. I have no problems with the louvers bringing dirt into the engine bay. most of your cars have air being forced into the engine bay with the radiator fans. I agree with you a can of paint a lot cheaper than $200.00. A lot of people don't think of cleaning their engine compartments.

 

Umm... the louvers aren't air intakes, they vent air up and out of the engine bay to reduce front end lift, so no grit/grime/whatever you're worried about will get sucked in to them or anything.

Grit/grime/etc will come from under the car or from the engine itself, not from them.

 

I have seen some very dirty engines in my time, my own was very neglected, considering the car has only done 50K for a 99 XKR



A lot of people take the attitude, you can't see it, why bother....... Such is life!

 

Maybe the guy lived by the lake and parked outside a lot.

 

XK, that engine bay looks like crap! Mine will never win awards, but that looks like a junkyard find. Oh well, to some people I guess there're just disposable stuff like everything else.

 

Ok, so its not a Jag, but here's my sons11 year old Renault Clio. The whole car looked awful when we bought it but I knew some hard work and some elbow grease would uncover a gem.
Here's the engine bay before....




around an hour and a half later.....I used a spray cleaner and a combination of a garden hose trickling clean water when needed in conjunction with a 2" paintbrush for thefiddy bits, and a rag for the bigger areas.
Towel dried afterwards and a generous helping of "wet n black" or similar onto the black plastic parts and she looked goods as gold.
Even had a mechanic ask if I replaced the battery recently when it was in for some work, when he commented on it

 

Mine is as dirty as yours lol

Anyway, to clean the engine bay I use air compressor's air pistol to get rid of dust .
Just a reminder never ever use a power wash