Do yourself a favor and go ahead and get a new battery right now.

You already know that these cars have some demanding electronics - perhaps too demanding - and a weak battery will cause all sorts of imagined "problems". This aspect is especially troublesome with a new-to-you car with which you are unfamiliar.

Spending $100 now will ward off some phantom codes and save you diagnostic time and trouble later. And when something does come up you've preempted one potential cause already.

Congratulations on your find.

 

Thanks, and I'd like to say that the car is in a condition worthy of taking photos, but...

The seller was kind enough to have the car cleaned before it was loaded on the transport. I paid for an enclosed trailer to ship it from his door to mine. In the middle of yesterday afternoon, during a severe rainstorm with hail, I got a call from a guy with a thick accent telling me that the car was off the trailer and he wanted to drive it to me, from 30 miles away. Of course I told him no, I paid for and wanted it delivered via truck. A few hours later, he showed up with it on a rickety wooden trailer being towed by a plumber's old workvan, not exactly the clean, protected delivery which I was expecting and had paid for.

The car, having just been cleaned in Florida, was soaking wet and covered in mudspray and road grime. I haven't had a chance to give it a good cleaning yet, and since I don't have plates/title/bill of sale, can't even drive it anywhere to give it a quick hosing.

I'm just glad that it got here in one piece, but I don't want to take a pic in it's current state. For that matter, the transport company somehow managed to get a bunch of very light scuffs & scratches on the driver's side which need buffed out. The car is otherwise so cherry that the nose didn't even have so much as one tiny little stonechip as you'd certainly expect from a car with 51k miles.

I'm confident that 99% of it will buff out to perfection, which is the state I'd prefer to display it in Hope to have it ready sometime this week.

 

@Spurlee & Rev: thanks for the advice, I'll probably take it. I'm relieved to see that the batteries don't cost a small fortune.

 

Ouch. I have a car coming from the other coast. Reading that gave me the shivers.

Hope you get her cleaned up soon.

 

Thanks, me too. If the weather around here wasn't still occasionally hitting sub freezing temperatures, I'd just turn my outside faucets on & give her a wash in the driveway.

I'd like to offer some good advice regarding shipping to avoid a situation similar to mine, however I have none. I took the recommendation of a well respected Jaguar/Aston Martin Dealership, and their recommended service outsourced it to the guy in the plumber's van who trailered it here

I'll attach a couple teaser pics I took just now, although it's hard to make out very much from them, having been taken at night under flourescent lights.

 

I definitely wouldn't vote for chrome spinners, but the chrome wheels in the pictures look great to me. I don't have them myself, because these cars already looks great with stock wheels, and with 2 kids in college, none of my money's going to "upgrades" any time soon (saving mine for "fixes"). If you've got the money (and already bought the wheels!), go for it. My vote is no one's going to mistake that as a car from the hood. It still looks classy to me. Now, if you were in New Mexico, and made it a low rider, you could never be forgiven!

 

Beautiful car - looks identical to mine except my interior is black. My car now has 78k miles, with service records to delivery, and original window sticker.

About your question, my car has the original Battery and it starts and runs fine.

A new OEM Battery is about $300 (I was quoted that from a local dealer.). Just my opinion, but there is NO WAY I'd put some cheap-*** $100 battery in my car. Actually, my car is 99% OEM and I'm Keeping it that way. The guys in the parts dept. at Nalley jaguar in Atlanta are terrific -call them first when you need anything. They ship anywhere.

A little more free advice - I'd hold off spending money on wheels until you get some miles on the car and see what issues crop up. Parts for these cars are not cheap if you do it right.

Keep an eye on the front shock mounts and spring assister - they get old and deteriorate and will likely need replacing sooner than later (if not already done). That job is about $400 in parts - add another $400 if you replace the front shocks too. But you should be good for a long time afterward.

Good luck - hope it treats you well.

By the way. the car is Not an XK. The XK is a completely different model that started in 2007.

 

Thanks for the compliment.

I've never gone "cheap" on a battery for any of my cars as it's a false economy. If there are decent alternatives available, I'll probably buy one, if not, I'll use OEM.

Thanks for the advice on the shock mount, I'll have to dig through my receipts a bit. I know that some work was done very recently on the suspension, although it may have just been an alignment.

I don't think I've ever referred to it as such. I chose my board name before I knew whether I was going to buy an XK8 or XKR - maybe OhioXK* would have been more appropriate

...

BTW, there seems to be a happy ending regarding the transport company. I sent them an email & a photo of my car being delivered by that plumber's van, and they put a stop payment on their subcontractor's check immediately. I had a detailer over here this morning to give me a quote; the transport company agreed to pay the fee in full to make things right.

Sometimes it's easier to judge a service when something goes wrong, by seeing what they'll do to make it right, than it is to pass judgement when everything just goes smoothly which might be due to mere luck. In that respect, I'm pretty pleased with how this has turned out: Dealers Choice Auto Transport- Auto Shippers is the company that made this right.

 

Yah, I figured that shipping company's "sub" cut a few corners to make some extra money, figured that nobody would say no to the 'car just came off the trailer, can I drive the car a few miles to you' line. I'm glad you did, I'm not sure I would have. They basically blackballed themselves by reputation if that company if Dealers Choice Auto Transport is a big fish in the industry. That's what happens when greed steers overrides good judgment sometimes.

BTW, I disagree about the battery being OEM or nothing at all, its not a complex part or computer we're talking about. Just get one of the proper size and construction (vent). I almost got an Interstate battery for $230 but ended up with the identical size from Autozone, the Duralast Gold for a shade over $150.