I doubt that the pressure regulator approach installed on now 17-year-old inferior OEM hoses will offer much protection from the green shower issue....

 

Agree. It may (or may not) slightly reduce the chance of immediate failure. The hoses need to replaced (or do manual latch) to really solve the problem.

 

I don’t know if this helps, but I just replaced all the tensioners and such on my MY2002 XK8 (rolled off the assembly line 6/01/2001). I can attest that all the tensioners were of the plastic/composite type.

 

Got the engine number, gotta love the $20 usb borescope from amazon, shame the thing was giving me problems when buying the car cos I'd have pushed for another 2 grand off had I realised its a 17th July 2001 engine...
At 34K miles, I am thinking I basically dont need to worry about the tensioners for a while, and the hydraulic lines for the roof are probably the biggest concern. The car was almost religiously garaged for most of its life and there is no sign of sun/heat damage at all, and everything in the hydraulic compartment looks mint. The previous owner is still chatting to me so I will see if he ever had any soft top work done, however he has confirmed he mostly left the top down in the garage for the cars whole life and basically didn't use it, so it does have the benefit of having gone through almost zero cycles.


Hey, stuff like this is why I bought a 20 year old car - its as much about keeping me busy/entertained as it is just driving the thing!

Hydraulics:


Also someone mentioned the
original battery -ve terminal/ground leash is a potential problem - care you take a gander at this photo and inform me (yes I know google is a thing, but puhleeeese)?

 

With all due respect, and at the risk of sounding like the “sky is falling”, logic like your statement has gotten a lot of XK8 / XKR owners in deep trouble.

it’s not just the mileage that you should be thinking of; it’s also the age of the suspect cam chain tensioners.

The 1st generation tensioners have been documented to fail at low mileage, lower than your car. Considering how easy & inexpensive the “before failure “ repair can be, and how expensive the “post failure” can be, it doesn’t take mathematical genius to discern the enormity of the gamble one takes by putting off the repair.

Z

 

^^What he said.

A failed Top hose is an inconvenience. A failed tensioner may well leave you with a very attractive parts car / LS1 candidate. You might get another 34k miles, or it lets go on the next key turn. This should absolutely be next on your list.

Your battery connections look clean, but double-check the positive connection as it may have been heating up? Check also the connections at RHS at the back of the spare wheel well - the 'High Power Protection Module'. They have a habit of coming loose.

 

You are indeed playing with fire if you do not opt to upgrade your tensioners immediately....

 

Agree, plastic tensioners should be priority one. Why take the chance? You'll read about just doing the upper tensioners (the ones most likely to fail). If the chain only skips one tooth, the engine may survive. It's still dancing on the edge of a cliff. Because I don't have the speciality tools or a garage, I had a shop do it and it was expensive. Still cheaper than a new engine.

 

Nice one Throwback. I'm a few days behind (just picked up my '08 XKR yesterday). Any good advice from the brain trust for a newbie?

 

Keep the leather dashboard supple. It has a tendency to buckle real bad around the center and left. Its a real bitch to replace and big bucks.

 

Welcome to the Jaguar cult! I'm a newbie too so I'm not the most knowledgeable, but I can offer one bit of advice - as that's an X150 you should put a post in the X150 section of the forums.

All my other advice is generic to car ownership - go familiarize yourself with your vehicles maintenance schedule, check for deferred maintenance, get it in the air on jack stands or lifts and inspect all cv joints/boots for torn rubber/leaks/play, check wheel bearings for play, inspect tires for uneven wear. Also check date on the battery, replace if too old, having a nice strong battery always helps. Also if you ever drive it in remote places where there may be poor phone reception, if you car is equipped with a space saver, do a test run at home and make sure you have everything in the car you need to change or repair a tire by the side of the road if necessary, including a sufficiently long breaker bar to crack the wheel nuts. Its not always a given youll be able to call recovery, or that they can get to you in decent time. My father in law discovered this on a night drive from lake tahoe, got a puncture up in the mountains, only had a repair kit, which of course didnt work, had to wait to flag down another driver at 10 at night, get a lift to somewhere with signal, call recovery, etc etc, took him hours to fix. He passed away in january, and i found he'd purchased a full size spare, proper jack and breaker bar after that incident lol.

 

Thanks Throwback....just stumbled on the x100 v x150 thing a bit ago (I didn't even know what that was yesterday!!).

Cheers,

Carl