Hi fellow Jag lovers,

I have a good friend who contacted me to let me know he is seriously looking at buying a XK8 with a focus on the late 2003 to 2006 4.2L. I do not know myself a great deal about this particular car so I let him know I would seek the experts advice.

What insights can you give about the last XK8's with the 4.2L when it comes to reliability etc. I would assume that Jaguar had worked out all the early model's issues like plastic timing tensioners and such. I had also heard about a leak on the convertible top latch area but I am not sure how many years this applied.

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback on the 4.2L XK8.

 

The 4.2 has something like 400+ upgrades over prior models addressing the problems with the first years. I got rid of my early XK8 for a 4.2 XKR and it saved me a ton of money. If it is a convertible the one thing that apparently wasn't sorted was the hydraulic hoses to the front latch that will fail if the car has been left in the sun. Other things to watch for are worn bushings, leaky fuel rails (you'll smell the gas), supercharger water pump, and make sure someone changed the gas filter.

 

See Jaguar XK8 and XKR buyers and owners guide and tutorial - TheJagWrangler thanks to member vanremog.

 

Ironically, this weakness is found in all MYs except the very earliest. Seems the first cars used hoses that held up, but then Jaguar, uh, improved on them.

 

Track down as much of the service history as you possibly can. Although the later models were indeed much improved over the earlier models, there are still common issues (some of them relatively critical) that must eventually be resolved. The more you know about your car's service history, the better off you are....

 

You know... They still arent "perfect". But, I love my 2004. I had to fix the headrests, the mirror doors on the visors were sloppy, and one of the dash bulbs was out, the trunk release button on the boot wasnt working (fractured wire), the upper strut bushings were worn out (another common ailment), and I did have to have the top latch cylinder rebuilt. But heck, the car has over 100,000 miles!! It's still in immaculate shape. I would say that, all things considered, an excellent car.Where can you get this kind of exclusivity, style and performance for the price of a used Honda?

 

When I owned my 97 and was on this board back then I was told that the very early model 97 convert hose lines were diff then most of the rest of that first year. If I recall correctly the early hoses used had no stampings of parts numbers, names nothing. I THINK that is what I recall. It is back in one of my old threads from 2010. I recall looking at the lines coming into the trunk to the pump being plain old black, nothing on them.
But also seems the cars that spent time out in the sun was hard on the lines in the windshield header to the latch.
Thankfully that was fixed on mine by the person that sold me my car.

 

Look for front suspension issues, that seems to still be an issue on the 03+ models with some miles on them.
03+ the tensioners are no longer an issue. Like anyone else here I would stress that if at all possible buy one that has a maint history. These cars left unchecked in upkeep can be a bucket of small issues that can drive you insane and cost some $$$$$$ if you can't do a good part of the repairs yourself.

 

If we were to go get a statistics guy, and throw all the failure reports on his desk and ask what's up ... he would tell us the strongest predictor is heat. More so than peak pressure or pressure rate-of-change.

There's probably something could be done to help with that. Grist for the mill over the winter ...

 

Park in the shade as much as possible, particularly during the hot summer months. Easy to do with all the shade trees in our neck of the woods. It just may make a difference in the long run, and it's essentially free....