This is my first post. I switched over from the introductory forum.


Bought the car for my wife for her birthday to cruise around in.

The car runs well but left valve cover leaks oil a little. Radio and CD player don't work. Outside mirrors switch doesn't work but both memory mirrors do adjust automatically. Driver's seat back bolster is badly worn but not ripped. Engine missing plastic covers left and right. Paint is Titanium and is in just fair condition. A few small dings and dents, but no rust. 86,000 miles on the odometer.

Most importantly the top is brand new and works great!

It's going to be a fun project to fix it up for her.

What is the best way to troubleshoot the radio/CD player? I can see a stuck disk inside the player. Only the front right door speaker works. Could it be the amplifier in the trunk? It's a Harman Kardan unit.

Serial number on the car is 021403, so I believe it takes the newer 1998 radio, CD player and amp.


I'm looking forward to asking a lot of questions on this forum and having people help me spend a lot of money.

9-21-14: Spent Sunday resetting the left valve cover gasket because oil was leaking very slightly onto the exhaust manifold. I used sealer along the low side of the valve cover.The inside of the head was very clean, with a little hardened sludge on the valve cover where the timing chains throw oil up.

Next step is to get her insured and registered to see if the leak is fixed.

I noticed that the vacuum hose was disconnected from the top of the throttle body and the hose was plugged with a screw. I reconnected it and it made no diference in the engine idle. Anybody know what that vacuum line is for??

 

My condolences, I mean congratulations on your "new" Jag and welcome to the forum! When you had the cam cover off did you check to see if it has the latest(metal) secondary chain tensioners? If they are the plastic ones that should be a high priority to change them. I am still saving my nickels and dimes to do mine.
Mine had the HK amp and it was shorted and wouldn't turn off and would kill the battery over night so now its disconnected and I have no tunes. I decided to just save up and replace everything including the speakers with new upgraded stuff.



Dave

 

I second what the other Dave says re the tensioner issue. Do not delay replacement or wait until you think you can afford it. I did not hesitate, and now I have peace of mind knowing that the worst that might happen to my sixteen year old car would be something far less expensive than a destroyed engine. I have added 5000 miles (8000 KM) in the thirteen months of ownership and my only current glitch is the occasional loss of cruise control which is probably due to a faulty brake light switch. I just love this car and get compliments almost every single time I take it for a run.

 

Do not delay checking and replacing if needed your tensioners.

 

Vacuum pipe ............... if you're referring to the small diameter pipe from the top of the black vacuum reservoir on top of the throttle body, that's for the cruise control. If you don't have cruise control (like me), then it just bends down through a grommet and doesn't go anywhere or do anything.

If you have an amplifier in the boot (trunk) (and tweeters on the inside of the car where the rear view mirrors are) - you have the 'premium' sound system, If not, you have the 'standard' system in which case speakers are connected directly to the back of the head unit I think. Wiring diagrams are here on the forum along with much other helpful advice and information.
Cheers,
David.

 

Thanks for the tip on the tensioners. I checked the photos I took and the tensioner is not orange in color so I think they were replaced by a previous owner. The engine is extremely quiet, no rattle on startup.

 

John, Lucky man or should I say Wife!!
You picked a great time of year in your location to see all the leaves with all the smells that go along with it.
Welcome.


Wayne

 

John, welcome and congrats on making the wife happy you are on your way to enjoying your or should I say her beautiful car. I'm up in NH enjoying the leaves begining to turn and the nice crisp drives with the top down maybe we'll run across each other on the road.
As you can see a lot of great expertise here i enjoy learning about these finiky cars.

 

Welcome J.. I'm sure you and wife will enjoy the XK8. I just purchased my XKR a few months ago and I'm in love all over again.

Plus this has to be the best forum around!

 

Thanks for the replies. Poor wifey hasn't taken it out for a solo drive yet. I've given it a shakedown 50 cruise and the oil smoke/smell is all burned away after two miles. I think I fixed the leaky cam cover gasket.

I noticed the steering wheel shakes a little from side to side at low speeds. Is something loose in the steering wheel like shaft bushings, bearings, or attachment bolts? It tracks straight down the road, with no wheel shimmy at all. It panic brakes straight and true also. My tire guy had no suggestion as to what may be wrong. He said a bent wheel would cause it to shimmy, not shake side to side. By the way, the rack is new by previous owner.

New Toyo Proxes and chromed factory wheels on order!

 

There are a host of threads on front end issues with vibrations and shimmy, You should try a search and read through some and see if any apply. Most the front end suspension needs updated at some point. Certainly a alignment would be needed, maybe before you start to wear the new tires due to 'other' part wear just to see where you are at. Good luck with the car and enjoy.

 

Tensioners become dark brown eventually. Unless they are obviously metal further inspection is warranted.

 

+1. If you took a photo, post it here for confirmation.

All tensioners start out as off-white. Color does not indicate tensioner generation.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. I ordered a new cam cover gasket on ebay. Now I'll also order the cover bolt o-rings (because they are wet with fresh oil after driving today), and open her up and check the tensioners. If plastic, I'll order them along with a new right side gasket, and leave the covers off and wait for the new tensioners to arrive and install them. I saw a video of 4.0 cranking and the plastic tensioner was wiggling quite a bit.

 

Welcome aboard! You're on the right track. Sounds like you won't need much before it's time to get out there and enjoy the changing colors. Perfect timing for that car.

 

Along with a full alignment, be sure to have your new tires Road Force Balanced. Generic balancing just doesn't work on these cars - they are far too sensitive to vibration, pulling, etc. Also, you'll find that if you run your rear tires at more than 29 psi, they will wear prematurely right down the center of both tires. I learned that the hard way by starting my wife's XK8's four tires at 32 psi when we purchased it in February 2012. 28 to 29 psi is ideal. I know it sounds a bit low, but it's true. You can run your front tires at 32 to 33 psi with no issues....

Congrats and enjoy the car....

 

Still working on fixing all of the things that were never repaired as they failed over the past 16 years. Just replaced the remote mirror switch on the door yesterday and now the mirrors adjust properly. It also fixed my driver's window problem of juddering up and down repeatedly when opening the door with the window up.

I added a can of 134a and now the A/C is finally working and blowing ice cold.

Lets see, what else? I removed the rear seat woofers and the foam rings were completely shot. Ordered two more 6.5" woofers. The radio turns on but no sound comes out at all. Antenna works and no fuses blown. The CD player accepts the cartridge and cycles through all 6 CD's and the radio indicates that the CD is playing, but still no sound. Going to check out the Amp in the trunk next because it's easier to remove.

 

My stereo had the same problem. The HK amp uses the same fuse as the ant. My amp was shorted and constantly drew 2 amps even with the car off and key out so it drained the battery. There are 2 versions of this amp.

LJA 4170 AA - For base stereo

LJA 4170 BA - For premium stereo

Sometimes these amps come up cheap on Fleabay but usually people want to much for them. I decided to just save up and replace the entire stereo with something new as I never plan to play CD's or cassettes in the car anyways,


Dave

 

Strangely, the radio and CD player worked for my morning drive for coffee and then quit again. Right side speaker only played.

I decided to buy a refurbished radio on eBay and swap the old one out. I don't think the amp is bad, because the radio is the bad actor, with difficulty turning it on and off, and having the word "pioneer" show up on the screen at random. We'll see what happens with a new radio and woofers.

The front door speakers seem to work ok. Th CD player works fine also.

I'll update when I get it fixed.

 

Thats really strange if it still has the original HK (or even Alpine) head unit.


Dave