Lads
Now that the tempurature is becoming bearable up in old bliety I am starting in to uncovering my 2000 XK8. What are some things I should watch or attend to with preventive maintenance in mind. The car has 50,000 miles. One thing, do XK8's have timing belts that need changing or are the cam train driven by chains? Anything else I should scrutinize with an intense scrute.
Bertie

 

The one thing that you will get in a number of replies is to verify that the plastic cam 'chain' tensioners are confirmed to have been replaced or replace them. Many, many engines have destructed and economically taking the car with them.

Beyond that all the battery/charging system, oil, tires, etc. issues are pretty straight forward.

 

Test Point. Thank You for the advise.
Number One on my dealer check list.

 

Consider a transmission fluid & filter change.

 

Bertram:

Unfortunately, you have to pull the "valve covers" to visually verify that the secondary tensioners have been replaced with the newer design metal tensioners. You would wait to order parts after you've seen the parts needed.

At the same time, you should check to see if you have a plastic thermostat housing. If so, it needs to be changed to a metal thermostat housing. If you must change the housing, you should also physically inspect the water pump to see if the vanes are metal. (The original vanes were plastic that often failed.)

Fortunately, all of these common maintenance repairs are discussed at length in this forum, including pictures, etc. Your car is at the mileage where these items cause problems--sometimes serious problems.

 

Cam chain tensioners, water pump, transmission fluid. Those are the standard things to check and replace if necessary on early models. Lots of info on this board about that
Also check for rust under the car, just in front of the seats you'll find a small metal plate that collects lots of dirt and water and easily starts corroding.

Oh, control arm bushings wear out pretty quick as well. Might be a good idea to have those checked.

There's a fix for convertibles as well that you should look into if your car lacks a proper roof I've got a coupé myself so I havent studied that problem myself, but ask the other convertible owners here

Besides that, the car seems to be very reliable according to the owners, and I've had no problems myself after two years of ownership

 

You might check my thread "Before You Buy, Read This" and its responses.
I was told that replacing the upper timing chain tensioners was a must at 60-70k miles but, brother, you wouldn't want it to happen (a break). Goodbye, engine!