I test drove an XKR this weekend. Didn't purchase because it appeared to be kept outside, the paint had issues and the 20" rims had alot of rash.

Anyway, whenever I hammered the accelerator I heard a popping sound almost immediately, kinda sounded like air rushing in or out of something. Is this something normal on the XKR? I would let off, then after a moment hit the accelerator again and heard it again, repeated almost every time I did that.

 

This is not a normal sound, but I don't have an idea what it is.

 

Was the sound like a "bark" or a "pop", and where did it seem to be coming from? The "bark" sound is the transmission and there is a fix for that.

Doug

 

Really? What's the solution? My transmission does that infrequently. I just did a search but it didn't find anything.

 

If you google for the words "Jaguar", "transmission", "bark" or "whoop" you should eventually stumble on some sources of information. In short, I discovered this was a well-known issue and the solution was to drain the fluid and replace with some other fluid that had an additive or different formulation. The way I found this out was when I was shopping around for these cars, the first XKR I test drove (low mileage 2003 XKR) had this "bark" under hard acceleration. I talked with a service manager at a local Jaguar dealer with whom I had become friendly and as I was trying to describe the sound to him he cut me off and asked "did it sound like a bark?" and then proceeded to educate me about this issue.

Doug

 

To me it sounded like a belt slipping, but now that you mention it it sounds like a small dog's bark.