If you don't know him, he's the Car Wizard. He is Hoovie's mechanic (from Hoovie's Garage). Today he uploaded an episode were he does a post-purchase inspection on an XK8 convertible and finds very little wrong with it. The owner wants hi to install new timing chain tensioners. I think the price he quoted is a little steep, but he is a very good mechanic.

 

I watch him and Hoovies Garage all the time. Crazy that he's going to do the tensioners right after I did the set on the '01.

He has mentioned Jags before and even has a video of "proper" Jags to buy etc where he discusses them! Thanks for the heads up

 

I'm not crazy about that particular car, but still good looking. I can't believe some of the comments, "Thing is a junk." Idiots.

Jacob

 

Yeah, some people think that Jags still have the same reliability they had in the 60s and keep parroting it.

 

I thought 02 already had upgraded chains and metal body tensioners. Mine does. Sounds like they are making some assumptions without fully investigating whether the work needs to be done.

 

He said probably, they'll know when they take the valve cover off, but they probably don't have service records for it and I don't think it's likely with a low mileage car anyway. Either way they need to check. Mine had it done but the engine blew up anyway.

 

As a long term Jaguar owner who grew up with a dad who had the old Jags. Jaguar absolutely earned their unreliable trash reliability reputation. It takes a LOT longer to recover reputation than it does to lose it, so it's not a surprise that the reputation still lingers. Just shake your head, enjoy the value secondhand, and let them think it lol.

 

On the other hand there is a sort of credibility when people think that you have the guts to risk owning one and even more if you can fix it.

 

That is the reason we can own these for cheap and enjoy them. They are one of the best kept secrets in the automotive world.

Yes, my classmates in dental school think I’m some kind of self-taught master mechanic.

Many times I have been asked to diagnose some problem their car is having. The worst I have seen so far is one friend with a Toyota Camry who had a ripped accessory belts that was held together by the remaining 1/8th of its width of belt. He also had an empty radiator because one of the lines was leaking coolant which looked like sewage water. When I saw this I told him to leave the car at the university and that I would take him to his apartment and that we should deal with his car in the morning. He was so stubborn that he drove it this way to his apartment. I followed him because he wouldn’t make it. It somehow did not overheat. He made it to his apartment and when he was parking he calls to tell me his steering became very heavy. I told him that his accessory finally broke.

How he didn’t overheat his engine and blow a head gasket I will never know. I suspect that being midnight when this happened and that most of the trip was highway driving is what saved him a lot of money.

 

You can't own any Jag without becoming familiar with the basics, but then why own a car that never needs any work???, Oh, I asked my wife, and she explained it to me, duh???