Hi everyone!

I'm the lucky new owner of a 1997 XK8 Convertible!

It's really in excellent condition. After I took a drive I pretty much fell in love with it, so I bought it. The suspension felt tight on the road, with the exception of a little intermittent rattle on top of the dash by the window (yes I read about that after the fact), everything seems to run fine.

There are a few issues with it... condensation inside the headlamp assembly, a rattle caused by the rear driver's side speaker and what appears to be a small barely noticeable dent on the left front quarter panel that you can only see when the light hits it at the right angle there isn't much else to report... oh, and there is the smell of coolant which is really troubling me.

For a car that's 14+ years old, it really only looks like it's 4 or 5 years old, the only tell is that it has a cassette player.

Then I come here and read everything else. Oh. My. God. I'm thinking to myself, I *really* should have done a bit of research instead of impulse buying. I did figure, what the hell, the price was right and compared to anything else in the price range I looked at, it was by far the most car for the dollar. Then I read all the issues they have.

It is a high mileage car. That was the only thing that made me hesitate. It has... 143k miles on it. However, the only plus is that the first owner only had it for about 20k miles, the second owner had it for the rest of the time and religiously serviced it at a Jaguar dealer. Actually, after reading here a bit, it seems that having a higher mileage 1997 might actually be better, as if it had any of the major issues they were most likely corrected or the car probably wouldn't still be running.

I suspect the front end has been repainted, as there isn't a single chip in the paint, but the color matches perfectly... so I'm at a loss. Either way I don't care, it looks great and appears to function well.

The alignment is nearly perfect. There is a very slight pull to the left that I honestly didn't notice when I test drove it... I figured when I bought new tires I would have this addressed.

Anyway, on Monday I'm going to take it to the dealership that saw most of it's service life with to see if the timing chain tensioner, throttle body, suspension check and compression check and well as to diagnose what the problem with the coolant smell is from.

So, feel free to point and laugh... I'm good as the brunt of the joke. Just thought I'd post, say hi and let everyone know how foolishly I impulse bought a Jaguar that I probably shouldn't have.

Please comment on anything, and further insights into this particular car, the 1997 XK8 Convertible, would be welcome.

I still think it's one hell of a car for the price I paid, but I'm embarrassed to say how much now that I've read the forums. :P

 

Welcome, Xeno! You will find the forum members to be a very friendly bunch and if you need advice on DIY for your car, this is the best place for it. I had a 99 XK8 with nearly 140K on the clock before some clown totaled it last June. Lots of members have high-mileage daily drivers, which I believe is a testament to two important facts. First, take care of your Jag and it will take care of you. Second, Jag members love their cars, which makes the first axiom easy.

Read through the FAQ sticky pages and you'll learn a lot. The fact that the previous owner had the car services at the dealer should mean they have a complete record of all the maintenance done on the car; that's a big plus. As you discover more, post your questions and the members will be glad to give you some pointers.

Enjoy your new ride!!

 

With the previous owner's permission the dealer can print out each and every one of the repair/maintenance invoices. A very nice thing to have. That should tell you what you dealing with.

I got a very nice surprise when I acquired my car's documentation. Both the transmission and the front end suspension had been replaced within 15k miles of buying the car.

. . . and welcome to the forum! Great group of helpful people here.

 

Xeno,

Welcome aboard. Let me suggest you put three items at the top of the punch list:

- secondary tensioners: If not yet updated to the third gen (metal body) version, your motor is at risk, and the cost of that repair could effectively total your car
- water pump & thermostat: They break. Motor overheats. Not fatal, but good to avoid
- convertible top: select a pressure-reduction method (two described here) and get to that as soon as practical. These systems fail and leak fluid all over the interior. Much time and/or money to replace failed hoses. Until doing this, do not operate the convertible top with the car's motor running (more pressure that way than with the motor turned off)

Good luck,

 

Welcome, but get in line behind me for pointing and laughing!

That should make you feel a little bit better.

You will, come to enjoy the ride.

 

Of the stuff you mentioned, none if it seems like a major problem. The only thing to possibly be concerned about would be plastic timing chain tensioners, but if it has 140K on it I would assume those have been replaced. The dealer can let you know for sure.

If you're a DIYer you can fix all of those things yourself for not much money.

And I think everyone hear knows how you feel about the car. I would have probably bought the first one I drove if not for the fact that the air conditioning wasn't working. I actually made an offer to the dealer, but he turned it down (ironically, almost a year later that car is still sitting on his lot).

 

Oh yeah... a good thing about your car is that it has the early convertible top hydraulic hoses. They were much less prone to failure than the more recent hoses. But, you should still follow Dennis' advice just in case.

And you need to post some pictures. You didn't even tell us what color it is! If it's carnival red with a beige interior I'm going to be jealous. Also add the model and model year info to your signature line. I have a lousy memory and when you start asking questions about the car I won't remember what year it is.

 

Hello and welcome to the forum. It is the passion for the Cat that attracted us all. There is a wealth of great info on the forum. Don't hesitate to ask. Good luck and ENJOY.

 

Hello and welcome. I purchased a high milage car also. It's Okay. They run a long time. Because of this forum you will know more about your car than any of your friends now about thier cars. That's good and bad. If you start making lists of things to do, it can become overwhelming. If you think you have to do everything before you can start enjowing the car you might be doing yourself a disservice. My method is to keep it clean always, so you can be proud of it. Fix things as you can. Take your time repairing it so you have time to get better prices on parts. Have fun and send us a note when you need help.

 

xenophobe
Quit worrying, Most of the people on this forum have troubles, that's why they are asking for help, the forum members are small percentage of owners. If you read forums about other vehicles you would not buy anything. I've read the forum on my Lexus and you would think it's plagued with problems. These cars are well built, example yours, the previous owner kept it for 123,000 miles whats that tell you. he must have been pretty satisfied. I really haven't much problems although the previous owner addressed all the major issues. You may want to check yours out and address any maintenance that you would on any 143,000 mile car.
Good Luck, this car hopefully will keep you "smilin".
Doug
2001 XKR Silverstone

 

Great post Xeno and unlikely anyone here will laugh at you.....more sympathise and be ready to help as has been witnessed by the last few replies you've had.

This is a friendly helpful and great place to be....welocme aboard

The only thing missing from your post is some pics of your baby

 

To add to RCSign's comments, a lot of people sell their cars because they think a needed repair is going to cost too much money. For example, I am absolutely certain that the guy I bought my car from thought that it needed a new ABS module, or at least a wheel speed sensor. Through this forum I learned that the problem he was having might just be due to dirty wheel speed sensors. So I cleaned them, and the problem went away! Many people take their cars to the dealer for service and the dealer is there to make money. I'm not saying that the dealer is cheating the customer, but if the dealer hooks the car to the computer and the computer says that the problem is a bad wheel speed sensor, the dealer is going to change the sensor. I seriously doubt a dealer would just clean a wheel speed sensor.

Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked. My point is just that most people don't know how to fix their cars on their own. If the car starts giving them problems, their inclination is to just sell the car rather than to spend money having someone repair it. You may have bought a car that someone thought needed thousands of dollars in repair costs, but if you'll take advantage of this forum any repairs that you need you can probably do yourself. I've saved myself literally thousands of dollars because of Jaguarforums.com.

Unfortunately Jim is probably going to ban me soon because he doesn't appreciate an ex-Marine's sense of humor, but I'll be back. I've already figured out how to use proxy servers and stuff to hide my ID.

JUST KIDDING JIM!!! I'm going to do my best to keep my crude comments under control!

 

Point well made by Sam there xeno as by all others

Its people like the great members / techs, even Sam himself who has posted some excellent "how to" vids that all make this forum the place that it is and it could literally save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars / pounds.

Sam - Just for the record, I do appreciate your sense of humour as well as other pursuits you are interested in. Unfortunately not ALL here do and I have to try and make sure that its the best for the widest possible audience. You've made some invaluable contributions to this site and are a valued member.

We don't just ban a member for nothing and certainly the regular and valued members may get a little more leeway than others but there is always a line .....the trick is knowing where that line is and staying jusssst the right side of it

 

I thought there was no such thing as an ex-Marine, only former-Marine.

 

HOO RAH!

 

Thank you for the warm welcome! Yes, I did forget to mention the color or include pictures. My good camera is packed away in storage as I'm in the middle of a move, but I'll make sure to take some this afternoon.

For being 14 years old, the car just looks so well kept that I did end up buying it. It's not that I had any specific price range... if I didn't get this I was very likely that I would have dropped a lot more on one of the newer SRT8 Chargers.

I already love this XK8. I remember when they first came out and I wanted one so bad. So it happened to be at a 'for sale by owner' type car lot where I was just looking for something to use as a daily for 3-6 months while I'm looking for a new house.

The funny thing is I would have bought a newer one had I known about these 'issues'. Oh well, live and learn. It just felt so special... and of course, you all know what I mean about that.

Thank you! That is something I did not see in the two most commonly referred to threads on the subject. I'll make sure that I don't do that.


I don't mind doing some mild wrenching... When I was 16 I rebuilt my first Dodge 340, but I don't plan on doing anything like that again. I'll provide all the good and bad when I get the service inspection.

 

And you still didn't tell us the color combination!!

 

Not to worry, m'friend. To some extent we all bought on impulse, at least I'd like to think so, because I sure did. I looked online for months before I found mine, but I actually bought it before I had ever even driven and XK8. I had owned a 1993 XJ6 VDP and my wife now has a 2005 XJ8L, which has essentially the same drivetrain as the XK8. First time I drove hers, it startled me with its power and smoothness. The thought of that drivetrain and Jaguar luxury combined with the sexiest autobody on the road at prices that were affordable . . . I knew I had to have an XK8.

I predict it will give you much more pleasure than pain.

 

Well, I'm usually pretty good at avoiding rash purchases... The little kid inside of me wouldn't let it slide. I had every chance to research the product, but was too busy looking around the area for a comparable car at a similar price and couldn't find one, so I bought it.

Oh, yeah, I know I didn't mention color again. That's cause it's just simple metallic black. Actually, I've never really liked metallic black and prefer solid black, but this color actually is nice.

As promised, crappy pics from a pocket camera. Sorry, I didn't have time to stage better shots...

 

Beautiful car! I would have bought it on impulse too! Black on black has always been my favorite color combination.