Keep the fluids changed (trans also) you will see 100k easily. At 15 years old now you will start to see front suspension bushing issues, this happens to all of us, miles on the car is not the issue, it is the years the car just has been alive it you will. You will see other ticky tacj crap happen, Water Pump, radiator hoses and the like you will want to keep an eye on.
I am at 103k on my 03 and she is clean as a tack. Also, everyone will tell you here, DRIVE THE CAR. these cars are really known to hold up better if they are driven. If then sit you get a low battery then any various types of malfunctioning parts that will scare you, thinking they are broke which is not the case. many of the electronic parts on this car love the right amount of juice to be going to them at all times, when that battery get weak, they hate it. Sure the car fires up fine, all that, but I think the volts of the battery, if they drop below 12.3 that is considered a weak battery. Someone will correct me if I am off on that.

 

At what mileage did you get the trans fluid changed? Did you bring it to a shop or do it yourself?

I'm passing 80k and I don't believe there's ever been a trans fluid change.

 

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First, I'd like to say congratulations on buying what I feel is one of the classic cars of all times! Even after 20 years, it still looks modern! Second, I totally agree with brgjag on everything he said. I have over 111,000 miles on my car and am still in love with it. But you cannot let them sit or ignore the maintenance, and like any other British car, if you see, smell or taste something different, stop and check! A new wet spot on the garage floor? Make sure it isn't antifreeze or transmission fluid. Getting a whiff of something burning while sitting at a stop light? Make sure you don't have a weeping valve cover or leaking thermostat tower. If you stay on top if the issues, the costs are FAR less then if you don't.

You can read a lot of history on these cars, but the reality is that they had very high build quality for Jaguar and the infusion of money and quality control that Ford put into the company in the mid 90's really helped. HOWEVER...they are still Jaguars!

In addition to what has already been said, since your car has so few miles on it, I would look at some of the items that got fixed by Jaguar as warranted or service bulletins. For example, many cars had throttle body failures that require a complete rebuild or replacement (mine did). I'd also check on the timing chain tensioners. 2002 appear to be right on the cusp of when they went from plastic to metal. There are several threads here that discuss this and even go over how to find out via the engine number. If worst comes to worst, you can take off one of the valve covers off to find out.

An interesting thing is that the 4.0 V8 engine was used by Ford on the 90's Thunderbird (labeled a 3.9) and on the Mercury LS. So you can find many parts that are branded as Ford or Mercury that are direct swaps with the more costly Jaguar branded items. But be aware that much of the electronic control systems are Jaguar specific and putting other parts on can cause serious failures. If in doubt check out this forum. If you still can't get an answer, go Jaguar brand.

Also, I totally agree about the voltage concerns. I'm finding that batteries are consumable items like tires and oil! I get about two years out of one before I need to replace it. The cars do really weird things when the juice gets just a little low. Everything from windows not seating when you close the door, to the car just stops running on the freeway (both have happened to me!).

The comment about water pumps and radiator hoses is also a good one. Again, lots of threads on this site to help here. In general, these cars have lots of plastic parts in the engine bay and these are very prone to failure over time. Thus far I've had to replace two water pumps (do yourself a favor and make sure you get a water pump with a metal impeller!), the thermostat tower, the radiator header tank, and the "octopus hose" that feeds the heater core. All plastic part failures. So even though your car doesn't have a lot of miles, because of the age, I'd keep an eye on it.

Finally, I'm going to make a plug for a product that one of the guys on this sells called RealGauge (I don't make a commission on plugging it! Really!). Believe it or not, the oil pressure gauge on these cars is really an idiot light. It's either at zero or mid range. Also, the water temperature gauge is calculated to go to mid range and stay there until you have seriously overheated, at which point the needle will jump into the red. I guess Jaguar believed that the "more sophisticated" drivers really don't want to know what their engine is doing!

RealGauge is a relatively easy conversion that allows you to make both gauges work like, well, real gauges! It does require taking the instrument panel out and splicing into a wire harness, and installing an adaptor by the oil filter that you can plug a real pressure sending unit as well as the original on/off sender which is still needed. If you are handy with a spanner, you can easily do this on a Saturday.

Sorry to run on-and-on, but I feel that these cars deserve to be loved and treated well and with preventative maintenance, some love and a little luck, you can have a great car for a very long time.

 

My 2002 XK8 was built in 10/01. Can you tell by the VIN# if the car has the metal tensioners? THX

 

My 2002 XKR was built in 7/01 so I was pretty sure I would have plastic tensioners. I checked a few weeks ago and I found that they were metal. I didn't see anything in the service history about replacement.

 

From a previous post by member test point:

The conversion to metal tensioners occurred supposedly at the start of '02 model production but that is not absolutely true. The conversion date was August 13, 2001 at the engine plant. Since the engine serial number encodes its production date the first upgraded engines had a serial number of 010813hhmm. The 'hhmm' has not been reliably reported.

There is no direct relationship between engine manufacturer date and vehicle assembly so a car with a September '01 manufacture date cannot be guaranteed to have the metal tensioners.

 

Dear test point:


Can you tell me your cars build date from the door sticker? Mine is 10/01. THX

 

Does anyone know where are the serial #'s on the engine? THX

 

Heres the Diag of Location

 

See post #18 of this thread for the engine serial number location

 

Can anyone tell me if this is the engine sticker # and what the build date is? The # I saw on the bottom of the engine is 78525011478? Or is there an easy part I can remove to see if the engine has plastic or metal tensioners? Thank you for all your help.

 

FlCat, if you're still not sure of the build date, enter your VIN here
and it will tell you, along with some other (possibly) useful information.

If you can't find a definitive on the tensioners any other way, you will need to lift a cam cover and the RHS one is the easier. Lots of threads on here covering this.

HTH,
Mike

 

That link is Ford and may not work for Jaguar. Here's a link to the Jaguar Forum VIN Decoder: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/vindecoder.php

 

Yes, sadly the Ford ETIS information died around the time Tata bought out Jaguar. I haven't found any reliable since (I imagine Topix will) - the forum one doesn't recognise my VIN.

 

I have a 2002 XK8 with 32000 miles, and I don't think the transmission oil has ever been changed. It's running perfect. Should I still change the transmission oil? TY

 

Fresh ATF in these old cars is always a good idea....