Hi to all, my name is Dick but my posting name is lrichard. I have purchased an 2001 XK8 "fixer-upper". Lots of electrical problems such as auto speed control, radio antenna won't come up, electric seats in dire need of attention. The body is perfect but the paint is a bit tired. I think 95% of my paint will improve by buffing the paint very carefully. Small paint chips can be touched up. The car runs and drives as it should, being a Jaguar. I will be asking lots of questions as time goes on. My thanks for solving my brake switch problem... that was a big one. My stop lights were on most of the time. After reading the posted instructions, I located the small mounting nuts, loosened same and crawled under the dash... wiggled the switch carefully and then retightened the two nuts. The lights now work as they should... and I thank the writer of the instructions very much.

 

Welcome! You've come to the right place. This forum helped me do the same with my wife's 98 XK8 basket case.

 

I live in Green Valley, AZ, 25 miles south of Tucson. My car is a 2001 XK8, color is BRG with a tan top and tan seats. To say it is beautiful would be an understatement. I do believe it was designed and built inside a Church. The green is to die for. The car could not be any more beautiful if it tried! Being stock, the car is not as quick as I thought it would be but that's ok. I am 78 years old and should not be driving fast anyway. I still do, but should not. Oh well, my wife says I will never change. I hope between the first post in this column and now this second note will give you a fair picture of me. If it is of any importance, I worked my life as a Mechanical Engineer and full fledged Back Yard Mechanic. I enjoyed the Back Yard Mechanic work!

 

Welcome to Jaguar Forums Dick,

Good to have you with us.
I see you have found your way around the forum already so no need for any links from me!
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help

 

Welcome to the forum Dick,

Good to have you with us at Jaguar forums and to hear you have already found useful information.

No need for a link to XK8/XKR tech section. The 'HOW TO' thread at the top there is a good place to start for info on regular issues.

Please remember to add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User CP button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.

Enjoy XK8 and the forums.

Graham

 

Hello & welcome Richard....

 

welcome to the forum, you will find plenty of info and support here - enjoy!!

 

Welcome Dick! No reason to be embarrassed, we all start as newbies here and many of us come into this forum, and ownership of these cars, knowing very little if either. I count myself in that group too.

Looks like you're going to fit in just fine.

Steve

 

Been a while since I've been on but its great to see a new XK8 owner. You will love the forum and information, and the car. I think as someone said earlier, it may have been built in a church. If I might give you a little suggestion though. You said your paint was in good condition, just needed buffing. I really dont think you should try buffing it. Please go over to the detailing section on the forum and read through some of the simple but very effective paint restoration techniques, these fine people here saved me tons of aggravation and money on my paint. Give it a shot first and above all, welcome to the forum and to Jaguar.

 

Welcome to the forum Dick and congratulations on the new jaguar. this forum has been an invaluable tool keeping my Jag running sweet and looking beautiful. Read the stickies under the XK8/XKR section, there is an amazing amount of very useful information.

 

I hope my car turns out ok. Lots of work is required. The dealership that sold me the car hid so many problems... or rather, just didn't say anything and it was up to me to find the problems. I will succeed and I will make the car worthy of the name... I hope.

 

I have pictures I would like to upload but they are to large... Try as I may, when I reduce the size I cannot get them to transfer into this web site. I'm not computer literate and I am having a lot of trouble with this. I took my Volvo out of the folder and tried to insert this into this site. Didn't work. The picture was less than 600x600 and it still didn't work. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. I am bogged down in the details and I am trying to do things to pictures when I should be reporting on my car.

 

Hi and welcome aboard, its good to have you here with us here at Jaguarforums

If you need any further help with the site moving forward, please just ask any moderator, veteran member and we'll be glad to assist.

In the meantime, any useful site information you may need such as how to post pictures, edit signatures, add videos, using the
search facility etc, can be found here within the following link Helpful_information

There are lots of members local to you with the same interests with info on local dealers and possible meets.
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I've manually upgraded you to Full forum access so you can better view the site and all its features.
Please Jump on in and enjoy the site........

 

Good Morning to you and thanks for your reply and upgrade. I have been having such problems with my computer. It crashed on me as I started to write into the forum on Friday. I successfully rebooted and was able to correspond to some degree that day. On Saturday it took me fifteen minutes to boot, I went into my email to answer some notes to my friends and family but again crashed. I ran a couple of "cleaning" programs and today this thing seems to be a bit better.


I received my Service Repair Manual on Friday but it came "on a disk". I am not a computer whiz so for Friday I struggled trying to read the manual on Adobe. After quite a struggle I finally did get to read some of it... very informative. Today after Church I will get back into the manual and see what it has to say about the radio and antenna. That will my next problem area to solve. The mast will not go up and the radio only plays one station out of Mexico... nothing else. I think the cable is broken inside the antenna and I think that is repairable.


Again, thank you very much for your reply. All together, the forum is making me feel right at home... so many people have helped me along.
Have a good day...
Dick

 

78 and still driving fast?

You, sir, are my hero. Never grow up!

 

Thanks. I forwarded your entry to my wife's computer. She is always telling me to get out from under the dash and let someone else to the work. I love driving fast and furiously and to do so requires a working knowledge of how this dam car operates. Law sometimes objects... but I'm old. Don't have a lot of chances to go, do what I love.


I will never grow up and I'm proud to say so. My dog loves me unconditionally and never has he once told me to slow down. Says a lot to the canine mentality. I love my wife...!



Thanks for all of your support. My car is a fixer upper and I need help on some electrical problems. My next encounter is... the radio antenna does not go up. I pulled the carpet away from the antenna area, up and over the tape deck and almost gagged. I was looking at a thousand wires and way far away, I could see the base of the antenna... I think. But this is for tomorrow. Today I went into the city of Tucson, the air was warm, the traffic was gentile and I was enjoying every mile.