After spending most of the day reading through these posts I've become afraid to drive my new (for me) 2002 JKR, 52000 miles. What with all the terrible things that might go wrong. I'm specially concerned with the secondary plastic tensioners. Would someone point me to a good tech? I live in SE Ohio, Athens County. The nearest city is Columbus and Charleston WV is a little farther. What should I expect the job to cost? Could a fair shade tree mechanic take it on? Thanks for your help.

 

Welcome to our forum Old Doc!

You will find lots of good folks with helpful advice here, so don't let your first try discourage you!

That said, you have posted in the wrong section, so those of us with newer (2006+) XKs cant be of much help.
Try reposting in the XJR section (or XKR 1998 - 2006) for a better response.

Never be afraid of yer Cat. (They can smell fear!)

BOL

 

Perhaps this link will help you - Jaguar V8 Secondary Tensioners - Preventive Replacement

Give your dealer a call and get a quote from them. I had the dealer do this work on my vehicle. Having them change the primary, secondary, timing chains, gaskets etc was $2600. They were willing to do the the secondary for $800 if I remember correctly. A competent mechanic should be able to do this as well, you can of course try a google search as well and compare the quotes. I hope this helps.

 

Jaguar switched to metal bodied tensioners in Aug. 2001, so your car may have the latest. Engine # 010813xxxx is the changeover. I think there is a sticky on finding the engine # , or call a dealer and they should be willing to look it up when you supply the VIN.

 

Old doc,
Unless you have any obvious bumps and/or knocks, my advice to you would be this :-
Get in the car, drive it, ride it, enjoy it. Put the worries behind you, enjoy your Jag, take it from me, you will LOVE it. In a weeks time you'll wonder both what all the fuss was about, and why you didn't get one sooner. Enjoy bro, just enjoy.

 

DITTO.
I must agree. If it has been taken care of and regular service you should do fine. I'm from S. Ohio in Adams Co. Been driving my 03 vdp for a few years now and loving it. Got it at Kempthorne in Canton, new car trade in, bought their new. Good luck and enjoy.
Dave

 

While the sentiment of enjoying your car is well founded it is also important that you verify the type of secondary tensioners installed on your car. You must get a visual on both banks.

It is true that the engine build date determines what you have ... but an engine can sit in stock for a long time before it goes into a vehicle. Therefore your vehicle build date is not much help.

The engine number is hard to see but Jaguar North America help line or your dealer can tell you the engine number if they have the VIN.

 

The CarFax said that the car was put into service in June of 2001

 

Unless you have repair documentation of tensioner change you have the plastic version. At least pull a valve cover to verify. My '02 XK8 manufactured in June '01 had the plastic ones.

They do need changed!

Two hundred dollars DIY and they are not hard, $800, or less, indy mechanic.

 

My car was built in May 01 and entered service as a business lease in July, too. The tensioners were plastic with 5/8 " rip in one, 3/8 " in the other. Pull the cam covers and get some peace of mind!

 

After much thought passed the XKR by. A few days later found, on net, a XJ8 with third gen tensioners, ony 44k miles and no nav (3 great dials). Picked it up last week and an very happy. It need some things done to it, but nothing catastrophic. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/i...nce-cpatch.gif

 

Personally, I would have stuck with the supercharged car and changed the tensioners, chains and guides. With them done you have peace of mind, Now you have the dreaded A drum failure of the ZF gearbox weighing on your mind. The supercharged cars have a much stronger Mercedes gearbox.