Hi Guys. Just bot a 2001 XJ8 w/56,000 miles on it from a dealer on the east coast of Florida. I am on the west coast. N Ft Myers..
I don't even have the car yet.
I usually join the appropriate forums when I buy a car as that is where the knowledgable people are.
I am retired, 73 yo and have no mechanical ability left....

My other car is a 2004 Tbird..with a jag engine in it. I love that car.

I am Hoping for a great experience with the Jag.
I bought it to make long trips in it, as the Bird hurts my back after a few hours.....

BUT.
Looking at your forum.....and particularly the Sticky that talks about how to buy a used XJ8............
Have I made a mistake?

Is this a car only for enthusiasts? (I can understand that, if true)
I'm just a driver. I expect a little maintenance as I go along of course.
I could have bought a used Ford Crown Vic....reliable,comfortable, etc...but rather bland and bigger than I wanted.
I love this Jag's look.

But is it true?
Do I have to spend several thousands of dollars on it immediately?
Is that what you guys do? Buy it, spend several thousands of dollars,and THEN enjoy it?

I can't do that, but I don't want the engine to explode half way to Texas........

Am I just the wrong profile for this car?


Please, give me your best guestimate as to what I should do. That Sticky really impressed me.


Is there a way to tell if all, or some, of this stuff has possibly already been done?


Please don't think I am a troll.
I am a member of the Nissan Murano Forum.
The Thunderbird Nest & The Cadillac Owners forum.....
and probably still have a woking logon at The Miata Forum and The Corvette forum and two BMW forums.
I just don't know anything about Jags (Even tho I had an XJ6 back in the day) and while I wasn't looking.....I got old.

 

Welcome to the forum, Southern! You actually made the same mistake I made on my first post. The XJ8 and XK8 are different cars. Perhaps one of the mods can move this thread to the XJ8 forum.

Having said that, they have the same engine, so you should have someone verify that the timing chain tensioners have been replaced. The original tensioners were plastic and prone to breaking. There are a couple of other things you should verify, too, like a water pump with a metal impeller (not plastic) and an aluminum thermostat housing. Those are the three biggies. The prior owner might have had them fixed already. If so, the car should be a dependable car for you. I see XJ8's on craigslist all of the time with 140,000 miles plus on them. If the "biggies" haven't been taken care of, then you're probably looking at $2000 or so to get them done at an independent shop. Not doing them is asking for disaster. If the tensioners fail you might need a whole new engine. The timing chain would jump a few teeth and the valves would slam into the pistons, pretty much destroying the engine. Fortunately you'll usually have a rattling sound at startup that warns you of the impending failure. Another member will have to describe the sound. I've never heard it myself.

 

oops sorry.

 

No problem. Jaguar has the screwiest naming scheme: The XJS is a 2 seat coupe or roadster, but the XJ6 is a giant behemoth 4 door luxury sedan. Between XK's, XJ's, X-Types, and S-Types I get them all confused. They really need a better system. I still don't know the difference between the new XJ's and the new XF's.

 

Same. Someone should make a model chart. That would be neat.

 

Your wish is my command. This is just a start. Feel free to add suggestions. Most of the info I just scrounged off of Wikipedia.

 

XJ: Big aluminum luxury car!
XF: Smaller, but heavier, steel luxury car.(Next gen to be aluminum)

 

I have moved up yur thread off to the proper area , thanks XK guys for your assists

 

Southern,

Hello and welcome to the forum.

My suggestion would be to get the VIN # and head to your local Jaguar Dealer. Introduce yourself as a new owner and ask if they would pull up the warranty service history on the car. The advisor can help you read the history to determine if any of the problem areas have been adressed already.

This history however does not cover work that may have been done outside of the Jag Dealer network so ask the seller if any of the previous history is available.

As mentioned above the big one is whether or not the Primary and Secondary Timing Chain Tensioners have been replaced. The next on my list would be the Waterpump and Thermostat Housing. All of the parts mentioned above are plastic and will fail sooner or later. You will want to verify these areas have been addressed. If not expect that they will need to be done before they fail.

Best of luck, Ken

 

If this is from a Jaguar dealer they should be able to provide you with the previous maintenance -- especially if they originally sold it.

As others have said - you must take care of the maintenance items that pertain to your cars year.

As with any 10 year old car - things need to be done that a new car will not require -- and being a speciality luxury brand the parts are more expensive and the labor especially from the dealer can be expensive.

That said .... they are great cars and when properly maintained provide excellent reliability .......... particularly when bought with your mileage.

 

Just to ease your mind somewhat, if as I guess you're not a young leadfoot, your new car will be fine....I once bought an XJR of the vintage you have, build date the 28th of March 2001.

I took it to bits to use electrical parts, and inspected the engine - it had plastic tensioners and 280,000m on the odometer! they had little cracks starting to appear so I replaced them and the engine is still running very happily in another car. If it's been maintained correctly, it should be great with that mileage.

 

Southern:
I believe you have correctly analyzed the concerns. On the whole, you might very well be able to just drive the car quite successfully. On the other hand, I would say the odds are againt that, Taken in fior service, these cars are much more costly than any Crown Vic in all aspects of service. They can be tempermantal and spare parts are available from limited sources and are therefore more expensive. On the othe rhand, they are comfortable, stylish and fun to drive. And if you give a cr*p about what others think (don't we all, really?) it identifies you as a sport. So, maybe you can learn to enjoy working on the standard stuff yourself , saving a bunch of money. I say keep it.

 

Spend some money for an inspection before you drive cross country. If the car is a turd, park it and sell it. You bought it so someone else will. I wouldn't panic, though. Remember that the buying guides are here because many people who bought these cars had no idea of its needs and found out the hard way how owning a Jag turn expen$ive. It is cheaper to replace tensioners than a motor so these "warnings" are really a blessing to the community.

It is true that parts can be expensive and sometimes they have issues you wouldn't expect in a car that cost so much new. But like many high-end cars, they give you warning before something happens. What is better is that the car doesn't have to bankrupt you if something goes wrong. I read that you don't have much ability to do work yourself but that is the number one way to make Jag ownership feasible. Got a child or grandchild to help?

Again, don't panic, just have it inspected. The car is a later 308 and low miles so don't freak out until you have a reason. I think I can speak for all when I say we are here to help if needed and I wish you many years of happy ownership. I had regrets about buying my Jag early on but I'm getting the hang of things. You will too.

 

Thanks Guys and thanks to the SuperMod who moved this where it belongs.


Hoping to get the car this week.

I am first going to find out what I have.
Pointless to discuss further, now that the parameters have been set.
Will take the car to the dealer and will pay if necessary to have him check the appropriate parts.

The seller is not a jag dealer. I bot it on ebay from a top seller with 100% Positive rating. BTW The car comes with a 1 year warranty.....specifically naming the timing chain and tensioners...
But I never heard of the Warranty company, so there is some skepticism on my part.....
Here is the car: Jaguar : XJ8 - eBay (item 400211257356 end time Apr-23-11 13:34:39 PDT)

IF the estimate is thousands, then I will have owned the Jag for only a few hours before I sell it

I guess it was a dumb move on my part and yes 10 year old cars need some wor usually.....but this is extreme IMO..Most marques are not talking about total destruction unless you do this.......Almost like blackmail.
Actually I thought I knew th engine, but I guess Ford must have fixed the issue since Tensioners have not even been mentioned on the Tbird forum in the time I have been there. Of course the first Tbird with this engine was in 2002...and really 2003.....
The big deal with a Tbird is the COPs. They go bad at a ridiculous rate. Every Tbird owner on the board believes that every COP will go bad. But, Ford has warrantied them for 10 years, 100,000 miles.


Now, should the car have had these little "maintenance items" done...then I will drive it and fix things as I go along.
Hopefully that will be the case.....

As to wrenching it myself......no. I doubt that I ever could....but certainly not with my bad back and my arthritis.

 

Southern:
YES!The tensioners, both primary and secondary were fixed by year 2002, so I suppose that was carried to the Ford.

 

Looked at the pics on eBay... Nice car!
Couple things I noticed:
1) looks like the headliner maybe separating from the celling, at least it looked like it on/around the moon-roof. Pretty common on these cars...
2) the upper shock (front) bushings are pretty much gone. May wanna have them replaced as it will turn into unpleasant knocking under the hood every time you hit a bump...
Other than that, like everyone said, have it inspected for tensioners, and looking into getting aluminum thermostat housing, new water distribution pipe, and metal propeller water pump.

 

Very nice car, Sir! Even if I 'm from a different continent, I think that your new vehicle will not be such a trouble maker. Mine was 60k and not very well cared when I bought it and cross all the Europe to my home without any problems.I have 7k miles more on it,no problems at all!
The tensioners and water pump trouble were specific for earlier vehicles,since august 2000, a lot of these issues were cleared before yours was built.
If possible to have the car checked by a Jaguar specialist before your drive, you can then be sue it will not let you down.
I dream to have my car looking like yours!

 

Hi
The tensioners of our 2001 XJ8 failed at 90758 miles about 9 months ago.
There were no warnings alerts or any rattle noise at all before they failed.
We replaced both the primary and secondary timing chains, tensioners and all their related parts including the water pump.

2 months later the transmission forward disk cracked. We had our existing transmission rebuilt.

There is a link to "Summary of Major Repair & Safety issues" (this is a PDF file I created):
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...6&d=1297944458

This PDF file is a Summary that has information on the secondary tensioners issue, Transmission issues, Trottle Body, and others (detailed background info, DIY instructions, Parts sources, other threads and articles about each issue).

The Summary of Major Repairs & Safety issues is the first sticky thread in this Jaguar XJ8 & Jaguar XJR sub-forum. Most of the posts there have to do with the development history of the formatting of the information that led to the creation of the PDF file.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Jim Lombardi

 

Hi Guys. I am back.
Just got the car delivered to me last night and have spent 1/2 day going over it....
The Headliner mzs_bite me spotted has been replaced.
The bushings are all 10 years old and show some wear. Any chance some of these bushings are oil filled? The one on the shock doesn't look as bad in real life as it does in the pix. I will likely get the shock bushings replaced in the next few months.
I have a loose Jaguar emblem on the pass side fender. Haven'ytlooked at whatit will take to fix it.
The interior rear view mirror is very very loose. If it like most,it will need tobe replaced......
Discoloration on the paint of the sunroof. The dealer told me about this.
I'm not going to worry about it.
The Water pump was replaced at a jag dealer several years ado. Likely with a jag part.

That's it.......except that when discussing the Chain Tensioners with the car dealer, he reminded me that I had a 12 MO 12K warranty. He sent me the info on the NIADA warranty......and the Chain Tensioners are right there in the document as being covered.
So that gives me time to think about this....and drive the thing (and fall in love with it probably)

I think it is good for what I wanted, Should be a great touring machine.

as to driving it....here are some impressions...
Steering is awfully light, def not a sports car .....has what I call an "early loaded" accelerator..... Makes the car seems faster than it really is. Doesn't mean anything....some cars are like that.....most are not. Car is decently fast from a light. And has lots of Top end, I would imagine.
I will never know.....about 10 years ago I finally bought a car that I never took all the way up and that has been true of every one since then. Before that.....I took every car I owned all the way up.........BTW the Jag is the 54th car I have owned I believe.

As far as the overall impression.....smooth. Quiet. Powerful.
As it should be.


The car is super clean. Previously owned by a lady from Miami who obviously cared for it.

 

Hi Southern
Barring any unforseen disaster that all cars can have the Jag is excellent value for money usually quite cheap to buy which offsets most major issues.

I have owned 9 cats to date and if I had to give one tip for owning one...
Deal with the silly little things that occur as they happen. Stay on top of the stupid things and it will remain a total joy.

There is something about Jags that make you feel special as soon as you get in them.The only other car I ever felt it in was an aston martin (not mine!!!)