2001 XJ8 VDP - 103k miles - Florida car - will be driven in NW Pennsylvania (cold,very cold whether). I'll do an oil change this weekend (first one since I bought the car) and I'll stick with mineral oil. What kind should I use taking in consideration the mileage and the cold whether where I live. Also, what brand and number (oil and spark plugs). Thanks

 

You did not ask for advice on synthetic, but I gotta ask, why are you going to use mineral oil? I have torn into a bunch of engines in my day, and the ones running synthetic are always less crudded up.

 

I would use a weight that is recommended for the car in the owners manual - don't mess with the engineers. Jaguar did not specify synthetic oil for the car. People have various reasons for this -- The cynics say because Jaguar provided free maintenance for some years and did not want to pay the higher price.

I ran regular oil in mine while they did the maintenance but I have switched to synthetic mostly because I don't put that many miles on the car and with extended intervals the synthetic additives last longer. I use various brands of oil - any quality brand.

We regularly put 200+ k on our fleet cars using regular oil changing between 5k when new moving to 7.5k as they age -- never a problem. On a few with some valve noise I have been shocked at how well the high mile oils quiet them down - I don not think at 103k you would need them. But I use synthetics in the cars that recommend that you do - mostly because they have maintenance interval sensors.

How does the oil in the car look currently? Is the engine quiet? -- any leaks?

The synthetic are particularly good at flowing in very cold temp and they can stand up to the high temps in extremely hot places.


Do a search on the plugs -- and remember that many of these cars have leaky valve gaskets -- the plug areas can get oil in them.

Good luck

 

It all depends on which law you want to follow. I presume that Jaguar did not perform engineering validation on synthetics until after some manuals were printed.
Some manuals do not mention synthetics yet a later Technical Service Bulletin (100-10) indicates that synthetics from 5W-40 up to 15W-50 can be used.

I see no reason not to use a 5W-40 synthetic. They are superior in every way to a conventional oil.

 

I will switch to synthetic but first 2-3 oil changes I'll go with mineral to use them as an "engine cleaner" before I use synthetic. Any advice on brand and numbers? What about spark plugs? The engine is quiet and no leaks. Thanks

 

I'm using your native state's oil - Pennzoil - not sure it still comes from Pennsylvania, the 5W-30. But, that's just me. The plugs are listed as AJ8 4575 (iridium), gapped at 0.9 mm - 1.0 mm (0.035 - 0.039).