Hey all, I just bought a 98 xj8 today and am pretty freaked out at the moment. I noticed as I was driving it home today that I was pushing the gas peddle down a ways before getting any gas. I didn't think anything about it until I got home and went to tension the throttle cable. It was zip tied on, and pretty loose. I tightened it and went for a drive and was getting almost a puffing noise from the engine the directly correlates with the RPM.

The question here is did I get duped? Could this be this nikasil problem I am now reading about? Ugh, this is making me sick to my stomach...I just wanted a car that wasn't going to give me a bunch of problems.

 

I will add that there was no problem starting it up and the idle is dead quiet and smooth.

 

A lot of us feel that way when we first get a used car home. The old "why didn't I notice that before?" syndrome. You've come to the right place for some help, anyways. I always expect I'm going to dump a few dollars into it right off the get go. Otherwise, why was someone else wanting to part with it? Calm down, take a few deep breaths and then go have a look at why you got your XJ8. Hopefully, you will have only an issue or two to resolve and then you can enjoy that Cat.

 

"I just wanted a car that wasn't going to give me a bunch of problems."

Perhaps a 12 year old Jaguar would not have been my first choice if the above quote was first priority. More likely, you bought the car because it is a beautiful automobile. There is a long list of potential problems but with your instant fix of the throttle cable I am sure you can handle them.

And the best part is that you have are a lot of new friends standing by to help.

 

Let me readaddress the 'no problems' statement. I don't mind issues, I am used to e38 BMWs and I pretty much rebuilt a w123 benz. I just don't want to replacing motors a week after buying a car. Thanks for the supporting talk, I am calming down some.

Any ideas what this could be? I did some more searching and nobody seemed to be getting a noise like I am for the nikasil issue so that is a little soothing.

I am also reading about chain tensioner and oil weight. I always change my oil on a new car almost immediately along with the coolant. Should I go a head and replace the tensioner(s) along with that?

*edit - Car has 68k

 

If you have lived with a BMW and Benz you are going to feel right at home with the Jaguar.

A ' . . . little puffing noise' at first sounds like an exhaust leak. Just a guess from afar.

There is an even chance that your tensioners have been replaced but you need to know. The first generation, which your car came with, are more susceptible to catastrophic failure than the second generation plastic ones. My '02 had the newer plastic ones and a crack up the body at 46k miles.

If you need to replace them consider using the Lincoln LS '00-'03 ones. Same units but about half the price of Jaguar sources.

You might try the following link as a new Jaguar owner. It is a little easier than initially searching for 'all you needed to know' threads.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=29800

 

So...it was an exhaust leak. One of the bolts from the header/cat connection was broken. After 2 afternoons and a bunch of PITA work, and a few new bolts I got it fixed. For those of you reading this, get new bolts (M8x1.25x25) as more broke as I was trying to put the cat back on.

Thanks for the pointers and calming me down a little. My head works in the way of think about the worst case scenario and as long as it's not that...it is fine, as we have seen here.

 

happy to hear your hard work is paying off, and you can just enjoy it for awhile! Stick around if you like and partake in the forum banter if there's nothing you feel you can contribute 'technically'. You never know, some other members problem you have faced before, even if in another car, and can provide some very appreciated advice.