Definitely should be of concerned Carl. The first few years of the XK series has resulted in more frequent problems and repairs. Here's what I recommend.

Read thru all of the XK8/XKR threads that have anything to do with a 1997-2000 model, and take notes. There's been alot of recent, and historic threads relating to your year model.

Check on this quickly, as if it's secondary tensioner failure related, you want to either take it immediately back to the dealer and get your money back, or get ready to write some big checks for repairs.

 

Oh boy, there's alot of information on these forums about this issue. When you start the car, if there's quite abit of rattling at the front of the engine before it warms up... telltale sign of tensioner issues. But, to throw a code and restricted performance, then it the timing must be really out of wack. They're also a problem on the XJs of similar years (used same engine as our XKs), so you might find pictures and topics over there also. It would take a long time and lots of typing to get you up to speed my friend. Please read as much of the older threads as you can, and if you have questions, start a post with them. Try not to be too discouraged. Autozone or other parts store can read the stored computer codes, which will help give you more of an idea of where the problem lies. Can you get those read quick and report back?

We've got some good techs/mechanics on here that can give you a better idea with some P#### to refer to. You may have more than one also.

 

Carl,

Welcome to the world of Jaguar!

Step one: ask the dealer for the warranty repair record. That will document that some early issues were, or were not handled.

Critical is the tensioner issue. Either document that the secondary tensioner have been replaced of handle that immediately. Another critical issue is the throttle body replacement/reflash issue. Verify that there is a label on the 'B' driver colume confirming that has been done.

Beyond that there is a long list of issues that were problems on the early cars. Search this forum of lots of imput.