Hey guys,

I have a ‘97 XK8 with low miles (30,000) and I’m interested in opinions on preventive maintenance necessary at 30,000 miles, regardless of what the manual says because the car is 23 years old.

I have all the records and in 2008 (at 28,000 miles) the throttle body and fuel injectors were serviced. But I don’t have any records on service of spark plugs, transmission and differential, shocks, etc. Everything else seems to be original. For example, service manual says to do the spark plugs at 100,000, but wondering if I should just do them at 30,000 since they might be 20+ years old.

I just did drive belt, coolant flush with new thermostat and aluminum housing and water pump, and front strut mounts.

I was wondering if I should do spark plugs, fuel injectors, transmission and diff fluid, fuel filter, shocks and springs (ride is good but bumps are rough), timing chain? What else? Thoughts?

 

You should change the cam tensioners at once. That’s the most important way to prevent a $5,000 disaster that I know of.

while you are in there, clean the injectors. Even though they were done 2,000 miles ago, that was 12 years ago, a sitting car leaves fuel deposits everywhere


Z

 

Are you talking about upgrading the plastic timing chain tensioners to metals ones that I believe I read about somewhere on here? Ugh, can’t find it now!

 

I would say so, and related parts, yes.

Change the plugs later - yes they should be done.

"Obviously" all fluids (oil, coolant, brake fluid, ...).

Sounds like you have the right ideas and a potentially great car.

At some point, use an OBD tool to check the car's happy - I'd say as soon as the tensioners etc are OK. (Happy = good fuel trims, no faults, sane sensor values, as a minimum.) Figure when/whether you want to scan the other modules.

 

yes.

the plastic tensioners are the #1 way the 4.0 engines will self destruct

#2 on the danger scale; if you have an external oil cooler, those lines will burst without warning.

the early XK-8’s had transmission issues too. All documented in the sticky section

Z

 

Given cost/effort/benefit analysis I would not vote for differential fluid change at this point.

Hey dont forget that there is a grease fitting in the rear.

John

 

Thedude3,

+1 To The above. You haven’t mentioned any faults with the car. If you have any well worth starting there.

On the preventative measures, I would take, I would also add things like:

Camcover gaskets
VVT solenoid seals
Coolant renewal - drain and change
Power steering fluid change
Fuel Filter esp. if the car has been sitting

onto more difficult jobs - possible work to plan for

ZF5HP24 transmission fluid and filter change (maybe install the Transgo PR valve purely as a preventative measure)
Brake Fluid (should be done every 2 or 3 years - not mileage dependent)
Headlamp condensation prevention (rubber T pieces?)
Treat emergency/hand brake cables under the car with lubricant protectorant

Lots of Forum experience on what goes wrong with the X100 Gen1 model. Age is the issue on your low mileage cars. Working through a “To Do” list is immensely satisfying for me.

Here’s a recent thread, by fellow Forum member GD, which gives a good summary of what he and I have done. Lots of similarities in our history on the car.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ts-diy-230911/

 

One thing to watch out for is rust around the foot wells, rocker panels, and rear wheel arches. Specially in the salt belt states. This affects all years, and the UK cars seem to get the worst of it. If yours was garage kept then it should be ok. My car was not garage kept and there are no winters and ice to speak of. However, tropical islands are also not very kind if the vehicle was ever near the coast for extended periods. I got lucky there. My car has no rust, not even on the exhaust. The only rust I have found is surface corrosion on the cam cover bolts.

On your car, as mentioned by zray, I would not drive the Jag at all until the timing chain tensioners have been changed to the 3rd gen metal body tensioners. They also require shorter bolts. It's the same part used in the Lincoln LS with the 3.9L V8. You can get them from a Ford dealer at a lower cost compared to Jaguar specific tensioners. Only then would I have peace of mind. If it's a convertible, I would also change the convertible top hydraulic fluid, hoses, and rams. Until you get that done, don't play with the top too much. For more information on this, you can search the term 'green shower' in the forum's search bar.

An often forgotten maintenance item is the Brake fluid flush. This should be done every 2 years. Brake fluid is hygroscopic, it absorbs ambient moisture which could rust your brake lines as well as make the brake pedal feel spongy. This would be one more thing I would do before driving the car. The last thing you want to happen is that you randomly don't have brakes while going 105 mph on the highway.

Inspect your cooling system hoses. If they are hard and brittle, bloated, or too soft and mushy, change all of them, especially the 'valley hoses and the octopus hoses'. Lots of threads on that. These engines are made of aluminum, you want to ensure that the cooling system is in good operating condition. An overheat can be catastrophic. I recommend installing RealGauge, you can buy them at the JagWrangler, forum member WhiteXKR's website. The coolant temperature and oil pressure gauges are dummies. Displaying in the middle of the range, and only showing changes when the engine is precious seconds away from committing seppuku.

Other than that, I can't think of anything else that hasn't already been said.

 

JagV8, I’ve never thought about that. I have an OBD scanner but have only ever used it to get codes for and clear CELs on my other cars.

 

All great stuff to start looking at guys, thanks! The valve cover gaskets were leaking a bit so went ahead and had those done. I know the convertible top was inspected and serviced regularly as well.

 

I would change the coolant hoses regardless of how they look or seem unless you have evidence of them being done in recent years - at 23 years old they will have degraded over time.

 

I see you're new here. I'm not exactly a veteran but I have learned Soooooooooo much from these kind folks. You have come to the right place indeed! These questions you ask have been asked many times and covered in several threads. If you notice, not one hint of "OMG I answered this a hundred times" attitude. Nothing but helpful folks who understand and don't care about how much of a mechanic you are or not. They are here to help with answers to help everyone take care of these beautiful cars. I can't say enough nice things about these folks and I mean it. I got a few compliments on mine recently, feels kinda good.

Now, all above comments are spot on. My .02 is anything that deteriorates with age is suspect, particularly rubber parts. You didn't mention the condition but I'll assume a low mileage car like that was kept nice. The flaws of the early cars are worth fixing and you will have a really nice driving car. Some one must have just sat and stared at the masterpiece of sculpture. Color? You didn't mention that either.

Search the forum for any part you want to question and answers are there, hope you have time to read. There is lots of info there.
Keep ua posted, TM

 

My car has just hit 100,000 miles and has had the transmission rebuilt twice and the timing chain tensioners replaced at least twice.

Making the enormous assumption that my car exhibited the average lifespan of these components, that would imply that every car should need timing chain and transmission roughly every 33,000 miles.


Obviously I can't make a blanket statement that every one of these cars should need timing chain and transmissions replaced every 30k miles, but I think I am safe enough to say that it is something that should be in the back of everyones minds as a potential hazard of these cars.

 

Thanks STLTHMSTA,
Yes, I have extensively searched this site over the past couple months and picked up quite a few things. My curiosity here is about having an old car but with low miles. I've owned old cars with high mileage, but not sure about low-mileage cars that are old. For example, I didn't know that brake fluid needs to be changed every couple of years regardless of mileage. I can see from the records that was done 3,000 miles ago, but that was 10 years ago! So I better get on that.

 

High mileage is good in various ways - e.g. boils water out of oil and anyway oil is changed often. Low mileage? Well, the schedules _say_ to do lots of things based on whichever occurs first: time or miles, but plenty of people don't know or don't go places that know.

Rubber suffers with heat but also age (oxygen mainly), which is why tyres don't last forever (for example). Greases/oils like to be on parts that keep moving. You actually know this stuff I expect - sorry!

 

So, question about this cam chain tensioner issue...

If I was already going in there I would absolutely get it done, but as luck would have it, I just paid $$$ to have the valve cover gaskets replaced and the thought of now having to go back in there is defeating. How often do these things actually fail? Have they been very consistently failing for all 97-99 motors?

 

in my view you are Being penny wise and dollar foolish. The gaskets you replaced cost very little, and possibly can even be reused. But a cam chain tensioner failure
while driving is going to cost you $5,000+ of tou
have a shop do the repairs.

Yes, it appears that all the 4.0 engines will have the tensioners fail.

 

Yes, the gaskets I replaced are cheap, but the labor is expensive. Dealer wanted $1000+ for labor alone. I had a non-dealer do it for a little less.

 

The dealer wanted $1000 for labor to replace the valve cover gaskets?!!??!!

It should have taken them 1 labor hour to replace those.
I don't know what the book says on it, but it didn't take me an hour to do it on my own.


When I bought my car it gave no indications that the timing chain tensioners were broken. The cars engine ran normally and made no noises. I tore into it to replace them just because I had no paperwork stating that it had been done recently.
My timing chain tensioners were broken and needed replaced, I am glad I did it.

 

Yep. They said AT LEAST $1000 just in labor. So I called a couple other shops and got quotes for not much less. I thought maybe there was something special about the engine that required the extra labor.