I’ve been a Jag-Lovers member for close to 20 years now, having started in the late 90s/early 2000s as a high school kid looking at my first car. That car ended up being a 1982 XJ-S (first planned as a Lump, then I became a solid V12 convert) which received a 5-speed conversion (then Keisler, now The Driven Man I believe) along with many others. I was fortunate enough to be friends with and ride in Bradley Smith’s famed twin-supercharged XJ-S, see and sit in the XJ13 replica commissioned by Paul Straub (he went by RedBaron on the list back then), and see and meet some truly fabulous cars and wonderful people. I spent a few summers working at a Jaguar shop, mostly wrenching on S3 XJ6s, XJ40s, and XJ-Ss, with some X300s, X308s, and the occasional XKR/XJR come in. The XKRs always were striking, and I wanted one.
About 10 years ago I sold my last of 7 or so XJ-Ss, a '92 model with a 5-speed that was a very nice car. I shouldn’t have sold it, but I was at a point where I decided I wanted to do something else with my automotive hobbies for a while, and I enjoyed wrenching on and learning about other cars for a while.
Patience is a virtue, and my wife’s fun car (a 2003 Mercedes E55 AMG - first year of the Kompressor) has been showing its age after 231,000 miles and it was getting time to replace it. I searched around for the right car to get her as a surprise, and looking at XKRs were up towards the top of the list. As luck would have it, I found a 2001 XKR locally with only 59k miles on it. The car was in very good condition, and the owner and I came to an agreement on price. I picked it up on Tuesday, and my wife is over the moon with her first Jaguar.
But as for me, that means I’m back in the Jaguar fold, and it feels good to be back. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Thanks, I appreciate the welcome back. We put a couple hundred miles on the car over the weekend and I drove it to work today. I’ve made a few notes of things to work on for it. To start I’ll change fluids on it, and probably sometime next month I’ll put tires on it as those are getting a bit old.
I need to do some more looking into a few things and purchase a few small bits, like the rear view mirror (which has done like those often do and is bleeding the auto-dimming internals). I want to update the nav database but it looks like that got orphaned by Alpine many moons ago. Main issue for us is that the database doesn’t have our street listed, but it does have my office. I’ll play with it some. Reality is for how we use the car, navigation isn’t going to be much of something we’ll need, so not a big deal.
There is some play in the rear wheels. I’m not 100% certain whether it’s located in the hubs or in the differential output shafts, but only a couple mm so I’ll need to address it, but not something critically concerning. I’ll need a helper to help me positively identify what’s going on. Maybe in a couple weekends when my wife’s back from work I’ll put the XKR on the lift to look at that further.
This car makes both my wife and me smile to drive. My wife loves it - it’s smooth, powerful, comfortable, and beautiful. For me it’s all those things but also brings back nostalgia of my XJ-S days. I always thought the XK8/R was a good evolution and replacement for the XJ-S. The seating position, feel, and view remind me much of the XJ-S. While I miss the V12 and prefer a 5-speed manual, the V8 and the Mercedes 5-speed auto are good units.
Have you moved tires not in air but on the road? is incredible opposite to others cars,but is “normal” this car have a play that appear great opposite to ordinary cars, however checked in jag centre all tell me is absolutly ok !
obviously is difficult to give you a target. more more than you aspect in a car ok?
I have tried this. When the rear end was warm (after over 100 miles of driving in one day) I could feel a little play. Up in the air the play is there warm or cold. It is minor and equal on both sides, which did make me wonder if it might be normal. It’s been long enough since I’ve worked on these cars regularly that I couldn’t remember, nor could I positively identify the source of the play. So this will be something I look at when I put the car up in the air to change the differential fluid.
ok !! remeber this “more that you think is normal”
any time buy used car , changed all fluid coolant too.
with this big cat changed also elctrical parts about ignition and flame.
Is my opinion that materials indipendent to kilometres go down easy during years.
This isn’t an “old classic car” but is older , unfortunately many parts isn’t maded for during opposite to 60/70/80…you have a car younger than xjs however more parts
probably are bad.(means you do work to mantein car good condition like an old old car!)
You have best lines writed in a car !
you have best technology coming 20 years ago…in fact is 99 % you can find in a 2019 car!!
i’m crazy for you car , buyed without R only because founded low kilometers BRG xk8.
I also experienced the dipping (& dripping) mirror problem. The Donnelly made mirrors for S Type, X Type and XJ are all similar and because, in the UK at least, the XK8 ones are much more expensive to source, I tried to re-purpose one or two of the others. Sadly, I never managed to get the cases open without physical damage and in the end I shelled out and bought a new XK8 one.
Can’t comment about the play in the rear hubs. Don’t recall whether mine has or not but if it has, it wasn’t enough to bother the MoT tester.
If yours is 2001 I expect it is a 4.0litre not a 4.2 so it might be worth checking the upper timing chain tensioners and the water pump. Also, I’d advise changing the transmission fluid and filter before to many more miles.
I will be changing the transmission fluid soon. I figure in two weekends, one of the weeks of which the car will be sitting at the airport so only another 100-200 miles. I remember the water pump and the tensioners being issues that came up. That said the engine sounds perfect at the moment and its temperature is also behaving very well.
I may also get a set of spark plugs as it wouldn’t surprise me if those, too, were original. But the engine is behaving perfectly so I think I’ll focus on the fluids first. I’m debating whether I want to just change what’s in the pan or try to drain and refill the pan a few times in one sitting. I may just change the fluid/filter in the pan now and then at the next oil change flush it again, repeat a couple of times. I’ve done this on some older vehicles. Interestingly, I may already have the dipstick as my E55 had the same transmission and I had a dipstick for that. I’ll have to check and see.
To my surprise all of the coolant hoses look and feel new.
I believe the diff in the XK8 would be the same as my XJR (1999) I have also play at the rear wheels which is due to the diff output shaft bearings.
I recently went through the WoF system here in NZ and had to explain to the testing officer that the play was not in the wheel bearings.
Jaguar allow .006” of play at that bearing before they advise to have them replaced.
I haven’t worked out what that amount would equate to at the wheel rim but it will increase from .006”
On the transmission side I have taken great joy in pointing out to members of the Mercedes Club that the only thing that leaked on my Jag was THEIR transmission.
That was the electrical plug which is a known source of drips. Quite reasonably priced to replace.
Mine is having its second one done today or tomorrow, but thats due to the input turbine speed sensor having gone U/s
Which on other vehicles seem to be located on the outside of the box and just require a bolt to be taken out and the sensor removed and replaced. NOT on this box, its attached to a plate that is accessed after dropping the pan.
That’s good to get confirmation the rear wheel play seems to be normal. Given how even it was between sides, it felt as though it was likely normal. It’s just been a long time since I’ve dealt with these. Based on my engineering guesswork, 0.006" feels about like where it is. So, I’ll look at it on the lift but not plan to do anything at the moment.
I haven’t looked under the car to see if the transmission is leaking, but it doesn’t leave puddles anywhere, so I think I’m good there, just need to change the fluid and filter for now.
