XK Good/Bad Points?
Discussion
I'm looking at getting an XK soon, between 2006-2012 probably.
I've read the PH buyers guide, but I'm very keen to hear about good and bad points, expensive aspects to be aware of and obvious things I should look out for? I'm aware servicing and tax aren't cheap and tyres are a regular consumable....
All input appreciated.
I've read the PH buyers guide, but I'm very keen to hear about good and bad points, expensive aspects to be aware of and obvious things I should look out for? I'm aware servicing and tax aren't cheap and tyres are a regular consumable....
All input appreciated.
Useful input on the similar XKR thread:-
"Check subframe for rust
Check services - When was the last gearbox oil service? When was the last drivebelt change? (if it's supercharged, check the belt has been done on that too)
Check tyres - did the previous owner like the car? If yes, it'll have something decent on it (Pirelli, Michelin, Continental, Goodyear), and all four matching. Any landsail or Accelera etc and you can no longer trust what the service book says. This is an owner who couldn't afford £200ish a tyre, what else have they skimped on?
Check the battery - X150 loves to complain and throw it's toys out the pram if the battery is anything less than good. If it's got something that says other than Bosch or Yuassa in the boot, budget for replacing it.
Check the toys - Electrochromic (they go blue when bright lights shine from behind) door mirror glass are £300 each and can suffer with weather damage, so shine your phone torch at the rear view mirror and see if they all go blue (interior mirror should too). Check Cruise, flick her into S and make sure the paddle shift swaps cogs sweetly. Nav is almost certain never to be used, but check it anyway. The GPS aerial is usually the fault if it's not able to find where you are.
Drive it- The ride should be a little on the firm side of comfortable, but silent apart from engine and depending on the tyres a bit of road noise. Any clonks or fidgeting over a rough surface could point to bushes being tired.
Other than that, it's like any other car, check the oil for mayonaise, check the expansion tank for a nice healthy colour (should be redish pink OAT, if it looks almost clear, then its way over it's 5 year life and needs renewing (this is another "did you actually service it?" flag)."
Great stuff... Anything else?
"Check subframe for rust
Check services - When was the last gearbox oil service? When was the last drivebelt change? (if it's supercharged, check the belt has been done on that too)
Check tyres - did the previous owner like the car? If yes, it'll have something decent on it (Pirelli, Michelin, Continental, Goodyear), and all four matching. Any landsail or Accelera etc and you can no longer trust what the service book says. This is an owner who couldn't afford £200ish a tyre, what else have they skimped on?
Check the battery - X150 loves to complain and throw it's toys out the pram if the battery is anything less than good. If it's got something that says other than Bosch or Yuassa in the boot, budget for replacing it.
Check the toys - Electrochromic (they go blue when bright lights shine from behind) door mirror glass are £300 each and can suffer with weather damage, so shine your phone torch at the rear view mirror and see if they all go blue (interior mirror should too). Check Cruise, flick her into S and make sure the paddle shift swaps cogs sweetly. Nav is almost certain never to be used, but check it anyway. The GPS aerial is usually the fault if it's not able to find where you are.
Drive it- The ride should be a little on the firm side of comfortable, but silent apart from engine and depending on the tyres a bit of road noise. Any clonks or fidgeting over a rough surface could point to bushes being tired.
Other than that, it's like any other car, check the oil for mayonaise, check the expansion tank for a nice healthy colour (should be redish pink OAT, if it looks almost clear, then its way over it's 5 year life and needs renewing (this is another "did you actually service it?" flag)."
Great stuff... Anything else?
Edited by Pitre on Wednesday 28th May 11:42
I think you have all the obvious ones.
battery and tires being the most obvious as their shortcomings are all sorts of weird electrical hiccups and no traction (XKR). Late model XKR does have electric slipper, so perhaps less of a problem, but on old tires my 4.2 XKR just spins up one rear. They are allegedly hard on suspension bushes and I replaced the control arms on the back at around 50k, (pretty straightforward), so check it out over bumpy roads - if the suspension is good, then it's basically silent aside from tire noise.
Timing chain width on 5.0 changed at some point and water pumps are a known issue going through many iterations. However, IMO the bad reputation that Jag has earned seems to be more related to the quality of service from dealers than due to inherent mechanical faults, but YMMV.
I bought mine for something less grim than a minivan for long work related drives. It was entirely capable and reasonably economic.
battery and tires being the most obvious as their shortcomings are all sorts of weird electrical hiccups and no traction (XKR). Late model XKR does have electric slipper, so perhaps less of a problem, but on old tires my 4.2 XKR just spins up one rear. They are allegedly hard on suspension bushes and I replaced the control arms on the back at around 50k, (pretty straightforward), so check it out over bumpy roads - if the suspension is good, then it's basically silent aside from tire noise.
Timing chain width on 5.0 changed at some point and water pumps are a known issue going through many iterations. However, IMO the bad reputation that Jag has earned seems to be more related to the quality of service from dealers than due to inherent mechanical faults, but YMMV.
I bought mine for something less grim than a minivan for long work related drives. It was entirely capable and reasonably economic.
Apart from the above good points I would add front and rear lights clusters - make sure they are not full of water or horribly misted as new ones are reassuringly expensive. Battery health is critical to the happiness of the XK, anything less than perfect voltage will trigger random electrical gremlins, not helped by the alarm battery unit usually going bad and feeding off the main battery while you think you've put her to bed..
Check for any damage to the alloys - the 20inch Sentas look really nice but are apparently quite soft and can get easily damaged by potholes. I have just had one properly repaired for c £100. Check all seat adjustments work - passenger side may not be used much - mine had a seized motor on the backrest adjustment.
drmotorsport said:
....Battery health is critical to the happiness of the XK, anything less than perfect voltage will trigger random electrical gremlins, not helped by the alarm battery unit usually going bad and feeding off the main battery while you think you've put her to bed..
I've used a CTEK smart trickle charger for many years. Do most/some XK owners use similar, given the need for a near perfect battery to avoid problems due to parasitic drain?Have had my 2010 XKR 5.0L for 11 years. It has passed 220,000 miles and has been the best car I have ever owned in 56 years of driving. The most important thing to look for in my opinion is a service history that shows consistent oil changes and service through its lifetime. I have had my oil changed at 3-5000 mile intervals, I've changed the transmission fluid three times and the differential oil twice. My car was pulleyed and tuned to approx. 600hp, it has been tracked dozens of times and has been utterly reliable. Stuck fuel injectors on 3 occasions during my ownership is scary when it happens but easily repairable. It is still my daily driver and still a pleasure. Mileage isn't as important as maintenance history.
If and/or when you buy one, you will love this car. The X150 platform was such an improvement over thee X100 ( I have one of those too), that they should have renamed it.
If and/or when you buy one, you will love this car. The X150 platform was such an improvement over thee X100 ( I have one of those too), that they should have renamed it.
As someone who has just taken the plunge; check for paint bubbling along the bottom of panels and around the rear window, check the top of the dash for the material lifting.
Mine had 4 X freshly fitted Accelleras (fitted by the dealer for the MOT), I'd rather have these than badly worn premium brand ones.
If you're considering convertibles, the usual checks apply on the roof material and mechanism. Look at the stitching rear window especially.
I found both of the older 4.2s that I drove to be very floaty. The more modern active suspension on the facelift car really makes a difference.
Mine had 4 X freshly fitted Accelleras (fitted by the dealer for the MOT), I'd rather have these than badly worn premium brand ones.
If you're considering convertibles, the usual checks apply on the roof material and mechanism. Look at the stitching rear window especially.
I found both of the older 4.2s that I drove to be very floaty. The more modern active suspension on the facelift car really makes a difference.
Kevin-y9fs3 said:
Mine had 4 X freshly fitted Accelleras (fitted by the dealer for the MOT), I'd rather have these than badly worn premium brand ones.
Having driven just a regular old soot chucker XF on nearly bald Michelins and then a week later on a full set of brand new Acceleras....Bald Michelins for me please
The Continental Contact Sport 7 are reasonably priced in the 20" XK sizes and are a fabulous tyre, cannot recommend enough.
If it's come from a dealer with s
te tyres on that's typical dealer behaviour but a private seller with a load of budget crap would certainly be off putting, although it probably means he's never pushed it hard and he's never taken it out in the rain!I wouldn't worry to much about drive belts, it's a half hour job to change them both, nor would I worry too much about the history for water pumps on the 5.0 because they're £80 and about an extra hour on top of the belts to change. While you're in there chuck £250 at replacing all the hoses and the thermostat and housing too. Apparently the pumps do fail and leak, but mine made it to 140k miles before it did and I replaced the 70k mile one on my XJ and it was fine.
All coolant hoses on these old cars are liable to be troublesome, as with any old car. I gently touched the hard line from the expansion bottle on my XKR the day I picked it up and it broke!
Depending how technical you want to get on an examination you can plug in an OBD reader and find out how much the timing is being advanced to compensate for chain wear on the direct injection 5 litre. My 150k car is only correcting 0.7 degrees of timing at most, on it's original chains.
Check AC. Condensers are a very very common source of failure and the control valve on the compressor can fail too.
4.2 cars, especially naturally aspirated coupes, are getting very cheap and look like an absolute bargain to me.
They're pretty simple cars, robust, reliable, with good parts availability and support. Lots of Jaguar specialists bend you over and don't bother with lube because they know a lot of old boys take getting ripped off as a source of pride, but any decent independent mechanic should have no trouble whatsoever working on them.
Do have a good look at the rear subframe, there is a big difference between looking a bit crusty (most do now) and an actual problem. If you can get the front undertray off for a good look do that too, again they range from surface corrosion to "has holes".
I almost sold my 5.0 XKR convertible a couple of weeks ago but after two timewasters I decided I liked it too much and pulled the ad!
ETA - convertible roofs. The glass appears to drop out of all of them eventually, maybe cars that lived under cover most of their lives will last longer but as the roof shrinks with time it appears to pull back from the welded join to the glass. You can bodge it with various solutions but the only real answer is a new roof because obviously it'll continue to shrink. Mine had pulled away to the point there was barely enough material to glue/bodge, and I've seen quite a few like that now I know to look for it. I paid £1,700 fitted from BAS International but had to wait 3 months to get in, could have had one in a week for £2.2k elsewhere (still a BAS roof though!). Seems quite common with various Audi convertibles too.
Edited by GeniusOfLove on Saturday 31st May 21:50
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