2009 Jaguar XK

[Piersman2]

John Locke said:

Jimbeaux said:

Guys, any carbon fouling from the DI on your 5.0s? I know the Audi, and some others were bad for this. My SLK 350 seems to have missed this as Merc was late to the DI game and was able to do some tweets in 2012 and avoid this.
I read that Land Rovers with the 5.0 suffer fouling but not many Jags even though it is the same engine.

We have had no problems at all with our 2013 XFR on 80,000, a friend has one of the first, on more than double the mileage; likewise no sign of troubles. Pure speculation; perhaps the Jags get driven differently from the RRs.

I've got a 120k miles RR, and the XKR is 100k miles, both 5.0 S/C. No issues on either engine related to anything like this. I've not even seen any mention of it on the various forums so it's certainly not a 'usual' issue if at all.

The two main issues are weak water pumps and S/C couplers. Some talk of cam chain wear/breakages but that seems to be an XFR thing, a few examples on line, but then how many XFRs were built and how many driven by people just using them without caring so much about service intervals etc... I wonder?

[Jimbeaux]

Piersman2 said:

John Locke said:

Jimbeaux said:

Guys, any carbon fouling from the DI on your 5.0s? I know the Audi, and some others were bad for this. My SLK 350 seems to have missed this as Merc was late to the DI game and was able to do some tweets in 2012 and avoid this.
I read that Land Rovers with the 5.0 suffer fouling but not many Jags even though it is the same engine.

We have had no problems at all with our 2013 XFR on 80,000, a friend has one of the first, on more than double the mileage; likewise no sign of troubles. Pure speculation; perhaps the Jags get driven differently from the RRs.

I've got a 120k miles RR, and the XKR is 100k miles, both 5.0 S/C. No issues on either engine related to anything like this. I've not even seen any mention of it on the various forums so it's certainly not a 'usual' issue if at all.

The two main issues are weak water pumps and S/C couplers. Some talk of cam chain wear/breakages but that seems to be an XFR thing, a few examples on line, but then how many XFRs were built and how many driven by people just using them without caring so much about service intervals etc... I wonder?

Thanks for the information Piersman; and some valid points.

[SFTWend]

Same as someone else posted I wanted a GT with a manual box and was looking at the V8 Vantage but I ended up buying a DB9 auto. Then wondered why I didn't buy an X150 instead and have a faster car costing much less to buy and run.

From what I've read this generation of XKR don't appear to have wallet busting achilles heals that many cars have and the main expense being a suspension bush refresh at c.60k miles.

Great value and probably just run in at 70k miles.

[alabbasi]

For a GT with an automatic, I have a 2005 SL55. It's 5x the car the V8V is at 1/5 price.

[anonymous-user]

I have only just discovered the HOOLIGAN Button. This is the Dynamic Mode setting. Put that on, and put the autobox into S, and the car gets quite mentalist. Thus you can do relaxed Gran Turismo on the fast swoopy highways, and engage nutter mode for twisty back roads, although the car's size limits how much you can loon it in lanes.

I assume that an F Type must be quite lairy all of the time.

I own a 1980s small mid engined two seat sports car, and two 1970s small engined short wheelbase four seat GT cars, so for chucking it about a bit I can use those, and not lose my licence or get hospitalised. I will mainly do cruisy cruise cruise in the Jaaaaaaag. I hope to drive it to Vichy and back in August, if the situation allows that.

[Mr lestat]

Breadvan72 said:

I have only just discovered the HOOLIGAN Button. This is the Dynamic Mode setting. Put that on, and put the autobox into S, and the car gets quite mentalist. Thus you can do relaxed Gran Turismo on the fast swoopy highways, and engage nutter mode for twisty back roads, although the car's size limits how much you can loon it in lanes.

I assume that an F Type must be quite lairy all of the time.

I own a 1980s small mid engined two seat sports car, and two 1970s small engined short wheelbase four seat GT cars, so for chucking it about a bit I can use those, and not lose my licence or get hospitalised. I will mainly do cruisy cruise cruise in the Jaaaaaaag. I hope to drive it to Vichy and back in August, if the situation allows that.

Lovely town Vichy. We have been a couple of times in the motorhome. They were redoing all along the lake front last May. Bet it’s all done and looking great.

[spreadsheet monkey]

Great car OP, and good to see you active on PH. I had an XK8 a while back, and keep looking at more modern XKs as a weekend car.

Interested to see how you get on with it.

[anonymous-user]

Hmmmm. The central locking does not work any more. Blippety blip, and the indicators flash and the door mirrors fold in, but the doors remain unlocked.

The always bonkers parking radar is worse than ever. It often only comes on after I have stopped reversing and returned to forward drive, and then it doesn't go off for a bit. Hmmmmm, again. Who said it was a good idea to let cars have computer stuff?

[John Locke]

Breadvan72 said:

Hmmmm. The central locking does not work any more. Blippety blip, and the indicators flash and the door mirrors fold in, but the doors remain unlocked.

The always bonkers parking radar is worse than ever. It often only comes on after I have stopped reversing and returned to forward drive, and then it doesn't go off for a bit. Hmmmmm, again. Who said it was a good idea to let cars have computer stuff?

Disconnect the battery, check its condition, if ok charge fully, reconnect, reset window, radio, driving position memories etc, and in all probability everything will be fine.
Ps, good to see you back.

[anonymous-user]

Cheers!

More COMPUTER CAR EVIL: Sometimes in Sport and hooligan mode the car decides to get stuck in a gear. It announces this by displaying a large numeral in the bit between the dials. I then switch to D or use the flippy paddles. :

[John Locke]

Breadvan72 said:

Cheers!

More COMPUTER CAR EVIL: Sometimes in Sport and hooligan mode the car decides to get stuck in a gear. It announces this by displaying a large numeral in the bit between the dials. I then switch to D or use the flippy paddles. :

That seems like it's going into manual mode; a slight inadverent tap on either of the paddles will cause this, very easy when using the indicators, wipers, or just hustling along a bit. To exit manual, pull the right hand paddle back and hold for a few seconds then the gearbox should start doing whatever it thinks best again.

[anonymous-user]

Yes, I have maybe just bumped a flipper while enthusing.

[anonymous-user]

At night, all cats are grey. Is it the same for cars?

[P5BNij]

Mikebentley said:

Breadvan72 said:

Mikebentley said:

My FiL did his engineering apprenticeship at Austin in the 1960s under Issigonis.

.... Dad developed very early cadcam and software to carry out computer based crash and wear predictions for development of safer cars after the Ralph Nader book.

....

That is way cool!

Did your dad ever meet an Industrial Engineer called Joe who had a strong Dublin accent? That was my dad. He started on the shop floor at Lucas in 1960, got as far as toolsetter and then qualified as an IE, had a spell at Rootes-Chrysler, and spent the late 70s and the 80s in BL, working in every division except Jaguar and Land Rover. He always referred to Longbridge as "the Austin", to Solihull as "the Rover", and to Cowley as "the Morris". He ended up running an exhaust factory in north Oxford (long since replaced by houses).

I shall ask him hopefully this week. My wife’s late uncle was a builder of pre war Alvis race cars “Comptons of Welshpool”. Chris told me that Rover P6 car bodies were all 10mm longer on one side due to tooling issues. They were either built badly by a company called Metalbox near Droitwich or went there for adjustments prior to going down the line.

When I worked at HMP Birmingham many of my staff were ex Rover. They all recounted tales of glaring differing views between Honda and Rover on QC. Honda insisted every supervisors officer at Longbridge was identically laid out with colour coded folders in an exact order so that any supervisor could manage any area of production. Tales of GKN delivering millions of parts badly made to wrong spec.(probably Rover cost cutting). Honda would come in test them and reject. Rover would use them on their models instead. This explains why so many of the Concerto Honda cars lasted 15 yrs and Rover 213/216 died within 5/6 yrs.

Dad went on with a colleague to build a very successful private company providing software to the toolmaking industry. His major clients were a major Japanese toolmaker who stood by him as he developed his business through thick and thin. When he sold the business he spent 12 months travelling to Japan to ensure the transition was done correctly for both parties as this was about honourable behaviour as well as business. That was the complete opposite to how Rover treated Honda.

OT but fascinating stuff with the family history - my pal Jon (he owns the Avovado Green SD1 I'm always banging on about in various threads) is married to the grandaughter of the sadly now deceased Rover engineer Jack Swaine, he was heavily involved in the P4, P5 and P6 development. At his funeral a few years ago hoards of old Rover boffins and managers turned up to pay their respects, and during the wake later on Jon sat there agog at all the tales they told of thrashing P5Bs and P6s up and down the M1 with cables and test instruments strewn about the interior, driving as fast as they could until something broke. At the time I had my second P5B Coupe which Jon told them about and a couple of them wanted to come and have a look at it, alas it didn't happen for one reason or another but what a nice thought it was.

BV, the XK is a gem amongst moderns, there are quite a few round here which are used as daily drivers, very handsome grand tourers to my eye.

[wsn03]

Only read page 1 of this thread, and that's because I have one of these - 2007 XKR.

I saw you mention aircon.
2 things - 1. the condensers are made of cheese (why not, it was only a 75K car back in the day) 2.Research Pedestrian sensor - if you have the crap ones get them changed while the nose is off

I changed my own condenser myself, bought an aftermarket one (distinctly more popular and a lot cheaper) - SNG Barrett have them.
Those pedestrian sensors are some £90 each but they really do go after a very short time, the new one is a complete redesign and should last a long time.Reason for doing it now is because the condenser will be a nose off job, so you might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone - check out the comments on forums, they go and are a proper irritating pain.

Make sure your garage know what they are doing, 0 rings for the condenser are a tricky subject for these cars and if they fit the wrong one you'll lose your aircon gas in a short space of time (and the whole front end will have to come off again). Make them show you where they got them from, if a generic kit (unless they are yellow gas ones) then they've just wasted everyones time - only the JLR main one fits (£17 - ouch!!!) aside from one yellow gas one I've never been able to find anywhere (it was on my car as it happens)

I only have mine to look at and the odd short drive, plus the cruise to Le Mans. The few times I'm in it I know I made the right decision to satisfy my drooling, albeit a not very bright one

Edited by wsn03 on Monday 7th September 17:22

[citizensm1th]

When you come to sell I call dibs

[anonymous-user]

I do sometimes think of selling the Jag and just having classic dailies again, but then brief interludes of lucidity capture me and I recall that I really do need at least one car that will start more times than not, and in which I could slightly more cheerfully have a crash than I could in one of the 70s rotters that are mainly held together by paint, and which have actual Zulu Assegais as their steering columns.

Thanks for the tips above, but, er...., what the Hell even is a "pedestrian sensor"? I am pretty sure that I have two of those (called "eyes"), which are transferable from car to car, but I'll check. The aircon compressor has been done by a mobile mech who does all my heaps, and has worked thus far ...

[anonymous-user]

Hey, I have kerbed one of those grey painted alloys, and, because they are painted grey, the kerbing really shows. Because Wazzock!

The gunmetal grey paint on the car remains super soft - just look at it in a slightly sharp way and it will scratch. It's the same on my 1980s Landy, to which a previous owner gave a coat of very posh metallic dark green to. That gets scratched when a cat sits on it.

[wsn03]

Breadvan72 said:

Thanks for the tips above, but, er...., what the Hell even is a "pedestrian sensor"? I am pretty sure that I have two of those (called "eyes"), which are transferable from car to car, but I'll check. The aircon compressor has been done by a mobile mech who does all my heaps, and has worked thus far ...

I only found out the other day, it is a stupid EU thing apparently. They are famous for failing but only up to a certain VIN code - you might be ok. If it goes you will know about it - you get an annoying warning taking up your clocks display. Fingers crossed yours is ok.

Happy for you having a good mechanic, I've been very unlucky, 3 garages so far have failed me (one I'll forgive), so I've been doing everything myself after years of not touching cars. My other cars are German, you can get away with that outlook!

[anonymous-user]

An electric thing like that can be plugged in, and therefore can probably be unplugged in some way. It doesn't, however, sound like a mega stupid thing to have in an age in which cars are designed to be hard to see out of and to have stupid touch screens that are designed to distract the driver, and in which pedestrians step into active roads whilst Instagramming.

One such pedestrian in Pimlico said many rude and shouty words at the back of the Jag the other day after I used the horn to encourage her not to die or at least get slightly squished under those grey alloy wheels, or to have the clasps on her fake Vuitton bag scratch the paint on the bonnet as she was rolled along it. None of those things happened to her, but she did not much like having her Instagramming interrupted.