pippyrips

My Brother In Law has a 99 T plated XJ 4.0l V8.

Over the past 3 months there has been a knocking noise coming from the engine when cold so he took it to a local corner garage who said it would cost a fortune to strip to diagnose etc

Unfortuately he contined to run the car while putting in a litre of oil a month (Hes not very mechanically minded)

End result is the engine is now knackered with the diagnosis being the timing belt has gone.

Does anyone know what sort of milage you could expect to get from this engine and at what point the timing belt should be changed?

Also does anyone know any good Jag forums? I've tried registering with Jaguarforum.co.uk but i'm still waiting on an activation code

Thanks

eldudereno

Oh dear.

The Jaguar V8's are known for timing chain tensioner failure.

It hasn't got a timing belt it's actually a chain.

Sounds like he hasn't got a full Jaguar service history?

Some good info here,

Jaguar V8 Secondary Tensioners - Preventive Replacement

Found all of this out when I was considering buying an XK8.

Shark Man

It's a timing chain, not a belt. So you need to get the facts striaght first

The timing chain on earlier cars did have a habit of jumping teeth when started cold due to tensioner issues...just google it and you'll see what I mean.

Oil consumption could be due to some other problem. 1999 was the last year that Jaguar made Nikasil bore engines. (again google it - plenty of stuff there). These bore linings prematurely wear and flake off casued by excess sulphur in fuel (damage will have been caused before low sulphur fuel was introduced, no damage occurs on modern fuel). The symptoms are excessive oil usage, and lower cylinder compression, accompanied by excesive blow-by gasses.

Jag lovers is a good forum, but its an absolute nightmare to navigate.

pippyrips

cheers lads - it has fjsh up to 65k then a local garage. Apologies for the mis-information but that is what they were told!!

eldudereno

Good forum here which is used mainly by the Yanks but also many Brits,

The Jaguar XJ8/XJR Forum

Can also look in the XK8 forum as they use the same engine.

Just do a search for tensioners and in relation to the oil consumption issue, search for nikasil.

pippyrips

next question!

If you were in this position would you cut your losses and trade the car in or go for a reconditioned engine?

Jag want 8k while an independant specialist wants between 3-5k dependant on internal damage. I looked on autotrader for a very rough guide and they seem to be going for 7.5k trade

Also is there a decent garage to talk to around the bromley area?

eldudereno

I would get a replacement engine from a breakers which has had the issues already addressed.

He'll get next to nothing for the car if he trys to sell in it's present state.

51st state

sorry for being a pesimist mate
but why did you buy one

there like landrovers

people buy them , and then realise what they have done!!

eldudereno

Why bother posting unless you've got something constructive to say?

ps, your spelling is abysmal...

sti-04!!

pippyrips

i didn't - he did.

Whats more he still loves the car so if he does trade in he will get another!

noobscoob

I had a look on ebay and someone is selling a 4.0 n registration jaguar v8 from the xjs sport.

is this of any use to you?

pippyrips

Shark Man

Erm, no such thing as a V8 in a XJ-S

The 4.0 XJ-S was an inline 6

If it was a XK8, then things are positive. Must have a compression/leakdown test done though as its a pre-2000 engine and susceptible to the same problems.

noobscoob

Oh bugger..best i look a bit more then

Shark Man

Just found that particular Ebay ad. Its not an XJ-S it's a X300

Which typically had both a 4.0 v8 and a 4.0 inline 6, and the feejit advertiser didn't say which one it has But I belive being a 1996, that would make it a 6 cylinder.

PS I think I know that car ...was heavily T-boned by a Corsa early last year...Corsa didn't do very well at all! I should guess the seller is a local scrapper who specialises in breaking Jags amongst other stuff.

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

AFAIK, Jaguar did a recall on these models to put right the tensioner problems under warranty, their was also a piston problem as well, and in a lot of cases Jaguar did a full engine replacement, the only reason I know this is I was looking at a 98R plated4.0.V8 not long ago and my uncle who has had Jaguars for years and my cousin who is a Jaguar techncian, I took my uncle along with me to the dealer where the car was and we asked all the questions, none of which the dealer could answer so I was advised to walk away which i did, but it was confirmed by my cousin that if any work had taken place it woukld have been entered into the service book.
Cheers
Colin

Shark Man

I'm not sure what Jaguar's stance is these days. Bearing in mind how old the car is now it is becoming increasingly difficult to argue how long the car is expected to run for without a serious failure.

It's always worth a try sending a letter backed up by a few phone calls to the head office. Obviously expressing the dissapointment in the marque's quality and reliability and your displeasure of finding out how much a new engine costs. They could offer a goodwill gesture, or offer to replace the parts (unfortunately the latter needs to be done at a dealer and you'll incur labour costs at dealer rates ).

I know my friend who bought a '97 XK8 (same engine - same problems) from a main dealer a couple of years ago, and it had no recall work done to it despite a FJSH. He already knew about the potential problems with this car and had the tensioner replaced under the dealer warrantee, but he had a bit of hassel as there was nothing wrong with it at the time. So had to tell a few porkies about it rattling to get it replaced. This engine on his car, despite being a Nikasil bored engine, doesn't appear to have any problems. The issue with these engine seem very sporadic, possibly due to which depot the fuel originated from, so it would depend where the car spent most of it life before low sulphur was introduced.

Longjing

Nikasil failure must be a possibility. Might be worth trying Jaguar for assistance - they were very good with cars well out of warranty for a while, but it is eight years now so probably a long shot.

Jag lovers is a good place for info. There used to be a sticky on nikasil issues - in the "moderns" section.

I've just traded in my x300, 11 years old and 85k, and it was a hassle free four years. One flat battery. I'll miss the interior more than anything/