Jimpreza

A friend is looking at maybe buying a second hand 5.0 V8 with 385bhp as he cant afford the purchase price and running costs of the XKR. Has anyone had any experience? I've had a quick look on Jaguar's website and they do look lovely. Wish I'd have tried one before buying my 335i.

andy.downes

iTrader: (1)

Cambelt changes are a nightmare (£1500 at main dealer), also I'm sure some of the early models had something wrong with the internals (something aluminium I think), which was then corrected with later models. Hence why there is such a price difference between them.

Jimpreza

Cheers Andy. When you say problems with the older models do you mean the earlier 4.2 V8 model or early 5.0 v8's?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Belt?

I was under the impression all AJ-V8s had chain driven cams?

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Correct, but they do suffer from chain tensioner issues wich are a lot of labour to get at and fix. Maybe this is what he means.

andy.downes

iTrader: (1)

Do be fair I didn't know if it was a belt or chain. All I know is someone tried to loosen a bolt and sheared it off (after advice from Jaguar themselves on using a scaffolding bar to loosen it).
I believe the 4.2 V8 had bore liner corrosion on pre-2000 models. Nearly all of them failed.

sweden

iTrader: (2)

hi matey im actually a trianed jag/rolls mech and have worked on 1 or 2 of those lol, as stated they are chain driven, the earlier modles are inherent for having the chain tensioners failing, the earlier modes are made of plastic in fact the 2nd generation is as well the 3rd generation is made of aluminium and thats the ones you want even if the chainis have been done in the service book if he buys one get him to take the rocker cover off and make sure the chain tensiner is aluminium, they also had a problem with the early water pumps which has been modified now if you look down the front of the engine at the water pump the new generation has a black metal gasket that you should just be able to see

as for the price of getting the work done at a dealer pfft its a very very easy job if you have any mech know how, will happily talk/write guide for him if needed its easily done in a day tbh with a couple of home made tools

the xk chipped and full sports system isnt to sluggish and will happily give an xkr a run for its money

sweden

iTrader: (2)

probably the front crank bolt they are a pain in the **** tbh but rest is real easy, you need to use a heavy duty 3/8 air gun for that bolt and sometimes it can take a while before it gives, at 1 stage i was doing 5 of these a week and never had a bolt break and hopefully never will

wrong anti freeze kills the bores but tbh used to service over at least 100 pre 2000 and only ever had one that suffered from bore probs and that was more down to the fact he was 21 with dads money and hammered the crap out of it all the time and never checked any fluids right tozzer as well

Jimpreza

My mate is as useless as me with checking thins under the bonnet. However, it seems the ones he is looking at should be okay as they are 2010/11 models.

stilover

Look nice, but not as fast as they seem.

Had a play with one a few years ago while drivuing my old mans RS4 (V8). Not as fast as the RS4, and on a decent straight, I was able to pass.

He was going for it too.

sweden

iTrader: (2)

yep defo matey but there a few things you can do to make them faster

Monkeh

the 1997 - 2000 4.0 engines had nikasil cylinder linders which suffered from corrosion due to the high sulpher content in the fuel back then, with the low sulpher fuel now they are probably the best engines as the nikasil coating is so hard it will out live the steel lined 4.2's.

the 4.2 fixed most the issues with plastic pullies and water pumps but other than that they are strong engines.

The new shape 5.0 xk is as quick as the old shape 4.2 supercharged xkr. but then you can do a lot with the supercharged cars to rectify that

Jimpreza

Thanks for the replies. I think the 5 litre is the way forward. Obviously the 5.0 supercharged would be better but he can't justify the extra purchase price and running costs.

He wants as much manufacturers warranty as possible as if anything goes wrong it could be pricey.