Recently acquired XK8

[deek]

Hi all, I am new to this XK8 forum, but have been an XJS owner for eight years. Finally got my first convertible, a 2001 XK8.I carried out as much research on this model as I could before purchase and did all the usual history checks. I put the XK8 in for a service immediately with a Jag specialist in Motherwell, a well recommended name in the club in Glasgow. All fine, with metal tensioners and no other problems identified. I was delighted, as was my wife. We were both pleased that it had turned out to be a good private deal with no problems. However, on the way back from the garage, in heavy rain, the ABS, traction control,etc. warning light lit up and I thought **** I've bought a load of problems. When we got home, I contacted the garage to get a check on what the problems were and they kindly offered to check it out the next day. The next day, the warning lights went out as normal on start up, so I cancelled the check. [The previous owner had told me that the battery had gone flat because he had n't used the car for a few weeks and was only driving his X type estate and not the XK8.] After having driven the car very regularly since, there has been no re-occurrence of the fault warning. I am aware of the number of times this issue crops up with club members, so in conclusion, the low state of charge of the battery appears to have been the culprit in this case. The car is an absolute delight to drive and very different to the manual XJS. I am now trying to convince my wife that we should keep the XJS as well. Any sensible ideas are welcome. Regards, Deek.

[Brakebuster]

congrats on the purchase

bear in mind, if for some reason the traction control decides to operate as it should you will get the lights come up on the dash to tell you what is happening

a loss of traction in slippery conditions will make the traction kick in , as will braking heavily on gravel etc etc ,


however, it is essential for these cars along with the XJ8 to have a fully healthy battery , and if there is known trouble i would get it changed for a genuine Jaguar one asap , as when the winter hits , the last thing you want is it to fail

from memory i paid £110 for a genuine Jaguar battery from my dealership last year,

its all about the cranking amps you know,

BB

[Nik]

Totally agree with BB , a decent well charged battery will seemingly solve a lot of problems with late Jaguar models ,

All the best ,

Nik

[deek]

Thanks BB and Nik for your advice. The XJS had similar problems with warning lights when the battery was in a state of low charge, if the car was not being driven regularly and left in the garage for 3 or 4 weeks without charging. [This was with a new battery.] I always suspected the security system on the car of being partially responsible and the reason why the battery would run down so quickly. This may of course be completely incorrect. I did take the XJS to a main dealer, and long story short, they could find nothing wrong. It did cost a lot of money to be told that they could not find a fault. The resultant bill could easily have bought the equivalent of 4 new batteries at least. Cheers, Deek.