Nige005

Excellent info, thanks for telling us. Might get around to looking at mine sometime now........... !

I have heard that moisture in the connectors inside the doors can be a problem and cause the connectors to tarnish and hence create these little niggles. The solution would be to disconnect, clean and then spray with a Switch Cleaner such as Servisol. I have similar, but not as severe, little niggles on my Drivers door but so far have not found the courage to remove the Door Card to investigate..... As above, the Loom itself is about the last thing I would suspect although I s'pose there could be a problem where the loom flexes as it goes into the Door. Good luck, would be interested to hear how you get on as I suspect a lot of XK8 owners would be.

A quick update on this. Had the car into the local Indy to check out the weep and it's apparently from a connection under the RH Bank ( looking from the front ) near the front. It only weeps a very small amount and then only when cold and is not an unusual problem. Told to ignore it for now, just check the coolant level once a week and if only losing a smidgen, as it is now, leave it alone. When the time comes to do something about it the the cure is to replace the pipe itself and also replace the plastic Thermostat Housing with an aluminium one availabe from the USA. Not a huge job but takes a bit of time as the Manifold has to come off to get at all the bits. So for now I'll live with it, just have to locate the correct Antifreeze ! Had a heart racing moment when I collected the car after leaving it at the Indy overnight. Started up and then the " Stabilty Control " and Traction Control " warnings came on, s'pose that if this had to happen at least I was in the right place......... The Diagnostics showed that the Sensor on the Front N/S wheel wasn't doing what it should. Checked the connection which happens to be behind the Washer Bottle, removed and then reconnected it and all seems well so can only surmise that this was disturbed whilst looking into the leak. At least I hope so...........;

The street where I was dragged up is still there in name only, the new houses run across the hill now instead of up and down. Must take all the fun out of sledging down it and then ending up scooting across the busy road at the bottom ! I think they now have 'leccy too.........

A blast from the past then Peter although it could be a bit lonely and windswept !

Whilst chomping on a Barnsley Chop and slurping Oakwells best. ( The beer, not a footballer........ ! ) Rarely visit the place now, effectively left in 1970 and very little family and few friends to go back for.

Well it's an XK8 that I have Richard so dunno about any problems with the XF. The fault on mine is not the Header Tank itself but a meeting of pipes a little underneath it, no point in posting a pic as it's almost impossible to see. On other cars though I've certainly had at least one Header Tank fail, quite spectacular as it lets go, hot brown showers all round !!!!!

Thanks Peter. A bit more research seems to indicate that a Ford spec Antifreeze is the one that is the same as the Jag one, albeit a lot cheaper than the Jag version. A chat with the previous owner confirmed that this is the stuff that is in there. Just three days before I got the car he had a slight weep from the Tee Piece that is under the Header Tank repaired, or so we thought...... Weeping there again so back to the local Indy who did it. Should just be a matter of replacing the hose clip but it's a very awkward place to get to. If it was out in the " fresh air " I'd do it myself but it looks like eyes in the fingertips and a quad jointed arm is required so I'll pass on that, my deformities may be extensive but not of that ilk !!! I'll be using the gift thingy, actually it's a prepaid cash card that British Gas gave me on contract renewal last year, to stock up on stuff from Halfords. The card can be used at other places like Argos, John Lewis etc but there isn't anything I really need, I'm obviously a lucky man or just maybe living the minimalist Yorkshire live like what I did when we lived in a cardboard box on the cobbled steets of Barnsley............

Thanks Peter, good to have your views.

Looks like I need a slight top up on the coolant. Looking at what is in there right now it appears to be a light orange colour and having done a bit of research I reckon it's an " OAT " type fluid. Thinking of getting the Halfords version of this ( mainly because I have a gift card thingy that I can spend at Halfords which needs to be spent very soon ) but from what I can make out this appears to be a pink colour so I have reverted to my usual state - confused......... Any advice, as usual, greatly appreciated.

Morning all. I think it's time for a new set of Blades for the XK8 and thinking of getting the Wipex ones, these have the built in Washer Heads. In the past I have used these on other cars and was very happy with them but have seen comments on other Forums where people have had distinctly different views. Has anyone here used them and if so what are your views ? Or do you have any other suggestions ?

Thanks Brian, hope you find the problem quickly and it's an easy fix.

I do agree, I don't want peronal plates but the previous owner naturally wants them back to put on his new XKR. Just a bit of a bind that I have to be involved in the process somewhat. Looked at the government site and it's sorta not too bad ish, I think. My original plan was not to " own " the car until he had finished transferring the plates but that would have taken us into October and cost me nine months VED, did I mention I'm from Yorkshire ? ( A true tyke from Barnsley ! Why on earth did I confess to this..... ???? ) Thanks for the welcome Stan, nice to have met another ex Blue Job on here already ! Now where is this deedy polly thingy........

Perhaps not much help to you as a new owner myself but I do know that the car I have just bought had some bodywork at the rear done recently and this caused intermittent problems with the rear Indicator on one side and the Brake Light on the other side. This was caused by dust and particles from the rubbing down getting in to the Plugs and Sockets connecting to the light clusters and was easily cured by disconnecting, cleaning and then re connecting. Might be worth having a good look for something like this or even perhaps dust and carp in the Lock itself. Happy hunting and good luck.

;) Here in Lincs the residents need a lot of care..... ! You may well correctly guess that I'm not orginally from here, just ended up here in the RAF and stayed on when I left, albeit with an eleven year sojourn working overseas. We have to travel in company as we git scaredd win meting furrigners............ Nice motor there Trevor, very impressive. Next problem both I and the previous owner have to tackle is the change of Registration. Currently I have his personal plate on my car and this needs to be transferred to his XKR and the original number put back on mine. ( What a faff. ) From what I have seen this involves sending the V5's, MoT and Tax Disks to DVLA and then eventually the system will spit out new V5's, MoT Certs and Tax Discs. So far so good but as the VED sytem changes at the end of the Month and tax discs no longer issued does this mean that the Tax will be cancelled on both cars in ??? It's unlikely that we can effect the new Regs before the end of the Month. If anyone has any useful info and Reg changes I'd be plesed to know how you did it and how it all hung together.

Thanks for the welcome Trevor. So you and Peter were the ones trying to steal my babysitting job..........! Actually I may be a little younger but it's all relative isn't it. I'm about to put up some pics of my new XK8, sadly it's a little dirty, will get some tlc next week. It was very clean last Tuesday before I drove it to Taunton with the then owner to look at, and, as it turned out, buy his new XKR. Tom Tom decided to take us on a very odd route to avoid Melton Mowbray and we ended up on single track " roads " with mud on the edges and weeds growing in the middle, not a route any sane person, or machine, would choose to use. Both Sat Navs we had in the car took us this route so not just a glitch on mine. Needless to say that on the way back we elected to force a better route and came back to Boston via Newark, a much better option. Amazingly we managed to stay in convoy all the way home with me leading the way for the 250 mile trip. Mind you he didn't have any problems keeping up ! Anyway, enough waffle, lets see if I can get the pics up on here.

Thanks Peter. Look forward to joining in - once I can stop just sitting in the car muttering " vroom, vroom !

Hi everyone. I'm Nige ( as you may guessed from my username.... ) and I have just joined after aquiring an XK8 from a friend. Love the car already and looking forward to the ownership experience. Despite not being, ahem, in the first flush of youth I've never owned a Jag before but thinking I will enoy it and hoping that I will not have to drag up my old mechanical skills too often. These days I prefer to kick the tyres, switch on the aircon, light the blue touch paper and zoom off ! Pleased to join your community and hope to be able to contribute. Cheers, Nige.