Determining what aftermarket upgrades will improve your vehicle’s aesthetic appeal or diminish it can be difficult. Many people have espoused putting on aftermarket components deemed worthy of inclusion, only to be embarrassed later once it was installed (see: rear spoilers). Fortunately, when it comes to lighting, poorly selected add-ons can simply become invisible just by turning them off. For that reason alone, there’s less presumptive risk in pursuing an aftermarket lighting upgrade on a Jaguar. Like other high-end vehicles, though, you always want to make a positive impression with a Jaguar, and lighting on a car can be a difficult area to master. If you’re already past headlight and tail light upgrades, however, you may want to pursue a form of novelty lighting: undercar lighting.

For those who don’t know, Jaguar undercar lighting components are any add-on lights used to highlight the underside of the vehicle. Though their legality varies from state to state and country to country, in general, undercar lighting is used more as a novel, flashy feature to show off to friends and other car enthusiasts, rather than being used for any on-road lighting purposes. While a Jaguar usually blends into the darkness at night with only its headlights and tail lights visible, with Jaguar undercar lights, the outline of the vehicle itself is suddenly much clearer.

Undercar lighting isn’t a narrow category. If you want your Jaguar to really ‘pop’ and be noticed, try vivid, extra-bright Jaguar undercar LED neons. LEDs are substantially brighter than many other vehicular light sources, and that means they pack a lot of punch even when taking up relatively little space. If you prefer, however, you can arrange some Jaguar neon tubes on the underside of your vehicle, for a more traditional approach to undercar lighting.

Undercar lights can be powered by the vehicle’s own lighting systems, or the lights can be independently powered by an add-on battery if you so desire. For the greatest energy efficiency, try using only a few LEDs, which cost a lot less power to run but will be just as bright as a whole arrangement of neon tubes and such. As for color selection, you can really outfit your Jaguar with any color lights you desire, but you should set them to be a different hue than what your vehicle’s tail lights and headlights are, so as to avoid any unnecessary confusion. That way, you can enjoy these undercar lights without putting you or other drivers at risk due to on-road lighting misidentification.

To enquire CLICK HERE TO contact Dave @ XK8 Parts

Jaguar undercar lighting

Here is some great feedback and a short video from one of our valued customer's Dario based in Northern Italy who has an immaculate 1997 low mileage XK8 (26K Miles !!).

17.11.10 - Last monday I received the package. Everything OK. Last night I installed both sides. Thank you very much for the great service. The sound is fantastic. It is perfect, not too loud, but deep and throaty for greater sportiness. Now I really enjoy driving my XK8. Best wishes, Dario.

See the video below of Dario's car with the Sports Rear Pipes and hear the great sound.

PLEASE NOTE - these rear pipes made in high quality stainless steel are half the cost of replacing the standard Jaguar rear pipes and you get a fantastic sound too ! CONTACT DAVE NOW TO ORDER A SET.

XK8 and XKR Parts

This is a 10 digit number and for my 2001 XK8 this is recorded on my UK registration document. That is one place to look if you have a UK Registered car.

The physical location of the the engine number on an XK8 / XKR is a vertical rib on the left side of the block, viewed from undrneath, just above the steering rack. It will look something like 0008182310. This means the following:

00= year
08= month
18=day
23=hour
10=minute

That's the built date of the engine, which has no direct relationship to the build date of the car. Just for your info, if the engine number is before 000818xxxx, it has Nikasil bores." Really important if you want to know the history of your engine !!

XK8 and XKR Parts

As the Jaguar XK8 gets older it’s expected that the front suspension parts will become worn and require replacement. Typically wheel bearings, top and bottom wishbone bushes, springs, shock absorbers ball joints etc will all eventually require replacement.

XK8 Parts Review - Front Suspension / Subframe Problem Warning

However, if your car’s front suspension is making a knocking noise don’t necessarily assume it is caused by one of the above and fork out a pile of cash to replace one or more of these parts. A clonking sound from the front suspension can be a far more serious problem to resolve.

This could be due to the top wishbone bushes seizing to the steel fulcrum pin. The combined seized unit then wearing away at the all aluminium subframe of the car and creating an oval shaped pin hole. When this happens the wheel and the suspension become unstable and tend to float around with the excess play. This will obviously then manifest itself with a deterioration in handling and increased road (clonking) noise.

It is not hard to understand how this can happen when you look at Jaguar’s poor design of the top wishbone / bushes and fulcrum pin assembly and area. At each pin hole end, this is hollowed out and allows water, dirt and salt etc to ingress into the hole and corrode the bush and pin. No protection is provided for the exposed area or in fact Jaguar maintenance advice to periodically clean and protect the area with grease or Waxoyl.

The top front and rear bushes are designed to self lubricate and rotate as required around the fulcrum pin. However, when these become corroded, the combined seized unit then wears way at the alluminium subframe. To make things worse, an electrolytic reaction can take place caused by the steel pin passing through the aluminium subframe and the steel inserts of the bushes.

If the subframe wear is excessive, this may require complete replacement with either a new or good used subframe. A new subframe will be well over £1500 to replace !!. A much lower cost solution would be for an experience motor engineer to add new inserts into the subframe and then replace the pin and two bushes parts. At the time of adding this post to the website I don’t know how successful this latter approach has been.

I have checked my car for play and corrosion in this area and all seems to be working fine. I have fully protected the bushes, pin and general area with Waxoyl. If I do hear a knocking sound from the front suspension, then this will be the first area that I will check !.

Finally, if your having work done to remove the XK8 top wishbone assembly parts then maybe it’s more cost-effective to replace all the bushes and ball joints even springs and shock absorbers at the same time as these will inevitably have to be replaced at some point in the future and the finished job will contribute to improved handling, piece of mind and enjoyment of your car.

To enquire / order front suspension parts CONTACT US AT XK8 PARTS NOW.

For the Jaguar XK8 and XKR Front Suspension Parts Diagram and parts availability, CLICK HERE

XK8 and XKR Parts

Published by Jaguar World Monthly in a Soft Cover, I would recommend this 148 page magazine full of reprints of previous articles published in JWM magazine, including suspension rebuilds, servicing, tensioners, shocks and spring replacement etc plus all the usual tuning and modding stuff.

XK8 Parts Jaguar XK8 Sporting Icon Book

The step by step repair guides cover all the major problem areas and includes colour photos and text to describe how to resolve. It's great value for the price. Well worth purchasing at just £11.99 (please add £3.75 for UK postage and packing).

To order this great book CONTACT DAVE AT XK8 PARTS NOW.

XK8 and XKR Parts