I took mine to the JLR dealer for an oil/filter change at 3 months and 3K miles, at my own expense and just for my own peace of mind. The service manager suggested that I pay and not waste my free first annual service on that because the first recommended service is more involved. However, he said it was my choice. As I recall it was around $100.

 

A good move on both fronts. Modern manufacturing methods generally eliminate the need for an early initial oil change, but things do not always go as planned. I will be doing the 3k-mile oil change as well.

 

I just hit 5,000 miles. I'm going in for one myself.

 

Nothing to taking the cover off and replacing too. "Rubber grommet-over-stud" is a common fitment for engine covers these days. I have the "R," though I would expect to see a similar design for the other motors.

Just place your hands on the cover (on either side), equally spaced apart, and gently lift to release the two grommets on that side. Move over to the other side and repeat to release the other two grommets. Four in total. Cover comes off easily. To reinstall, I simply place my hands around the "J" and the "R" on each side of the cover and gently press to ensure all 4 grommets are properly seated. If you have the cover positioned correctly, you'll feel the grommets reseating themselves.

The pics show the grommet-stud locations. Pretty difficult to break anything. No plastic clips, i.e., no little PITAs to worry about). But, when you replace the cover, be sure you have the cover correctly aligned over the various cover cutouts (especially on the passenger's side) before pressing down on the cover.

 

Excellent pictures, thank you. Now I can see why you wouldn't use a strap wrench to remove the oil filter. I took your advice and ordered the Assenmacher JA 19015 Jaguar Oil Filter Wrench.

 

That wrench is great; Fits snug, but easy to torque and remove.

Couple other thoughts, as I just reread this thread a few minutes ago. Everyone has his/her own level of comfort working on a new car; I sense some folks on this forum are very accomplished under the hood and would have no trouble. You may be one of those "hands-on" folks, Jag F Type R. But, even if so, I'd suggest the following:

--Before starting to work on your F-Type, ask your service advisor for the name of the tech who has worked on the F-Type (I know it's a new model, but still)--that's the tech you want. Practices vary, but you'll find service departments handling multiple models will try to train and dedicate techs for a particular model, and especially if the model has a limited production. (When I managed a large independent auto repair facility in Seattle years back, I let only one particular tech touch a customer's Porsche. And, my GT-R's service department does the same.) So find that person and introduce yourself. Most up-scale dealers will let you have a short conversation with him/her. Get that relationship established right out of the gate. I asked my tech plenty of questions before I changed my Jag's oil for the first time. They even showed me around their service bays. Nice.

--Keep all your receipts, for your oil, filter, wrench, etc., on the rare occasion when you would have to demonstrate you complied with factory warranty specs.

--Take full advantage of your warranty. Just because I think I might have a good idea on what is going or has gone wrong (hopefully, little) doesn't mean I'm going to start unfastening things.

Just sayin'

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm fairly competent with fluid, spark plug and belt changes. The car is at the dealership now for a headliner issue and I told them to go ahead and do an early change. After the first free change I will be doing them myself and documenting with receipts. I average 25K miles a year and at $175 an oil change I would prefer to do them myself.

 

Just FYI--based upon a conversation with the service manager at my dealer, I would caution that JLR expects to see the car every 12 months for "annual service." He said that's important so that there are records in the JLR system that the car has been properly maintained in case a major warranty issue comes up.

Oil changes are easy, and I've done 100's of them on my cars over the years, but there are other items (probably equally easy) that must be checked on that annual service. While the routine services are easily DIY, the documentation is more important, and the best way to do that is to have a dealer enter it into the system.

 

A great point, Foosh! For the very reasons you state, I also take my car in for an annual check-up.

 

I have pre-paid services for the first 3 years. This saves about 15% on the fairly ludicrous service charges in the UK (£500 for an annual/15,000 mile service).

I'm curious as to how different servicing costs are elsewhere.

 

This is interesting. So do you think I should change oil at 1500 miles, or wait till 3000 miles?

 

I waited until 3K, or 1K past the JLR recommended break-in period. My thought process was if any break-in wear had taken place, I'd start with fresh oil and filter right after I was sure the car was fully "broken-in."

In any event, I'm also reasonably confident that waiting until 10K would have been fine too. It's more for peace of mind than anything.

 

If your filter is working, why would this make a difference?

 

As I said, it probably doesn't make any difference doing it more often than recommended, except to make us feel better. On the other hand filters are never 100%, and oil does get dirty regardless. You can't look at it on the dipstick in this car.

 

StealthPilot, either 1500mi or 3000mi works. I highly doubt you'll ever notice any short or long-term impact waiting until 3000mi.

It really comes down to an individual thing. I change at 1500mi because I think the majority of wear-in with the factory break-in oil has already occurred. I say this because of the results from samples I sent to Blackstone Labs and Terry Dyson for different (new) motors I've owned--samples taken at 1500mi, 5000mi, 10000mi and beyond. The results showed the greatest metal break-in occurring at the lower end of 1000-5000miles, with break-in usually over by 10000mi. I've also found some factory break-in fills were somewhat on the lighter side, viscosity-wise, than their maintenance-recommended oil weight. With a supercharged application, I want to ensure I have a sufficient oil weight as soon as possible.

Just be sure to change out your oil every year, regardless of the mileage! (On a related note, FWIW, I see BMW changed its own maintenance oil change intervals last year, going from 15,000mi down to 10,000mi.)

 

Absolutely!

It's also interesting to hear that BMW finally stopped pushing the envelope too far, but I wonder if it has more to do with their move toward turbos, and higher revving engines. I thought that was really crazy on the high-revving E90/92/93. M3s.

 

That might be due to oil consumption rather than anything else though.

As an aside, topping up the oil on a BMW engine that's using oil at less than the stated "normal" rate will result in much, much longer service intervals as far as the car is concerned.

 

Do yourself a huge favor & buy the oil & filter at the dealer. I promise you it is the right thing to do.

 

+1

 

Exactly what advantage does this have over buying them at any other vendor that has the correct spec parts?
All this talk about buying or servicing only at the dealer is not based on any facts. As long as you maintain your car according to spec, regardless of where you do it Jaguar cannot deny you warranty work here in the USA. There are laws around that to protect consumers. You are not obliged to use the brand of product they recommend nor are you limited to using only Jaguar certified parts. The burden of proof as to if a modification was the cause of a failure is on the manufacturer, and it is a high bar. Some mods are riskier than others ( for example modding the ECU and pulley is high risk, using a third party exhaust is not risky ). As for oils, make sure you get an oil that meets the spec. It does NOT have to be Castrol.