I discovered, after almost 10 years of ownership, that you’re a DJ.

 

Will you be surprised to learn that having an electronic oil level measuring system is NOT a Jaguar thing?….All its German rivals and some American cars have also (years ago) deleted the physical oil stick. And the gauges? Well, I do agree that in a car like the F-Type ideally should have them, but again, Jaguar is by no means alone in deleting them. Or is it just ingrained behaviour that makes us assume (incorrectly) that Jaguar is deficient?

 

I'm not the automotive engineer or have the extensive engine background that many of our forum members have, but I would say that it would be a GOOD idea to let an engine that has run sit for a period of time so that all the oil in whatever parts of the engine go to rest in the sump. Help me understand how else you would know the +/- total of oil in the system? I do this with my 69 e type, that still has a dipstick, as well as my 2013 VW golf.

 

The infotainment was actually something that surprised me after I got the car. I knew the infotainment more or less from other Jags but never dug deep into it until I got the F-Type and was surprised by how much better it was than in earlier cars.

I for one have never missed a dipstick or any additional gauges in my F-Type or the other modern Jags I had before the F-Type. I can't see what value they would add, except maybe that more temperature info would make it easier to judge when the car really is up to temp. When it comes to oil none of my Jags has ever needed a drop of oil between their annual oil changes and I stopped regularly checking the oil level years ago. Ahead of longer road trips I check stuff through for the sake of good order but that's it. If something's wrong, the car tells me. I guess oil sticks and additional gauges are just considered as irrelevant in modern road cars.

Having said that, a nice to have thing would be to be able to show some more data than the pedal position and G-force stats in dynamic mode. There's so much more data in there that arguably easily could be displayed but isn't, which gets pretty evident if you connect for instance an OBDII interface connected to the Torque app.

 

Here's an argument for a dipstick: The dealer overfilled my car with oil three times. After the third time, I stopped going to them for my free annual oil change.

 

Which is why the oil level readout isn't available for 10 minutes after shutting off the engine. I know there's a clever way to bypass that, but ....

 

Yeah it's weird how common that issue seems to be with AWD cars. My previous one was an AWD AJ126 but for some reason I was lucky and never had a dealer overfill it during the years I had it. What would the dipstick add though? didn't the car tell you it was overfilled when you started it up at the dealer after the oil change?

 

No, it only tells you it's overfilled if you go through the normal oil checking procedure. I' don't have time to start it, warm it up, then park n a level place and wait the required time and to be frank, I shouldn't have to doublecheck their work. Clearly the dealer doesn't either. A dipstick takes seconds.

 

Fair enough, a dipstick would definitely be easier in such a situation. Every day is a school day. I thought it would throw an error message on the dash if it was overfilled, just like I'd expect it to display if the oil level for some reason got too low.

 

No need to do that - just turn the ignition on (foot away from brake) and check the oil - it should give you a decent reading even if the car's been standing for some time. I check mine after several hours.

 

My dealer overfilled my car not once but twice. And the second time was after I explicitly told my service advisor to tell the technician to use the proper amount of oil. The first time, the car had sat for about 30 minutes after they performed the service so it had enough time for the oil to drain down. I checked the oil level before driving away and got an overfilled warning. Note that the car doesn't automatically give an overfilled warning message without you pulling that feature up in the menu. I suppose it would give a warning if the oil is dangerously low and I hope I never find out.

The second time I drove the car the 50 miles home and then checked the oil after about an hour. It was overfilled again. That time I used my Mityvac to pump out ever drop of oil I could and it had been overfilled by almost 3/4 of a liter or almost 25 ounces ! I pumped back in the correct capacity.

Regarding the gauges, I don't see what the problem is with the temperature gauge. It tells you when the engine is cold, within the proper operating range, or dangerously hot. I suppose having actual temperature graduations would be nice but not really necessary. One thing I wish Jaguar had done was to design in some nice additional gauges that could be displayed between the tach and speedometer with the menu choices. An oil pressure, oil temperature and amps gauge for example. Like back in the day when sports cars featured "full instrumentation".

Oh, one thing I can't believe I recently discovered was the button on the left side of steering wheel labeled Mode that lets you switch between media sources like Radio, SiriusXM or the USB port if you have music downloaded to a USB drive. I had been selecting those different sources through the touch screen. Duh ! I don't know how I missed the steering wheel function. And I'm one of those guys that actually read the owners manual and sat in the car going through all the features after I bought it.

 

There are two issues with the temp gauge.

The first is that the gauge is not truly linear. Instead, there is a wide temperature range around the center point where the gauge reading doesn't move even though the temperature is actually fluctuating up and down (which is normal during ICE operations). If it were linear, it would be easier to detect a pending overheat and proactively resolve it than to wait until the gauge goes from normal to overheating in a very short temperature range. Unfortunately many manufacturers do this to keep uninformed owners from calling the dealership to report a problem every time the needle moves up or down in the operating range.

The other issue is that it reports the temperature of the coolant, which is helpful, but a much better/more reliable gauge is one that reports the temperature of the oil. It takes a lot longer for the oil to come up to proper operating temperature than coolant. BMW has done that for years in its sports cars and it's a much better indication of the true condition of the engine. It also is a better indicator of when the oil is sufficiently warmed up to support high-revving shenanigans. Here in New England after a leisurely 5 minute drive in sub 32F weather, the temp gauge will be at the halfway (normal) point but the engine oil isn't nearly warm enough for hard driving and can result in unnecessary engine wear.

 

Good point that we have an engine temperature indicator NOT a gauge! It has purposely been damped in the mid range to not move. When it goes off scale it's too late the engine is over heated.

I can't find the post but a forum member did plot the actual coolant temperature .vs. where the gauge pointer was. He found out as Thunder Dump said that it is "non-linear"!

Many of us use Torque Pro to output the real coolant temperature. I also have a cigarette lighter USB/Voltage gauge in the center console. These are cheap things to do so you can keep on top of the engine. Yes I wish they put gauges in but nobody looked at them anyway. Just like the dip sticks.
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Excellent points about the temperature gauge. I suppose it would also be more expensive for JLR to have to have two different gauges, one in Fahrenheit and the other in Centigrade.

My Nissan 370Z had an oil temperature gauge which was highly useful. It was interesting to note the difference in the coolant temperature gauge showing the car was within the "proper operating temperature range" vs. the actual temperature in degrees (F) of the oil. And most importantly, those VQ37 engines were known to run hot. The non-Nismo versions did not have an oil cooler and the engines would go into the limp mode when the oil reached 265 F or maybe it was 285 F ? I forget. Anyway, when making a spirited drive up the mountains I kept one eye on the oil temp gauge. Many times it did get close to that critical temperature so I backed off. I never did hit the limp mode but there were plenty of reports from guys who tracked their 370Z's who did and had to add expensive aftermarket oil coolers.

 

Not really, either have the gauge marked in both scales (like the speedo in mph and kph) or a digital one that's selectable.

 

I am disappointed to learn that my 2016 F type R does not have the conveniences of remote start stop etc. included in the key fob without extra cost. Like my wife’s Sorrento and my friends new Corvette both have.

Sure makes JLR look like a bunch of skinflints/country bumpkins.

 

You can remote start via the app, which has the benefit that you don't have to be within fob range to do it. I find it much more convenient than having to be close to the car to do it.

 

The one thing missing from my MY21 that I would have expected (because it is even standard on my MIL's $20K Honda) is a front camera.
It does mean that I am very cautious when parking where there is any sort of low barrier.

 

The remote start option does seem to be years behind other manufacturer's?
My friend has a 2012 Ford F-450 pickup that came stock with remote start. Years before Jaguar even thought of it!
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I have found the app only works about half the time. No rhyme or reason to it. Some days it will work, others it will not. Some days it will say the car is in use, other days just nothing and sometimes it just works. I've found not patter. Not in a garage, not a time thing, it\'s just fickle.