Just yesterday bought a 2012 XF with 10,545 miles on it
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Just yesterday bought a 2012 XF with 10,545 miles on it
No service records on it except for 14 months ago when the previous owner had 4 new Hankooks installed and the oil changed at 8,400 miles and then had a new battery installed this past April.
what do I do now?
what do I do now?
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2025
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From: Cumbria
Welcome to the forum, I'd get it serviced to make sure everything is as it should be, have a look on TOPIx to see if any other work has been carried out. 👍
https://topix.jlrext.com/topix/vehicle/lookupForm
https://topix.jlrext.com/topix/vehicle/lookupForm
Joined: Oct 2007
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From: PHX some of the time
Welcome to Jaguar Forums Jaglover61,
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Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.
If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help
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From: Fort Worth
Welcome. That's pretty low miles. I got mine with twice that many miles on it at five years old in 2017. Lets assume that it has just been sitting unused for much of the last 13 years which is really not good for a machine. Typical what happens when you buy an old car with low miles and start using it, all sorts of things wear really fast. More extreme case, but I bought a 34 year old Lotus with 17,000 miles and had to replace a bunch of sensors and vacuum switches and hoses in short order. Still need to pull the engine and tranny and replace all the gaskets and seals because it leaks like a sieve from just about everywhere (for now I just keep an eye on the levels and top off as necessary).
Your XF isn't so extreme a case, but you need to take some steps to ensure that its going to be reliable. I recommend first changing all the fluids, particularly the brake fluid. Most people know they're supposed to change the engine oil, but I'm shocked at how many people don't know they need to change the brake fluid every two to three years. Brake fluid is hygroscopic meaning it readily absorbs moisture and the brake system isn't hermetically sealed. On to the oil. Its been changed at least once that you know of but you don't know with what. There is a specific oil engineering test standard Jaguar did designate for the 5.0 engines (I forget the number, but you can search lots of threads on the subject here). I'll make it easy. Get the Pennzoil "Ultra" Platinum over the internet, not just Platinum like is sold in the auto parts stores, but the Ultra Platinum meets the Jaguar specification. There's lots of argument online how critical it is, but its only a few bucks more and a little less convenient to have to order it online. If you think about it, in these modern engines, the oil is as much a hydraulic fluid as a lubricant now, operating stuff like variable valve timing components and flowing through metered devices so you'd think the engineers write up these tests and specs for a reason. Jaguar erroneously claimed extended oil change intervals on these cars and some original owners really believed they could go 10,000 miles or more between changes. Don't stretch it like that. The forum seems to agree that somewhere in the 5K to 7K range is about right if using the Jag spec oil. In a bid to sell a "low maintenance" car, Jaguar also misguided customers into thinking that the transmission fluid could go 100K miles. IT CAN'T! Maybe 75K but since yours already has some years on it, maybe start thinking about changing it earlier, like maybe by 40-50K and be sure to get the specified ZF Lifeguard 6 fluid.
Next you want to start thinking about the organic parts, especially hoses and all the plastic tubes and pipes under hood. At the mileage, you don't have a lot of heat-cycles yet, but you do have 13 years of age on them. There are a lot of cooling system components made of PA66 nylon that really should never have been used for cooling system parts in the first place because it dissolves in glycol, seriously, it does but at 800+ degrees. Still we've been seeing the parts start to fail at around 50K miles, particularly right where the plastic parts are in contact with the aluminum engine, and typically recommend full replacement of everything around that mark. The aftermarket is helping with aluminum versions of some of the plastic pipes, but not all of them yet. You can search for "the big plastic" replacement thread for more information. You're probably OK for now, but you want to know about these PA66 nylon cooling system components and keep an eye on them. You'll probably need to replace sooner rather than later just because the car already has some age. I'd also suggest to inspect and keep an eye on all the rubber bushings in the suspension. Look under the coolant reservoir is the easiest one to see and when it looks like your kid just erased a bunch of mistakes on his math homework, eraser crumbs everywhere, then its time to change. And rubber bushings are very much an age-related thing. You might have gotten 50K-75K miles out of all the bushings when they were brand new, but you likely won't get 50K out of them now.
I'd also suggest treating one more organic component, the leather. I bet its never had any leather conditioner applied to the seats and dash. Its probably been kept in a dark garage. You start parking it out in the summer sun, getting in and out of the seats and the old dry leather is going crack or shrink. You probably want to go ballistic on it and treat it with something like a Dr Jackson's Leather Rejuvenator or you can research and there's any number of products made for restoring the suppleness of the leather.
Lastly, go ahead and put in a new battery. My original Varta lasted 9 years and yours may still have its original Varta too. But these cars are very sensitive to low battery faults and exhibit all sorts of weird symptoms and errors when the battery gets old, not to mention that having an old battery is risky just because it might not start one cold morning. Just to save yourself a headache, I'd replace the original battery right away. If its not a Varta (which we can't buy in the USA), then its been changed already. Even still, inspect the battery for a date code to see how old it is and if its over about five years old, I'd replace it for good measure. Its also not good for a battery to sit for extended periods in a state of discharge. Many of us on this forum that don't drive our Jaguars every day keep our batteries plugged in to a CTEK maintainer. But little secret, the Interstate battery for this car is identical to the original Varta, probably made in the same factory and just re-labeled. Probably do the key fob batteries while you are at it or at least order them to have on hand.
I'm a bit jealous as I wish I could roll back the mileage on mine. I've worn mine out a bit. Last bit of advice. I see you have just one post so far. But don't be a stranger. Probably the best thing you can do for a pleasant Jaguar ownership experience is to be a regular reader here. Anything that can break on a Jaguar XF, it'll happen to someone else here before it happens to yours. We'll have already determined how and why it failed, discussed it and come up with recommendations for preventative measures to stop it from happening to the rest of us. Following the forum's advice on preventative maintenance has been the best thing I've done with two Jaguars now.
Your XF isn't so extreme a case, but you need to take some steps to ensure that its going to be reliable. I recommend first changing all the fluids, particularly the brake fluid. Most people know they're supposed to change the engine oil, but I'm shocked at how many people don't know they need to change the brake fluid every two to three years. Brake fluid is hygroscopic meaning it readily absorbs moisture and the brake system isn't hermetically sealed. On to the oil. Its been changed at least once that you know of but you don't know with what. There is a specific oil engineering test standard Jaguar did designate for the 5.0 engines (I forget the number, but you can search lots of threads on the subject here). I'll make it easy. Get the Pennzoil "Ultra" Platinum over the internet, not just Platinum like is sold in the auto parts stores, but the Ultra Platinum meets the Jaguar specification. There's lots of argument online how critical it is, but its only a few bucks more and a little less convenient to have to order it online. If you think about it, in these modern engines, the oil is as much a hydraulic fluid as a lubricant now, operating stuff like variable valve timing components and flowing through metered devices so you'd think the engineers write up these tests and specs for a reason. Jaguar erroneously claimed extended oil change intervals on these cars and some original owners really believed they could go 10,000 miles or more between changes. Don't stretch it like that. The forum seems to agree that somewhere in the 5K to 7K range is about right if using the Jag spec oil. In a bid to sell a "low maintenance" car, Jaguar also misguided customers into thinking that the transmission fluid could go 100K miles. IT CAN'T! Maybe 75K but since yours already has some years on it, maybe start thinking about changing it earlier, like maybe by 40-50K and be sure to get the specified ZF Lifeguard 6 fluid.
Next you want to start thinking about the organic parts, especially hoses and all the plastic tubes and pipes under hood. At the mileage, you don't have a lot of heat-cycles yet, but you do have 13 years of age on them. There are a lot of cooling system components made of PA66 nylon that really should never have been used for cooling system parts in the first place because it dissolves in glycol, seriously, it does but at 800+ degrees. Still we've been seeing the parts start to fail at around 50K miles, particularly right where the plastic parts are in contact with the aluminum engine, and typically recommend full replacement of everything around that mark. The aftermarket is helping with aluminum versions of some of the plastic pipes, but not all of them yet. You can search for "the big plastic" replacement thread for more information. You're probably OK for now, but you want to know about these PA66 nylon cooling system components and keep an eye on them. You'll probably need to replace sooner rather than later just because the car already has some age. I'd also suggest to inspect and keep an eye on all the rubber bushings in the suspension. Look under the coolant reservoir is the easiest one to see and when it looks like your kid just erased a bunch of mistakes on his math homework, eraser crumbs everywhere, then its time to change. And rubber bushings are very much an age-related thing. You might have gotten 50K-75K miles out of all the bushings when they were brand new, but you likely won't get 50K out of them now.
I'd also suggest treating one more organic component, the leather. I bet its never had any leather conditioner applied to the seats and dash. Its probably been kept in a dark garage. You start parking it out in the summer sun, getting in and out of the seats and the old dry leather is going crack or shrink. You probably want to go ballistic on it and treat it with something like a Dr Jackson's Leather Rejuvenator or you can research and there's any number of products made for restoring the suppleness of the leather.
Lastly, go ahead and put in a new battery. My original Varta lasted 9 years and yours may still have its original Varta too. But these cars are very sensitive to low battery faults and exhibit all sorts of weird symptoms and errors when the battery gets old, not to mention that having an old battery is risky just because it might not start one cold morning. Just to save yourself a headache, I'd replace the original battery right away. If its not a Varta (which we can't buy in the USA), then its been changed already. Even still, inspect the battery for a date code to see how old it is and if its over about five years old, I'd replace it for good measure. Its also not good for a battery to sit for extended periods in a state of discharge. Many of us on this forum that don't drive our Jaguars every day keep our batteries plugged in to a CTEK maintainer. But little secret, the Interstate battery for this car is identical to the original Varta, probably made in the same factory and just re-labeled. Probably do the key fob batteries while you are at it or at least order them to have on hand.
I'm a bit jealous as I wish I could roll back the mileage on mine. I've worn mine out a bit. Last bit of advice. I see you have just one post so far. But don't be a stranger. Probably the best thing you can do for a pleasant Jaguar ownership experience is to be a regular reader here. Anything that can break on a Jaguar XF, it'll happen to someone else here before it happens to yours. We'll have already determined how and why it failed, discussed it and come up with recommendations for preventative measures to stop it from happening to the rest of us. Following the forum's advice on preventative maintenance has been the best thing I've done with two Jaguars now.
Thread Starter
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Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2025
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Thank you for such detailed and excellent advice
Welcome. That's pretty low miles. I got mine with twice that many miles on it at five years old in 2017. Lets assume that it has just been sitting unused for much of the last 13 years which is really not good for a machine. Typical what happens when you buy an old car with low miles and start using it, all sorts of things wear really fast. More extreme case, but I bought a 34 year old Lotus with 17,000 miles and had to replace a bunch of sensors and vacuum switches and hoses in short order. Still need to pull the engine and tranny and replace all the gaskets and seals because it leaks like a sieve from just about everywhere (for now I just keep an eye on the levels and top off as necessary).
Your XF isn't so extreme a case, but you need to take some steps to ensure that its going to be reliable. I recommend first changing all the fluids, particularly the brake fluid. Most people know they're supposed to change the engine oil, but I'm shocked at how many people don't know they need to change the brake fluid every two to three years. Brake fluid is hygroscopic meaning it readily absorbs moisture and the brake system isn't hermetically sealed. On to the oil. Its been changed at least once that you know of but you don't know with what. There is a specific oil engineering test standard Jaguar did designate for the 5.0 engines (I forget the number, but you can search lots of threads on the subject here). I'll make it easy. Get the Pennzoil "Ultra" Platinum over the internet, not just Platinum like is sold in the auto parts stores, but the Ultra Platinum meets the Jaguar specification. There's lots of argument online how critical it is, but its only a few bucks more and a little less convenient to have to order it online. If you think about it, in these modern engines, the oil is as much a hydraulic fluid as a lubricant now, operating stuff like variable valve timing components and flowing through metered devices so you'd think the engineers write up these tests and specs for a reason. Jaguar erroneously claimed extended oil change intervals on these cars and some original owners really believed they could go 10,000 miles or more between changes. Don't stretch it like that. The forum seems to agree that somewhere in the 5K to 7K range is about right if using the Jag spec oil. In a bid to sell a "low maintenance" car, Jaguar also misguided customers into thinking that the transmission fluid could go 100K miles. IT CAN'T! Maybe 75K but since yours already has some years on it, maybe start thinking about changing it earlier, like maybe by 40-50K and be sure to get the specified ZF Lifeguard 6 fluid.
Next you want to start thinking about the organic parts, especially hoses and all the plastic tubes and pipes under hood. At the mileage, you don't have a lot of heat-cycles yet, but you do have 13 years of age on them. There are a lot of cooling system components made of PA66 nylon that really should never have been used for cooling system parts in the first place because it dissolves in glycol, seriously, it does but at 800+ degrees. Still we've been seeing the parts start to fail at around 50K miles, particularly right where the plastic parts are in contact with the aluminum engine, and typically recommend full replacement of everything around that mark. The aftermarket is helping with aluminum versions of some of the plastic pipes, but not all of them yet. You can search for "the big plastic" replacement thread for more information. You're probably OK for now, but you want to know about these PA66 nylon cooling system components and keep an eye on them. You'll probably need to replace sooner rather than later just because the car already has some age. I'd also suggest to inspect and keep an eye on all the rubber bushings in the suspension. Look under the coolant reservoir is the easiest one to see and when it looks like your kid just erased a bunch of mistakes on his math homework, eraser crumbs everywhere, then its time to change. And rubber bushings are very much an age-related thing. You might have gotten 50K-75K miles out of all the bushings when they were brand new, but you likely won't get 50K out of them now.
I'd also suggest treating one more organic component, the leather. I bet its never had any leather conditioner applied to the seats and dash. Its probably been kept in a dark garage. You start parking it out in the summer sun, getting in and out of the seats and the old dry leather is going crack or shrink. You probably want to go ballistic on it and treat it with something like a Dr Jackson's Leather Rejuvenator or you can research and there's any number of products made for restoring the suppleness of the leather.
Lastly, go ahead and put in a new battery. My original Varta lasted 9 years and yours may still have its original Varta too. But these cars are very sensitive to low battery faults and exhibit all sorts of weird symptoms and errors when the battery gets old, not to mention that having an old battery is risky just because it might not start one cold morning. Just to save yourself a headache, I'd replace the original battery right away. If its not a Varta (which we can't buy in the USA), then its been changed already. Even still, inspect the battery for a date code to see how old it is and if its over about five years old, I'd replace it for good measure. Its also not good for a battery to sit for extended periods in a state of discharge. Many of us on this forum that don't drive our Jaguars every day keep our batteries plugged in to a CTEK maintainer. But little secret, the Interstate battery for this car is identical to the original Varta, probably made in the same factory and just re-labeled. Probably do the key fob batteries while you are at it or at least order them to have on hand.
I'm a bit jealous as I wish I could roll back the mileage on mine. I've worn mine out a bit. Last bit of advice. I see you have just one post so far. But don't be a stranger. Probably the best thing you can do for a pleasant Jaguar ownership experience is to be a regular reader here. Anything that can break on a Jaguar XF, it'll happen to someone else here before it happens to yours. We'll have already determined how and why it failed, discussed it and come up with recommendations for preventative measures to stop it from happening to the rest of us. Following the forum's advice on preventative maintenance has been the best thing I've done with two Jaguars now.
Your XF isn't so extreme a case, but you need to take some steps to ensure that its going to be reliable. I recommend first changing all the fluids, particularly the brake fluid. Most people know they're supposed to change the engine oil, but I'm shocked at how many people don't know they need to change the brake fluid every two to three years. Brake fluid is hygroscopic meaning it readily absorbs moisture and the brake system isn't hermetically sealed. On to the oil. Its been changed at least once that you know of but you don't know with what. There is a specific oil engineering test standard Jaguar did designate for the 5.0 engines (I forget the number, but you can search lots of threads on the subject here). I'll make it easy. Get the Pennzoil "Ultra" Platinum over the internet, not just Platinum like is sold in the auto parts stores, but the Ultra Platinum meets the Jaguar specification. There's lots of argument online how critical it is, but its only a few bucks more and a little less convenient to have to order it online. If you think about it, in these modern engines, the oil is as much a hydraulic fluid as a lubricant now, operating stuff like variable valve timing components and flowing through metered devices so you'd think the engineers write up these tests and specs for a reason. Jaguar erroneously claimed extended oil change intervals on these cars and some original owners really believed they could go 10,000 miles or more between changes. Don't stretch it like that. The forum seems to agree that somewhere in the 5K to 7K range is about right if using the Jag spec oil. In a bid to sell a "low maintenance" car, Jaguar also misguided customers into thinking that the transmission fluid could go 100K miles. IT CAN'T! Maybe 75K but since yours already has some years on it, maybe start thinking about changing it earlier, like maybe by 40-50K and be sure to get the specified ZF Lifeguard 6 fluid.
Next you want to start thinking about the organic parts, especially hoses and all the plastic tubes and pipes under hood. At the mileage, you don't have a lot of heat-cycles yet, but you do have 13 years of age on them. There are a lot of cooling system components made of PA66 nylon that really should never have been used for cooling system parts in the first place because it dissolves in glycol, seriously, it does but at 800+ degrees. Still we've been seeing the parts start to fail at around 50K miles, particularly right where the plastic parts are in contact with the aluminum engine, and typically recommend full replacement of everything around that mark. The aftermarket is helping with aluminum versions of some of the plastic pipes, but not all of them yet. You can search for "the big plastic" replacement thread for more information. You're probably OK for now, but you want to know about these PA66 nylon cooling system components and keep an eye on them. You'll probably need to replace sooner rather than later just because the car already has some age. I'd also suggest to inspect and keep an eye on all the rubber bushings in the suspension. Look under the coolant reservoir is the easiest one to see and when it looks like your kid just erased a bunch of mistakes on his math homework, eraser crumbs everywhere, then its time to change. And rubber bushings are very much an age-related thing. You might have gotten 50K-75K miles out of all the bushings when they were brand new, but you likely won't get 50K out of them now.
I'd also suggest treating one more organic component, the leather. I bet its never had any leather conditioner applied to the seats and dash. Its probably been kept in a dark garage. You start parking it out in the summer sun, getting in and out of the seats and the old dry leather is going crack or shrink. You probably want to go ballistic on it and treat it with something like a Dr Jackson's Leather Rejuvenator or you can research and there's any number of products made for restoring the suppleness of the leather.
Lastly, go ahead and put in a new battery. My original Varta lasted 9 years and yours may still have its original Varta too. But these cars are very sensitive to low battery faults and exhibit all sorts of weird symptoms and errors when the battery gets old, not to mention that having an old battery is risky just because it might not start one cold morning. Just to save yourself a headache, I'd replace the original battery right away. If its not a Varta (which we can't buy in the USA), then its been changed already. Even still, inspect the battery for a date code to see how old it is and if its over about five years old, I'd replace it for good measure. Its also not good for a battery to sit for extended periods in a state of discharge. Many of us on this forum that don't drive our Jaguars every day keep our batteries plugged in to a CTEK maintainer. But little secret, the Interstate battery for this car is identical to the original Varta, probably made in the same factory and just re-labeled. Probably do the key fob batteries while you are at it or at least order them to have on hand.
I'm a bit jealous as I wish I could roll back the mileage on mine. I've worn mine out a bit. Last bit of advice. I see you have just one post so far. But don't be a stranger. Probably the best thing you can do for a pleasant Jaguar ownership experience is to be a regular reader here. Anything that can break on a Jaguar XF, it'll happen to someone else here before it happens to yours. We'll have already determined how and why it failed, discussed it and come up with recommendations for preventative measures to stop it from happening to the rest of us. Following the forum's advice on preventative maintenance has been the best thing I've done with two Jaguars now.
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Joined: Jul 2025
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Welcome to the forum, I'd get it serviced to make sure everything is as it should be, have a look on TOPIx to see if any other work has been carried out. 👍
https://topix.jlrext.com/topix/vehicle/lookupForm
https://topix.jlrext.com/topix/vehicle/lookupForm
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