Hello everyone,

I have made made an unfortunate decision to purchase two jaguar xj's x351 3.0 diesels for me and my wife, both 2016 model which both seem to have developed engine failures. If I am correct both cars have the sdv6 gen 2 engine with mileages of 80k and 110k.

The first car has no weird noises coming from the engine apart from a chain like clutter when cold starting the engine but apart from that sounding sweet. The oil filter has been cut open to reveal oil shavings in the filter.

The second car has the same cold start chain rattle noise and a very slight knock upon accelerating but nothing on idle yet, but much more metal shavings in the filter than the other one.

Before I start digging deeper and looking at options I just wanted to see if anyone has any opinions on this and what the possibilities could be.
From my limited knowledge and what I have read I am guessing its the main bearings that have failed? I was told by a mechanic previously that the chain rattle sounding noise is usual from this engine when on cold start, is it something in relation to that noise?


Would love to hear your expertise and opinion on this, thank you!

 

I have never seen a timing chain failure on these engines, but have seen plenty of them lock up from bearing failures relatively speaking. Very brave of you to buy a pair of diesels, my general recommendation to anyone who asks me about diesel work is to sell it and get something with a different powertrain. That engine is not well supported from a technical aspect, and does not seem to be very reliable overall. When running properly it's a sweet engine with way better torque manners than the 3.0SC, but the headaches you run into to keep one operating properly is simply not worth it at all. Metal shavings in the filter are always bad, what kind of metal is it? The chain/gears are steel, bearing material will be softer brass. Either way it's not good but a chain replacement might survive, if the bearings are damaged I would suggest looking for a replacement motor before it fails and damages other parts. Too many cases of a failed engine launching debris into the oil system and then causing another failure in short order due to leftovers that get trapped in places you can't clean properly.

 

RoverJoe: You are now mixing two engine models: 3.0L Diesel on XJ is always the AJD-V6 with timing belt, not the Ingenium engine what have issues you wrote. (ingenium engines have chain - facing gearbox Engine remove everytime)
AJD-V6 had also issues with snap crankshaft/rotating bearings, but mailnly on older 2.7litre version. It is still possible that 3.0litre AJD-V6 snap the crank or rotate the bearings, but far less above 2011 when Ford complete moved the manufacturing of the crank for in-house. Still its highly recommend to use only low ash C1 oils and change them in 10k km (8k Miles).
I drove my AJD-V6 3.0L (my.2010) one up to 350t km (212t Miles) without any issues (well, one solenoid) and intakes still clear from soot.
AJD-V6 is well descripted and very well supported, since it is PSA/Ford desing. Used HUGE amout in Citroens, Peugeots and Land Rovers. Propably most manufactured engine on any JLR used.
Lucas: The shavings in oilfilter means that you should not run the engine. Minimum you ruin the oilpump and with every scratch you lose pressure. It is an remove oilsump work to see what have went. No shortcuts on this.
Propably previous owner have negleted the service and sold the vehicle as soon as issues started. Did you get them cheap? Did you bought them from shop? (consumer protection law?)

 

That's true, I have done timing belts on them so I should know better, been a while. All the locked up ones I've seen were much later though, 2016+ V6. The ingeniums are ok, they suffer about the same amount of issues as the petrol versions. Still not great for a diesel but we get them so rarely in this market, repairs on them are guesswork when it comes to the DPF system and emissions issues, which is the only real pain point on then.

 

I agree: Many people do not understand why its matter so much to use correct low ash C1 engine oil on Diesel. Using anything else and issues with DPF and other emission related parts start. The system is made so that it can cope just the particles generated by low ash oil, but nothing else. Once intakes and valves get sooted the airflow is disturbed and burning is not anymore complete: More issues exsample with rings and the snowball is running steep downhill.
One can ruin his engine engine just with 4 years for save 30 bucks in a year.
Diesels are so common at Europe that we have learned this now, but it have had its costs. Even dealers used wrong oils in a beginning. (i drove my 3.0D AJD-V6 XJ up to 340t km (212t miles), never had issues with DPF, intakes clear and smoke value still 0,05 on MOT. Only C1 oils used)
Same came for oil bath timing belt. Just a small amount of wrong oil leftover on the vessel used to pour engine oil to the engine can end an block of oil pump pickup one year later.