After I paid Jag Dlr. $4800 in February for several plugs & ignitions due cyl. misfires and F. drive shaft & fuel filter replacements once back in PA I got a P0332 CEL and had to go back to them hoping that it was just a short by the knock sensor. No such luck. It was the knock sensor itself. So I paid $1300 for the knock sensor replacement. Okay, once getting back from them I discovered an Autel tiny scanner inside my car. Now I am very confused: Shouldn't a Jaguar dealer use a more "jaguar oriented" professional scanner, not just an Autel Al319 (sold by Walmart for $35)? Should I trust such NON professional diagnosting when I pad the repairs of my car costing more than the poor x-type car itself? Is such autozone type scanning legal?

 

Marcela, I may be wrong on this, but really, the mechanics at a dealership are more of a "sub-contractor" type of person than a true dealership employee. I know they get paid way differently than you would think. They get paid by the job, not by how long that it actually takes them. So, for example, they are giving a job to replace spark plugs in a car. If the dealership manual says that this job takes 4 hours to do, they will get paid for 4 hours of work. If they can bang out the job and get it done in 2, then they get 2 "free" hours of pay. If they have issues, break off a bunch of bolts, have to spend 12 hours fixing all the problems and whatnot, then they loose 8 hours as that 12 hour job is still only going to pay them for 4 hours. In addition, a lot of dealership make the mechanic buy their own tools. They may offer to sell them the manufacturer specific tools say at cost to the mechanic, but the mechanics tools are his, not the dealerships. So, what the mechanic uses to work on your car is up to them, not the dealership. So, yes, it may very well be possible that if the mechanic thinks he can get the info he needs from a $35 code reader, that is his choice. The dealership will let him do that and if he gets the assessment wrong, well, he will be doing a lot of work on his time, not the dealership's dime. This is why you will find that a lot of mechanics don't want to see a car come back because the driver says that the vehicle is not fixed.

 

It is not the repair of this particular mechanic, that, btw, I like, but the service adviser warned me not to trust (my/a) little "non professional" foxwell scanner as their diagnostics follow higher scanning (Jaguar specific) protocol tools, when I told him that I knew that I had trouble code reading of P0332 as per my "non-Jaguar" scanner readings. The question was shouldn't they use more sophisticated (Jaguar specific) scanners, as reluctant local mechanics warned me they must. Long story short: service was good but I was confused/disappointed finding his little scanner forgotten on my passenger seat. Six thousand dollars repairs (in total, the first service of February, and this one of yesterday) for a car that does not cost whole that much hurt me very much, but I am too old and poor to afford a new beginning. Especially when I love my little Mona. Thank you Thermo for your noticing my post.
As always. It means a lot to me.

 

When I ran a dealership service department we used a wide variety of both "factory authorized" and "aftermarket" tools and test equipment. Many technicians also had their own equipment as well. The shop owned 6 or 7 different scan tools and most techs had their own so as well. Which one was used on xxx-car was a matter of several variables.

I could spend hours on the subject, which wouldn't help anyone, but I just wanted to point out that non-factory shop equipment, in and of itself, is nothing particularly unusual

Cheers
DD

 

Marcela, I will agree that non-Jaguar readers can lead one in a wild goose chase at times. With that being said, I would say that if you can get your hands on an Android phone (does not need to make calls, just power up, for that matter, you can get an Android tablet). From there, you can use the bluetooth function of the phone and with an ELM327 (you will need version 2.1, NOT!!!!! 1.8), you can get some very accurate codes read from the car that what the phone tells you is pretty accurate. I have never been lead astray with that setup. The ELM unit will run you $20, the Torque app is free unless you go fro the PRO version which will set you back $5. If you talk to someone, I am sure they will have an old android phone that they will give you.

I wish you lived a little closer. I would tell you to come over and I would connect up my Dealership level computer (I have the SDD system) and I would tell you what is wrong. But, being an hour south of DC, that would be a hell of a drive just to get some codes read and maybe a little bit of service on the car.

From my experience, just get the 5 character code from your local auto parts store. That will be accurate. The explanation may not be as the code can say whatever the manufacturer wants it to say. With that being said, there is a fairly universal standard out there that most manufacturers follow, for the most part. But, there are a few times where someone has done something goofey and really can mess one up. If you want a copy of the OBD codes and their meanings along with a list of most likely causes and ways to test, let me know. I will just need an e-mail address to send them to (send that to me in a PM). May not help you fix the car in your driveway, but will atleast give you an idea of what is going on and maybe a few easy checks to know exactly what is wrong before giving it to a service place to work on.

 

Thermo. Do you do Jaguar X type transponder key programming with your dealer computer and software ??

 

I agree, bigger is not always better, that's why I ran my trouble codes diagnostic knowing the (5 digit) P0332 code before deciding to go to them, but seemingly telling them the code/s was not enough for them, they telling me that a small reader like mine is not enough and I needed their own $200 scanning pre-repair stage. Ooof. At least if I agreed with them --and paid the repair--, they said that I would not pay the scanning. I looked dumbfounded at the little wire which the knock sensor was for at least 5 minutes before paying the $1400 its replacement cost. My three months income worth. They adore my good reviews. But first let's see first how Mona will chew the new candy she got from my pocket in 4 days when I will travel back to PA. Thank you so much. I will let you know in 4 days if I am happy with this, you never know.

 

When I worked at the dealer there were sometimes 5 of us in the workshop. There was ONE WDS and later ONE IDS.
If you wanted to JUST find, repair and clear an ENGINE DTC, it was faster to use a generic OBDII personal tool than to wait in line for access to the SHOP JAGUAR tool.

Obviously if you needed to diagnose Chassis or Body DTCs, then you waited in line for the shop tool!

bob

 

So I said. And my engine light checking generic OBD II personal tool showing. But, unfortunately, I did not know how to repair that stupid knock sensor problem appeared coincidentally right after the mice busied themselves under the engine compartment chewing completely the firewall insulation and I had to go to their Jaguar shop for their Jaguar shop tool. Even now I am not too sure that the knock sensor itself was the problem other than the simplest to bother to fix. Not to forget that I visited them with my CEL and they did not see it. Oooooooooooooof. What should I do next time if I have again a CEL? Run my own tool and then go to a local, closer than 300 miles RT trip, shop? This $1400 replacement knock sensor hurt me.
PS Don't forget that the local mechanics always wash their hands with the same adagio: "You should go to the JAGUAR dealer with your JAGUAR." I am so intimidated by such remarks. She is just an humble x-type jag and I am just an humble $460 monthly income not young anymore lady.

 

Marcela, if the techs are saying that, then odds are, you don't want them working on your car anyways. The motor in your car is the same as what is put into the Lincoln LS. So, with their logic, they can't work on Ford/Lincoln/Mercury's either. Get a little bit of sass and spit that one back at them and see what their faces turn into. It is well known Jaguar has used Ford motors for quite awhile. Smart comments deserve smart responses. Lay down your two cents, smile back at them, and walk out the door, regardless of what they say. It is even better if you can do this with a few customers in the waiting area. What would you think if a 10 year old told a mechanic that he is stupid and doesn't know his cars and wouldn't trust him with his bike and you knew the kid was right. You are doing about the same thing.

 

For motor work sure, but not everything points back to Ford. I took my X to a mechanic specializing in Fords, for a power steering flush since they had a sale going on. I figured they would look up the spec and add the correct fluid.

After the job I asked what they used, they said 'standard power steering fluid'. What color - 'its clear/amber'. I explained to them that it takes transmission fluid and should be red. They looked at me like I was from Mars.

 

gkubrak, well, considering that the front end of your car is from a Ford Mondeo (aka, Fusion), I would think that they would have known better. Sure, the X-Type may have some oddities to it, but that is why you don't assume that it just takes standard anything. You verify. Just for reference, the rear suspension of your car most likely came from a Volvo S40.

 

Thermo: with the greatest respect and appreciation for your knowledge, courtesy and always very valuable contributions, you are (perhaps unwittingly) perpetuating a myth regarding the Ford and Jaguar engines.

While the X-Type V6 engine was indeed based on the Ford block and used Ford ancillary parts (thus the interchangeabilty of parts), readers might assume from your statement that the same situation applies to all modern Jaguar engines. A reader might deduce from your statement that the Jaguar V8 engines (from the 4.0 litre onward to the current 5 litre) and the current V6 supercharged engines are Ford-designed. Not so.

They are not and were not Ford engines; they were designed and engineered in-house by Jaguar for Jaguars (and the current engines are also used in Land Rovers). The confusion comes from the fact that the engines were indeed built in the Ford engine plant at Bridgend, but separately and under contract for Jaguar. How much Ford may have borrowed from the Jaguar designs for its own engines is another matter.

 

Sov211, you are correct, there was a period (2000-about 2009) where certain motors had a lot of interchangeable parts. Yes, the motors were not identical, but had a lot of shared parts. This was very true of the 3.0L and 2.5L motors from that era. You get into the 4.0L motors, not so much. Kinda like the new 3.0L motors have very little to do with a Ford. Now, the 5.0L motors, I think there is more common than you think. I know when I open the hood of my car, I see a lot of Ford emblems (I have the NA 5.0L motor). Talking with the Jaguar execs, the block is 100% jaguar. But, pieces like the pistons and whatnot are pulled off of the Ford assembly line to build the Jaguar motors. So, like with anything that you are trying to cross reference, knowing the backstory to the item and what it is common to can go a long ways.