The magazine "Jaguar Enthusiast", May 2012 issue has a Mr. Alan Lovell extolling his experiences with a clutch failure at 28000 miles. Like him, I have not worn a clutch out in over 40 years. Mine, a 4 year old 2.0 litre diesel estate, went at 10,000 miles, 3 months ago. Close inspection showed a proud rivet on the pressure plate was holding the friction plate off just enough to grip, but causing an un-noticeable slip, leading to overheating and subsequent distortion of the dual mass flywheel and the pressure plate. An obvious manufacturing defect: Just out of warranty, Jaguar did not want to know. AP Raicam Clutches said their quality control was second to none, so no luck there. And forget the Jag dealer.
Lots of useless anecdotes, of course; Blame the DMF design, or riding the clutch. Resting the foot on the clutch pedal, well, if that were true, then the withdrawal bearing would probably go first. Great write-up, Alan, we need more of this to convince Jaguar that they are not as great as they keep telling us.

 

Well, here we are again, one year, and 7,000 miles further on, and another clutch burnt out. Garage said they had fitted a Luk, but it was another AP. Honest John of theTelegraph, in 2011 reported that it has been decided that AP and borg & Beck clutches fitted as late as 2009 were not substantial, and were being replaced with LuK. Managed to wake up Jaguar Customer Services; was offered50% off next service. Big deal.