Hi!

First time post. I've been following around here for a while. I love my XE, everything was working fine, the 20d diesel makes it amazing, and I got a solid deal. But now I hit a bit of a snag, and I couldn't find threads that talked about this.

So, I was driving it about a month ago, and I was getting going from a stop, and I suddenly heard a pop, and it went into reduced power mode, I went half a block and stopped. I've had reduced power mode before, and it would clear after turning off the car and turning it back on. I took it half a block and stopped when it didn't go away and it started pushing out white smoke. Probably not the best idea on my side, but I was driving off a driveway so I thought maybe I had hit something.

So, I get it towed. I'm looking at it at home. Pulled out the injectors, everything seemed fine. They were dirty but fine. As I'm looking at some things, I have a turbocharger alarm pop up on the car. At that point I decided to stop and get it checked. I found a jaguar service shop in the area, and it was a waste of time. The diagnostic seemed low, but I ran with it. The guy had a few fleet vehicles, but a few luxury cars inside, so I figured he could give me a respectable idea.

I kept having to call him and, after a bit, he finally told me a few days late that the car needed a new engine. I got my XE used. It had ~25k miles on it, and at this point it only had 46k. I ask him what was the problem, and he just says "well, you know, it's just alarm codes and errors and I have no back pressure etc." That was a bad sign in itself, when I kept having to call him for the price, I just said, I'm taking this to the dealer. This is nonsense. Even more, when I got there to pick up the car, I went in to get the payment settled, he said don't worry about it. He was only charging $150, but that's still $150. And the car was there about a week and a half. So it had to have been in his way!

So, the tow truck driver arrives, and they start talking trash to each other. Apparently they know each other, and the tow truck driver later told us that he had told people in front of the mechanic that he was overcharging them. To be honest, the two truck driver himself seemed of a dubious nature, but his story seemed to line up with the evidence. I even recall the mechanic telling me: "Heck, it might not even be the engine. It might be the turbo. We won't know until we change it!".

I get the car to the dealer. Well, I'm perfectly willing to hear anything lower than replacing the engine, new or used. The dealer tells me it's $2200. I need a wire harness replacement for the glow plugs, there was no oil in the motor (i had just changed the oil a few weeks prior) and the battery was dead, and they charge for the diagnostic. They said the main problem is the harness. But I don't need a new engine. Those are all good news, and I approve.

So, I approve the work. It's a good cost on the diagnostic, and they told me that was the issue. It seemed sensible to me.

They call me today telling me that they can't get the car going right, and that they need to replace the turbo. SO they tack on another $4k. But, I don't need an engine.

Now, obviously I know that the work is the work. But, at this point, everyone in the story seems to have about the same knowledge of the issue at hand. So, I'm evidently worried about who I'm going to give the money for this work.

I've seen the workshop manual, and it has the installation of a new turbocharger. The turbo is about $1800. I know this comes with warranty if I have the dealer do it instead. But I'm just a little concerned that no one really knows what they're doing, and I'm just going to be getting more and more repairs.

So my questions, for those more experienced, are:

1. The workshop manual doesn't indicate any special tuning or programming for the turbo installation. It's just mechanical work. I'm not afraid at all about the mechanical work. I used to be a compressor technician. Is there something that needs special software or documentation.
2. If I do go with the dealer on this, has anyone had similar experiences with things like the turbo?

Thanks for your time!

 

Sorry you are having these issues. To me it sounds like they are "shotgunning" rather than diagnosing. What would cause a wiring harness to go bad? did it melt? you have mice in the engine compartment? As to your question\, I would think, but don't know, that if you went with the Jag replacement turbo, it would be a mechanical process.