Hey All,

I tried posting this on a different jaguar forum website and got little response over a few days so hopefully better here

I'm in the market for a powerful V8 highway cruiser / commuting car. I currently have a 2013 Jeep Wrangler that I'm building up for off-roading, and it's getting to a point where I want something more comfortable for longer highway cruises. I can find ~2009 / 2010 XF Supercharged with around 90k miles on them for around $15,000 near me.

Considering the cost and the mileage of the vintage of XF I'm looking at, I am wondering a few things

1. Are these money pits? I have in the past owned a Saab 9000, and a Land Rover discovery - and while not toyotas, with proper maintenance, they weren't bad, especially from a DIY perspective.
   
2. Are they easy to DIY? One of the things I like about my Jeep, the Land Rover, and the Saab was that it was relatively easy to get to everything without taking the entire vehicle apart. I'm wondering how the Jag is in this respect. One of my past cars was an 09 Subaru Forester Turbo, and the engine was so tightly packed into the bay you couldn't even do spark plugs yourself. In the land rover, it was even easy to take apart the electrical to clean the contacts and make things work again.
   
3. How much money per year do you spend to keep it operational? (considering I'm looking at higher mileage) - $1-2k is what I'd expect $3k+ would be high IMO

Even if the Jag is not completely reliable, that's okay if it's not a bad DIY vehicle. But if, for example, if it makes easy things difficult, like having to disassemble the bumper to perform maintenance, or if a dealer has to do everything with special tools, then it's not something I'm going to want.

Any feedback on your experience is welcome, especially if you have other similar vehicles to compare it to.

 

Happy to reply..

Normal Maintenance if done within recommended schedules should have kept the car in reasonable condition...but they have their quirks....

But Your questions are not unusual here..rather than go all through the pros and cons of what you're after..I invite you to read through several of the same kind of posts here in the XF section and they are very recent, so info is current to your concerns..then when you come down to a decision with specifics, ask away..but right now just do some research here and most of your answers will be more than likely answered.

Good luck and welcome

 

Thanks actually I just read a few threads and had some of my questions answered already

I think i found the better jaguar forum :-p

It looks like there are a few known issues and people say the dealer is very expensive but it's possible and not bad to DIY - different from what people I hear say about twin-turbo audis and the like.

 

Ok, so I've just read several threads on the rear diff issue, and they all seem to end without resolution. So what's the story?

1. Is the only fix really a $9,500 updated rear axle?
2. Is there no way to just put in new seals, with new carrier / pinion / etc.?

This would be the nail in the coffin for the XF for me if I can't find an XF that has already had this repair. When thinking about my Jeep's rear diff, and how simple and easy it is to fix, I'm wondering why no one can have their's rebuilt in a couple hours for a few hundred in parts.

 

I have the same car you're looking into. It's been about 6 months of ownership and I bought it with 106k miles. I took mine to the dealership to check for the diff issue, but haven't run into it (yet?). I remember seeing a post somewhere about replacing it with an aftermarket of some kind, but I'd have to dig to find it again.
I've had a lot of things to fix, like leaking coolant overflow tank, leaking trans line, coolant pump, and small things here and there. I'm also a bit neurotic about maintenance, so I've also done all of the filters (including fuel), plugs, supercharger oil (which I would recommend anybody/everybody do whenever possible) and coolant flush.
All told, I've probably spent about $3k, but some of those items were done by the dealer (since I've found other mechanic shops aren't really much cheaper) rather than DIY. Of course, I don't expect to have to spend that much every year. Most of these are because it appeared the prior owner didn't do it before.

Some things that may not be mentioned in other threads:
-This thing seems to be developing new clicks and creaks and rattles every time I fix one. The sunroof and door ones are pretty well documented, but I've run into ones from under the dash, inside the seat, and there's some weird one in the back seat too.
-Some of the materials used don't seem to hold up well with age. I've replaced the driver armrest and have the bubbling dash issue, for example.
-There's a recall on the taillights, but it's expired. I'm up a creek until I can get time to take it apart and see if it can be fixed (or pay a lot of money to replace). Make sure you turn on the lights and check them before buying a car. They're not cheap.

All the negative stuff aside, this is the fastest car I've owned, and once you remove the resonators from the airbox, the supercharger whine becomes addictive. It's also probably the most beautiful car I've owned too, and I rarely see another one.

 

Thank you for your response, that gives me more of an accurate ownership picture. I really emotionally want this car, which drives most of my purchase habbits haha, i just need to make sure its not like an audi allroad or something of a mechanical disaster.

 

There are several ways to solve the diff problem (for a lot less than $9.5k!), when I'm back in front of a pc I'll link you to a couple of solutions

 

I've owned a couple Audis myself. Believe me, these aren't nearly as prone to failure or as tough to fix.

 

I dont want to highjack the thread but could you give a little more info on these resonators in the airbox? you can PM if thats best...Thanks

 

You know those tubes on the intakes that lead nowhere? Those are resonators. Their only purpose is to decrease noise. All you need to do is saw them off, cut off the very ends and use a soldering iron to "plasti-weld" the ends on to the intakes to make them shorter. It makes it so you get a lot more engine and supercharger whine, and is probably one of my favorite things I've done to the car. I certainly can't take credit for the idea, btw. If you do a search, you'll see that many people have done it.

I've actually since cut them shorter than in the pics, but you'll get the idea:

 

Sweeeet! ive been complaining about how quiet the supercharger is, it will go well with the muffler delete I just did! Thanks a bunch...I see you did 4 of them, it looks like there is two more on the intake before the filters at the very bottom of your first pic? are those the same thing?

 

Those are part of the snorkel system. I never really got around to figuring out what I wanted to do with them. My suspicion is that since they're pre-filter, they probably have less effect, but I haven't gotten around to testing. They pop right off, so maybe I'll try running without them attached for a while to hear the difference. It will introduce hot air from the engine bay though, so long term solution should be to plug them up (if it's worth it).