Hi guys! Just looking for a bit of advice. My father and i recently bought a brand new Jaguar XF 190 Luxury. We have owned it for 5 months and yesterday as i was idle at the side of the road and smoke started coming through the air vents. I immediately cut the engine off, popped the bonnet and i was met by flames. The fire brigade were called and took around 30 minutes to completely control the flames. The fireman that took my details suspected either electrical or an unknown fault. To be clear, there was no sign. No fault lights on the dash board, nothing. To add, the car has never even been in sport mode! We contacted Jaguar right away stating what had happened an they told us to contact the insurance company. However, the insurance company told us to contact Jaguar! As it was me that it happened too and of course being human with common sense, it seem 100% to me that there was clearly a fault with the car or maybe the new system in the diesel engines? Anyway, any advice would be great! Thanks in advance!

 

There was another member that had his car catch flames as well. Look for his thread. It may point to some clues. I believe that person was told to go through insurance as well. His car was not as new as yours and was a 5.0L.

 

I've seen a few over the years although not many newish cars. The ones I can think of come into three categories. Either a fuel or plastic brake line being too close to exhaust, a short between a power feed (before fuses) and ground mainly due to faulty fasteners / sloppy assembly work or finally a split / not properly clamped fuel line.

Either way this is the "sudden not foreseen no warning" event which is a basic requirement for insurance to kick in. If the insurance company think they have a case it will be toward the manufacturer, not you. If the insurance company gets recalcitrant it is time to get the legal eagles flying. Do you have e.g. AA/RAC membership which includes legal assistance?

 

I would be pushing Jaguar on this one - Insurance is your back up. They *should* be interested in how this happened and there may be a warranty claim to be made, along with associated damage to be repaired.

 

I dont know about the UK, but here the insurance pays and then goes after responsible parties for repayment if truely the case. thats why you have full coverage comp insurance. If the investigation finds a fault with the car then they can fight it out not you. If a rag was left in the engine and fell to exhaust then the repair facilty it at fault. if a rodent or squirrel made a nest out of insulation and other material that caught fire, then it stays with insurance co. We see alot of rodent and squirrel damage here all the time and clean out plenty of nests, occasional dead cat and once a snake

 

What is an xf 190?

 

It's an English thing. Fire brigade? Whuts that?

 

2.2litre 4 cyl diesel, comes in 190 and 160 Hp versions.
Fire brigade = local fire fighting gents (AKA fire dept etc etc)