Hello everyone,

I'll be honest, I am new to the world of JLR and dont know much about these cars but I have come across something that has caught my eye locally. It is a 2010 XJ S/C with about 9k miles on it in pristine condition it seems, obviously someone's prized possession. The price seems to be pretty low for this gem at only 17k..... I am having some concerns that there might be some sort of mechanical issue or underlying problem that I may not notice. I consider myself to be quite car and performance savvy, but I just never dealt with these platforms before. Could you guys give me some input of what you think of this and let me know if theres any "weak spots" I should check out?

 

Wrong forum.

Don't post that question in the right forum - instead, read a lot of the posts and see for yourself.

If you won't DIY then probably not wise to buy an upmarket luxury car...

 

Oops, I'm sorry! I didnt realize I made that error. This one is a XF not a XJ. But as to your other comment, I have done the reading about all the body panels rattling, cooling issues, dash bubbles, and etc... just everything I've seen and priced on these cars seem to be pretty standard. I just couldn't believe the miles with the price, just doesn't make sense to me. So that's why I made this post to see is there's something I may have missed, or a more underlying hidden problem perhaps?

 

That certainly seems a low price for such a low-mileage example - biggest mechanical thing to check for first would be timing gear noise, like a "lug lug" noise or a rattle from the front of the engine, although to be honest the noise appears to be hard to quantify, along with the old "Well these Direct Injection engines are quite noisy anyway" muddying the waters further. However, the 2010-2012 5.0 engines had an issue with the timing chain guides wearing - same as the Range Rovers with the same engine, although historically the problem seems far more known about in the Range Rover world. The problem is that the timing chain guides, while metal-backed, are made from a softer metal than the pin on the tensioner behind it that makes contact with the guide blade. Over time, the tensioner pin would rattle against the timing guide on start up, slowly wearing away the metal on the back of the guide, which in turn reduces the tension on the timing chains.

When I rebuilt my 5.0 engine (long story, more on that in a minute) I found the holes worn in the back of the timing guides had quite a significant depth, enough to loosen the chain tension enough to cause the chains to rattle around in the space where they pass through between the head and the block, and presumably shave small quantities of aluminum into the oil. I'm not sure whether this contributed to my resulting engine failure due to low oil level but it could well have done.

The chain guide blades have been redesigned with a hardened metal area where the timing pin makes contact with it, which I've obviously fitted to my rebuilt engine - and it seems a number of Range Rover guys got these replaced under warranty before it caused a failure.

A note on the oil level - these engines have an electronic dipstick which require you to proactively go into a menu and check the oil level, and additionally the engine does not have an oil pressure sensor. It won't warn you about low oil level no matter how low the level gets, and despite the occasional insistence from some forum posters that there aren't a significant number of engine failures due to oil starvation, I've read (and personally experienced) enough to strongly disagree with this sentiment. It's very possible to allow the oil level to get to dangerous levels without warning, and then under a hard acceleration pull the oil can slosh far enough back into the block that the pickup is no longer immersed in oil and then you'll spin bearings, which is what happened to me.

This is not to put you off a purchase, but just to warn you that these engines do require a reasonably regular check of the oil level following the instructions in the handbook, and to keep an ear out for any nasty knocking noises in the engine which could indicate previous damage if you're considering one.

 

Thank you for that information! And I'm glad someone else agrees with the concern I have with the miles vs price. I've honestly been in the market for a newer cts-v mainly because Cadillac's have always been my favorite, but these Jaguars are certainly catching my eye! I can handle having any work done either myself or professionally, I just was afraid if there being any possible hidden issues. The possibility of the oil sump running dry is a concern, but doesnt look like anything that can't be taken care of or atleast keep a close eye on. I just haven't followed this brand other then the older XJ12. I will make sure to pay close attention for any chain/tensioner slap as well. It just seems too goo to be true, but hopefully that's not the case. Thank you for all the info, its greatly appreciated!

 

The only other weak point of the 5.0 (other than the timing chain Dave already spoke of) is the cooling system.

Lots of plastic piping and poorly made water pumps. My 2010 5.0 had to have new water pumps installed around the 30K AND 60K marks (started weeping coolant). But there was plenty of "smelly coolant" warnings to make you aware. There are several plastic cooling pipes that get brittle with heat cycles but with only 9K miles, you are probably good for a long time before you should need to worry about doing that.

The 5.0 is a direct injected engine and does suffer from carbon build up in the head intake valve area but no more than other DI engines (maybe even a bit better than the rest), but again, that should not be an issue until you start getting up in miles.

My 2010 was very hard on the battery. CPO warranty replaced it every year under warranty. If it sat more than 4 days without starting, it would need a jump, so I installed a battery tender on it and that solved the issue.

Sounds like a great deal but you might want to take the car to a Jag dealer and have it inspected just in case.

 

What you are witnessing is not uncommon with any premium European luxury car. People with a lot of money buy these cars new. People with a lot of money aren't going to pay a lot for a *used* luxury car - lord have mercy! People without a lot of money aren't going to pay a lot of money for a used European luxury car that comes with premium repair bills. So that leaves a small market of 2 groups of people to buy these cars used:
1) People too stupid to realize that if they spend all their money to buy the relatively cheap premium car, they won't have enough money to pay a mechanic to keep it running and have enough to money pay for high insurance and gasoline costs, so they will have a very bad experience, and
2) People with plenty of money that don't want to spend foolishly on a $100K car that will drop like a rock in value, and they can DIY, and they have money available for expensive parts to do proactive maintenance which keeps them from having to pay more than the car is worth on new engines and transmissions.

Just have to ask yourself which one are you?

 

I understand completely, and I would hope to think I am part of group 2. And I certainly agree with what you guys are saying. I'll have to get this into the Jag dealer and get it checked out. I'm sure all is well with the car, but just nice to have to extra precautions. Thanks all for you help gentlemen, seems like I may have found a nice gem that I just can't pass up!

 

>I understand completely, and I would hope to think I am part of group 2.
Then the MOST important thing to do is to locate a qualified non-dealer garage to service the car. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of third-party shops that are experienced with Jaguars. Fortunately, there are some that service Land Rovers. So, search around for a Jaguar-qualified shop, but if you don't find one, look for a Land/Range Rover shop and then go in and talk to them. They might not fully realize that they can attend to most everything on a Jaguar...
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You dreamed of a big star -
He played a mean guitar -
He loved to drive his Jaguar...

So welcome to the machine

 

I have a a few close friends in the performance car industries, I'm confident they can handle repairs in their shops if need be. Plus there is two smaller premium exotic shops in my town that I know can handle this car and no where near as bad as a dealer.

 

At it's core, it's a Lincoln, so any good mechanic (which means they actually read the manual and don't pretend they know everything) will be able to work on the XF. Only very strange electrical things will trip them up, but that's because all mechanics, including dealer mechanics, are tripped up by weird electrical problems. They aren't called electricians for a reason.

So the problem isn't finding mechanics that can repair broken things on the XF, it's finding owners that will learn what small items will fail with time/mileage that will end up costing a fortune in collateral damage and making sure those things are proactively replaced on a time/mileage schedule, not when they break.