I took my 2012 XFR to get a trade in offer from carmax today (long story) and they dinged me for an engine noise that they say could be valve or rod problems. The engine has sounded just like this for as long as I can remember, and I thought it was normal. The guy said he saw another supercharged 5.0 this week that was a 2010 or 11 and it had the same "problem" which also makes me think it's actually normal.

I'm still under the CPO warranty so I think I might take it in just to have them check and eat the diagnostic fee, but I figured someone here might have experience with this or know if it's normal, etc.

It's the tick-tick-tick-tick that changes with RPM.

 

Yes it has a problem, but it sounds more like valve train than con rod issues to me.

 

Sigh, was afraid of that. Off to the dealer I go.

I suppose I'm lucky I caught this now rather than in 6 months when the warranty is up!

 

Popped the oil cap off quickly while it was running, noise got louder and seemed to come from the opening ... seems to confirm the valve train theory, I think?

 

I agree with Will, my old 2010 XFR never sounded that bad, the only "tick tick tick" it made was the pulsing of the high pressure fuel injectors which is normal for a DI engine.

 

Looking at some other threads, I'm guessing this is the timing chain tensioner issue. I hope CPO covers it.

 

I have a similar noise in my 2012 5.0 n/a. Been going on for a least 2 years. Dealer originally diagnosed it as a normal direct injection sound. I wasn't convinced and had them look at it again. Same diagnosis. My warranty is expiring so I asked them to check it out again. This time they agreed the noise was not normal. Jaguar has authorized a new head after trying a variety of fixes. Today is 5 weeks but the head was only authorized last week. Jaguar of Hartford has been fantastic to work with on this. Immediately provided me with a new XF loaner. No one wants a problem buts it's a lot easier to take when your dealer stands behind you.

 

By the way, my car only has 29K miles and the problem first surfaced when it had less than 20k.

 

It's an internally lubed engine part so they should as long as your maint history is good.
Good Luck!

 

So as a followup, CPO warranty has authorized replacing both the timing chain tensioners/guides and the supercharger 'nose' (I'm assuming this is the supercharger isolation problem?)... looking forward to a quiet engine

 

thats excellent news

 

Good deal!

 

Aaaaaaand it's done. Thanks god for loaner cars haha.

They replaced a TON of stuff.. tensioners, guides, chain, a bunch of gaskets, 2 fuel injectors, supercharger snout.

I shudder to imagine how much this would have cost outside warranty period.

 

Not much change if any outside of $10,000 I would say, considering the amount and cost of the labour involved.

 

Yep, that's about my guess... $10k. Water pump too, forgot that one haha. There's quite a list

On the bright side, it was all covered by CPO except for one vacuum hose, and all the fragile parts of the engine have now been replaced I think? I'm guessing that the supercharger itself is the only major part left that's likely to break.