dear all:

I am looking to get a 2012 3.0 litre SC petrol XJL. For those of you who have had this model for a few years, could you kindly indicate what were the most serious issues you faced with this model, if any?
Thanks in advance
Imad Rahman

 

Both the V8 and V6 engines were fitted with a poorly designed water pump until 2015. If you do not pull over within seconds of getting a "low coolant" alert, you risk destroying the engine. You may guess how I know.

 

There are not a lot of the 3 litre V6 SC engines around, so experience is quite limited for that engine. There has been a serious issue with the water pumps on the V8s, and if the V6 has the same pump then one must assume the issue will be there on the 3 litre cars. The obvious solution is to get the pump changed as soon as possible after buying the car, to get, (hopefully) the later pump which one assumes will have been sorted out.

The other issue which affected a lot of early-production cars, (2009-2011), was sharp cracking and creaking noises from the sunshine roof, but a 2012 car should have the redesigned fixings.

The full air suspension of the previous XJ like mine is only used on the rear wheels, the front springs are steel coils so less to go wrong, although there is still an air compressor for the rear air springs, now situated in the boot instead of behind the front bumper like my car.

To get a feel for things look through what people post on the forum, but do bear in mind people rarely post about how good their car is, only what faults come up.

I had one for four days in January as a courtesy car, and it drove very well, but was quite daunting to reverse park even with the rear TV camera.

 

Thank you very much for this very important insight. I am extremely sorry to hear the trouble you have faced because I can imagine the hassle. Do you know if the problem more prevalent in the V6 and V8 and whether it definitely affects the 3.0 SC petrol or only the diesel?

 

Thank you very much for such a detailed response. Guess I need to find out whether the 3.0 SC V6 petrol has the same issue or not. These are such nice cars and its such a shame Jaguar just cant seem to go back to the reliable days of the brilliant X300 from Mid 90s. Thanks again.

 

Yes - same water pump and same issue. If the water pump hasn't been replaced I'd suggest doing it straight away for peace of mind. It's prob a $600 or so job. And if you're handy it's quite doable yourself

Not a lot of 3.0 V6 SC in the XJ perhaps given the small number of cars produced, but the same engine is used extensively across the Jag and Land Rover fleets. All the big LR4 land rovers after about 2013 had that instead of the V8. Its very common in the XF series and the F-Type too. And others. There don't appear to be chronic issues but as always have it thoroughly checked out and I would ensure it has been serviced regularly