Reliability after 80,000 miles
 

Hi everybody. I am a former Audi A8 owner and I am looking at getting into a 2011 Jaguar XJ 5.0. My question to everybody is exactly how reliable are these vehicles beyond 80000 miles? The one I am looking at has 87,000 miles on it and it was a two owner. Looks to be in relatively good shape but I don't see any service records on the Carfax. My A8 had a hundred sixty thousand miles on it and it still ran when I sold it. I can't seem to find hardly any x351 model XJs with over a hundred thousand miles on them. Are these vehicles that could be driven as a daily driver? Are there any known issues that pop up? I hear the head gaskets are an issue, is that common or rare? Timing noise? I definitely appreciate any feedback that I can get. I spent the last couple days going through the search button and got the majority of my questions answered. Appreciate ya!

I do most of my own work and I'm just wondering exactly how hard these vehicles are to fix? I know with Audi I had to have special tools and special scanners and such. Is jaguar pretty basic?

I got mine at 65k and just crossed 85k with no major issues. I just had to have the front-right ride height sensor replaced, but that was covered under CPO. The sunroof window shade doesnt close, thats really my only issue. The car still feels and runs like i would imagine it did when it was new. Not even really any rattles or squeaks. Its great!

gary, I do a lot of my own work and so far the work has been straight forward. I am approaching 95K miles on my 2012 and I have no doubt that I can easily push this car well beyond 250K miles with ease. I am figuring here shortly I will be doing a plug change. I do not anticipate any problems with that.

I have to admit, doing an oil change on this car is one of the easiest that you will ever do. Don't even have to drop to a knee. You open the hood, attach the vacuum pump, suck the oil out of the engine and replace the filter (mounted on the top of the engine). Then you dump in the new oil and you are done. takes all of 15 or so minutes.

i had no idea it was this easy. I just assumed you went under the car like every other car ive owned.

Is it impossible to do without a vacuum pump? ive never drained oil up, so this is new to me.

I'm at 102k and it runs perfectly.

I had a head gasket failure on mine at about 45000 miles. I don't know specifically about the labor hours involved, but the car was at the dealership for four weeks and when it was returned to me, the Service Advisor commented how fortunate I was that it happened under warranty because it would have cost $10000+ otherwise. When it happened again less than a year later on an out-of-town trip, I said, "the hell with it" and traded it in "as is" on a new Cadillac which, to date, has been absolutely trouble-free. Never again!

Dwayne

Hank, can you do it like every other car. Yes you sure can. BUT!!!!!! (you knew it was coming). There is no access for the drain plug. So, you will need to remove the bottom plate. Takes about 20 bolts, but it comes out. Takes about 20 minutes or so to remove. From there, drain and fill like any other vehicle. Then you have another 20 minutes or so to re-install the cover. You will need a selection of sockets and torx bits to get all the fasteners off. I want to say all the bolts are 10mm (those around the transmission and the two by the A-arms) and the torx bits are a combination of T15 and T20 (all the rest, mainly at the front of the plate where the plate under the radiator and the motor plate meet).

For the $70 a vacuum pump costs, it is money well spent for the time it saves. The biggest trick I have found is you need the oil warm (not hot, not cold). So, you take the car for a drive and then you park the car and let it sit for say 30 minutes with the hood open (gather your tools and whatnot during this time, you will have some time to grab a beer too).

Head gaskets are NOT common. They happen because people don't pull over when the car is over heating. This is engine death! These are 100% Aluminum engines and will not tolerate over heating.

Now the other related issue is our temperature gauges are not gauges but indicators. Which basically never move and are worthless.
You can easily see this when using Torque Pro by monitoring ECT. The temperature moves around as the engine operates but the dash gauge never changes.
So this means most people don't even know the car is over heating until it's too late. But again if you DO see any over heating you MUST stop NOW!
Don't drive to the next exit or try to get home. Shut it off and call a wrecker.

What several people have done which I think is pretty smart is set an alarm in Torque Pro so you hear an audible alarm when the engine temperature hits a certain temperature.
They leave the OBD interface installed 100% of the time.

The tensioners are hit and miss. Many at 100K miles with no problems and for some reason the LR 5.0L's seem to suffer MUCH more from this than what appears to be the identical engine installed in Jaguar's.
Also some discussion of the VERY long (15K mile) oil drain intervals. I know once I am off warranty the oil will be changed more often than that!

If you are coming from an Audi (I have had friends with Audi's) I think you will be pleased as I am sure by now you are a very good mechanic!
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Even when I was under warranty, I had my XJ serviced every 6 months or 7500 miles, which ever came first. As for overheating, while the gauge is pretty useless. Especially if the coolant is low as it will not register unless the sensor is immersed in the coolant, but the low coolant warning works fine and saved my engine 3 times due to water pump or coolant line failure. As for tensioners and belts changed at 96k/6year. The belts are changed, but the timing chain tensioner is not, that is done on an as needed basis and later XJs have a different tensioner and guide the do hold up. Look at my post https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...t-done-214277/

I have been looking for exactly when the tensioners were updated.
Do you have any serial number information? First I heard the problem was fixed on the 2013 and up models but then someone checked part numbers and found they changed sometime in 2014 model?

So not sure if or when they got updated.
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My XJ was built in September 2012 as a 2013 and had the old style guide/tensioners.