I am fixing an oil leak near the radiator as one of the joints is leaking (on both of my xj 81). Consequently the old oil had to go. Possibly this was the longest oil change I ever did (and I have done a few). The Jaguar garage that serviced the car tightened the bolt on the oil pan to a felt 500 Newton, so that I needed an extension to loosen the bolt. Big relief no residues in the oil, just smelling a bit of gas. Next step oil filter, and whoeever designed the oil filter location did not want non Jaguar personell to change it. The gap between the filter and the catalyst is about 0,5 cm, and guess what, it was the same mechanic at work that tightened the bolt on the oil pan.
None of my tools worked to remove the filter, I guess there is a special Jaguar Oil Filter adapter that is used to remove the thing. I spend a good 2 hours denting the filter until I could fit my bycycle chain oil filter removal tool (dont know how else to call it). I was covered in grease and oil but managed to remove the filter in the end. It was an Original Jaguar Filter and judging by the service book a good 10 years old.
My repair of the joint near the radiator is still pending, I did not manage to fit the pipe as the diamater was wrong. What a PIA!

Hard work but rewarding as I managed to at least get the oil filter changed. But what a job lying under the car....

 

I agree that filter location is awful. It faces upwards so you think it will not leak out any oil after draining the engine... wrong. About a half pint always comes washing out upon removal. Plus it is at an odd angle when restarting a new one. I also had trouble with the end-grab filter wrench, I had one that didn't seem to fit onto most filters very well and it kept slipping. Finally I went to Napa who carries the right filter (made by Wix) and tested their end-grab wrench on it, which fit perfectly, so bought it.

My method is to raise the left front using a floor jack under the left front spring pan from the front of the car, leaving the wheel on. Then there is just enough room to access the filter and to reach the drain plug from the raised left side of the car and to fit a big drain pan underneath.

A few years ago I had a Jaguar shop replace my oil cooler hoses, which they botched terribly. That's another story, but the new oil filter they put in was barely hand tight and leaked all over. At first I thought it was the rear connections of the pipes they fixed but thankfully no, it was just a bozo cheap labor lackey oil change hack on the job. But there were leaks from the new forward connections!

Since you are refurbishing the oil cooler connections, you can drain the old oil out of the cooler. That's not usually possible with a standard oil change.

 

Not that it's much help now, but in the days of yore we drove a screwdriver through the side of the oil filter and loosed it up like that.

Larry

 

Ok, I am not the only one that struggles. I was contemplating the screwdriver, but with the odd angle that the filtre has chances are high that it will not work. Anway job is done, and I can do the same now on my other XJ81. Lovely...

 

I've used one of these to remove a stubborn or overtightened oil filter on a few V12s. Works well in cramped spaces as you can put a socket extension on it and apply the torque from well below the actual filter.