Hello fellow jaguar owners and enthusiasts. Recently while driving on the highway, my engine stopped moving the car and I had to pull over. I couldn't get it to start, and it had a "gearbox fault" indicator on the dash. The service center after a superficial diagnosis says that it's likely a seized engine. They said the coolant was almost empty and the oil was at 20% at the time of diagnosis, though I had no service lights on the dash prior.

Does anybody have any thoughts on what it could be other than what the mechanic says? I'm not sure that I'd want to do a full tear-down to find out if it's truly a seized engine. That sounds like throwing out good money. However, if there's something else known that it could be, I'd love to try to get this working again.

I'd be grateful for any thoughts on the matter.

Best,
Ed

PS - I live in Seattle and the car is currently in Portland, in case that factors into this in any way.

 

i guess i wouldn't immediately believe what they said since the low coolant warning in the instrument cluster is big, red, impossible to miss, and comes on well before the overflow reservoir is empty, and the engine is still lubricated even at alarmingly low oil levels in the sump, and if you want to know whether an engine is seized you put it in neutral and turn the crank pulley by hand. but you would very likely be facing some serious damage with those symptoms.

 

How'd they get the 20% figure? That isn't even an option on the Electronic Dipstick.
Maybe someone is trying to hoodwink you?
You would definitely be able to see if all the coolant blew out, and at 20% oil, it would have started rattling horribly 100 miles previously. Blown head gasket and the oil level would be WAY over-full, but with milkshake.