Today I finally got back my oil analysis results that completes the story on this saga that started over the Xmas holidays - and allows me to document it in this forum.

So over the holidays I decided to change the oil in my 2008 XKR for the first time since I had acquired it in May 2022. According to the carfax that I had, it would have been just short of a year since the last time the oil had been changed, so I figured my Xmas break was a good time to get it done.

Upon removing the plastic belly pan, I noticed a slight oil leak that seemed to be predominantly from the oil pan gasket area. Researching this forum seemed to turn up comments that the rubber gasket was known to shrink with age and dis-use and that it was relatively simple and inexpensive to change out. So I ordered a Mahle OE-type gasket from FCP Euro and waited a few days.

With the gasket in hand, I proceed to drain and drop the oil pan - and then nearly collapsed with a heart attack when I saw what was in the pan - several fairly sizeable metal shavings! Back with alacrity to searching this forum, where I couldn't find anything relevant in the X150 forum but did find a post from 2013 in the X100 forum that almost exactly described my situation - https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...t-there-87845/ That thread eventually suggested that the observed shavings were likely machining debris that would've been there from day 1. I wrote a PM to the author - @H20boy - and soon he replied to the effect that his engine was still doing just fine and that he had not seen any more evidence of shavings after the first set.

Whew...

To be sure, I sent off a sample of the oil to Blackstone (I do that fairly regularly anyway, for all my cars). Just today I received the results back, and it's a clean bill of health, which BTW aligns with the fact that I have no other odd symptoms with the car - no funny noises, no noticeable oil consumption, no smoke, etc.

Whew^2...

But what in the world is Jag's QC like that allows these shavings to remain in the engine in the first place! What if the shavings were to break up and pass through the oil pickup screen? But are shavings in oil pans actually a common occurrence? Over the course of many years I've had to drop the oil pans of 3 other cars - and none had anything like this - but that is like 5% of all the cars I've had over that time. Did the remaining 95% have metal shavings in the oil pans? Do YOU know what's in YOUR oil pan??

As the expression goes, "pics or it didn't happen". Photos that follow are (1) the oil pan with the shavings, (2) close up of #1, (3) some shavings caught in the oil pickup tube screen (that I carefully removed), and (4) all of the shavings in a box, with a dime for scale. And finally I've attached my Blackstone report, FWIW.

 

While these engines were designed and engineered by Jaguar, they were built under license in a Ford facility so this matter with respect to quality control should be taken up with Ford!

 

I've never seen anything like that in the sump of an engine which is running well. However, the shavings do not look like the sort of fragments which appear when an engine has started to destroy itself and, even if they had got past the pan strainer, they would have been picked up in the oil filter, as some very small ones might well have been earlier in the cars life.

Richard

 

SORT OF........
It was still a Jaguar plant, but Ford chose which building. So they weren't so much 'built by Ford'. Also, going by how vastly improved all components in Jaguars improved under Ford ownership, would that not have been a GOOD thing???

"Ford assigned a dedicated building at their Bridgend plant, in Wales, to manufacture the Jaguar “AJ-V8”. This decision meant the closure of the engine plant at the former Daimler works at Radford in Coventry. The first prototype engine was assembled late in 1991 and fired up on the 4th November."

 

Re: Ford vs. Jaguar...out of sheer coincidence, all 3 cars that I had previously had to mess with their oil pans (as mentioned in my original post) were Fords.
- A 1966 Mustang 289 that when I bought it had a sizeable dent in the oil pan from the PO that I decided I couldn't live with
- A 1993 Taurus with a "Duratec" V6 that developed a leak from the oil pan gasket
- A 2004 4.6 modular V8 from a junkyard that I was installing in a Cobra kit car, and I had to replace the pan with a low-profile custom unit to fit the kit car chassis.

None of these had any indication of debris in the oil pans, on which basis I conclude that it's not a universal Ford thing.

 

I'd suspect that someone stripped the oil drain plug and drilled and tapped it larger.

 

That possibility crossed my mind, but (1) the pan is steel but the shavings were aluminum (non-magnetic), and (2) I had bought a replacement OE plug and it fit perfectly.

 

Looks like they are remnants of a drilling operation - I wonder if someone had trouble with the dipstick tube?

 

Remnants of an aluminum drain plug that probably got cross threaded. This is not a factory issue. This was a jiffy lube screw up.

 

Unlikely...too uniform for that. These are machining shavings (uniform thickness, classic helical shape, shiny on one side with tool marks on the other). Unknown of course whether a factory issue or after it left the factory.

For all providing responses, please read the linked post on the X100 forum first...

 

sorry mate but youre looking to deep into this. Have you ever drilled out and retapped/reamed threads? Those look like aluminum bits from the center of a drain plug. The pan doesnt have to be upped in thread size when youre able to simply tap it and ream it with the original tap size. Im gonna say that you’re convinced of something evil happening at factory back in the day. Oh well, cant change your mind. If you had glitter in the oil pan then you have an issue. Otherwise youre just dealing with someone else's shoddy work.

 

That looks like a forstner drill bit shaving. Whomever did this drilled out the biggest hole possible into the drain plug and then easily tapped out the rest.

 

I repeat - have you read this older thread? I'm referencing the specific post for your convenience...https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...e2/#post653644

 

No need to repeat: Ive read the thread and if were something harmful it would be a bulletin. At some point all oil pans have to come down. Not all will have shavings in them. Honestly what Im saying to you is that you have nothing. Nobody cares. Its not going to cause you any trouble, because its not a an issue. Glitter is what scares us. So go on freak out all you want. Ive seen this in many oil pans over the years and your findings are just that, a new experience to you. So keep losing sleep. Or keep driving.

 

I’m not sure how and where we segued into “freaking out” and “losing sleep”. All I’m pointing out is whereas you were convinced that these shavings were from a drilled out drain plug, others seem to believe that Jaguar’s manufacturing process leaves these behind in the oil pan. That’s all.

 

Understood. Im not convinced this is a Jag quality control issue. The same 4.2 was used in Lincoln and Ford Tbird cars and this is not something thats slipped through the cracks. I personally have seen this kind of crap in retapped oil pans. Glad you dont have ticking time bomb and glad your pan is free of it now. Cheers!

 

The 3.9l Ford versions of the AJ-V8 were built at Lima, OH; whereas the 4.2l engines for Jaguars were built at Bridgend, UK. It is entirely possible that different plants had different QC outcomes.

Now, do I *know* that the shavings were left there from the manufacturing process - no, of course not.