DIY oil change
 

Hey guys, thought I'd do a quick note here since I was never really able to find anything about people changing their own oil on 2010+ XKs. I just did mine in the garage (12,000 miles now, was changed at the dealership at around 7000). I know there are people who say stick to the jaguar service interval, and that others would say not to touch this job etc. etc. I just wanted to put this out there for anybody who might be in a situation like mine (prefer changing oil around every 5k and enjoy doing this kind of thing themselves). I find that after an oil change there is a noticeable improvement in smoothness of the engine, and since I'm planning on keeping the car a while and probably putting a lot of miles on it, its worth it to me to keep the oil fresh. I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying thats what I prefer :)

I thought this might be a lot bigger pain than it actually turned out to be. Granted, you have to buy an oil extractor of some kind (I bought this one: for 80$). I wound up getting the filter from amazon too:
It was harder to find a filter than I thought it would be... it seems the '07 - '09s have a far bigger selection. Furthermore, one of the filters that came up on Amazon under 2011 Jaguar XK is clearly a '07 - '09 part number when I cross referenced it with the filter manufacturer. Kind of a pain... make sure you know what you're getting.

Really, as far as the oil change itself goes, there isnt much to it. Warm the car up, plug one end of the hose to the extractor and the other end to the pipe that goes down to the bottom of the pan from under the fill cap, set to "extract", and give it a couple pumps. The manual says 7.25L at oil / filter change, and thats just about what came out into the extractor... it might have been 7.2. The filter housing sticks up off the right hand side of the engine bay, nothing too complicated there either. I thought it was interesting that there was no spring in there... the filter has two little plastic arms with hooks on them that press into the housing. Replaced the 7.2L that I took out with fresh oil (Good luck finding the Castrol Pro stuff the manual reccomends, but Mobil 1 Extended Performance, which you can find pretty much anywhere: Synthetic Oil | Mobil 1™ Extended Performance meets the Ford M2C925-A specification required in the manual).

That was pretty much it. Setting the extractor to the "purge" setting and pumping it again pumped the dirty oil into the container I use for old dirt bike oil, and that was pretty much it. I'll check periodically over the next couple days to make sure the oil level stays where it should be (ignition on with the car not running, cycle with the trip button on the left stalk to see the oil level), but barring any sudden explosions or whatever, that was a whole lot simpler than I thought it'd be. Frankly, I prefer changing the oil this way to crawling around undoing drainplugs, screwing with drain pans and all that. I didn't even get my hands dirty, and it was way faster this way.

I'll let you guys know if my car blows up so you can point and laugh.

Side note, its been almost a year now and 12k miles and this car is still freaking awesome. I'm not the least bit sick of it.

May we presume your car has no oil drain plug on the pan?

Thats my understanding, that the 5L doesn't have a drain plug (though TBH I didn't crawl under there to confirm). When you look under the oil fill cap, there is a tapered metal tube, sort of like a mini-dipstick tube, that goes down to the bottom of the pan and serves for sucking the oil out the top.

I guess maybe it seems stupid, a "hey guys I changed my oil!" thread... but in my searching around the web for information, I found a few posts (mostly on XF / Land Rover forums) that sort of suggested what you might do to change your own oil on this engine, but none that said "I've done it, here's what you need and here's how to do it". Even just finding an oil that meets the specification listed in the manual was more of a pain than I thought it'd be.

Thanks for the write up. I've never seen the engine bay of a '10 and up and had some curiosity about how that 2010 and up oil change was done. I'm also curious about the oil filter and it's location and I guesss I'm going to have to pretend to want to buy a new XK down at a dealer, and lift the hood to see that filter arrangement.

Now they just need to work on an easier way to change the air filter without removing the front wheel and tire and various covers.

Thank goodness 07's have a drain plug...............all my boats required sucking the oil out either by a special tube or the dip stick; I made a drain system using a NAPA 5 gal Gas Can and mounted a Jabsco electric drill pump on the cap. Used a 1/4 or 3/8n electric hand drill to run the pump. Never saw the dirty oil just pumped it into the can, then take can to WalMart for oil deposal ! Only problem is it never quit got all the oil out............but for a car hard to beat a drain plug.
Drain plugs are getting rarer; Jag transmissions, my GM motor home diff.
Bad ideas IMHO.
Never heard of drain tube under filler cap! very interesting approach.

Thanks for report...................

Cheers, Adrian

Thanks for the great info.

Hey guys, took a couple pics just now while my lunch was heating up... should have just done this in the first place. Pictures should show where everything is, and I took a close up of the tube that is down in the oil fill. The tube is tapered at the top to facilitate a hose being shoved over the top of it. Last pic is with the plastic shield removed so you can see where the filter housing is (grey cylinder sticking up off the front right of the engine). You're right about not getting all the oil out... I assume a little probably does get left behind, and I suppose that it goes without saying that if you were to do this while not on a level surface, you could potentially leave a bunch behind.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...ine=1356114267
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...ine=1356114267
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...ine=1356114267

Thanks for the photos. I've got an '07 so it's interesting but doesn't relate. Is the filter on top?

The '07 filter is on the bottom.

Interesting observation: The 5 liter NA models now have dual air filters somewhat like the supercharged 4.6 liters. The NA 4.6 liter '06-'09 have a single air filter under the left front fender. It is quite small in area. That's why the supercharged version has two filters.

Yep, in the third pic you can see it, its the gray cylinder with the yellow dot in the middle.

I was kind of surprised to not find a spring in there... I thought the idea behind a spring loaded cartridge was that if oil pressure ever built up due to an overclogged filter, the spring would compress and allow oil to bypass the filter entirely (better dirty oil than no oil). I didn't see any mechanism for that kind of thing to happen, the filter locks into the housing and definitely isn't going to move.

Interesting post. I just posted a thread to find this information to change the oil on my 2011 XKR 175. No drain plug--I guess it saves jacking the car up. However, a special tool is required to extract the oil.

I also like to do the basic maintenance on my cars. I get to know and appreciate my cars more.

Thanks for the great post! Well done!

Thank you for the great information, I will give it a try. 15k seems to long between oil changes.

I was in the local Dealership yesterday. I asked about DIY oil changes. They told me you need to use the OE oil for warranty; however, after that you can use other oil. I very particular about my cars. So, I asked if they would sell me some oil. They sold me 9 quarts of the OE oil at the same price as I would pay for regular Castrol full syntec in the gold containers. They also told me they use the drain plug on the oil pan to drain the oil and gave me a diagram showing the location on my 2011 XKR. I will post pictures soon of the oil and diagram. No need to buy an evacuator.

2011 JAGUAR XKR Parts - Direct JPLV Porsche Parts.com

On the site above I unputted both XK and XKR and there is indeed a drain plug for each in the pan. Item #6 I believe.

haha... of COURSE there is a drain plug. Wow... I wonder how it got started that there wasn't one? I searched quite a bit and could only ever find people talking about how there wasn't one... even the sales guy I bought the car from, who was definitely a knowlegable Jaguar guy, said it didn't have one.

Oh well... its easier with the evacuator anyway.

I was also told that my 2010 did not have an oil drain plug.

The parts breakout linked in the previous post shows an upper and a lower oil pan...interesting.

Anyone have any detailed info about the oil system in the 5L cars? Anything out of the ordinary?

Don't sweat it. I enjoyed your write up. It sounded like a interesting way to do a change.

To change the oil filter, do you just purchase and replace the cartridge or is it a screw-on filter?

I want to try to do an oil change on my 2010 XK and am not sure if these filters will work:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/XF-XFR-XJ-XK...ht_2790wt_1344

Thanks!

Yes, its cartridge only... the link you have there is what it looks like (though as you've probably found, its not as easy as one might assume to verify without doubt that its the correct filter).

I just had mine done at the dealer a few weeks ago, and the service rep told me it didn't have a drain plug. :icon_special: