It appears, as the repair facility is sadly reporting, the fire I suffered in my car damaged the engine in a way that it needs to be replaced. I am guessing that is a rather expensive repair? Anyone have any insight into how much replacing a 2011 XKR motor would cost? Anyone know where I can find another XKR in really good condition, at a really good price? Yeah...I know I asked for a unicorn and a reasonably priced one at that!

 

Back when I bought my 2010 XKR in 2013, during the inspection at my mechanic's shop, he told me and the previous owner that the engine needed replacement even though the car was running okay. I came to find out later that the previous owner never changed nor checked the oil level as he was running the car with essentially no oil in it. He had an aftermarket warranty that was willing to pay for us to find an engine and install it. We found an engine from a wrecked XKR with less than 6000 miles on it, and purchased it for about $6000 and with removal of the old engine and installation of the new plus the use of the existing supercharger, it was a $14,000. transaction all in. The owner's insurance paid my mechanic directly, and then I purchased the car with a near new engine. 130,000 miles later, it's been the best, most reliable car I've ever owned. I'm not sure you can find an engine with this low amount of miles 8 years later, but who knows?

 

Not certain of the going rate for a reman engine, but there are several sources. Still quite certain even all in, you're going to be below the 80% threshold for a writeoff, unless that's what you want in which case a new engine from Jaguar installed is likely going to be about 100% of the value of your car.

 

I am probably looking in all the wrong places, but I am seeing high mileage motors for $7-10K and beyond (excluding Ebay, which I doubt is where they would source one). That $6,000 motor with 6,000 miles is looking like the unicorn about which I spoke!

 

If this rabbit hole gets much deeper, I am not sure I want the car to come up out of it.

 

What you have is a beautiful parts car that will be an asset to keep many other car on the road for years to come. So take the check when furnished and let the breaker sell it apart and make many other owners happy .

 

I have to ask, HOW does a fire ruin a motor??
Electrical yes, hoses yes, but without running the engine they do not know if it is bad. Something smells fishy

 

It's called "CYA".

 

No, it is called blind mans bluff. Until all the other pieces are put back together, there is NO way anyone can say what the condition of the engine is. I had a race car catch on fire and two weeks later the same engine with nothing done to it was running in another car.

 

Unfortunately we can't see any details of what burned and what melted. Also don't know if the manifold melted or just surface damage. Considering the wires are toast there is no way to try to start it so there would need to be more disassembly to determine extent of damage to motor. Don't know if the ABS system is gone or other components. Not to many tech's know about these cars so they won't commit on the damage but guess on parts replacement. I bet if a Jag service tech looks at it he would total the car. My 2 cents

 

I too wondered how one could assess the motor as bad without diagnosing the motor, which seems impossible right now, but I would have to assume they used some technique a bit more scientific that eenie meenie.

I know values are up a across the board on these cars, but I see quite a few 2011s in the $26k range. With motors running $7k or more in parts and RR costs having to at least be in the couple few thousand range, we are talking at least $10k for the motor alone. Adding in whatever else burned (harness[es], molding, misc), this repair has to be about $15k+. That still seems significantly below the suggested 80% of say $26k, so I might be getting my baby back.

My fear is that I will always drive her in fear now, which is a real buzz kill for cars like these!

 

melted around the engine = game over

cut your losses and move on

 

I totaled an XK. I'll see if I can find the photo. Someone hit my right front corner.
In addition to cosmetic and some front end there was, apparently, a little frame damage. Seemed to me to be fixable, but once the body shop guy walked me through it I took his advice and let the ins company total it. They printed out a check for $28K like they were paying for drinks.
My point is, it just seems that there are so many things that could have been damaged by that fire, I think you'd have issues popping up for years, and the engine itself would be the least of them. I'd take whatever you get from the insurance company.

 

The goal is to not have the car be a yoyo to the shop. They want it fixed, done and liability concluded. What was the cause of the fire? Will the next engine's fuel system or wiring do the same thing? What about the paint of the hood when exposed to the heat? I've fixed cars with elemental damage and its ALWAYS more than meets the eye. It sucks to be 10k in and find its not 5k left to fix but 15k. Insurance is about managed risk, everything is a calculation and statistics.

Say it costs $20k to fix and they can get $10k as a parts car, its less risky to sell the car salvage and cut you a check for 25k and 5k cheaper to boot. Not that those are accurate numbers but salvage auction value factors in as well to the decision to total.

 

It appears I will be in the market for a "new" XKR. I spoke with the repair facility and they have generated an initial estimate of over $28k. I wonder how the insurer will process this estimatae, but the facility was the one they chose. The high mileage, used motor (116,000 miles) on the estimate is $10,500 before removal and reinstall. That price may be high, but not nearly as high as whatever motor I would actually accept. Because there is NO WAY I would take a motor with nearly 50,000 more miles that I had! There is also understandable reluctance about additional repairs that would not be identifiable before many other repairs are made.

While the fire appears to have been contained, they are saying the heat caused many many plastic, rubber, and wires items to fail. Something about the heat an seals was mentioned too...

Who has the inside hookup on a 2014 XKR vert, low miles, and around whatever the insurance company will pay for mine? I'm not asking much!

 

$28k, looks like they want to buy the car and flip it

 

no they’re saying they don’t want the job

 

Exactly they don't want to touch it

 

I immediately thought the same. When speaking to the repair shop rep, he about said as much waxing over and over about unseen and undeterminable possible repairs. He sounded like a guy making the case for dropping the case, but I get it.

 

Could be that or setting expectations which is, he made an estimate but warned it could be even more.

You need to decide, do you want insurance to buy it out or do you want this one fixed (if feasible) as I'm certain you could find someone to do it.