Jaguar XFR - A Couple Of Things To Look For...
Discussion
I just added a post to the XFR Buyer's Guide thread, but that's in GG so will quickly disappear, so I thought I'd add it here too...
I wanted to add a couple of things from my own experience which are not mentioned in the guide, but which could cause a lot of grief and expense.
Got my 2012 XFR a couple of months ago...
I followed all the points in the PH Buyer's Guide, and assumed I'd got a good one and would have no problems
Soon afterwards, I got a specialist to look over the car and was shocked to hear the supercharger coupler was knackered!
Apparently, to someone who knows, you can tell by the small, short and unobtrusive rattle from the front pulley area when the engine is stopped - if you don't know you'll never be aware of the problem. If you leave it unchecked it can lead to much more serious issues.
If you slip the 'charger belt off and check the play it becomes much more obvious...
The offending part is actually quite cheap to buy - a little too cheap as it happens (the spring snaps)...
...however to replace it is a supercharger off job which is around the 1500 quid mark!
With the earlier cars especially, it's a case of when, not if this failure occurs, and a quick check at the garage I bought the car from would have enabled either a resolution or a discount at the time. Luckily the car came with an RAC Platinum warranty, and (somewhat surprisingly) they agreed to cover the full cost.
The car was away for a couple of weeks while this was resolved.
Another seemingly minor niggle, which could have much greater consequences was the windscreen washers.
They would work fine with the ignition on / engine off, however with the engine running they would give the tiniest of squirts at the first push of the button, but nothing subsequently.
This turned out to be a combination of congealed screenwash and weak pump in my case, but during the investigation a far greater potential problem came to light!
It turns out that the washer pumps are prone to a mode of internal failure where pressurised water / screenwash gets pushed from the pins of the elctrical connector and can wick up the cable, through the bulkhead and into the central junction box in the driver's footwell.
The first sign that more than a few owners have had is when they start getting wierd electrical faults (lights staying on, central locking issues, etc), but by then the damage is done and a new CJB is the expensive(!) solution.
There are examples with pictures here...
I checked my CJB and there are telltale signs that this has either happened in the past (and has been resolved) or was a current fault, but had dried as a result of the washers not operating...
It hadn't got to the point of being bad enough to cause problems, but I'm glad I found out, so it's definitely another thing to check for.
I cleaned the connectors thoroughly and changed my pump for the latest Jag version, which is supposedly upgraded to fix the problem.
Aside from these points, the car is amazing to own and to drive - I can only echo what previous posters have said - every trip is now definitely an 'event'
I wanted to add a couple of things from my own experience which are not mentioned in the guide, but which could cause a lot of grief and expense.
Got my 2012 XFR a couple of months ago...
I followed all the points in the PH Buyer's Guide, and assumed I'd got a good one and would have no problems
Soon afterwards, I got a specialist to look over the car and was shocked to hear the supercharger coupler was knackered!
Apparently, to someone who knows, you can tell by the small, short and unobtrusive rattle from the front pulley area when the engine is stopped - if you don't know you'll never be aware of the problem. If you leave it unchecked it can lead to much more serious issues.
If you slip the 'charger belt off and check the play it becomes much more obvious...
The offending part is actually quite cheap to buy - a little too cheap as it happens (the spring snaps)...
...however to replace it is a supercharger off job which is around the 1500 quid mark!
With the earlier cars especially, it's a case of when, not if this failure occurs, and a quick check at the garage I bought the car from would have enabled either a resolution or a discount at the time. Luckily the car came with an RAC Platinum warranty, and (somewhat surprisingly) they agreed to cover the full cost.
The car was away for a couple of weeks while this was resolved.
Another seemingly minor niggle, which could have much greater consequences was the windscreen washers.
They would work fine with the ignition on / engine off, however with the engine running they would give the tiniest of squirts at the first push of the button, but nothing subsequently.
This turned out to be a combination of congealed screenwash and weak pump in my case, but during the investigation a far greater potential problem came to light!
It turns out that the washer pumps are prone to a mode of internal failure where pressurised water / screenwash gets pushed from the pins of the elctrical connector and can wick up the cable, through the bulkhead and into the central junction box in the driver's footwell.
The first sign that more than a few owners have had is when they start getting wierd electrical faults (lights staying on, central locking issues, etc), but by then the damage is done and a new CJB is the expensive(!) solution.
There are examples with pictures here...
I checked my CJB and there are telltale signs that this has either happened in the past (and has been resolved) or was a current fault, but had dried as a result of the washers not operating...
It hadn't got to the point of being bad enough to cause problems, but I'm glad I found out, so it's definitely another thing to check for.
I cleaned the connectors thoroughly and changed my pump for the latest Jag version, which is supposedly upgraded to fix the problem.
Aside from these points, the car is amazing to own and to drive - I can only echo what previous posters have said - every trip is now definitely an 'event'
Can add timing chains as a case of when rather than if , my 2012 needed a complete supercharger , a specialist knackered the pulley during an upgrade and when the charger was removed it was very worn so opted to swap the lot , the car was a 2012 with 60k on it , the new charger came with the new snout and cost £2500 but I sold the old one for £400 on eBay
Rare, but add tappet noises (not injector - they’re noisy anyway). If there’s a distinctive single tappet noise above the injector noise, then walk away. It’s a rare manufacturing issue combined with a designed-in oiling problem that affects the inlets of the back two cylinders. Tappet wears unevenly and the valve is pushed slightly sideways, which in turn wears the valve guide. That’s non-serviceable. New head required.
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