4 words of reassurance. Check your oil periodically.

 

How are you guys getting around the "oil level unavailable" message that always seems to show up. Some instructions say the car needs to be warmed up (which I have done), but I always get the same message.

 

There is a wait time of ten minutes or so, for the oil to drain back into the pan for more accurate readings. Until then, you will see that message. Also, try your best to be on level ground.
CRS

 

I'll give that a shot, thanks.

 

How much was it to replace the engine if you don't mind me asking?

 

You wont get anything out of the op, he's disappeared.
He was'nt very happy that he got shot down in flames regarding his blown engine!!

 

Well he hasn't completely disappeared. Participated in the So Cal F-Type Meet and Drive last month in Orange County.
Then merged onto the Frwy. a few car lengths behind me just a few days ago, and quickly pulled up along side as I was departing at the next exit.

I was told Jaguar wanted in the neighborhood of $40K for the new engine. Believe he went independent, so suspect he paid less than that.

 

He purchased a Aston Martin last month so that is why he's no longer on here. However, drdonger, he might answer a direct PM if you send him one. I doubt he's going to respond on here due to some of the responses he received from people.

 

Someone care to TL;DR this thread?

 

I asked my dealer to do a quote for me today. It came to ~$33K.

 

He put a tune on, not from one of the reputable tuners who advertise here, blew the engine, never explained exactly what blew or why, lots of debate about whether the tune caused the engine to blow or not and whether covered by warranty or not, ended up getting a replacement engine installed at his own cost.

 

You are wrong first of all. His car died of an oil starvation issue. There is something about how the engine is design that can lead to oil starving. I also started experiencing the exact same symptoms as JVIII (but only when on a inclined hill). Fortunately/unfortunately thanks to JVIII issue, I was able to diagnose the issues as a low oil problem and it prevented me having my own blown engine. To restate, the tune did not kill his engine, lack of oil killed his engine, and at the time of his engine failure he was running the VAP tune for months. Which we all know is a solid tune.

 

Actually he DID put a particularly "aggressive" tune and even documented the problems he was having in that effort in the link below. Certainly there is a possibility that particular tune (likely different from yours) might have led to oil starvation. It does appear that Jaguar also made the decision that they would not cover engine replacement due to him having tuned it. Others may have run a less aggressive tune and not had issues. He actually not VAP tune at all but rather some other less reputable vendor. See the link below

Here is that thread so that anyone here can read and come to their own conclusions...
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...-178358/page8/

 

Did you not just read what I said? I have been running the VAP tune since November, (I have never run any other tune), and I experienced the same issues as JVIII (Note: I only experienced these issues when my car was on an uphill incline). Due to JVIII thread I was able to trace the issue back to oil issues as well. Found out my car was a 1 qt under oil. The dealership topped it back up to full and I have not experienced any issues since, but I now watch my oil carefully. I think having a tune and frequent spirited drives results in heavy oil usage by the car. So even though he did have tunes on his car, including VAP, the problems were not directly caused by the tunes, but by oil levels. Any engine that is not getting proper oil will seize and die, you don't need a tune to accomplish this.

 

As his thread indicated he may well have had a more "aggressive" tune that did you. I concur that low oil could damage ANY engine. You are speculating that the oil depletion is not related to the tune. Others, like myself, see it otherwise. We are all entitled to our own OPINIONS regardless of the other person's perceived validity. The bottom line is that you do NOT "know for a fact" that it was not related to his tune. Your OPINION is that the tune did not contribute. Jaguar's OPINION (because they would not pay for the engine repair/replacement) is that the tune invalidated the warranty and that is all that REALLY matters here. You are entitled to your opinion as am I and the rest of the forum members. Good day (unsubscribed)

 

I don’t believe he ever had a VAP tune on his car; VAP got mentioned in passing with regard to warranties and tunes and evidence of a tune visible to JLR.

 

zmoothg, you may want to familiarize yourself with the extensive chronicling of JVIII's issue as relayed on this forum, and not buy into what I perceive as an unfortunate state of denial. The engine problems first started while the car was on the dyno, having the tune tweaked, deinstalled and reinstalled. While there are some holes in the timeline, it appears as though the engine NEVER RECOVERED from that initial event.

I'm no expert, but when the techs from Velocity AP weighed in and diagnosed -- from the facts reported here by JVIII at the time -- that the ECM was most likely nannied into one of its "safe mode" factory protection tunes, due to overheating while on the dyno, their explanation made perfect sense. Yet the person running the dyno and tweaking the supposed aggressive tune (NOT VAP) was apparently unaware of this development, thus he inadvertently tweaked the electronic safety parameters programmed into the ECM by the factory and intended to protect against just such an event.

The whole oil starvation story did not surface till many weeks later, after the vehicle had been left for dead at the dealer for a month or longer. The report from that independent mechanic remains unsubstantiated, and all we have to go on is JVIII's version of whatever that mechanic verbally reported to him.

I am nothing more than a casual outside observer with an interest in the real facts behind what transpired here... In my opinion however, the 2nd hand report from the independent mechanic does not ring as credible. The remote diagnosis from VAP seemed far more plausible and neatly connected the dots of what likely unfolded during the dyno.

 

This is correct. NOT A VELOCITY AP TUNE!
He had a tune installed by a firm called GSR Technik in Irvine, Calif., formerly known as Jailbreak Tuning, who subsequently changed its name for reasons unknown... though firms don't customarily change their name if business is doing well. More indicative of a tuner trying to hide from prior problems.

I should also add that according to one poster here, GSR Technik was where he went to have the VMax tune installed. For those that may not have been around two+ years ago, VMax was one of the first tuners to surface on the F-Type forums, only to disappear a few months later after people started reporting problems with the VMax tune itself, in addition to exhibiting horrid customer service.

Late Add: Just tried to access the GSR Technik website which I had viewed a few months ago when JVIII first brought up this tuners name, and their website is no longer active. not even a generic landing page. Another bad sign in a long list of warnings from the people behind these various companies.


To confirm: Jailbreak Tuning, GSR Technik, and/or VMax are not associated with Velocity AP (aka VAP) in any way, and it would be important that posters not confuse the names of these entities. VAP has proven to by highly credible. The others apparently can't seem to keep their operation going without continuously changing their name. JVIII used one of these less credible tunes.

.

 

I know nothing of the issues discussed other than what I have read on this forum.

I agree that oil starvation can damage any engine.

I tend to doubt the engine in F Type R (5l V8 supercharged 550ps) has any particular issues in this regard.

My reasons are the engine has been in the F type R for four years plus in other Jaguar models including XKR-S and XKR-S GT to name two before this.

I would expect any issues would have been discovered and documented on the internet, anyone seen any ?

 

Just an FYI: I was thinking JVIII wasn't around anymore, but I searched his posts, and found he just posted that his VAP cats and downpipe are for sale, in the For Sale forum.