In December of 2019, roughly a year ago, my 2016 F Type R's motor began knocking at 32k miles. With no oil ever under the car and never any smoke, it had almost no oil in the engine. I bought it at 22k. Jaguar replaced the motor under warranty and almost exactly a year later, the new engine knocked and was nearly empty, again. Although Jaguar replaced the first, without being sure what happened, they wouldn't replace this one. Although the dealership records state "found oil lever very low", they are now trying to say that oil loss is a normal part of beak in. Again, almost all the oil was gone. Days after the car was checked, the one year warranty expired and from my understanding, an engine replacement will cost more than 40k. I would just sell it, but now this is on the car's history and I wouldn't want to push this lemon off on someone else.

Anyone have advice, know of similar issues etc.?

 

Sorry to read about your problems. Are you saying that the oil level gauge failed to show low oil level when you check it? Has the dealer checked the oil level gauge to determine that this may be the possible cause of no oil?
Frank

 

Frank,

Jaguar of Richmond (Virginia) told me that in fact neither time did any type of alert show up on the car, based upon what the computer showed, and I did not check it until 5k (when this happened again). They said that even when the oil is so low the engine knocks, that isn't low enough to give a Check Oil alert. That sounds impossible to me, as I've certainly seen low oil alerts on cars 9ver the years. The thought that the engine knocking and potentially doing harm before the car's oil alert light coming on seems silly.

 

There is no low oil pressure sensor or alert on these engines. You can run V8 F-type dry and it won't warn you on the dash. This is why it is important to manually check oil level.

 

Wow, that's surprising. Jaguar of Richmond said the manual says you need to check the oil weekly. That seems irrational, I would think no car this new should have to have the oil checked weekly. They might as well have said daily, as that seems to just be a Cover Your A...

​​​Relating back to the oil being almost empty at 5k, of course the indicator question doesn't speak to what's broken or in the position of Jaguar, whether anything is wrong at all, not that you're saying it does speak to that.

​​​​​​I am surprised at Jaguar's position, given the types of cars and level of service they portray.

 

I’m so worried about engine failure that I check the engine oil every time I drive her. I know the level after my drive and when cold. It’s my way of keeping track of oil consumption if any, so far it doesn’t lose any oil. Simple to check. I was worried about accuracy of gauge and I had dealer check it out, all ok.
Frank

 

To have two engines develop a low-oil condition is obviously a real concern. Is it possible that the engines were underfilled to begin with - could they have filled the engine using the AWD fill capacity instead if the RWD caoacity? (did you check the level of oil in the replacement engine after they installed it?)? Could there be any pattern of driving that might explain high oil consumption?
I ask these annoying questions because the chances of two engines failing because of a very low oil level with no record of leakage seems more than a bit odd.

 

Wouldn't it suggest that some accessory part that wasn't replaced with the engine is at fault? Eg there is an oil cooler system - could that have a leak that slowly allowed oil to escape? As mentioned there doesn't seem to be a proactive alert so if it's low you wouldn't know if you didn't check

Does the car still drive ok once oil topped off? Why won't the dealer replace - are they saying it runs ok and doesn't need replacing? Or are they claiming you no longer have a warranty?

 

Response from the original poster? Sabastien...?

 

Wow, is this problem common to the 5.0 and all derivative engines? Can't believe there is not an oil pressure warning either.

 

They never had a low oil warning display just a visual display when you bring up oil level. I’m used to checking the oil level regularly.
When I had a 63 e type coupe I’d check the oil level before I drove her. Curious what the dealer or Sebastian found out.
Frank

 

NO.
And the story is so odd that I hope Sabastien is a) a real person and b) that he will let us know the outcome of this very strange situation: No leaks, but no oil. These cars do not burn oil in any quantity, so I would suspect an incorrect fill level from the outset.

A true bit of (my) history: decades ago a young woman I knew well bought a new Alfa Romeo in Toronto. A year and half later she phoned me in a fury - her engine had seized!!! Lack of oil, she was told. Her rhetorical question to me: "Didn't they fill the engine with oil at the factory?"
Absolutely true.
When was the last time the oil was changed in Sabastien's car?

 

Similar story: My sister bought a new Chevy Nova in 1970 and 7 years later when she went to trade it in was asked how often she changed the oil: “What oil?” MY sister, no less.

 

My mother did the opposite with our Alfa 156, back in the early 00s. She was told at the previous service "keep an eye on the oil levels, it was a bit low this time and these Alfa engines do use a bit between services". Unfortunately, they didn't explain to her exactly how she should go about doing so, they just showed her where the oil went in. You can probably see where this is heading.

Cut to a year later and the car goes in for the annual service and late that morning we get a phone call, they'd dropped over 9 litres of oil out of the engine! It transpired that my mother, bless her, looked inside the oil cap and saw that the oil wasn't up to the top and came to the conclusion that it was low on oil and needed topping up. To the brim. How the engine survived is anyone's guess, but it went on for 10s of thousands more miles and was only traded in when the electrics started getting "interesting" (and expensive).

 

Yes the real answer is it's a tiny bit of work to check the oil levell to prevent a huge and costly disaster!
With these cars you don't even have to get your hands dirty or get out of the car. It's just pushing a few buttons so no work at all.

And yes I think the lack of any low oil warnings or even the ability to measure the oil pressure is beyond stupid but that's how it was built.
I still think the old dipstick idea worked just fine!
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Yeah, but a dipstick is an ongoing production cost, software is a one-off cost.

 

Sebastien have you received any further information as to your oil consumption problem and what was the final resolution with your dealer?
It’s important to the f type community to know as much about problems as they can, your import is valuable to us. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this matter.
Frank

 

Regarding the dipstick.....those who are older will remember the recall for the 2000 XKR with the wrong dipsticks. To that end, you don't have that on the new cars........Problem averted.

Also, if there were a dipstick, you might have to take the engine cover off to get at it. There have been plenty of issues with pinching lines from improperly placed engine covers. The current design eliminates all of this and avoids the problems other current models have.

 

Hmmm....no reaction from Sabastien to the responses above. I hope we have not been "played" with this (frankly bizarrely) worrisome story.

 

If I remember correctly there was never a recall. If you fitted 20" wheels to an X100 the kit came with a shorter dipstick. I remember when I bought the kit it included a dipstick. This increased the oil capacity by 1 quart. I was told engineering felt the need due to do this.