Hi All,

I am just starting my search to possibly pick up a F-type. I normally hang out in the XK / XJ forums from the prior decade.

I have seen multiple horror stories of catastrophic engine failure with the V6s. Are there design flaws or is this mainly a problem with cars that have not been maintained?

If I went the V6 route, I would try to seek out a manual transmission car.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

There were very few (1-2?) reported AJ126 failures here prior to this latest batch. I believe at least one of them reported water ingestion, which isn’t easy to do, and i personally wouldn’t call that a reliability issue. 87k miles on mine.

 

These are very reliable engines. But ignore the very long-interval oil changes. The oil should be changed much more frequently - the damaged engines you occasionally (and I stress “occasionally”) hear of may well not have had regular oil changes.
The other point is that there are cooling system upgrades to replace the failure-prone original plastic cooling pipes both from Jaguar (redesigned, but still in plastic) and aftermarket (metal). And these cars need and love fully charged batteries.

But the use of plastic components and reports of spun bearings are by no means “Jaguar things”. If you doubt that, you can check the Porsche, BMW and Mercedes reliability reports. All the same issues. But none look as good as the Jaguar.

The F-Type is simply addictive. The power, handling, sound, design, comfort (and more) make you smile each time you ooen the door. It doesn’t get old…

 

Not the be a Debbie Downer but the previous owners (sellers) must have kept up with maintenance, otherwise the buyer's purchase price must reflect the risk. The photos below show what happened on a 51k miles AJ126 engine from a recent purchase. CarFax showed that the vehicle was regularly serviced by Jaguar so not sure where things went wrong. All the rod bearings show worrying wear and 1 rod bearing decided to fail, taking out the other rod in the process. Main bearings looked good though.

As @sov211 mentioned, frequent oil changes are a must and I recommend paying for an oil analysis every or every other oil change just to keep track of how the engine is wearing, we use Blackstone in Indiana. For example, Blackstone noted an issue on a friend's AJ133 (175k miles on engine, runs 0w-40) where he was getting fuel dilution and so the oil's lubricity was degrading. As he does 5k miles between oil changes, the oil didn't degrade enough to become an issue and provides adequate protection...who knows at 10k or 13k miles.

At the end of the day, sucks that these engines do have issues. Didn't go into an FType thinking it would have BMW E90 M3 S65 type of reliability where rod bearings are even a concern but whatever, the FType just looks too good!

 

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All engines have issues, photos of one blown engine out of however many tens or hundreds of thousands produced means absolutely nothing. Find me the one engine that is statistically the most reliable engine in the ENTIRE WORLD, and I'll find you photos of one that's exploded despite being serviced and cared for. Sometimes s**t happens.

@JaguarXKR there are some examples of dead engines like the one above, but not loads and definitely not enough to consider them unreliable. You run the same risk of getting a bad one as you do with any other engine - it's certainly possible you'll have dramas, but it's not like three out of five automatically explode after a few years. I have an obsessive personality and when I get interested in something I like to know everything about it, so I spent probably 30-60 minutes per day for two years researching Jaguars before buying my XES (same engine we're talking about here).... the donk is the last thing I'm worried about on this car. The result of my obsessive research was that there's been enough of these motors out there for long enough that the issues they do have are well documented and easily fixed by throwing a few dollars at them.

On that topic mine has 106,000km and I'm still running the stock coolant pipes that are known to explode randomly, so I might have a set of photos like the above soon if I don't pull my finger out and replace them with the aluminium ones. If that happens it won't be evidence that the engine is unreliable, it'll be evidence that I was fully aware of a known issue but chose to be a dummy and ignore it for longer than I should have...

100% agree with this bit. Jaguar's interval is 26,500km and my car came with a few major services already paid for, so I do two 'in-between' oil and filter changes at about 8500km and 17,500km then it goes back to Jag for their logbook service at 26,500km. I have one of those 'free' ones left, then I'll probably go to something like a major service every 30,000 with minors every 10,000 in between (TBD).

I'm in Australia and Blackstone just shipped me three kits free of charge (that's their deal - the kits are free, you pay when you send one back) so next time we drop the oil it'll be going to them to see what they think. Might cost 50-100 dollarydoos by the time the sample is posted back but it's a small price to pay to look after the nicest car I've ever owned

 

lol one repair in 18 months of ownership, how awful

 

@dangoesfast we went into the FType purchase with a similar mentality of "how bad can it be" and there are countless JLR products that use this engine so that's always a benefit. We knew of the timing issues but not so much about the rod bearing issue and so that caught us off guard.

Overall, the AJ126 is a fantastic engine and we love JLR for keeping it simple. Displacement + Supercharger is a winning combination, especially coming from AMG Mercs from the mid-2000s. BUT these engines do need their owners to stay on top of them and treat them as you do...if that means more frequent oil changes to have an engine last indefinitely, that's ok with me.

That's amazing that Blackstone will ship to Australia! They nailed an issue we were having with a '89 Porsche 944 but the results came back to us the week after the engine threw a rod at a track day

@JaguarXKR I have seen buyers doing an oil sample analysis on a sellers car as long as the seller agrees. At the minimum, pay for a pre-purchase inspection

 

I think owning an exotic car is like sailing. What you hear about on forums are the problems and disasters, not the hours of boundless enjoyment. I’ve had my f-type for 2 years, had 1 O2 sensor replaced under extended warranty. The engine is smooth, powerful and thrilling when on song.

 

I know right! I was expecting an email like "Sorry mate, we don't send free stuff to the other side of the world" but instead I got the package maybe a week after I ordered it. I briefly considered starting a similar business here in Australia, but they got my kit to me so quickly I don't think there's any benefit to giving Aussies a local option over just sending samples back to the US. We'll see how the system works when I send it back...

I paid for TWO! I was flying interstate to buy mine, so to be extra sure I had it trucked to a Jaguar dealer near the seller for a Jaguar certified pre-owned inspection (they wouldn't warranty it or anything, but it went through and passed the same inspection as a CPO car does) then it was trucked to an independent euro mechanic for a second PPI. The second PPI came with a warranty where the mechanic who did the PPI is responsible for anything that goes wrong within 12 months of purchase that wasn't raised on the PPI. @Jagxkr if you have access to a PPI like this, do it.

 

This is for the OP: since the language is vague and defensive we have to read between the lines and make a few assumptions... "the dealer" suggests the dealer that the car was bought from, which doesn't count as a PPI as their goal is to sell the car. Lesson here (even if my assumption is incorrect) - NEVER trust the dealer you're buying from. "One was a bit more correct" suggests the PPI from the dealer was clean and the PPI from the indy found some issues (although it could be the other way around, doesn't really matter), and the next sentence suggests those issues were ignored. My attitude with the PPI when I bought my XES was that it had to be crystal clear for me to buy the car, or any issues had to be repaired by Jaguar with genuine parts at the seller's expense.

An impending injector failure is difficult (impossible?) to diagnose in a PPI and goes in the "s**t happens" basket... this can happen on any vehicle at any time and, while unfortunate and unlucky, isn't a sign of poor overall reliability over the entire engine line.

I highly recommend looking for a PPI provider that will give you some sort of warranty... here in Aus, that's done through our state's motoring association (e.g. RACV, NRMA, etc). You join the motoring association, have the PPI done by a participating mechanic that belongs to that association, and any repairs for issues that arise within X months (I think it was 12 for mine) that were not identified on the PPI are paid for by the motoring association. Cost me $45 to join the association and about $100 for the PPI. Another option, depending on the age of the car, would be to discuss buying an extended warranty directly from Jag... aftermarket warranties are basically insurance policies and I don't like them, however a manufacturer warranty is worth its weight in gold. I've seen a few people posting here about how they've managed to convince Jag to offer them an extended warranty on a car that's not far out of its initial warranty so it sounds like it's possible, although I tried it with Jag Australia and they wouldn't have a bar of it! Worth asking the question though. If you do manage to wrangle this one, be sure to thoroughly read the T&Cs before going ahead!



I do hope your luck improves.

 

The AJ133/AJ126 are reliable engines if properly maintained. Have a pre-purchase inspection (PPI) performed by a competent Jaguar specialist, or Jaguar main dealer. Have the PPI include a scan to determine if there are any DTCs pending, or historical saved in the PCM (ECM).

From my personal experience, two important points need to be made:

1. Search for a vehicle that has a complete service history with no gaps
2. Have a good look around the engine compartment for any signs of dried coolant as these engines cannot withstand any overheating episodes without the head gasket(s) failing

The earlier cars have issues with the timing chains as the tensioners deform the back of the guide rails at their contact points causing the chains to become slack and rattle.

As others have pointed out, with the vehicle you purchase, replace the plastic water outlet and crossover pipes with the aluminium versions as well as the heater pipe behind the cylinder heads.

 

The 3.0 supercharged engine from the outset of F-Type production had the revised timing chains and tensioners - these are not frequent issues on this engine. The 5.0 is another matter.
But again, the service (oil change) intervals are a major element in timing chain/tensioner longevity. Regular oil changes at reasonable distance intervals (using oils that meet the JLR specification) are far less expensive than timing chain issues, even given the rarity of these issues in the 3.0 engine.

Replacing the plastic cooling pipes is a far more pressing issue…

 

And as I posted in another thread, these engines have far more volume in Land Rovers and Range Rovers. Many with vastly more miles than a typical f type. As above there are the rare catastrophic failures - but in general it is seen as a very reliable motor
Many (not all) the failures are due to either cooling issues (pipe cracked and coolant all flowed out and I thought I'd drive it the last 5 miles home anyway...) or from abuse. I've had two AJ133 and one AJ126 up to 100k miles each with only minor issues.

All that said. These are expensive luxury cars. And like all luxury cars are expensive to repair. So go in with your eyes open.

 

And some people who can easily afford them don't know how to look after them?

 

I think the issue can be the depreciation making an F-Type cheap to buy but the purchaser forgets that doesn't mean it’s a Toyota for maintenance ;-)

 

Lets not start another forum myth, the v8 tensioners were changed to the revised ones in 2012/13.

 

Hey guys I’m new to the Jaguar world but I’ve been a mechanic for over 20 years. I’ve always wanted a jaguar I have a 2014 XF 3.0 supercharged with 148,000 miles. And I can honestly say after looking this car over and only for a few months she is still running strong and purrs like a kitten. So far the only things I’ve had to replace is 1 stock and axle. Which is a dealership part only expensive. I have now discovered that I have a coolant leak. Which I am happy to say that I do keep a close eye on my cars so she did not overheat. I do know it is the white pipe underneath the supercharger. I will be replacing all of the plastic pipes for aluminum ones and replacing my supercharger coupling which keeps riding mine other than that I love this car it is truly amazing I plan on trying to get it to 300,000 miles. Wish me luck

 

Glad you've found the myth of Jaguar unreliability is indeed a myth! You won't need luck to reach 300,000 miles, just keep on top of the maintenance.

 

You guys are awesome here! lol