2017 F-Type R Coupe 29,000 miles: I'm still really struggling with the decision to purchase this car or not. I'm nearing the end of my lease extension. My lease was officially up in May but due to COVID it made sense to extend. I love the car, and it's difficult wrap my head around downgrading to a lesser vehicle. I'm especially spoiled by the insane V8 power, sound, and good looks. The Jag is in good shape, never tracked, but some spirited canyon twisty road driving whenever I get the chance. The 5 year Warranty has approx 1.5 years left. My purchase residual is 56K. I don't have the means to lease a new 21 (plus JLR is SUPER stingy with incentives, and has very small inventory) I'd probably put some $$ down and finance with a long term loan to keep my monthly payments down. Here are a couple of my concerns: Am I (after 30,000 miles) with a MY17 playing russian roulette with big ticket repair items? I guess I would need to purchase additional warranty after mine runs out? Maybe I might drive the Jag for a couple or more years and then sell it...I dunno. I think my biggest fear is the jag being 3 years old with about 30,000 miles on it and it's going to become a money pit...I have nothing to base this fear on....I"m hoping some of you who are more savvy at this sort of thing can offer me some advise. I was kinda entertaining something like a used Audi RS5 but I think I would end up paying more for that than for the Jag. Some used 2019 Audi S5's with all the bells and whistles are out there, newer, peppy with nice trimmings for close to the same price as the Jag but.....It's not a jag...hell, I've never even test driven an Audi. Uhhggg...OK, I know I'm rambling. Anyway, any thoughts/suggestions????
CRS

 

The main concern with the AJ133 is longevity of many of the cooling system components. Since the outlet pipe and heater pipe are made of plastic, they can only withstand a finite number of cold to hot to cold cycles prior to failing. It's not a matter of if, but when with these parts.

It may be best to have many of the plastic cooling system components replaced if you intend to keep the vehicle as catastrophic engine damage is the result if they're allowed to fail. Replacing the crossover/heater pipe at the back of the engine requires removal of the supercharger assembly.

 

Uuhhgg....I'm far from being any sort of master mechanic. So, should i expect all sorts of cascading failures from the AJ133 engine within the next couple of years?

 

I'd vote to absolutely unequivocally buy out. You know it, love it...One of very few cars in this price point which offers this sort of driving experience and style. One is always playing russian roulette after the warranty runs out, but I suppose that's what a possible third party coverage down the road is for, that peace of mind even though you may well not need it.

Also, another way to think of this decision is that you can apply some of the savings you save today between this and a pricier newer German towards paying for additional coverage once your factory warranty runs out in 18 months time...

 

While random failures are always possible, I don't expect to see coolant pipes reaching end of life on 2017 car anytime soon. Expecting them to last 10 years is not unreasonable. You can help this by removing plastic engine cover, it will reduce engine bay temperatures and will make plastic parts last longer.

I ended up buying out my F-type. Recommend you do the same, as these cars are a keeper. Also recommend doing more on maintenance - more frequent oil changes, more frequent fluid changes will result in a car that should last a long time.

 

The plastic cooling system parts fail due to the number of cold to hot to cold cycles, which has no bearing on the number of miles on the vehicle or its date of manufacture. You can replace the plastic cooling system parts and enjoy the vehicle for some time. The choice is yours.

In my experience, choosing to ignore the cooling system plastic components can prove to be a very expensive mistake indeed.

 

HI is there a way to tell if the plastic parts are breaking down? What is required to do a visual inspection any tear down? My car has 40k does not leak any coolant and had a water pump changed at 23k before I bought it any chance any of the other coolant parts were changed
when that service was done in June of 2016? Can a Jaguar tech look into the service records to see what has been done by vin number?

 

Yeah, we need a list (with part #s of the revised parts) that techs like @NBCat or @Brutal have seen as potential failures.

(I apologize for being too lazy to SEARCH. )

 

Anecdotally, I had an S5 and it cost much, much, much more in maintenance than my R.

Vik

 

Per the request by @Carbuff2 for a cooling system parts list with numbers, see the attached PDF.

While this list includes many of the items that should be replaced on the AJ133 during the course of maintenance, the list is by no means exhaustive and should be used as a reference only.

When ordering parts referenced in this list, always provide the VIN to ensure correct fitment.

 

Thank you NB for being so helpful. I will save this. If you happen to have a rough guess as to what this kind of maintenance would cost, and a referral to a Jag mechanic (Los Angeles area) could you please PM me?
Cheers.

 

Interesting note on the S5. I was wondering about the overall daily driving maintenance costs on the S5. Your description reminded me of the phrase "death by a thousand cuts"

 

Thank you all for chiming in. Always a difficult decision, especially in these difficult times. I really appreciate all of your help.
CRS

 

NBCat, thank you for the part numbers, they will come in handy down the road.

CRS 123, if you love the car, buy it, you know it's history and by your millage it's probably your daily driver or at least you drive it more than the average garage queen's, so budget for the cooling system maintenance to be done in the next 2 years and keep enjoying your car.
Financially no car like these make much sense, so IMO unless your going to down grade to some 15K throwaway commuter we are all paying a premium to drive a car that excites and inspires us. Just my 2 cents.
Best of luck
MM

 

To be clear, you guys are recommending replacing plastic parts prone to failure with more plastic parts? Is there a way to upgrade these components to prevent future failure?

 

I believe the new parts have been upgraded so should be less prone to failure.

 

Some of the parts have been superseded and redesigned. The parts are still plastic, but are less prone to failure from splitting along the seams.

When time permits, I'm going to look into having some parts, especially the heater pipe behind the engine, made from aluminium.

 

ah, gotcha. Thanks

 

To be fair, most vehicles have some plastic components around their engine bay and some of those are cooling components. Yes, plastic can get brittle and fail as it heat cycles (so dues rubber which his also used a lot). However, it's not something that you can bet on happening and/or when. With some cars, the engines themselves will fail before the plastic and with others, the plastic will fail before the engine.

What I'm getting at is that the F-Type is not special. If you want to be 100% safe, on every vehicle you own, replace all of the OEM plastic and rubber with aluminum and silicone.

 

Do you know what year updated plastic pipes were factory installed? I thought issues with catastrophic failure was only present on early XKRs, by the time F-type rolled out these issues were largely sorted out, so you only have to worry about normal age-related plastic stress. Is this not true?