So I recently purchased my 2014 V8S with only 5500 miles exactly one month ago (how time flies when you're having fun...lol).

The vehicle is a one-owner car purchased from the Land Rover dealership in El Paso, TX and titled across the border in New Mexico. Carfax shows (2) service events that were all performed at the Land Rover dealership in El Paso; a maintenance inspection at 3000 miles and a 30,000 mile service at 4000 miles. Following those, a safety/emissions inspection was performed at 5200 miles by the local Porsche dealership in Albuquerque where I bought it from. I believe the factory warranty offered for my year was 4-Year/50,000 Mile coverage.

Once purchased from the Porsche dealership, I went and purchased the Jaguar Extended Warranty since there were only a few months remaining on the factory warranty due to its age; I didn’t want to risk spending major dollars on potential issues as the car is the first model year run although the mileage is still extremely low.

I asked my Jaguar dealership to take a look at the vehicle just to make sure there were no outstanding TSBs or recalls associated with my VIN. The Jag dealership ran the VIN and could not find any service records performed previously at the Land Rover dealership (although I have no doubt they were performed considering the pristine condition it was in and Carfax reported the service events at the same dealership it was purchased from). But to make sure I didn't have any warranty issues down the road, I wanted to ensure I had a good baseline record that the correct service was performed by Jaguar.

The issue right off the bat for the Service Manager was deciding which service to perform; according to the model year, I am due for the 64,000 mile service this year but there are now only 5900 miles on the odometer...lol. I opted for the 16,000 mile service since the car is over 3 years old and to make sure all the filters (engine and cab) were replaced appropriately along with the oil and other fluids.

Long story short, there were no TSBs or recalls outstanding but the oil change/lube/filter service smacked me in the face at +$600. Not sure if I went overboard spending more than $600 on possible redundant service, but my thought process is that any future warranty needs may well cost me a lot more if I didn't have the correct maintenance performed and documented. Nice thing about having the service performed by the Jag dealership was I was given a new Range Rover loaner for the day.

Back to making time fly...lol.

 

I think having the service done is great peace of mind, you did the right thing.

$600 to service a supercharged V8 sports car with in excess of 500bhp really is a bargain. Compared to other performance cars I have owned the cost to run the F Type over 3 years / services has been ludicrously cheap.

 

I'm no expert. Hardly. Unlike the Unhingd one, I'm mostly here for mirth and levity - but your numbers kinda don't add up. I understand that you wanted to be "safe" rather than "sorry" but with SO MUCH less mileage than called for - regardless of the time-line (never mind the extended warranty) - I think you said it best; overkill.

My 2-cents.

P.S. Then again, if Unhingd thinks you did the "right" thing - and $600 for some peace of mind might well be worth it - then that's good enough for me.

P.P.S. At least you didn't go for the 64,000 mile service. (In fact, disregard my entire post. The difference between your actual mileage and the 16,000 mile service is, on the whole, negligible. I'll shut up now!)

 

The 3-year/48000 mile service also calls for a brake flush, which I did last year (at 3 years and 26,000 miles).

 

At this age you might consider replacing coolant, transmission fluid, and brake fluid.

Engine intake filter is ridiculously designed - you have to remove bumper and wheels to get at it. I think it is something like 1.5h in just labor.

 

I have a number of classic cars. So I see first hand a lot of consequences of lax maintenance. Before car becomes classic, it has to go through a period of 'just old' and that when most neglect happens. Some cars are abused from new, but they never make it to classic.

For example, modern automatic transmissions are generally reliable, given you frequently change oil. Most people ignore this and as a result transmissions fail at around 100K. Some manufacturers, like BMW, even tried marketing 'lifetime' fill mid 90s. You got to change transmission oil every 50K or 4 years.

Real dog is steering box oil. Nobody ever changes this and over time it results in wear and loose steering. Classic Mercedes boxes are often made from unobtanium. I recently purchased the very last OEM box for one of my roadsters directly from Mercedes in Germany for nearly 5K. Real simple mechanical design too, could last forever if you only change oil every 10 years or so.

Coolant is often ignored. This leads to head gasket failures as it turns acidic. V engines have two of these to fail. If you are unlucky it also plugs coolant passages in the block and you get hot spots.

Ignoring brake fluid changes leads to corrosion inside pistons and master. Fluid absorbs humidity and starts corroding inside your system. This leads to eventually ceased calipers and can also form vapor pockets and early brake fade when pushed.

Ignoring engine oil leads to sludge. Some engines tolerate it really well, others not at all. I find large displacement naturally aspirated I6 could survive inordinate amount of sludge. However, sludge and old oil will make any existing problem much worse - weak chain will jump once tensiometer fails, poor cam oiling system will plug and lead to cam wear.

Last but not least - fuel. Ethanol in gas, especially if the car sits a lot, does a real number on gas tank, fuel pump, pressure regulator, and injectors. Add fuel stabilizer and change fuel filter frequently if the car sits a lot.

 

You said it best; peace of mind for sure especially since I didn't want some potential major warranty work denied because I wasn't diligent enough to maintain everything.

And speak your mind because that is why I posted as it is always good for contrarian and constructive input. But of course, I asked for it after the fact...lol.

 

This is true; I guess it is all relative listening to my friends with Maseratis, Ferraris, and Porsches...lol.

Yeah, that probably makes sense for my next visit even if the mileage isn't up there by then.

 

Thanks SinF; you bring up some very good points and considerations that reinforce why I defaulted to being more proactive. I really do think our F-Types, and especially the first-year, limited production V8S (relative to continuous R model development), have the potential of being future classics. So assuming I make good on my intention of keeping it over the long term, I think it is worth the extra investment on proactive maintenance despite the low mileage. Since I am going to drive it, and therefore parts will wear, my thinking is to keep up with recommended maintenance and repairs as much as possible.

Just for a second – actually, more like a microsecond, while trying to decide what to do at the Jaguar Service Desk, I was contemplating doing some of the maintenance myself but made an educated guess that replacing the engine or under seat filters were not going to be easy. I am more of an old school "muscle-car" amateur mechanic so just tearing through things is probably not the right approach with this car (or any modern performance machine anymore)...lol.

 

Yep, same thought here with the filters (air and cabin/pollen).
They are a piece of cake on the XF, did them twice on each of my XFS and XFR, but of course Jaguar decided to completely stuff that up on the F-Type.
As other have mentioned you have to dismantle half the front end to change the air filters, and I found out at my last service that the cabin filter is accessed through the engine bay and is a 2.5 hour job! On the XF it's a 5 minute job in the passenger footwell.

 

As Jay has suggested, the 64k service would have been overkill and given age, the 16k service quite appropriate. Filter life depends on mileage, not age, so that maintenance should be done in accordance with the mileage schedule. I can't speak to maintaining classics, as I don't view cars as investments. For cars you plan on keeping and driving for decades, the trick is to drive them as often as you can and fix and maintain as the need arises.

 

Some maintenance task are pure mileage based, some are time based, some (actually most) are time and mileage based. 'Time and mileage' means do the task whenever the one of the two criteria are met.

It's easy enough, but very expensive, to over-do the maintenance if the above is not recognized.

 

Regarding filters - I think maintaining engine air intake filter on F-type is crucial to having a clean engine. I am convinced that direct injection is flawed technology when it comes to reliability. Throw-in my track use, and I am looking at cascading engine-related failures starting at 8 years old or so.

Consequently, I decided to over-do maintenance to postpone these issues. I do this by changing engine oil and filter at half the interval, doing intake cleaning every year, and keeping my air filter fresh.

 

Reminds me of my 6.4L Powerstroke where the dealer had to remove the truck's cab to service the engine...lol. Of course, Porsche has had similar process given how they shoehorn their mid-engine cars so again I guess the F-Type is not so bad relatively speaking.

 

Well. I plan on driving mine although I am pretty sure it won't see a whole lot on an annual basis since it's not my daily driver. But I find it amusing that I didn't seem to have this sort of conservative concern with my previous BMW Ms, Corvettes, or other special needs cars...lol.

 

Now there's a word rarely if ever associated with the F-Type: conservative*. Gotta be a first.

*Politics aside of course.

 

You may be overthinking this. Filters and plugs are mileage, pretty much everything else is age*. So service accordingly.

BTW, anyone want to hazard a guess as to the Annual Service cost of a Veyron?

£12k...

*Unless you're doing big mileages. I used to take a VW for an "Annual" service every 10-12 weeks.

 

There's not much difference between Jag's philosophy and other OEM's. The individual cars owners on the other hand are sometimes a different story.

 

lol...now that you said that...lol.




Of course, at that level of car (Veyron), maintenance costs are probably not on your radar...lol.








Have to agree; I was just referring to the fact that I hold my F-Type in much higher regard (whether deserved or not) over my other vehicles (probably because I am enjoying it so much more on many levels). So I support your second point as there are definitely extremes in ownership.

 

If you don't mind how much was Jag extended warranty? My new car expires in Sept. and I think I'm going to keep, put new PSS+4. I have never bought an extended plan on anything and car has been as trouble free as possible. My service in Las Vegas has been reasonable up till now: $129 for oil change, and same for brake flush. Coming due this month again but a new dealer has franchise so we'll see.