I just took my 2017 XE R-Sport to my dealer for its annual service. The car has only 30,000 miles. In addition to all of the regular stuff (oil change, tire and brake inspection, etc.), the dealer said, “the coolant pipe system needs to be replaced since it’s the old style it runs the risk of breaking we can replace it for $3121.46.

it sounds as though they are recommending that I replace the pipe system simply “because it’s the old style” rather than because they found any specific problem.

Should I now get a second opinion? Forget the whole thing? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

The coolant pipes on the AJ126 are now well known to be a common source of sometimes catastrophic failure.
Many of those pipes can and do crack or split then leak profusely and some say it's not a case of if but when.
For that reason many owners have replaced those pipes either after a failure or before any leak has been detected, and the good news is you can now get a comprehensive kit including the main two culprits in alu alloy instead of the problematic plastic for not a large cost, see here: https://euro-amp.com/products/jaguar...charged-engine
Yes it's a big job to fit this kit as the SC needs to come off but a decent indy shop should be able to do it for way less than the price you have been quoted, and that's for the full kit while the dealer quote may not include all of those pieces, not to mention that the JLR replacement pipes are still plastic not alu alloy like in that kit.
By "old style" the dealer means the two main suspects (the front the cross-over/Y pipes) which are plastic with plasti-welded seams which JLR updated some time in 2018 to smooth pipes with no seams but still plastic. The other main culprit is the rear heater/manifold pipe which is still seamed plastic.

 

My 2017 XE35t had a catastrophic failure of the pipes near the water pump at 51K mi.. The Issue is the old style coolant pipes were made using a substandard double-seam design. The newer plastic pipes they replace these with are single seamed and more robust. They really should have a recall, but the XE numbers are very small in the US. There are many metal pipe kits that are better than any plastic, I'm having this one installed with my Tune in two weeks (I have a new 2017 XE for me with 13K Mi., I'm rebuilding my totaled previous ride). .:

 

The AJ126 (V6) and AJ133 (V8) are/were used widely across the Jaguar and Land Rover ranges. I had the pipes replaced in my F-type with the seamless plastic ones, before the aluminum aftermarket pipes were available.

Good luck with the rebuild!

 

Here's my pipes video all metal

 

First thing I did to my 2nd XE. First one blew chunks around 55K after a spirited trip to the barber, so I had replaced those too then the car got totaled. Got ahead of it on the second XE.

 

These cars will last a long time if you do these upgrades, no need for another car payment,my x-type has 250,000miles,my Xf has125,000 miles

 

Acura/Honda are supposed to be of the highest quality behind Lexus/Toyota. I had an Acura TL, it was rear ended, then I bought the same model new. After 7K the transmission ceased to work. Took it in, got a brand new tranny after a week of waiting, car drove fine. 5K miles later it broke again. Took in, waited a week , got new tranny under warranty. Got another 5K down the road, Kablooie, tranny breaks. Acura accuses me of abusive driving and refused to repair again. I sue Honda Motor Company using the Texas Fair Trade Act, the Lemon Law would have only provided pro-rated value for the car. After six months it goes to mediation, and Honda was ordered to return ALL of my original purchase price, plus lawyer fees and car rental fees. I go down the road an pay cash for a Volkswagen Passat TDI. Four weeks after my settlement with Honda, they published a service bulletin stating the Transmission was recalled as they had farmed out production to a facility in Mexico, and that plant used the wrong hardness of metal for some of the gears, and the tranny stripped because it was soft metal. My point is on this Jag forum is that even the "Best " brands build junk that needs replacement right out of the factory. Then they become more reliable. PS: Volkswagen had to buy back that Passat due to the largest consumer settlement ($32 Billion and counting) in the world for lying about emissions on the diesels. They call it Dieselgate. Some luck I have with cars.....

 

I really liked the Volvo, until...
wj

 

Get the plastic out and car will thank you by being reliable