Austin 7, any luck in your conversation with Jaguar about the 40hp tune?

 

Spoke directly to Executive liasons in Europe and USA. Official word is Jaguar has no current or future plans to support dealership level ECU upgrades. I agree with some experts that Jaguar would have a hard time proving a tune up to the engine's known capability could ever be responsible for failure, but if there was a catastrophic failure forensics could be read any number of ways...so tune away but expect and budget for resistance.

 

Just be careful with the exhaust upgrade before tuning. In some cases this can lean out your fuel ratio and may actually cause eventual perfomance loss, and in the worst case a thrown rod (Happened to me a few years back.)

Most factory computers will compensate for this ok/ automatically, depends on the software and setup. You'd most likely be ok. Just would hate to see you have to get a new engine if it leaned out on you and you ran it that way too far over time, like I did. (I had also modified my intake to a cold air /high flow K&N cone on that accord, initially getting noticably better performance, then after 1500 Mi, kablooie, thrown rod.)

I'd say in general after any major paramater in the original setup is altered (including simply removing restrictions by upgrading exhaust and air intakes), getting a custom tune by a reputable tuner is the best way to ensure you get the most out of your new setup, and experts can help make sure you don't burn your bacon, fry your engine, or incur a warranty battle with the dealership.

 

In my state, cat back exhaust cannot disqualify a car warranty. I am planning only using a top rated Jaguar specialist exhaust designed exclusive for the engine.

 

I have to ask where did you find that in writing or is that something they told you in Sudbury?

 

It is State Law or that is what I have been told for many years. Since an exhaust is considered a wear item. If you are concerned, have the dealership install the next exhaust. If they do, they darn better support it moving forward.

 

there's a very famous case regarding car warranties and after market parts. I forgot the exact name (either morris or murphy vs some judicial state)

basically what it came down to is: adding aftermarket parts to your car will NOT void your warranty unless the part itself can be proved that it caused the failure. so for example, if your engine dies a week after changing your rims.....your warranty WONT be voided unless the service team was able to prove that the rims somehow was directly linked.

 

Look up Magnusson-Moss Warranty act. Enacted in 1975, very strictly regulates warranty and how manufacturers cannot escape liability for not using OEM unless they can specifically prove those parts caused damage. Same concept applied when copier companies were trying to tell businesses that using aftermarket toner would void their warranty. Magnusson Moss is strict and absolute.

 

I think some of you are paranoid or bought some real bad tunes or parts for that to happen. This is my third new gen modified Jag and I got from several hundred feet about sea level to several hundred below sea level altitudes in all 4 seasons of weather where I live and I have never had a lean condition as I do not have any aggressive tunes that the car itself can not correct for.

Any cat back exhaust and any production air intake parts should never be enough for the car to go lean enough for damage to occur. I have a friend on here who put a 150 shot on his stock F Type and goes low 10's all day on the track and no side affects at all as it was done right. Pick a quality part/tune and you should never run into any issues.

BTW, I would never ever run K&N Air Filters in these Jags, use the BMC filters for the most power and to keep your MAFs intact. You can even remove the charcoal pre-filters along with the BMC's and really hear that blower whine.

 

Most of the fancy tunes and intakes are using BMC or ITG foam filters. I agree and would stay away from K&N. I've read of a loss of power on the XK sub forum vs. an OEM filter. I haven't spent much time looking at the air intake routing on the XE, but it was totally optimized on the XK with little to no room for real improvement.

My Evora had a BMC filter in an aftermarket well designed intake. It was so loud on full throttle, my ears would hurt from the induction!