Don't be afraid. Many of us have earlier model x351 that have not blown up. I am gleefully at 70k miles, and have had a single repair I had to pay for (collapsed fuel filler neck). Don't lose sight of the fact that people tend to post on forums when they HAVE problems, not when they DON'T. Most who have any problem hypothesize that there is a "known factory defect", instead of accepting that it's an imperfect world, and on occasion, things break. Unfortunately, big boy toys have big boy repair and parts costs. Can't say repairs for my wife's Navigator are as expensive as my XJ Supercharged, but she doesn't get the same ear to ear grin driving it as I do either.

 

***CAR UPDATE***

First, Thank You Everyone for posting. I read all of your comments, thoughts, suggestions, well wishes, and appreciate them all. The final verdict from the Jaguar Dealership Service Center in Portland Oregon... Blown up heads, metal in the oil, engine is condemned. That's it. the ride is over. My payments aren't, but the ride stops here.

After my first diagnosis of a Timing Chain failure and further noises in the engine, (must replace entire engine), I let the car sit for about four weeks so I could think about all my options. I happen to find another European service shop just outside of my home town who offered to take a look. Their diagnosis: Absolutely a timing chain issue, verified through the Jaguar recommended service bulletin diagnosis procedure. Also the supercharger had play and and was making noise, needed the Jaguar Service Bulletin Isolation Kit. Third noise was found to be a heat shield under the transmission with a few loose rivets. Good news was I did not need a new engine. Bad news was this shop did not have the tools to perform the service. The cost of the tools was prohibitive of them doing the work. They told me to take my car to the jaguar dealership in Portland Oregon, two hours north of me. So I called the dealership, their shop was weeks booked out so November 14 was the earliest I could make an appointment to drop my car off. AAA was sick of me at this point so I was on my own for the tow to Portland. Prices were $700 for a flat trailer tow, so I took a day off work, rented a U-Haul car trailer, and towed the Jag myself. Other than being tailgated by a jerk in a expensive sports car the entire way, the drive went without issues.

First call from Jag dealership: They believed the noise was coming from the heads and needed authorization for 4 hours to explore and diagnose. You bet, let's get this thing fixed. I'm two and a half months without my car at this point.
Second call from Jag dealership, the next day: As they were opening up the engine, they pulled the oil filter and found metal flakes in the filter media and in the oil. Engine is done. I asked about the timing chain and they told me the tension on the chain seemed fine. Hmmm... They said the Supercharger had play and most likely needed the Isolation Kit, and the water pump had a small leak and was dripping coolant. I asked them how the heads could catastrophically fail if there was no issue with the timing chain, and he said without knowing the history of the engine, there is no way to know what was the cause of the original damage. The service manager said they felt very bad for my situation and they were only going to charge me for one hour of diagnostic time. That was very kind of him and I do really appreciate that.

Options: He told me if I sourced a refurbished engine, their price for Labor Only to replace the engine was $4300 and change. Any warranty would have to be provided by the engine seller. If they sourced a new engine from Jaguar, the price was $39,000 plus $4,300 labor. I looked up engines for this car and an engine with 68k miles (roughly matching my car's mileage) is $9100 and change. Add in the water pump, supercharger isolation kit, and peripherals, and I'm $16,000 deep on a car that has a KBB of $21,000. Not to mention that the 2012 replacement engine may still have the faulty timing chain tensioner and guides. Throw the timing chain service on top of that and we just flew right past the entire value of the car in repairs. Anyone want to buy a parts car? I'm serious.

I'm not going to cry and tell you all my sob story, cause we've all got one, or seven. Myself and my family are all in good health, so even a financial crisis like this has to be put in perspective. I got to drive a Jag for 2 years and felt great every second of it. Most of the kids at my boys' school knew I was the dad who drove a Jag. One of my son's friends who rode in the car with us told his dad my car was "even fancier than an airplane!" Would I do it all again? NOPE!!! Am I ever going to recommend anyone else ever buy a Jag? NOPE!!! I kid with one of my good buddies because when I sent him a text that I was buying a Jag XJL, his exact text back to me was, "NOOOOOO!!!! All they do it break down!!!!!!" But I did anyway, and he was 100% right, and I can't change that. Live and learn. If you have gobs of expendable cash you can throw at your car, and you want to buy a Jaguar, you will smile every single mile you drive. Whoever designed the Bowers & Wilkins 1200 watt sound system should be given Sainthood from the Pope himself!

If you are driving in your Jag and see a man waving at you and crying, through the window of a city bus, that's me.

Thanks again everyone,
Ryan

 

Have you contacted Jaguar corporate to see if they will offer some assistance. My experience has been very positive with them covering two out of warranty issues each of which would have cost me about $5,000

 

I feel your pain. 2011 XJL Supercharge owner with car sitting in garage with a performance issue. i am afraid to drive it, scared to take to shop just wish it would disappear in the night. Beautiful car but that is all.
RCP

 

Hoping you're right - I have a 2013 and it's been in and out of the shop since October now ... and I'm already down $1,700 bucks.

 

Dangit man, I am really sad to read this. It's heartbreaking, really really heartbreaking. I wish there were consumer agencies that hold car manufacturers to higher standards in terms of taking responsibility & ownership for their manufacturer defects.

I am glad you were able to see this from a logical standpoint, with regards to health and all of that and while I agree, I am sure if this happens to me, i am going to break down in tears for months.

 

I'm jumping across forums here, but my 2013 XKR developed at slight ticking at 20K. Luckily for me it was under the CPO warranty, cause JLR said it needed a motor replacement. They never said why or authorized the dealer
to diagnose the problem, apparently since they don't support rebuilds there's no reason to figure out why the engines self-destruct, though I think they know. The paper-work indicated a $52K warranty charge. The car was
always dealer serviced, and no issue was ever even suggested, and the car had just passed the 165-point inspection just weeks before, so frequenting a dealer for service was no guarantee of catching the problem earlier.

Metal in the oil was all I could ever get out of the service tech. I'm guessing the chain guides wore and the chain rode on the aluminum block, hence the metal particles, which causes all kinds of bearing surface issues.

I'd press JLR (not the dealer). This is a known problem with the 5.0 SC, maybe if they feel threatened by a law-suit they'll offer some help. GL.

 

buddhaboy, thanks for the info. There is a Class Action Lawsuit in progress against JLR for this issue. (There is a thread in this forum a fellow member gave me a heads up to) Apparently there have been a ton of reports of this problem. What's frustrating to me, is that I believe JLR does not want to diagnose this timing chain as the problem, because of the exposure to a lawsuit. Just like in your case, they replaced the engine under warranty because of metal in the oil, but didn't specify why or where it came from... In my case, two independent shops confirmed the timing chain WAS the problem, but when I took it to the dealership, they said the timing chains "seemed fine...". The good news is that I have the car. So the proof, one way or the other, is sitting in my driveway. I could have an independent shop check for me, oh wait, I already did twice. Haha! At this point, I have to believe that JLR is knowingly hiding the true magnitude of this timing chain issue by simply, and intentionally, not diagnosing the timing chain as the fault of the failed engines/metal in the oil. This is a sensitive subject because what I'm doing is questioning the integrity of the gentlemen who worked on my car. But if your boss says, "Leave that line on the form blank...", or "I'll finish up the paperwork for you...", you do what your boss says, go work on the next car in line, and keep your job. I'm not questioning the guys turning the wrench, I'm questioning the management trying to protect the Brand. I don't know what other conclusion I could make at this point.

 

I feel your pain. My 2012 sc blew 2 months after I bought it. Fortunately I am a skilled mechanic. I have noticed that many of the SC 5.0L are dead at or before 70k miles. It’s safe to assume that the engine is not built well. At least not for forced induction. So there is not reason to believe that a used engine will be any more durable. Seems that there is no reasonable solution. Yet.

 

I understand that Jaguar modified the timing chain tensioner parts that fail, but no official announcement was ever made. AIUI this was around 2014/15

 

So if this is the case, who out there has a pre-2014 SC 5.0L with more than 70k miles without a timing chain failure? Because mine is at 60k...

 

What is really crazy is that the AJ-V8 4.0 (4.2) liter of the X100 (XK8) already had chain tensioner issues, leading to many engines killed, esp on the XKR version... it took no less than 3 versions to the manufacturer ( Sachs) to at last design a reliable version of the tensioners in 2003...
And at the time also, Jaguar and all dealers denied there was any problem despite the many proofs on the forums and what the mechanics said in the backstage...
Some people got new engines after warranty was out, but all who did had to go to court...
seems Jaguar is very adverse to learning out of error...
At least at the time one could buy all engine parts anywhere... the situation has worsened from that side...