Hi all,

I have just sold my Discovery 4, and am looking at an early X351 XJ as its replacement (budget circa £13k). I have a few questions if anyone is able to help.

1. There are a few V8s around within budget. I won't be doing a huge number of miles so fuel economy isn't the top priority. Presumably the V8 petrol is superior to the V6 diesel in terms of performance, sound and character? Which engine is likely to give me less trouble in terms of reliability, particularly at higher mileages?

2. Aside from the usual checklist of things to examine when buying a used car, is there anything I should pay particular attention to?

TIA
Dean

 

Dean, with proper maintenance, the motor should last you out to 500,000 KM with no major issues. So, put that aspect to rest. As for performance, yes, the V8 petrol is going to be quicker off the line than its diesel counterpart. So, really it comes down to a question of which is going ot be cheaper to run over a given distance. I think both motors will be just fine for what you are looking at. The one thing that is a knock on the petrol engine is the water pump is the weak link. If you are going to have a problem with the engine, it will 90% of the time be related to that. It is known for just failing out of the blue. Some of this has to do with Jaguar using plastic parts in the coolant system and them getting brittle with use (ie, heating up and cooling down numerous times). So, keep an eye on those parts and be ready to replace a water pump at a moments notice. Along those lines, the petrol engine is sensitive to overheating. This can result in a big repair bill if you try to push things and get the motor too hot. So, in the case of the water pump failing, if you pull over immediately and turn off the engine, not an issue. You decide "oh, i am only a few KM from home, I am going to push it, might as well write off the engine. The temp gauge stays in the middle like it should, you are golden. You let it bounce off the upper peg, the motor may hate you for that. The diesel is a bit more forgiving in that aspect. But, not being familiar with the diesel engine (that is not an option for those of us in the US), I can only speak for what the petrol engine is like. I have owned my car for 100K miles (160,000 KM) and I am on my 3rd water pump (the factory one, a replacement, and a second replacement). Some have just accounted for replacing the water pump every 50,000 miles (80,000 KM). That is what you can expect to get out of it. Possibly more if you are doing long drives and limiting the number of heat cycles (which it sounds like is not your case).

As for things to pay attention to, THE WATER PUMP. You get a car with a new water pump recently installed, you are golden. Another annoyance is the sunroof has a tendency to "pop" (make a cracking sound) when you twist up the body of the car (say hit a decent size pot hole or get the car in an off-camber situation). This is easily fixed by loosening the screws that hold the sunroof in place and then retorquing the screws while applying loc-tite. The big issue with this is that it is labor intensive as the headliner needs to come down to give you access. Not a difficult job, but can be costly if you pay someone to do it for you. I would say to also look at something before 2012 if the START/STOP feature of modern day cars is an annoyance to you. 2012 and earlier did not have this feature. Starting in 2013, the cars did. This is something that may fall into your window of options and may be a deal breaker. Another annoyance is the 2010 cars had a different radio than the later cars. That radio is slow on the uptake. You push a button, it takes a second or two for it to finally respond. Granted, this can be fixed by updating the screen to the 2011 screen (much better, but can still be a little slow compared to other brands). Again, this may be a deal breaker, it may not be. I find my car to be a little slow (I have a 2012), but not anything that I would want to sell the car over.

 

Excellent commentary from "Thermo" above. Well done. I have owned 5 different Jaguars (continue to own 2 of them). I will be the first to laud the reliability of Jaguars in the face of the consistent, "reliability" questions of old. That said, owing a Jaguar is a labor of love and does require the attention that every "cat" in the world demands--figuratively as well as literally. In my estimation, anecdotally, I would say the Supercharged V6 would be the most "bullet-proof" version. My '17 runs like a top and is an absolute dream to drive. The V8 would clearly best me off the line, but this is a touring car...and it delivers in all ways that count. My F-Type delivers the "off the line" performance when I want that. If you want both, then opt for the V8, but, the sacrifice is definitely going to be in the maintenance as the water pump is the common theme among V8 XJ owners.

 

I agree with Thermo on the mileage on 500K & he is correct on the water pump & overheating problem. I have seen some XJs sold at Craigslist (American Classified Ads) advertised with a lot of mileage to it but if I am a buyer I would look for something that has a low mileage with exterior & interior in pristine condition. Others may disagree, but that is just me.

 

Hello,

No personal experiment for x351 V8, but i can add some words about V6 diesel. Not as spectacular by soundvise, but 600nm of very low end torgue are something that diesel version offer you all day long. Around 6sek from 0-100kmh (0-62mph) are easy to reach, even bit under in a cold morning. So, performance or soundvise not a level of V8, but defently it have strong word for character.
PSA-Ford designed AJD-V6 3litre twin turbo diesel engine have been suffering from rotating main bearings, what can be avoided by using correct oil only, and chancing the oil twice often than service interval say. Othervise bullet proof engine. Used volumes in Citroen/Peugeot models, specialy 2.7litre version.
V8 owners propably don´t believe this, but i am still running with original waterpump: +273 000km (170 000mils) (expecting it will go soon though...) All components on my enginebay are still original, from 2010, exept serviced parts: Belts, belt runners and oil & gasoline & air filters.
Still: If this side of big water the petrol would be prices of US, i would drive SC V8.
(petrol just reached 2€ / litre here)

Hint: On 2010-11 models the infotainment respose time can reach almost realtime by turning the animations off from menu. (you lose small star from corner of the button, what you cant anyway see thru your finger )
Good luck for hunting.

 

2014-2017 have in-car and remote features that will cease when 3G is discontinued in the USA. There is no workaround for this. Maybe check the situation in your country before picking model years suitable for evaluation.

 

I have a '17 XJL...any idea what features will cease to work when 3G is discontinued? I posed this question to my local Jag dealer and he seemed to indicate that I shouldn't worry about anything.

 

I would think you'd lose all connectivity features (hotspot, etc.) and InControl functions (SOS, nav, remote, etc.).
I'd suggest writing to JLR USA with your VIN number and asking this question.

 

Dont want to be "smart ***", but SOS should work even without SIM, like emergence calls work in any mobile even without SIM by law.

 

I don't think it has anything to do with an account, IMEI, or phone number, but rather the discontinuation of a particular transmit/receive technology. 4G is not "backward compatible" to 3G.

 

Correct, 4G use different modulation, so 3G radio cant use it. As far i know the SOS are using different layer than any xG networks, In-band or something... ? Used also for controlling baystations? Can´t be sure, not anymore on cellular tech business. (ohh, these times of SMS came available ) It is interesting to see what happens. Jaguar are not alone with inbuild 3G. My XJ are too old to have any connection and 2G/3G shutdown will start as far as 2025 here in Finland. Been involved for embedded computing and QNX embedded operating system are running on XJ dash. It would be interesting test to insert standard USB modem on the XJ and see if it will make the connection, since QNX have support for USB modem. (it could be turned off though..)

 

Yeah, my direct experience with this stuff ended 40 years ago I worked for Motorola in the 1970's, and was present when the first cellular phone call was made, outside the FCC office on 16th St. DC.
BTW, despite my involvement with 1- and 2-way radio, I was one of the naysayers of cellular. I simply couldn't envision the practicality of base stations blanketing the country every half-mile or so. We needed 21 rooftop receivers just to provide adequate UHF coverage for Baltimore City police radios, and they were 5 watts output. With the difficulties obtaining tower and roof leases, not to mention the sheer cost of equipment and maintenance, I couldn't imagine radios with half the sensitivity and a tenth of the power ever being practical. Of course, the first ones were the size of an attache case, mounted in the car's trunk, but even those had "holes" in coverage. At a dollar per minute! Woof

 

Yep. Looking back of Nordiska Mobiltelefongruppen (NMT)era, the technology have been taken big leaps. Funny, even cellular networks were developed in scandinavia, the 1st ever commercial network opened in Saudis.(money talks) Before NMT there were already ARP-450; fix vehicle mounted system started back in 1956 in Sweden... That died fast, because it was s*it. I recon my friends father had a Volvo with Motorola ARP on it. It had rotating dial, took big part from the trunk and it ever managed to make a call
I was very proud young bloke by my first portable: Ericksson Cityman. Advertised with stand-by time of whole 8 hours! (exept if you made one call and that flattens the battery Calls were so expensive that no-one calls though)
Now sub-6Ghz 5G are expanding, but coverage needs lot of stations, MW will need even much more: Honestly cant see that consumer will need that capasity on mobile? 8K videos on 5" screen?
Well, this went far off-topic, but it will be interesting to see what happens when 3G are run down.