I bought my 04 XJR about a month ago. 85K miles, one owner, all records.
The car was bought new at the dealer I purchased it from, and was owned by an 80 yo gentleman who leased the land the dealership is on to the dealer.
The salesman told me 100 times that "this car needs nothing" as every time Charlie brought it in he told them to do whatever it needs.

Of course I know better than to believe that, but yesterday I changed the oil myself. This is a very clean southern car, but when I dropped the bottom plastic cover down, I was shocked.

The cross member on the subframe that the steering column attaches to was rusting! Clearly not a new issue, how many times do you think the gifted Jaguar service tech looked at that and did nothing about it?

What should have been a 20 minute job turned into an hour of scraping, wire wheeling, and rust treatment with Rust Bullet. At least now the issue is stunted and should last me the life of the car. I will keep a close eye on it.

I get so tired of the belief that only a Jaguar dealer service can care for a car...I can't believe my indy guy would have every let this happen.

But this is why we do our own service, right?

 

Thats an interesting story they told you. From the rust you can see that the car was fully used during the winter seasons and probably washed very little in terms of under body. You did the right thing by cleaning off the rust and treating it. At least now you know where you stand in keeping the car as you prefer. All should be good for a long time.

LCMJAGUAR
2008 XJ8 VDP
1988 XJ40

 

I don't think the car was winter weather driven. Everything else under the car is spotless. The car lived in St. Petersburg, FL. There is a foam pad (wrapped in plastic) on the plastic skid plate that fits right under the cross member. My guess is that the foam gets wet and keeps that section wet for long periods, thus the rust.
Only the service tech would have seen this. I just can't imagine how you'd sleep at night covering that problem back up without offering to fix it!

 

That foam pad is supposed to be removed. Known problem for this model.

 

I have to ask you what is it that you would expect a technician to do other than note it on the work order? The type of repair you performed would be done at a bodyshop. It appears as though you may have had issues with a dealer in the past & don't trust dealers in general.

Plums was there a bulletin about removing the pad that I am unaware of or is this just something people do? I had never heard anything about removing it.

 

It's been mentioned by some of the resident techs in the past as something they do when they do an oil change. I don't know if there was a tsb.

So, at least some techs go the extra mile.

Maybe in WI, they *expect* rust at 85k and 9 years. It didn't happen all at once. If all cars rust in a city, seeing rust would not be noteworthy to someone in that city.

 

For all we know he/they did offer to fix it, or at least brought it to someone's attention....perhaps even the 80 year old previous owner

Or ....maybe not.

I dunno. I wasn't there. Come to think of it, neither were you !

If it's a routine practice/recommendation to remove the foam, well, that's what I'd be mad about. Why didn't they do it?

Cheers
DD

 

I will get a clarification from Jag tech support the next time I speak with them as this is something I had never heard of. I will also ask my AMM if his other dealers remove the foam.

 

That some techs are known to remove the foam isn't quite the same as "That foam pad is supposed to be removed".







If it's a widespread problem I wouldn't be surprised if a TSB exists to address it.




It makes sense to me to remove the foam if it's causing a problem.

I wouldn't necessarily expect it to be removed without asking the customer if he wants it removed...or at least mentioning it. I dunno. It's probably not very important to have it and surely the vast majority of owners wouldn't notice and couldn't care less, but, OTOH, some guys are just not in the habit of removing things from cars and throwing them away.

I *would* expect that a service tech/shop, on seeing a rust problem developing, would bring it to the owner's attention.

Cheers
DD

 

Ok, I apologize for venting. This doesn't seems to be the right place to do so.

What I meant by my post, and should have more carefully said is that when I have had any of my higher end cars (Porsche, BMW, Jaguar, Audi, etc) to the dealer, I routinely am told that the cars should only be serviced at the dealer. The stigma is that they do a better job than anyone else. I have not found this to be the case.

In this situation, the car lived in Florida all of its life. It is spotless. The dealer advertised it as no limits on the service. This area clearly had suffered for a long time. I have all the service records. There is nothing documented about this issue, or the customer declining repair.

You are right, I wasn't there. I am simply pointing out that had I taken the car to my independent repair guy, or done the work myself, this would have been addressed.

I appreciate the devils advocates, but you are missing my point...this is a structural part of the car and should have been treated as such. Just sayin.

 

Sure it is! Vent away .

But, there's always a possibility that others will chime in with an alternative theory of the crime, so to speak. Especially those with experience in the trade.

Cheers
DD

 

Well, in the end I'm just glad that this cat is going to live out its days in my garage...and I truly will spare no expense to keep it clean!
Love my Jaguar!

 

Exactly.

And while the 80 year old previous owner might not have cared about money, he may also not have been bothered by the developing rust ... or much else. He had enough money to replace the entire vehicle at any time.

 

I had the identical problem on my x350
It is caused by the low pressure (cold) ac line that passes by there.
In humid heat it drops water onto the foam.
That area of the sub-frame sits there too and gets wet.

I cut a slot clear through the belly pan, where the cross member touches it.
Its fine now that last few years.
I wet the rusted area down with Fluid Film (http://www.fluid-film.com/) as it will arrest the rust and prevent any further rust.