Hi
I have always used Jaguar Dealer Service for the maintenance service that is in Jaguar vechile car manual. Now I have lost confidence in the 3 Jaguar dealership locations service departments. They are too expensive and they have not informed me of the known repair issues as they should have done when the car was serviced by them. I have decided to have our part-time mechanic or an indy shop do our 100,000 mile maintenance.
The advantage is that I will be able to choose and buy the parts I want used in this service, also the cost of the service will be much lower.
I have already bought the Spark Plugs and Oil Filter. I still have to choose the Engine Oil, Air Cleaner Filter,the Accessory Belt replacement, Maybe Coolant, and Maybe Brake Fluid.
Thinking about:
Motor Oils
Mobil 1 Advance Fuel Economy 0w-20 Synthetic Motor Oil (advertising says is recommended for SAE 0W-20 & 5W20 applications) seems to be a synthetic blend
Mobil 1 European Car Formula 0w-40 Synthetic Motor Oil
Mobil 1 Full Synthetic Motor Oil 5w-20
MotorCraft Full Synthetic Motor Oil 5w-20
MotorCraft Synthetic Blend Motor Oil 5w-20

Also need suggestions on what brand of Air Cleaner Filter, Coolant, and Brake Fluid to buy.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Jim Lombardi

 

My preference is a 5W-40 oil, fully synthetic if possible. Use a well known brand and you should be fine. Generally you get what you pay for.

I would use the Jag oil and air filters.

For the coolant use Texaco or Prestone Dex-cool.

The brake fluid needs to be DOT-4, use ATE or Castrol fluid if you can find it.

 

The Jaguar motor oil that our Jaguar dealerships use is the Motorcraft 5w-20. I called them yesterday and I was referred to their Parts Dept manager. He told me that they do not even use any Synthetic motor oil, the conventional Motorcraft 5w-20 is the only motor oil used by the Service Dept. I was very surprised, especially when they want $1400 to do the 100,000 maintenance.

 

Mobil 1 5W-30
K&N Air Filter

 

Very few cars come factory filled with synthetics -- those that do normal do so because they have extended service intervals. I use synthetic now in the XJR - normally Mobil 1 -- because I only put about 5k on it a year -- so it is in the car for an extended time. The Jaguar dealers use regular oil when they service them. The manual recommends 5w-30 - That is what I use.


I'm friendly with my local dealer and I get my parts wholesale -- So I buy a lot from them. For many of my cars I use Autohauz for OE parts - always been very happy - I recently ordered the XJR OE plugs from them. I have not priced the drive belt at the dealer since I have never replaced it - but I kind of remember the Jaguar air filter being a bit overpriced vs Autohauz's OE.

Personally, I never mix fluids -- So I would get the Jaguar coolant. I was a bit surprised that my local dealer does not use factory brake fluid after the warranty service is up -- I never noticed the change on my invoice. If they have always used factory fluid on yours I would stick with it -- its DOT 4e.

The small difference in price for the factory fluid is not worth trying to find a suitable replacement - IMO


Good luck

 

I found an comparison of Mobile 1 versus Amsoil Signature Series 0W-30 100% Synthetic motor oil on the Bimmerforums.com. Mr. Darren Wallace (Technical Design Engineer and Chemist) of Amsoil Company, he suggested strongly the use of 0W-30 in the M3 for street and track.....
BMW engines, as are most others, had very tight engine tolerances for their bearings, etc. He said using the Amsoil 0W-30 would protect these bearings (and the entire engine) better than ANY 30 weight grade oil they have ever tested.
Here is the website link to Amsoil results: You will have to click on the small images to enlarge the images on their webpage.
AMSOIL Performance Test - API Comparative Motor Oil Testing

also this PDF from Amsoil website:
http://www.synthetic-distribution.co...ries_0W-30.pdf

Here is some more information on the Bimmerforums.com.
Did you know that our engines have temperatures in this range (F)?: Upper Cylinder Wall300-500 Exhaust Valve1200-1500 Piston Crown700-800Hydraulic Valve Lifter250-300 Crankcase200-300 Top Piston Ring300-650 Exhaust Gases500-1000 Combustion Chamber3000-5000Coolant Jacket165-230 Connecting Rod Bearings200-375 Main Bearings 200-350

Other factors to consider when selecting an oil are the possible use of a light weight fast flowing oil to help prevent dry start-up damage even in warm climates. If you have an oil cooled turbocharger, look for a high flash point oil so coking of the oil will be reduced.
End of Bimmerforums comments I extracted.

I know this is a lot of information to digest.
Jim Lombardi

 

For what it is worth (please don't flame me) my 98 XJ8 hates mobil synthenic... It flags codes concerning the VVT every time I've used it.... I've done it twice so far (got some free mobil 1 synthenic oil).... problem went away when I replaced the mobil 1 with something else (again, went through this process twice).

Hardly scienitific, probably a peculiarity of my Jag but I thought I would throw my 2 cents in.

 

Update - The only place I found to buy Amsoil 0w-30 motor oil is on their website. $10.50 per quart or $41.40 per gallon plus shipping. I think the total cost for 8 quarts or 2 gallons would be approx $90. Seems very pricey to me. I also see that there is a Preferred Customer trial membership being offered in the featured sponsors vendor directory here on the forum. I found out there is a $10 fee for the 6 month trial membership. They give you 25% off the retail price and the shipping cost for 2 gallons is $10. Looks like a total of $72.10. Still seems a little pricey when compared to Walmart selling Mobil 1 for $24.50 for 5 quarts.
I need to know if anyone else had any of the problems that Ronmexico has with Mobil1 motor oil.
I need to make a decision soon.
I did buy a K&N air filter today at Advanced Auto Parts.
My part-time mechanic recommended a small indy shop to do our 100,000 mile service. He is an experienced Jag mechanic and has all the special tools to work on Jags (20 yrs experience) quoted me at $80/hour (Jaguar wants $120/hr). Approx $300 (3.8 hrs) for the labor to do everything and more than what Jaguar service dept was going to do for $1400 (parts and labor). I think the parts are going to cost me between $160 to $200.
Parts cost look more like $230 with the Drive Belt (about $50).
Jim Lombardi

 

I always use the weight oil recommended by the manufacturer -- engines are designed for certain oil weights and nothing good comes from changing from the recommended weight.

While the Jaguar V8 is certainly a great V8 -- I would not put it in the class of the BMW M's or the high performance MB's or Porsche motors that normally require 0w-40. In reality ...not much benefit from using any special oil in the Jaguar - change it when required.

I do not use K&N filters -- some swear on the Porsche forums that they get more power out of the engines -- but many of the K&N filters are wetted with oil -- the MAF sensors do not like this. They are nothing but trouble IMO. The Jaguar filter is a high quality filter - has an extremely long service life.

 

Just what is supposed to get done as part of the 100,000 mile service? How many parts actually changed out?

 

Here is the maintance page in the Vehicle Care manual:


Parts that I am having changed are:
the Aux Drive Belt, Oil Filter, Motor Oil, Spark Plugs, Air Cleaner Filter, Coolant (flush) and Brake Fluid (flush).

This 0w-30 motor oil was developed to take the place of the 5w-20 and 5w-30 motor oils.

The K&N Air filter is a direct replacement and same type of air cleaner as the Jaguar branded one. K&N part number 33-2190.


Is this the K&N air filter that has oil in it?

Jim Lombardi

 

Jim your fine on the K&N, Ive used them for years without issue. youll get more oil on the MAFS from oil blowby reversion than from a K&N. Just follow directions on cleaing and reoiling when servicing.
That $1400 seems very high even for a dealer,(we're no that High) unless they shot you upfront with flushes, tire rotation and balance etc....
We use Kendall semi syn blend oil 5-30w
And all the rest of the checks I do all the time and ANY decent tech that wants to keep theirs customer in a well running car should too.

 

I have no direct knowledge of the K&N filter use problems with the later Jaguar V8's -- other than a couple of mentions on this and other forums.

But the problems associated with the oiled K&N filters is well known and I'm at a loss on why anyone would want to use them in a Jaguar -- given the cars use and normal environment.

I mention this only because some are not aware of the potential problems associated with the filters.

 

Yeldogt
I have decided to take your advice and buy the Jaguar branded Air Filter. It is only a couple of dollars more than what I paid for the K&N one. I cancelled my order for it with Advance Auto Parts.
I will try to place an order with Nalley Jag. H2oboy mentions in a posting that they offers free shipping for orders >$25 and stocks alot of the hard to find items, where most dealers have to order them. I looked at JPAM pricing and they want $12.95 for shipping.
Jim Lombardi

 

What would be the reason NOT to use ordinary oil and air filters - e.g., Fram?

 

Well for one i know the air filters from Purolator and Fram for the Stype are incorrect size cause I see these all the time shoved into air boxes and they dont fit right

 

Boomer
I never thought much about the engine oil our Jaguar dealership service dept was putting into our Jaguar. Looks like part of the cracked plastic tensioner problems falls in line with poor lubication of these plastic engine parts. I talked with a Jaguar indy shop in Springfield Ma last week and mentioned that we had to replace all of these cracked plastic parts. The owner said they only use synethic oil and their Jaguar customers have never had to replace these plastic parts (tensioners or the guides).

He also said the only reason these dealership use conventional engine oil is to lower their costs of doing the service maintenance (means increased profits for them).
That is only his opinion, but it seems to make good sense. They use engine oil that costs $3 to $4 a quart versus one that cost $7 to $10 a quart.
The cost of better engine oil probably ends up saving the Jaguar owner in the long run with better performance, better gas mileage and less major engine repairs.
Now that is just my opinion. At least I will use the synthetic engine oil from on.
Jim Lombardi

 

Jim you should ask that indy why then does platic vacuum lines, plastic coolant pieces, plastic electrical connectors. Etc... All break and come apart...cause theyre plastic!!!! And plastic goes away with age and becomes brittle, they dont have oil going through them and ive replaced plenty of cracked plastic tensioners on engines i know the owners use synthetic....i guess that indy just doesnt see the volume we do to draw differant conclusions from

 

Hi
I did a little browing around this Jag Parts website and their filter prices seem more reasonable than most other places.
Here is a Jpeg file that shows their Filters for XJ8:



I may try them the next time I have to change the filters.

The shipping charges may outweigh the parts cost savings $10.30 for an oil filter and air filter order.

Jim Lombardi

 

Also watch for the oil specification , in your case i believe API SJ.