Just had my 98 xjr in the shop to replace my fuel pumps. I had no fuel pressure. Got that taken care of. Unfortunetly it turns out that i most likely have a blown head gasket. Great!! The odometer just turned over 100k on my way back home frm the shop.. needless to say i cant afford the labor to replace the head gasket especially since i just forked out over a grand to get my fuel pumps replaced.. is this common for this year xjr and what causes a gasket to go defective? Why me? :/

 

It's not common but not unheard of. Could be slight corrosion or an overtemp event or......

bob gauff

 

The shop quoted me about 4k to replace the gasket, is that a good price?

 

High for just head gaskets only but I suspect that they have a long list of proposed repairs. You need that list for a fair appraisal of the price.

 

With the straight six motor head gaskets were not an uncommon problem -- You did not want to overheat the straight six motor - but corrosion had previously always been an issue in the Jaguar cooling system so we were always fanatical with the upkeep of the coolant.

Years ago you had many more dissimilar metals in the cooling system -- today certain coolants are better depending on the particular content of the system that a manufacturer uses.

What was the history/ condition of the coolant in this car?


Sorry to hear of the problem

 

Jaguar warranty time is 12.3 hours so a real world estimate would be about 18 hours. (12 X 1.5 = 18)
Figure several hundred for gaskets and fluids and you might be looking at a little over $2000.00 but nowhere near $4000.00

That is what I would charge at my shop but it would depend on the hourly rate.

bob gauff

 

Why do you think the head gasket is blown ? Did they do a coolant gas test ? Or is there coolant in the oil ?

 

Yes, they did a "sniff test" and determined that there was coolant in the exhaust..the reason they did the test was cause they noticed white smoke comming out of the exhaust..

 

Is this the same shop that did the sniff test? I would get a second opinion, they might be taking you for a ride...

Does it overheat?

 

Yes its the same shop, and no it hasn't over heated. There is quite a bit of white smoking coming out of the tail pipes tho..

 

I definetly will get a second opinion..thnx for the responses by the way.

 

A few years ago, not long after i purchased the car my water pump went out while driving. The car started to over heat and i pulled over and waited for it too cool down.. i wasnt too far from my house so i drove home but i would pull over and shut off the engine b4 the needle would reach the red.. anyway, after changing the water pump the car ran fine and hasnt over heated since. Do you guys think that could of damaged my head gasket and over the years just gradually worsen?

 

How close to red did you let it get? Aluminum blocks are sensitive to overheating, some more so than others. I've noticed the temp gauge on these jags actually fluctuates, on most other vehicles I've owned it just stays at a certain point and does not move (The downfall of Bosch rovers, they never let you know until it is too late). Overheating can cause head gaskets to blow, however I would still get a second opinion...

 

There is an interesting and related discussion going on in the XK8/R forum at the moment regarding the temp gauge and engine temp.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...e-gauge-62813/

 

Ya, i mean thats the only way i can make sense of this issue, when i first noticed it the needle was on red, i cant imagine i ran it like that for long im always looking at my gages periodicly when i drive. I would guess maybe a minute or so on the red and then pulled over to cool down.

 

The gauge shows the same between 85-116 degrees celsius. Not 100% sure of the exact different temperatures but this is close enough. What this meens is that when the gauge is showing red it is already probarbly to late..... :-(

 

I just had white smoke coming out of the tailpipe of my new to me 04 XJ8. The service writer at the dealership said it smelled like coolant, my wife took it in I wasn't there and now they say it's a bad PCV valve. I'm confused until I actually talk to someone, what does coolant have to do with the PCV valve? It's covered under their 30 day warranty so whatever it is it won't cost me anything.

 

The XJ/XK has not had a PCValve for years. BS

Ask them for a different story.

 

Testpont is right, of course. And furthermore I suspect you are going to have a problem with the warranty. Watch out for them putting in some stopleak or other temporary fix. They are either extremely incompetent to tell you that, or fraudulant, but probably BOTH.