Recently purchased this Jag for my wife. Had an issue with the "Low Coolant" light coming on. No problems with the car though. No overheating or performance issues. Topped off the reservoir while the car was cold per the manual, started the car, "Low Coolant" light was off. Happy as a clam was my wife!

Later that day, she drives and the overflow begins spewing out coolant. She parks until it stops. Takes off and car now begins to overheat. She turns off AC and the temp needle goes down to normal. She continues her drive and then the temp gauge goes back up to the top. She drives maybe 5 more minutes to a gas station and turns it off. And then the real issues begin.

Started the car after i arrived on the scene and it idled awful! Chugged like an old pick up truck running on bad gas. Still does. Checked the oil and there was no signs or water in it or condensation on the cap. There was no smoking or knocking sounds which I've experienced in other overheating issues.

Took the car to my local dealer who informed me that there was major damage done to the engine and it would need to be replaced. I don't want to discredit them in any way, I'm simply looking for a second opinion.

With the info I've provided, can someone tell me if it sounds like that is the case, that my engine has moved on or is it possibly a jumped timing belt (which I've also experienced before) or some other less than catastrophic, life altering repair cost issue?

P.S. The Restricted Performance and Check Engine lights are on!

 

Well, somethng is wrong, obviously. It is probably not the timing chains because, although these cars have a known defect there, it is not usually rlated to overheating. What has probably happenned is you have a blown head gasket or burned valves or valve seats. The head gasket failure does not always resu;lt in oiul in the ewater or vice versus. A compression test will give a clue as to what has happened. Head gaskets on a XJ 8 is a 20 hour or so job, as I recall. get the timing tensioners doen while you are in there.
Good luck.

 

Plan C is to take it to a non-dealer shop and hope to the heavens for better news than total engine replacement.

 

You need some more information. The dealer didn't tell you what the major damage done to the engine was ? Also, if you knew what codes were setting the check engine light it would help a great deal. I've had one overheating problem with my X308, and it did cause the engine to run rough, but it cleared up after I fixed the issue and reset the codes. If the engine is not seized up, and the head gasket didn't blow, then why is the engine toast ?

 

No, the dealer was not so forthcoming with the information. We discussed possible causes and of course the price of the resolution but not precisely the damage. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "what codes were setting the check engine light". can you help me with that? If its something I can ask the next shop I take it to then I will certainly ask.

 

When I worked at the dealer until 2006 the price of an Exchange Engine was $9300.00 plus Labor. You need to consider a good used engine as a replacement if indeed it is damaged/destroyed. There are several independent shops in the DFW area that can replace your engine for less than half of that. I know a few of shops in the Fort Worth area (I worked in Fort Worth for more that 25 years) but not very many in Dallas. If you were not so far away I would tell you to bring it to my shop for a free diagnosis and WDS scan.

Let us know what happens.

bob gauff

 

Uh yeah, i missed that one on the what codes for check engine light since i didnt see you mention that.
My experiance says that based on your info, the engine overheated the second time(possibly from air trapped in the system when you refilled) this can vapor lock the cooling system and cause some very localised hot spots. Hot enough to expand the aluminum heads and drop a couple of valve seats. Many times a new head/s are needed. But there is litle realible way to truely deterimine if the pistons were damaged till you pull the heads, hense you need an engine since if you pull the heads to find this out and then do need a engine that labor is wasted $$$$
a bore scope can be used once you find the offending cylinder/s but that can unreliable since its hard to see all but the most obvious damage

 

Hi themessinger2000

The miles from Decator TX to Dallas TX looks to be about 55 miles.

We had a restricted performance light on and the engine was running only on the passinger side cylinders. We only had a generic code scanner and our indy mechanic thought that the 2ndary timing belt tensioners might have failed and he wanted us to bring it to a Jaguar dealership. We did and they also could not be certain without us paying over $200 in labor cost ($109/hr) to pull the valve cover.

I have a AAA Premier membership and I had AAA tow our 2001 XJ8 the 10 miles to the indy shop, then another 30 miles to our Jaguar dealership.

Then I had AAA towed it to our indy mechanic about 30 miles from the dealership after I said no to the dealership repair estimate. At this point I was convinced from everything I read on the internet (including this forum) that it was the tensioners. They were cracked and we had them replaced.

With the AAA Premier membership, the towing was at no cost to me.

If you have AAA Premier membership, you have up to 200 miles on one tow per household, per membership year (up to 100 miles on remaining tows).

The AAA Plus membership gives you 100 miles for towing (per year????).

Maybe you should take motorcarman (Bob Gauff) up on his offer.
Jim Lombardi

 

That is very honorable of you, sir! I have gotten another party to take a look at it since I last posted. I haven't gotten any information about the issue as of yet but I will definitely post that info once I have gotten a call back. I may need to speak with you about a repair job as well once I know the extent of it. Thanks for your help bob!

 

That scenario sounds just like something that would happen to me! I will find out the information soon and relay that info here. thanks for your rsponse