Jag Servicing

[jagpaul99]

Now I know this is an old chesnut on here, but I am just wanting peoples opinions or advice on Jaguar main dealer servicing.

I have an S type 3.0L which is now 5 years old. Its just come up for its 60,000 mile service and I booked it into the local Jag garage. Now I know the servicing has never been cheap, and I am not that bothered about the price, I mean after all if you buy a Jag you expect expense.

But what has really surprised me is what they do for the money. Now I dont know if this is right, but for the 60 and 70 thousand service this is classed as a big service. But basically all they do is inspect various underbonnet and underbody parts, gearbox oil, uv and ball joints etc but really dont do anything to the car apart from the usual oils and filters. And for all this the cost was quoted at £450. Oh, and not forgetting they check coolant and replace windscreen wipers, wow I needed that ! And thats before they do any extra work that they find.

My local independant Jag Specialist does that same job, plus spark plugs ( jag price for plugs £165, and there ford motorcraft ) for £280, and thats with a hell of a lot more work done for me !


Can anyone out there justify to me why I should take the car to the main dealer instead of the specialist ? Anything I dont know about ? Just curious about others experiences with servicing etc.

Any help much appreciated

Paul

[Phil Hopkins]

We include a plug change on the 60k service as standard. Plus you get a decent deal when your car is over 3 years old (just ask Pwig). However, we're still going to be more expensive as we have larger overheads, (training, equipment, more expensive technicians etc).

[jamesk]

Didn't want to start a new thread but Phil would appreciate your views. Am looking at a 97 registered V8 XJR. It has had head gaskets replaced along with rear diff, rear discs/pads and tensioners.

All this sounds like a good thing I suppose (especially the tensioners) I just haven't come across many with 75k on the clock that had diff/gasket problems. Is this a more common issue on early models or just routine items on a 9 year old car I shouldn't worry about. Apparently blowby test was done last year and passed but I dont have the test result itself.

Edited to add that I just did a search and saw that it may be a water pump issue that lead to the head gaskets going - should I be worried if the water pump was not replaced at the same time?

Edited by jamesk on Friday 23 June 10:30

[Phil Hopkins]

James, i'd really love to help but i'm not that technical. All I could suggest is get as much info on the car as possible then get it checked out by a decent franchised dealer / independant, problems with head gaskets and suchlike do occur and providing it's all rectified properly shouldn't have any detrimental impact on the car.

Hope that sort of helps.

[Jaguarnut]

I always tread cautously. With that caveat it is very likely that the waterpump breaking up caused the problems with the cylinder heads and gaskets. If it was and the job was done properly, a new waterpump should have been fitted. There is a modified design which is more reliable. The trick I think is to find out if the new item is the modified one.

I would also be careful about the timing chain tensioners. There have been a few differing versions, the latest and most successful is a metel cased design fitted to the 4.2l versions of the V8 and available for retrospective fitting on any capacity V8.

I have no idea why the diff failed so early. To my knowledge, that was an issue with previous XJ's (XJ40's > 94 mainly). On balance, I think I would treat this car with suspicion as my little voice tells me that it has led a hard life - but I could be wrong. I would suggest finding a similar car with a factory replacement engine fitted to avoid the Nikasil issue, they are about (never mind what the blow-by test reveals) or if you can afford it, go for a 2001 > car with modified engines.