Regular readers may remember that at he end of the last exciting episode I had got the injectors checked out, they were all fine. I put them back in the car, charged the battery, which by now had been sat for a while and went for the start. It took ages for the diesel pressure to come back up but eventually it fired and the horrendous rattle came straight back. A few seconds later there was an almighty bang, a cloud of smoke and the engine was locked, it all sounded very terminal.
The engine stripping commenced, once all the bits were out of the way from the front of the engine it was fairly obvious that the a/c pump was sitting at a funny angle, I thought that was mighty odd but an inspection with a torch soon revealed what had happened, a con rod had snapped, pushed it's way through he side of the engine and pushed the compressor away at it's rear. The engine is definitely 100 per cent scrap, which kind of makes the car scrap.
The problem here is that these engines regularly go bang, which means they are in demand - the demand is bigger than the supply. The engine is used in much later cars that still have a very high value so people are quite prepared to spend 4 or 5 grand on a new engine if their 40 grand vehicle needs one. Because of this most breakers are now charging upwards of 4 grand for an engine you can't hear running and that may well develop the exact same problem as the one you are trying to replace. You can easily buy a running XF with MOT for less than you would have to pay for just the engine - it's crazy but true. What's worse is that because so many of these engines blow there are loads of scrap xf's around, which really hurts second hand parts prices. I had looked at part prices when I was deciding whether to buy one or not and was surprised at how cheap they were, I now understand why.
I currently have the car advertised as a spares / repair project but think I will end up having to break it to get back anywhere near the money it owes me, this has been a very bitter experience. I only got to drive it a total of 80 miles, it really was a lovely car but I will never have a diesel Jag or Land Rover again. I have done much research on line, it's crystal clear that a very large number of these engines fail, the lack of supply very much backs that up. I would have a petrol v8 again if I could afford the fuel bill but don't think I could ever trust a diesel one again, even the 2 litre ones have a terrible reputation for reliability. Once again accountants have turned a once great brand in to a complete joke, only nobody's laughing.
Add comment
Comments