I have a 95 XJ6 3.2, which I've owned for the last four years. It's always been utterly excellent, has never let me down, and I always keep it well serviced.
I live in Jersey, and walk to work, so it only does about 10 miles a week these days, except when I take it back to the UK. There's 130,000 miles on the clock, and it always gets a couple of long runs on the motorway each year.
It always uses quite a bit of oil in winter, but in summer is usually fine. The oil pressure sensor is apparently a bit weak and needs replacing (which was the case when I bought it), so that after hard acceleration (which I do often!), oil pressure at idle is shown as 0 and the light comes on - though I have been assured that the oil pressure is fine.
I took it over to the UK in April. Oil and fluid were fine beforehand, and I checked the oil once or twice when I was over (for a month).
It actually went into a Jaguar dealer (Rybrook in Conwy) when it was in the UK, as the brakes needed sorting. I don't know if they would have bothered to check oil and water etc?
Anyway, I'm fairly sure that I checked oil and water before returning to Jersey. Taking a circuitous route with an overnight stop to see my parents, the total journey from Conwy to Poole was about 500 - 600 miles, at high speed.
When I got back here, I noticed a strange whining sound at about 30, which whined down as the engine slowed. A little worried, I meant to check the oil levels etc. I did a few more jouneys after this, totalling about 30 miles, before I got round to checking the levels.
When I checked them, the dipstick was bone dry. It took 4 1/2 litres to fill it back up. There are no signs of oil leaks, or of black/blue smoke from the exhausts. There's no sign of mayonnaise, the oil light never came on, and the temperature gauge never went above normal (always fractionally on the cold side of dead ahead).
After filling it with oil, I took it for a drive, and the whining noise had gone.
Have I done any lasting damage? Is there anything I can do to help, or do I just cross my fingers and hope (and remember to check levels frequently)?
It's got another month in the UK coming up, followed by two weeks here and then a long drive through France.
Any suggestions?
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To be honest, short of stripping the engine right down and checking all components are still within specs, there's nothing you can do but carry a 5 litre pack of oil in the boot and watch the dipstick level religiously.
The Jag sixes are notorious for liking their oil - a mate had a lovely 1980 XJ6 4.2 which drank it at less than 200 miles per pint - but I would have thought a mid-90s car would be better.
There might be a fault with the crankcase breather system which is causing it to burn more oil than it should, have a look for collapsed, oily hoses of about 1inch diameter under the bonnet.
Apart from that, what's the oil spec? I would suggest trying a thicker multigrade, maybe a 15W50. At the rate the car is using it, it's hardly even getting contaminated so I wouldn't worry too much about using the very latest hyper-efficiency lube.
Good old GTX would probably do the trick.
Edited by craig-pd130 on 20/06/2009 at 10:30
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Thanks - it was probably on a winter-spec 5w-40 or 0w-40, so i'll try a thicker grade.
I'll just cross my fingers that the old girl will live on!
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I'll just cross my fingers that the old girl will live on!
I wouldn't worry too much, a friend who ran a much neglected 3 year old 2.3 V6 Granada hadn't checked his oil in probably 12 months, i don't think he'd have known how to get the bonnet up, and was even less interested.
It didn't sound too good, and i volunteered to change the oil and give it the once over, plugs, filters, brakes, levels etc.
I got 1 pint of oil out when i drained the sump, it continued to give years of trouble free service after a bit of TLC.
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On that engine,I'd use 10w/30 in the winter and 20w/50 in the summer.Especially with that milage.
Edited by jc2 on 20/06/2009 at 15:57
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Remember that the basic design of that engine goes back to the 1940's.
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