Avoid like the plague

I bought a Jaguar S Type in February and it drove beautifully, smoothly and with no gear change issues at all. It occasionally had a misfire on no. 2 around once every 150 miles or so, but it merely brought the light on the dash (not even flashing). I sent it to North East Jags to be serviced and the washer jets to be unblocked (I asked for the filter to be checked because when I put water into the bottle, black deposit rose to the top of the bottle). I paid for it by card over the phone. The engine management light came on again a little after it had been returned so “Jamie” picked it up on a Saturday morning to fit a new coil and returned it telling me that another coil was very weak and that that would need replacing. He charged me £50 cash because the card machine was not working and it was returned with an engine bolt missing from the side. He said that he had to order new jets. I also asked him to fit a valve seat recession oil system as the car runs on LPG. I’d already bought oil and the bottle to fit. I provided full instructions and asked him to fit it allowing 8 drops of oil per minute. He returned having put the full 1 litre of oil through that should have covered roughly 6000 miles and also handed the dispensing bottle back to me rather than leaving it fitted (I have since had to go elsewhere to get it fitted at the cost of £70). I ran the manufacturer to discuss if this could have done any damage to the system and then rang Jamie to discuss details. Immediately after Jamie left, I drove the car and it was misfiring almost constantly. He told me that you could not take the care back in for a couple of weeks due to how busy the garage was. I asked if the misfiring would damage the catalytic converters and he informed me that it wouldn’t. A couple of weeks later he collected it from Barnard Castle to replace a further 4 coils and all spark plugs (NGK-Rs, Jamie said that the previous spark plugs were black). He needed £300 cash because your card machine wasn’t working. He returned it, but this time with the “gearbox fault” code displayed. He said that somebody had blocked the code displaying and that it was in a folder labelled “other”. The moment he entered this folder, all sorts of codes displayed. I asked if he could find the date that this code was blocked as I’d look to making a claim against the previous owner. Jamie said that this would be fine and he’d get the date next time. He said that it was nothing to worry about and that it was just the torque converter and that you (Tony) had recommended a particular additive that would cure the problem. He said that the car couldn’t be booked in for nearly 3 weeks. The jets had also been swapped for some chipped ones from Eurojag. I drove the car home with more misfires plus it was struggling to go up hills. Jamie told me that the misfires must be down to the wiring (he told me that this was Tony’s advice). He reassured me that there would be no damage to the catalytic converters. The more I drove it the more loud rattle developed, almost like a bag of spanners, and more difficulty going up hills. I thought that this was the catalytic converter, but Jamie told me that it was the gearbox. He said that he could get a stronger, newer box from a different model jag with 48000 miles off Eurojag, but that we had to deal with a person called “Eddie”. I eventually borrowed another car from somebody for a couple of weeks because the Jag was becoming impossible to drive. He said that they would collect and repair the car on a particular date and then wouldn’t turn up. I would phone and kept getting the “manana”/tomorrow scenario with the excuse that Eurojag had not yet got the car in question and were awaiting delivery. I went to an autobox specialist who said that he thought that it was the catalytic converter causing issues up hill and that the gearbox issue was merely a solenoid pack and that he could replace and fit for £700. I researched on the internet and questioned how a newer box would fit as they are all 6 speed. I phoned Eurojag who confirmed that this was true and they said that the only S-type boxes they had in were in the 90, 000+ mark. I phoned Jamie who said that he could beat the £700 repair including box and that he recommended the new box that he would get because it was a better designed box and that Jaguar and corrected a lot of its earlier errors. He told me not to get the repair done. He also said “who did you speak to at Eurojag?” I replied “Dave”. He said, “I’ll phone them for you, you need to speak to Eddie”. Eventually, the box arrived and Jamie informed me that North East Jags didn’t have the oil in stock and that it was out of stock in the country and it could take a while. I immediately phoned Stratstones who asked for my reg and said that they could get it overnight. I phoned Jamie and a few days later the box was fitted and I paid Eurojag directly as they provide the warranty. Jamie asked for £500 cash and I requested a full receipt (interestingly, the Eurojag receipt specifies no details of the box in question). I drove Jamie back to the garage and said “are you sure this is a 2007 box?” and Jamie said “I’ll take a look”. He slid under the car with a torch and said, “Yes it says on here “Eddie 2007””. The car was also returned with one exhaust pipe hanging very low, cable tied on to the car and still a little rattling noise and a lot of vibration in the steering wheel over 50 mph which wasn’t there before. I took it to Exhaust-a-fix who crafted some brackets to refit the exhaust, filled some holes around the catalytic converter and informed me that the catalytic converters were now empty. Furthermore, the washer jets still didn’t work (I’ve since removed them and cleaned them myself, but they keep on blocking, so there’s no doubt that I am right that there is ‘gunge’ in the washer filter that is getting through). Jamie had promised to check and fix the exhaust when fitting the box, but had clearly failed to do so. He also promised a print out of the error codes proving that the ‘code blocker’ had been placed December 2012. He did not deliver. Every time the car has been returned to me, it has been worse than when it has gone wrong. It seems that work has been created each time it has gone to the garage in order to require it to go back again and then the card machine has never worked resulting in cash payments. Whenever Jamie returned the car it had only ever done 17-19 mpg so it was clear that the car had been driven very hard indeed. I know this because I always reset the trip computer before it was taken. I phoned Jamie to say that after 150 miles or so the engine management light comes back on and to question the catalytic converter issue further. Jamie said that he thought that all noise was gearbox related and he’d checked the catalytic converter and it didn’t sound like a catalytic converter issue. He said that if I brought the car in 17th April 9:00 am, he’d have a quick look, then I would drive home with Jamie in the car. He would then take the car back and replace the exhaust if necessary with one from Eurojag. When I arrived, Jamie wasn’t there and that’s when I spoke to Tony. Current situation: The gearbox fitted stalls sometimes when going from park to reverse. The car now only starts second time rather than first turn of the key. There is occasional judder/thump when second gear engages. The washer jets are still blocking after a few squirts. The tracking appears to now be out since the box was fitted. The engine management light comes on with reference to catalytic converter readings. LPG installers say that this shouldn’t be down to the LPG. Other facebook forum S-type LPG conversion cars say that they don’t have this issue. I therefore believe that Jamie was wrong to tell me that I could carry on driving the car for a 1000 miles or so misfiring (he knew I was doing 60 miles per day and new that the several weeks required to book the car in would result in near enough 1000 miles). I therefore feel that I am owed some compensation. I started with a beautiful car that drove perfectly and in the space of a couple of months have spent an enormous amount of money to have the car returned worse. I have also been misled, believing that I have a 48000 mile gear box in the car and that it was a better designed box, yet clearly this is not true. I also have ulcerative colitis and the stress has significantly worsened my health. The costs have severely impacted on my family and I fear were probably almost entirely unnecessary as the car drove beautifully before Eurojags had it and every time it was returned it was majorly worse than when it was collected. I have been discussing the details with another Jaguar master-technician and another garage who have been examining the car because I have been intending to take the previous owner to court. The other garages disputed the idea of a code blocker and disputed the idea that a 2007 box could possibly have been put in this car. I would like to resolve this situation directly with you rather than going through trading standards and welcome your quick reply. I am extremely pleased that I haven’t pursued any action against the previous owner with trading standards siting North East Jags as my info as this could have been even more costly as the information I have been provided with is totally false.

Robin Harrison - 17/04/2015 | report this review