MJG50

That's great, thanks again Halfpenny, I've seen new, supposedly genuine JLR diffs on eBay for £575 but they are for the 2.2 litre - I'm pretty sure the diff is the same for all XFs apart from the XFR with the e-diff. I can see why I'm leaning towards mainstream stuff these days though! Talking of diffs and Jags, I remember about 20 years ago selling an X300 XJ6 that was about 7 years old at the time and the guy who bought it reckoned his mechanic said the diff was leaking but he ran that car for another 5 or 6 years/30,000 miles without doing anything about the diff before rust got the better of it. Total diff failure on the XF seems quite common though so I won't be driving this one very far before it's sorted.

Thanks Halfpenny, I've used the same workshops for nearly 30 years but quite a few of their mechanics have retired over the years so I'm not sure I'd trust a diff job with the younger ones! It's good to hear it's not technically a difficult job though. Is there a risk of losing the smoothness of the power delivery by fitting a replacement diff?

Thanks for your help Halfpenny, it does seem quite a common problem with Jags but it's the first one I've had with this issue. I've seen a few used diffs for about £300 but how much would the labour be to fit it and would it need a diff specialist to fit it? It probably is worth risking a used diff - there is a legal case between Dana Axle and JLR in connection with diff seals made from 2013 and 2016 so if I can get a pre-2013 diff to fit it might be ok. That said, I've heard that the early XF also suffered with diffs but I've never had any trouble with 2008 and 2009 XFs

I've bought a 2015 X250 Jaguar XF 3.0D S from BCA that had an advisory for a rear differential fluid leak on its first MoT in 2018 at 15,000 miles. I phoned the Jaguar dealer that serviced the car from new before buying it and a new seal was fitted by the Jaguar dealer in 2018 and I assumed the problem was fully resolved. However, I took the car in for a pre-sale PDi & service today at 40,000 miles and was told there is a noise coming from the differential and that rear diff pinion seal is moist. The noise is very slight and I can only hear it from the passenger seat, it just sounds like the air conditioning fan is on at a very low setting speed. The car still drives 100% fine.I've read lots of horror stories online about XF rear diffs failing and it costing a fortune to replace them. I've found a transmission/differential specialist not too far away and I was thinking they should be able change the diff oil and put a new seal on. However, if the diff is already making a noise is it already damaged to an extent that a diff oil change won't improve things?Also, I've heard that changing the diff oil and seal involves rebalancing the diff and this is a tricky job and that the diff won't be as smooth afterwards. In the very worst case scenario, if the diff fails in the 6 month CRA period, I have seen a few second hand diffs on eBay for around £250 - how much would it cost to get a used diff fitted and is it possible to fit a used diff without losing the smoothness of power delivery associated with the XF? I've read online that it can cost several thousand pounds to replace the diff but as I say there are always quite a few used diffs on eBay and I can't imagine that the labour would be thousands of pounds at an independent garage. I've never had any diff problems with Jags before but I've had a quick look online and it seems diff issues are relatively common with XF s and S-types.

Sorry if this is off topic but my father who's over 70 has been waiting 8 months for his driver's licence to be renewed. I know it's a long shot but just wondered if anyone on here has a contact at the DVLA to help. He had to send off his renewal, he couldn't do it online as he doesn't have a current passport and isn't intending to travel abroad anymore.

In the old days when I had a showroom, most stock was all machine polished before sale at minimal cost. In more recent times I haven't bothered. I'm considering getting stock machine polished from now on but have no idea of the current going rate - how much is a reasonable price to pay to do the whole car?

I've recently started using V Check in addition to HPi, mainly to check if the cars have been sold undeclared at salvage auctions in the past - it is quite alarming how there seems to be quite a few high value ex auction vehicles that are now on Auto Trader at dealerships, having previously suffered from extensive undeclared accident damage. Given that HPi is recognised by the public as the industry flag bearer, I've been HPi-ing cars as well as V Checking them to give the buyers peace of mind the car has been HPi'd but am I right in assuming that anything that comes up on HPi will also come up on V Check so that the HPi check in addition is a bit of a waste of time and money?

Its taking a while to get the Corsa looked at again as the workshops I use are all ridiculously busy at the moment. I've had a look at it again today and it doesn't seem to misfire until the engine is warm and the hotter the engine is, the more often it misfires. I'm no Corsa expert (as no doubt you can tell! ) but is it possible that misfire could be caused by a timing chain issue or even a head gasket issue? As far as I can tell, the timing chain doesn't rattle at start up and the head gasket is ok but I did once have a Jag with a misfire and that was caused by a stuck injector that lead to a head gasket failure. I doubt it's the case here but just trying to consider all possibilities before embarking on the game of parts darts! It's a bit frustrating as I've done nearly 200 miles in the car and it drives 100% apart from the misfire at idle.

Many thanks, I didn't even know it was possible to get a coil pack that cheap! It's not throwing up an EML so I don't think there will be any fault codes?

Yes I must admit about 25 years ago I didn't realise you can drop your provisional bid - basically I bid on what I thought was an ex lease 1 owner Merc. My provisional bid was declined but an hour later I was told the trader had accepted it!! I was like, what the trader?? I thought it's direct from Leaseplan but it was actually bought from a Leaseplan line from a different BCA a few weeks earlier and re-entered! This was years before BCA did online bidding so it was much harder to keep track of which cars were be offered where and how many times they've been through before, unless you attended every sale in person. So I naturally thought there must be a problem with it and said I don't want it and they said that's fine we can take you off it as it was a provisional bid. Typically, some other dealer bought the car and sold it for £2k more within a couple of weeks!

You're right there BHM! It always amazes me how fussy buyers are when looking at car, checking every single detail, previous work carried out etc etc yet once they take on ownership they usually run them into the ground with very little maintenance and very little care for the car. I've occasionally seen cars I've sold to fussy buyers a few months down the line and I could never believe the state they were in! One particularly fussy 3 year old BMW buyer (the car, not the buyer) had managed to wreck it within a few months with almost every panel scuffed and she was mega fussy when buying it. I've just found this video which points to changing the coil pack but having said that, I still doubt my problem is the coil pack as the car still runs 100% fine under load once on the move. That clicking noise he describes above is quite similar to mine so I guess it's worth me having the coil pack looked at and if it looks rough, I'll get a new one. Some people reckon it could be the rocker cover housing - I'm not sure if this is likely though? As you say BHM, if all else fails I maybe better just selling it cheap and declaring the misfire at idle - in the past, I've got rid of PXs with the odd niggle at the block but maybe in future I should do a brutally honest video description. I remember there was a bloke on here who did long videos showing every fault. The sort of buyers I get would normally be put off by the slightest imperfection but at least a brutal video would weed out any fussers from viewing the car.

I've finally got the EVAP purge valve replaced today and unfortunately the slight misfire at idle is still there! I don't think it's the coil pack as it still drives fine under load but I guess it's worth me getting the coil pack looked at - if there are signs of corrosion to it I'll get it replaced. The bolts on the engine as shown in the YouTube video above are pretty rusty so it is possible the coil pack is corroded too. I've checked the service history and the last owner who traded it in had new spark plugs fitted just being trading in so this was probably done to try and cure this problem. As far as I can see, the oil filler and dipstick are seated fine. It it isn't the coil pack, I may have to sell it as it is, declaring the misfire.

Thanks for the replies, I'll take another trip out in it as a passenger to check again. It did feel as though it was coming from the windscreen but it is highly unlikely the windscreen is moving. There isn't any wind noise or leaks and the car drives 100% fine and is very smooth over speed bumps. I have had the odd car with a creaking side window and I found that lowering the window slightly helped greatly but I'm pretty sure it's not coming from a side window on this one. I'll try to get the door checked out.

Not exactly the biggest problem I've ever had with a car but I've got a Jaguar XF and when I'm a passenger I can hear a creak coming from the passenger's side of the windscreen. It's not noticeable when driving it. I've heard that using a silicon spray underneath the windscreen rubbers can help. Has anyone ever tried this with any success and if so, which brand of silicon spray did they use? I've stopped buying an JLR product with a pan roof as everyone I've come across has had an awful lot of creaking that copious amounts of silicon spray, grease and Vaseline didn't cure (Insert joke about buying copious amounts of Vaseline! )

I've always HPi'd everything I buy but I've recently come across vcheck.uk that also checks if the car has ever been offered at a salvage auction with unrecorded damage. I just wondered if anyone on here uses this service as it is quite scary that some high value cars are being resold as HPi clear after a massive crash. Most of the cars I buy are 1 owner so there's no way they could have ever been sold at a salvage auction - it is possible they could have received unrecorded damage repairs but it would be impossible to find out as they'd never have been sold at a salvage auction, they'd just have been repaired by the sole owner from new. It's got me thinking though that it maybe worth checking out more than 1 owner high value cars on vcheck in future.