It never rains but it pours … and Jaguar Land Rover must be breaking out their Sou’westers right about now; in January of this year, they announced 4,500 jobs were to go, the following month they posted record quarterly losses and more recently, it’s been found that a number of their vehicles don’t comply with stated emissions.
44,000 vehicles, all using the 2.0 litre engine (both petrol and diesel) have been found to be producing a higher level of carbon dioxide (CO2) than certified through the Vehicle Certification Agency, but this isn’t a new Volkswagen-style scandal, it was JLR themselves that found the problem and reported it.
Change in overall vehicle experience
Currently, the Jaguar Land Rover engineers are working on a fix, but it’s not straightforward – some models will need a software update and reprogram, other models will need mechanical work to help them comply, and it’s thought that some Range Rover Evoque models will also need new tyres.
A Jaguar Land Rover spokesman said “Vehicles are being rectified to ensure that the correct CO2 performance is dependably achieved. All modifications will be free of charge, and every effort will be made to minimise the inconvenience to our customers”.
However, there’s a final line missing from that quote, and it’s perhaps the most important; “Some owners may experience minor changes in the overall vehicle experience”.
Diesel-gate with Volkswagen
Of course, we’re all too familiar with the Volkswagen scandal; it’s perhaps this very issue that has highlighted car manufacturers “interpretation” of vehicle emissions and compliance, but what hasn’t been quite so widely publicised is the effects of the ‘fix’.
Around 41,000 UK Volkswagen owners are part of a class action against the manufacturer, claiming that the emissions fix has severely affected their car – starting difficulties, loss of power, weak acceleration, poor fuel consumption and mysterious rattles have all been noted since the fix. Could this be part of the “change in overall vehicle experience” that Jaguar Land Rover is hinting at?
Any automotive engineer with an understanding of fuelling will tell you that changing the fuelling will, of course, change how the vehicle behaves. The fact that diesel Volkswagens were so powerful compared to the competition obviously came at a price – that they couldn’t comply with legislation, and when they were de-tuned to comply, it created a different driving experience.
The JLR problem
Until it’s known just how serious the problem is, it’s hard to gauge the effect of any fix to the fuelling strategy may have.
We do know that JLR didn’t set out to cheat the Vehicle Certification Agency, it was through their own routine testing that they found a problem, so mechanically, the engines are designed to deliver an expected output with a set amount of fuel. This means that they haven’t been designed & engineered as higher performance engines.
This (in theory), should mean that minor changes are possible with a ‘re-map’ without having too much a detrimental effect on performance or general running. We also know that JLR has said that some affected models may need mechanical work – the assumption being that these have been engineered to deliver slightly higher performance levels, so in this case, it’s entirely possible that an owner would have a very different experience.
The models affected are all manufactured between 2016 – 2019, that use the 2.0 petrol and diesel engine, and include some models of the 2016 – 18 Land Rover Discovery & Discovery Sport, a number of the Range Rover Evoque, Sport and Velar and the Jaguar E-PACE, F-PACE, F-TYPE, XE and XF.
Legal obligation
If you think that your car may be one of the models affected, your local dealership will be in touch to confirm the recall, you don’t need to do anything right now. We’d also point out that until a specified fix has been issued, and the results are known, it may be worth waiting to see how other customers find the repair, should you find yourself on the wrong end of a poorly running car.
We’d expect the situation to be the same as the Volkswagen emissions repairs, with no legal obligation to have your car repaired. It’s possible that you’re entirely satisfied with how your vehicle runs in its current state, in which case, you may just be better off leaving it.
If you have any concerns regarding the fix, your vehicle or the regulations that it may be breaking, you can contact Jaguar Land Rover customer services on the following numbers:
Jaguar 0345 303 2303
Land Rover 0370 5000 500
Do you believe that JLR have acted fairly? Is this just another case of a manufacturer ‘playing the game’? Let us know in the comments.
I am curious about the reference to tyres. All I can think of here is that by changing tyre diameter they would be changing the overall gearing ratio. Could be a lot of good part worn tyres going about shortly.
Jaguar previously swapped out Pirelli P Zero tyres from XF models (about 4 years ago), because they had a higher rolling resistance than comparable tyres by Goodyear or Bridgestone, and was therefore increasing the fuel consumption and emissions. The impact of rolling resistance from tread patterns and tyre pressures is often overlooked by drivers.
Am I right in thinking that these engines are manufactured by Ford for JLR, and have JLR known about the problem longer as they announced last year they would be manufacturing their own engines. Any ideas? Do Ford engines comply?
Combustion engines are outdated technology.
Do nothing until it fails its first MOT on emissions?
They have done the right thing, unlike scumbag VW group who are lying cheating polluter’s
My wife’s X3 has just been off the road while a recent recall replaced the EGR cooler. This could not be left as it was becasue there had been engine fires casued by the problem – hey ho
We have lost our trust in Jaguar. We have had problems with a jerky gearbox on a new 2.0 petrol automatic purchased in July 2017.
The service manager wrote a technical report to Jaguar stating that he had found a fault, the gearbox was jerky when it went under 30 mph and down the lower gears. He tested their petrol demo car and found it did the same. He thought that if Jaguar received enough reports about this issue then maybe a recall for software upgrade might be issued.
The dealership received a technical report from Jaguar – it states: “Thank you for submitting your report, engineers are working on a software update”. As a result of the data analysed from our car, they have decided that a software upgrade is necessary.
Jaguar customer services then told us there was no fault and refused to speak to us anymore, but they said they would tell us when the software update was available.
Doncaster Jaguar then referred the complaint to South Yorkshire Trading Standards, and told us not to contact them anymore, but that they would tell us when the software update was available.
South Yorkshire Trading Standards ruled that as all 2.0 petrol cars do this, then it was not a fault.
Neither Jaguar or Doncaster Jaguar told us when the update was available – it was only when we took the car to our local dealership in June 2018 that they found an update dated 6 April 2018 which gave some improvement but did not resolve the problem.
I have a total currently of seven Jaguar cars, dating from 1968 to 2010, none have ever failed the MOT because of emissions problems.
The whole “emissions scandal” is just a load of nonsense. The emissions constraints have been put in place by politicians who want to be seen to be “doing something” about a problem that a lot of people get overheated about. But does it actually reduce emissions in any practical sense, or is it just a ploy to impose more taxation while making the do-gooders feel good about themselves?
Answer – no, it will not reduce total emissions. If you downgrade the performance of an engine to meet limits on emissions, the driver will simply have to put his boot harder to the floor more often, which will probably create MORE emissions and pollution because the engine will be working less efficiently. But the “campaigners” won’t let unfortunate facts like that affect their self-righteous pontificating.
And will the effect of correcting JLR’s higher-than-stated CO2 emissions have any noticeable impact on the environment?
Again the answer is no. The global emissions problem, if there really is one, is to be found in China and India plus other developing countries where their emissions are increasing faster than the developed West can reduce them. That’s largely because we have exported most of our manufacturing to them, because they can produce things cheaper than we can.
So why is that? Well, for one thing, they don’t have to pay penalty taxes for their “emissions” or pay green energy surcharges on their energy supply, which is almost all coming from VERY inefficient fossil-fuel burning power stations.
The world has gone mad, or at least the part of it that signed up to the Kyoto protocol and got this whole bandwagon rolling has. The rest of the world is laughing all the way to the bank, and their economic growth – which is being achieved at our expense – is polluting the planet far more than we are. In just seven years the increase in China’s emissions will have resulted in more CO2 being put into the atmosphere than the entire UK has done since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. That sort of puts JLR’s minuscule ‘faux-pas’ into perspective, I would say.
Gavin – please provide links to the sources for all those claims. (Good luck!)
Why should he provide links when the truth of the matter is as he states, China is a sh**hole that has NO interest in what is happening outside their boarders and will continue to polute the world just as they have been doing for decades, It’s a fact of life so suck it up buttercup.
Take a look at your Facts, China is going Electric right now, are we?
Wow, right now!
Wonder how they made all their cheap steel which flooded the world markets not to long back closing some of our steel works to boot
China has been pumping c**p into the atmosphere for years with giving a dam and so have the yanks. pick up any paper form the last 10 years that bangs on about the environment and you will see those to countries at the forefront
Well actually I drive a car that complies with Cap6, they not only had to restrict Power but had to take 75K of weight out of the car! Also if I try to over cook it, it goes into sulk mode until I pull over and turn the Ignition off and restart!
I reckon it’s all been caused by Brexit uncertainty changing the air density and decades of austerity reducing the quality of UK tyres. Then again it could just be that JLR cars are no more ‘premium’ than those sold for 1/5th the price. I know a number of people running Evokes, and half the toys stop working after a couple of years, same with XF’s.
Didn’t they do any testing before putting the vehicles on the market ??
Being recalled for emissions is the least of land rovers problems. Try making them more reliable.
Is co2 that bad I thought particulates and carbon monoxide are the killers, we breath out co2 perhaps the increase in population & cutting down trees is the problem.
CO2 was never regarded as a pollutant until the greenhouse effect was discovered. So the only immediate effects that we might notice are (1) A fiscal effect in terms of a vehicle’s taxation class, and (2) If the CO2 emissions are high, fuel economy will be poor.
My Skoda (VW) Yeti was remapped to comply, without any discernible drop in performance or fuel consumption.
Most people map out the euro emissions side of the ECU it makes the car more economical and its driveability is so much better, manufactures have to “detune” if you like to get these vehicles past the ever decreasing emission numbers, which make them under powered and fuel hungry.
The decision is already made IC engines are out! similar to steam trains Vs Diesel trains, its now IC vs PEV
you’ll probably find in 100 years that the electro waves from a PEV motor is causing another kind of cancer and making birds and whales disorientated, so we will move again maybe fairy dust, who knows or simply not able to move with all the stacks of old batteries everywhere.
The day ALL politicians drive around in small eco-friendly cars and restrict the pollution and expansion of air craft and shipping is the day I will be convinced that penalising the motorist is not just a money making racket. Still restricting gasses and particles from erupting volcanoes and other natural phenomena is hard to control by taxation, wait one could heavily fine all countries that have an active volcano and as a nice little earner fit gas meters to cows bottoms.
Hello everyone just to let you know I run mercedes vito on my fourth one know and never failed emission test which is carried out 3 times a year that’s twice by council a nd one normal garage test even my 300,000 miler on original injectors pass which is a 2006 model . Ive had a12 plate which had 100,000 on and needed new injectors I know have a 17 plate which has been recalled for emission up grade to which I don’t want doing.This vehicle returns 43mpg from Newcastle to Manchestersteady 60 going down empty coming back with 8 passengers and luggage sometimes going hard 50mpg was registered but I filled when I got back and it did 43 overall the problem been it will eat adblue when its updated so not for me
I am disgusted with the way my Bolton Landrover dealer has dealt with my ongoing complaints Re emissions.
They have refused to recall the car that is clearly faulty.
Please advise
Salma