Byers Imports, Byers Jaguar Could not repair my car correctly, ruined my engine and would not stand behind work Columbus Ohio

I purchased my 1999 Jaguar XJ-8 in May of 2003 from a third party (not Byers). In September 2003, two weeks after the factory warranty expired, but while the car was still 6,000 miles under the warranty mileage limit, the timing chain failed on the right cylinder bank. This repair cost $3600. Several months after this repair, the timing chain that had been replaced failed again, this time. Byers replaced the head and timing chain at their expense.

Later, my car died in traffic. My alternator failed because it was full of oil due to a serious leak from the recently replaced cylinder head. Upon viewing the damaged head, it appeared that the reason it failed was that it had been over-torqued upon installation, cracking the galley around the bolt. This time, Byers replaced the cylinder head and the alternator. Cumulatively, I was without the use of my vehicle for over a month as a result of these faulty repairs.

Shortly after the second cylinder head replacement, I began experiencing other issues with the car, such as the Check Engine light coming on, receiving the Restricted Performance Mode message occasionally and excessive oil consumption. These were accompanied by episodes of rough running, with one incident being severe enough that I had to have the vehicle towed to the dealership. I have had the car in several times for these symptoms, and received a different diagnosis each time for the same apparent problem.

I dropped my vehicle for service at Byers on Monday, December 19, 2005 noting the same symptoms I reported on my previous visit, when the technician diagnosed the problem as a faulty mass air flow sensor, and replaced it, at a cost of over $1100.00. (The time before that when I reported these same issues, I was never given a clear explanation other than some codes needed reset in the computer..) I was told that part of the problem was a blocked breather hose, but that there had been significant difficulty in getting the car restarted.

The service manager, Paul, asked if the technician could have more time to try and figure out this problem. On December 29, I was told that the problem was finally figured out. Paul informed me that Danny, the technician, had discovered that there was only 30 pounds of compression in #5 cylinder, and the others were fine. Paul's suggested remedy for this problem was to replace the engine. He quoted me a price of $9100 for a used engine, or a brand new one for $10900. I decided to pick the car up and weigh my options rather than agree to spend such a significant amount of money on what I felt was a questionable diagnosis.

When I was picked up the car on Friday, December 30, it ran much, much worse than when I dropped it off, clearly not running on all cylinders. I informed Paul of this and he told me that it was going to run like that until I decided to replace the engine.

I decided to get a second opinion, and called a different shop. They told me to bring it up that afternoon, and they would have one of their technicians take a look at it when they could. Later that afternoon, they told me that they had figured out the problem. The reason the car was missing so badly was that the coil pack for #5 cylinder was faulty, and there was no spark. They also performed a compression test, and found that while the compression was slightly lower in #5 cylinder, it was only ten to fifteen percent below specification, nowhere near the level of failure I was told by Paul.

This second shop replaced the coil pack and performed a tune-up, and the car seems to be running just fine, although they did inform me of some oil leaks that would at least partially explain the excessive oil consumption (which Byers made no mention of). The cost of the part for this repair was $199.00, and there was two hours labor, for a total repair of just over $300. The time it took to identify the problem was less than one afternoon, while it took Byer's technician almost two weeks to give me an incorrect diagnosis.

In May 2007 I replaced the engine at 72,000 miles, due to damage from lack of lubrication as a result of the oil leak from the faulty cylinder head repair. I found a completely rebuilt engine for $4000, not the $10,000 Byers wanted.

Do NOT use these guys! They are very expensive, surprisingly incompetent, and unresponsive to customer issues, even when presented with extensive documentation and third-party verification of their errors.

Doug
Columbus, Ohio
U.S.A.