www.jec.org.uk

I have a 2019 Jaguar XF Sportbrake R-Sport 30t AWD. I enjoy and am used to doing a lot of my own mechanical maintenance and I like to understand what is going on which these days means having a fully functional diagnostic tester.

To this end I am wondering whether I should invest in a JLR Pathfinder system. It seems that for post 2017 Jaguar models Pathfinder is the definitive tester and one can buy a UK supplied, pre-configured system on ebay for c.£650. It is expensive (although this sum is insignificant if compared with main dealer repair costs) but in my experience the manufacturer's system is much better than third party units and with increasingly complex electronic systems, components adaptions, re-sets, updates it may well be a good investment.

I can't find anything about how easy or difficult Pathfinder is to use so wondered if anybody had any experience with Pathfinder or advice on diagnostic equipment for post 2017 Jaguars that have the DOIP VCI interface.

I also have a 19 plate XF Sportbrake, I must admit I just use a generic Topdon reader which works fine for me, also has the benefit that you can reset battery control module if you change the battery etc. Unless you plan to do all the work on it yourself I would have thought paying out that much is not worthwhile. Even a decent independent Jaguar garage should have equipment to dig deeper into fault codes.

I decided the full JLR Pathfinder was too expensive to justify so have gone with the iCarsoft LR v3.0. First impressions are that it is well made, simple to use (gets easier with familiarisation) and seems to cover a good set of functions and adaptions, certainly those most commonly used. In the MISC section there is a whole list of things which are not described in the very short user manual so a voyage of discovery awaits there.

When updating the software you do need to follow the instructions carefully otherwise it will fail. Google helps.

One update; in the list of supported vehicles it says 1994.75, 1995 and 1966 Model Year XJS which was one reason for buying it so I could diagnose my 1995 XJS. However having connected it up and asked it to read ODBII codes or Diagnose it says communication failure with the car. It cannot read live data either which is very disappointing. My cheap basic Bluetooth OBDII with Android Torque app can do better than the iCarsoft so far on the XJS. I will try again but not sure what to do differently.

Hi - my earlier version doesn’t list the XJS but I select X300 of the same year and it happily reads the basic functions of my 1996 car. So much of the electronics were the same that it doesn’t see the difference
Hope that helps