41jules1967
Member Since: 01 Jun 2025
Location: Leeds
Posts: 83

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I tend to keep my cars for 10+ years.
My last car was a 2012 Jag XF - X250 which I bought in 2014. When I got it, some people were complaining that the rear crash bar and the sills on their older ones were rotting out. At the time I thought, maybe I should remove the rear bumper and side sills, and treat the metal underneath so as to avoid future issues. But it seemed such a hassle I never got around to it. Last Autumn, the crash bar failed and I spent 2 months driving around with the exhaust held up with tiewraps and searching the planet for a decent replacement, eventually sourcing one from Texas and having it shipped back here. Fitted it and all ok, but as I jacked it up I noticed big flakes of rust dropping from around the sills. I suspect had I removed the plastic, I'd have found horrors that needed welding. I was planning on getting it looked at when the engine started throwing Restricted Performance errors the moment it warmed up, the aircon had failed ... time to go.
So what's the worry on a 494? The achilles heel here seems fuel tank housing. Not only expensive to source a new one but 2 days to swap them over and not something you can do easily on your drive. Prevention is better than cure and I'm not making that mistake again, so based on recommendation, a pack of Lanoguard arrived this week.
Into jacking mode, Jacked up the rear of the car, popped in some axle stands and rolled under.
Looking under the car, the chassis is still gleaming aluminium - it's still only 4 after all, but I was quite surprised how rusty some ancillary bolts and brackets were, such as the ones for the deployable towbar, and the state of the housing for the anti roll bar motor. So got to work with the grease, blathering everything that looked remotely brown.
Then onto the main event, the tank guard. I blathered the drain holes on the passenger side, then got carried away and painted the underside of the whole panel. Tried to get the injector nozzle in, but not really enough room. Was a little more sensible and just greased the edges and holes on the drivers side and came back and sprayed the rest. Then put some on the underside of the side steps and that was really about it.
Everything else is aluminium and looks fine.
So, what I learned
It smells of sheep - but i live in the country, that's fine.
aside from the tank guard and a few other bits, there's very little to treat on a 494 and I used a tiny fraction of the 2l of fluid supplied.
The grease seems to work great
The injector wand is pretty much surplus.
Excess that dripped onto the flagged driveway, just washed off with water.
It'll be interesting to see next August, when I go to top it up, the difference between the greased side and the sprayed side and how well it all dries.
But a worthwhile hour or so I'd suggest, if you plan on keeping the car. 2021 L494 D300MHEV Autobiography
2019 Discovery Sport D180 HSE
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