Imagine your old Jaguar convertible starts running poorly, it doesn’t want to start and makes no power. Then black smoke starts pouring out the tailpipes. You take it right to your local Jaguar dealership. The examine the car and quote you $20,000 to fix it. You doubt your old car is worth that much. What do you do? One Jaguar owner was wise enough to find another mechanic and get a second opinion.

The private mechanic, who goes by Mr. Wizard on TikTok, not only diagnosed the true problem with the Jaguar. He explained what the $20,000 estimate actually meant.

Why was the Jaguar belching black smoke?

Mr. Wizard explained that the high pressure fuel pumps that feed the F-Type Jaguar’s engine had failed. The only pump was a low pressure pump to move fuel out of its tank. With the high pressure pumps gone, the engine couldn’t “atomize” the fuel for the direct injection system properly. The car had to pour extra fuel into the engine just to run, thus the black smoke and lack of power.

He added that it’s a common problem with Jaguar. The stock pumps have a “Very high failure rate.” In fact, his shop had seen failed F-Type fuel pumps before, “We’ve done some sets on V6s and a couple on V8s.”

Mr. Wizard admitted, “It’s never a fast job. It doesn’t go quickly.” The labor to disassemble the engine and replace the pumps could cost several thousand dollars. The replacement pumps aren’t cheap either. “Between $600 and $800 apiece, depending on where you buy them.” All-in-all, he quoted the owner “$4,000 to $5,000 to fix them.”

So what about the dealership’s $20,000 estimate? “They were completely off base.” But there’s an interesting reason why they said it.

Why would a dealership quote $20,000 to replace a fuel pump?

Mr. Wizard theorized that none of the dealership techs wanted to take on the time-consuming job, or mess with the old F-Type at all.

“That was the ‘Get the car out of my shop. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. I don’t want to look at your car anymore’ price. That’s what the $20,000 was.” MotorBiscuit has reached out to @dzugus1221 (Mr. Wizard) on TikTok for comment. You can see his F-Type diagnosis for yourself in the video embedded below: