I went out for a joy ride today to burn some of the gas that has been sitting in the car since October. Today is the 4th of February, I have a 2006 Jaguar X type with about 78K miles. I have two of these cars and they have been great cars. Probably because they are not "real Jaguars" according to others. Anyway, this car has always started right up and drove with zero problems. I have always treated it like jewelry always taking care of it. I put in a new battery about two years ago. So, today I am driving around the Arizona desert having a good ole time and was on my way home and BOOM - the car stops cold in it's tracks. It cranks up strong, all the lights work, no faults codes/errors/etc. But it will not start. I had to towed to a repair place. Today is Sunday - so tomorrow is the big day. I am hoping for something simple. Like a dead cell in the battery? Something is loose under the hood? Or ???

I realize I have not gotten into detail, but any ideas come to mind? I was at a traffic light when is stopped cold in it's tracks.

 

Check your inertia switch hasn't somehow tripped.
RHS A pillar footwell.

 

Thank you for your time and suggestion. This morning the shop called and said they went to move the car and it started right up. Both a good and a bad thing.....I think.

I drove it home and it runs just like always...perfect. The only thing that comes to mind is vapor lock. But, it is fuel injected and it was not that hot yesterday. I am an old school car guy. I don't even know if it is possible for 'modern' cars to get vapor lock anymore.

So, the car stops cold and will not start back up. It sits overnight and fires right up. As I said, Hmmmmm.

Thank you again for the suggestion! Please, please know I appreciate it.

 

Stuck, if you had a fuel issue, I would expect the car to stumble a little bit as it slowly sucks the fuel out of the fuel rail. You make it sound like it was cruising along and it was like someone turned the ignition key off. Out of curiousity, did the check engine light come on? If it didn't, then I would suspect power to the ECU got interrupted. This would also allow the car to crank afterwards, but not start (you had power to the starter, but no power to either the plugs or the fuel pump). YOu do not mention the loss of anything else in the car, so, this takes me back to the ECU losing power. So, you are looking at either: 1) loose fuse, 2) failing wire between fuse box and ECU, 3) loose pin connection to the ECU, and/or 4) broken solder joint inside the ECU leading to its failure. Unfortunately, you really can't troubleshoot any of this until the problem raises its head again.

 

Thank you for your reply. You summarized it well. Yes, just like someone turned the car off. All the electronics worked after this episode on the road. AC, radio, light, locks, etc. all worked fine except the car simply would not start. It makes sense to me that the ECU somehow got interrupted. The surface street roads in this part of AZ are not maintained well. Perhaps something go loose? As you mention, I can't troubleshoot something that is working. I guess I will just have to drive it around and wait for it to happen again......or not.

Thank you!!

 

Hey Thermo,

What about a bad key tumbler?

Do you have any play in the key or do you have a large key ring of a bunch of keys on the same ring?

 

Ronks/Stuck, could it be the tumbler, sure. The easy check is to simply start the car and then give the key a few taps to see if the car does something funny. If so, then you know the problem.