As a fairly recent purchaser of an F Type, I have found a few common issues that lead to a lot of questions on this forum. I'm hoping this post can help others like myself find a quick answer rather than having to search through years of posts. Here are a few insights for new owners:
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• Electrical issues
  • Symptoms
    • Auto Start-Stop doesn't work
    • Random electrical features stop working or are intermittent
    • Low Battery warning
  • Possible Causes:
    • Our F-Types are very susceptible to issues caused by low battery voltage. If the car is driven infrequently or only for short distances, the system may not keep the battery adequately charged.
    • There is a known issue with a voltage drain caused by plugging devices into the OBD2 port. The Jaguar software keeps the OBD2 port powered after the device is removed.
  • Solutions:
    • Make sure you have a good battery. Many of our F-Types are at or past the useful life of the OEM battery, regardless of how many miles are on the car.
    • Always charge a new battery before installation as batteries lose charge when sitting on the shelf at the parts store and are likely not fully charged when purchased. Note that 2013-2015 F-Types have two batteries, one primary and a smaller battery dedicated to the Start-Stop system. 2016+ F-Types have a single battery.
    • Use a battery maintainer to keep the battery fully charged between drives. Forum members have reported success with both CTEK and NOCO brands. Be sure to use the AGM battery setting for the device. The device can be attached to the jump start posts under the hood or to the bus bar and ground in the boot.
    • After using the OBD2 port (code reader, dealer diagnostics, emissions test, etc.) disconnect the negative lead from the battery where it bolts to the floor of the trunk/boot. Leave the wire disconnected for at least 30 seconds. This will effectively "reboot" the system. This will power down the OBD2 port but also require you to manually close the boot to reset, reset the time and date, and possibly reset the auto up/down for the windows.
  • Warning - Do not close the boot while servicing your car if the battery is low or disconnected. You need sufficient electrical power to release the boot latch.

• Coolant Leaks
  • Symptoms - Slow loss of coolant as indicated by the level in the reservoir. Coolant smell when parked after a drive.
    • A coolant leak may not be accompanied by any coolant seen on the ground below the car. The undertray under the engine contains a sound insulation pad that can absorb a significant amount of coolant. A small leak may be caught in the pad and evaporate between drives, leaving no evidence on the ground. If you observe a loss of coolant in the reservoir, additional investigation is needed.
  • Possible causes:
    • Leak in the Reservoir or the hose leading to the reservoir
    • Leak in one of the plastic coolant pipes (two at the front of the engine, one at the back). Cars with two-piece seamed coolant pipes (before a rolling change in the 2017-2018 time frame) are particularly vulnerable to this issue.
    • Leaky water pump
  • Solutions:
    • Identify and replace the affected components. A minor leak in the front coolant pipes will usually result in coolant puddling in the valley below the supercharger.
    • Replacing the coolant pipes requires removing the supercharger. Due to the labor required to remove the supercharger, you may want to consider additional preventative maintenance at the same time (water pump, all coolant pipes, supercharger coupler, etc.).
    • Replacement coolant pipes from Jaguar are one-piece plastic. Euro AMP offers aluminum replacements for the front coolant pipes (V-8 and V-6) and the rear crossover pipe for the V-6.

• Tires
  • Yes, the factory-installed Pirellis really are that bad
  • Solution - Replace with appropriate size and type from Michelin or Continental. Can be all seasons or summer only, depending on your needs. Either brand is a significant improvement over the OEM tires.

• Brakes
  • The factory brake pads work well but generate a lot of dust.
  • Many forum members have reported that Porterfield R4-S pads provide good stopping power for everyday driving and produce very little dust. These are not recommended for track use, however.

This is just a high-level introduction to some maintenance topics I have sought info on, or see posted often here and in other F-Type forums. Much more information can be found by searching this forum using some of the key words in this post (i.e. "battery CTEK", or "coolant pipes", or "brakes Porterfield"). Hopefully this helps some other new F-Type owners understand their cars better so they can enjoy their car as much as I enjoy mine.

 

Great idea. I’ve thought we should have a thread like this as a ‘sticky’, up top on the thread list.

 

I have been thinking for some time that we need a FAQ section for all the common issues. All the answers are in the forum already and have been posted multiple times, but many are buried in a bunch of different posts. The search function does not always find them all. I was thinking more along the lines of having documents instead of a bunch of posts.

 

FAQ with hyperlinks to documents would be great.

And so that the FAQ could be updated in some sort of organized, clean way..... I did one of these a while back...this one is more succinct (kudos to the chef).

 

I've owned F-types for over 5 years. I have never needed a trickle charger/battery maintainer.

 

OTOH, better to have it and never need it than to not have it and experience the crazy electrical stuff that commonly goes down when the battery starts to lose it. I bought a $30. NOCO maintainer a couple of years ago and use it 24/7. Hooked it up to the front port and tuck-in the lead just above the wheel well. Takes no more than 30 seconds to connect/disconnect while insuring that this issue is kept at bay [with the benefit of knowing that your battery is always in peak condition]. Cheap insurance.

 

This is only necessary if the device you've used leaves the car in a "draining" state - check the hazard light switch 15 minutes after locking the car and only if the light hasn't gone out is the battery reset necessary. Time and date in later cars is set from the network, so only window reset and auto boot if you have that, is necessary.

AIUI, so long as a battery is connected, you can get the boot open by applying volts to the underhood terminals. Only if the battery is disconnected is the circuit broken (or the battery has failed open circuit, of course). Something flexible (old carpet or rug) over the boot latch is the easy way to avoid the boot lid shutting inadvertently (so long as you don't have a wife/partner who likes things to be tidy!).

 

Don't we have this Topic PINNED to the top of the forum? (Sometimes you won't see the PINNED topics when using a phone...)

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...issues-105493/

I realize this Topic has gotten old, with many broken links. Perhaps the Moderators could 'weed it down' a bit.

 

Thank you for a very succinct summary! An easy link to copy for our new members who have "what do I need to know" questions.