Hello, Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm in need of help, regarding a very recent issue with my fathers 2016 Jaguar F type R. (he's not good with computers so he asked me to do this). About 1 hour ago he arrived home and pulled into the parking lot. He heard a clunking noise coming form the front of the car. Soon after his steering completely cut out. His car is now completely immobile. We're thinking it was the power steering fluid, but there was no warning of it being low. He bought the car with around 17k km on it, and all of the service was done on it. The car has around 42k km on it now and we're having this issue. We think it's the power steering fluid but it just seems odd the car had no warnings. If there's anything we don't know, please comment whatever you think it could be. Thanks for the help!

 

The F-Type doesn't have a "low power steering fluid" warning as far as I know, and I don't think any modern Jag has.
Easy enough to check though, get Dad to go out to the car, open the hood, and look just behind the left side (driver's side in Canada) headlight for a black cylinder with a knurled cap on it, that is the power steering fluid reservoir. Twist the cap off (be warned it can be extremely tight) and check the fluid level. The cap had a dipstick on the underside which is clearly marked "max" and "min", screw the cap back on then off again to check the reading. Or else shine a torch in there and see how much fluid you can see.
Sounds to me like the car has had a catastrophic power steering fluid leak so my guess is you will find/see little or no fluid in the reservoir.
Another check you can do is jack the front end of the car up and look for leaking fluid, although you will probably need to take the plastic front undertray off to do this check and there are squillions of bolts and screws to remove before the tray can come off, not difficult just tedious.
Dad is probably going to need to flatbed the car to a dealership or good Jag mechanic to get this problem fixed.

 

Accessory drive belt?

 

Thank you for your time, I've scoured this forum looking to see if anyone had similar issues. And I see your name everywhere, keep doing your thing. It's much appreciated.

It's strange that they don't have a warning for power steering fluid levels to be honest.

I'm hoping we need to just top the fluid up, jaguars can be a real pain for maintenance haha. Which fluid would I be looking for by the way? I figure this car has a specific one.

Again, thanks for the time

 

Yep, didn't think of that. Easy enough to check though if it has fallen off, just shine a torch down the front of the engine. Although it is mounted down low and behind the SC belt so you might have to search around a bit to see it and/or the pulleys it is supposed to drive.
I'm guessing there is another way to test if the belt is still there and working - fire up the car and put the AC on max cooling, if no cold air then probably no belt.

 

Possibly. although, the car runs perfectly fine. Everything the accessory drive belt controls works fine (except the steering). The wheel will not turn at all. It's weird how the car went from perfectly fine to 0 in like 10 seconds.

I know there's something called a "hydraulic lock"? would that have a say in anything?

Thanks for the response though, much appreciated!

 

Look in the Owner Manual for the PAS fluid spec.
In mine it says "Jaguar recommends Mobil ATF320 PAS fluid."

 

Awesome, thank you all for the help. It's around 2am here so I'm going to head to bed. I'll relay all of this information to my dad in the morning. I'll keep you posted.

Again, thanks for the time

 

2016 car has electric steering. I thought no fluid?

 

That occurred to me as well. If it’s an MY ‘16, it has electric power assisted steering (EPAS) and no power steering fluid or in anyway related to the accessory drive belt. Something in or on the power steering rack broke.

 

I think it could be either way given the North American habit in the early years of adding a year on to the MY compared to other markets, it could well be really a 2015 MY with hydraulic steering. Obviously the easy way to check is to go looking for the fluid reservoir, if no show then it is EPAS.

 

I believe that Canada follows the same MY convention as the U.S.

 

I checked everything out. The AC is working, meaning it's likely not the belt. And correct, there isn't any power steering fluid on this model. I noticed a new noise earlier today as well. I cannot turn the wheel to the right, but when I turn it to the left, it makes a weird robotic noise and will try to turn itself back to the previous state. It makes a grinding noise really bad while turning the wheel as well.

Worst comes worst, we'll be making a call to a dealership. Thanks for all of the assistance everybody!

 

Yes, definitely a broken EPAS rack, but that’s the first such issue that I am aware of.

 

For anyone else searching this issue and has a pre-MY2016, here's the location of the reservoir (not my photo).