I have a 2004 SE S-Type V8, just drove it 800kms home after buying it from a car auction... Beautiful drive, faultless, until you plant the power pedal from a dead stop. It jerks and surges so to speak. I thought this was the traction control but after learning it is off when the Stability or whatever it is is also off am a little concerned!
I have done a search and only found one other example where no resolution was found... It is not the lurching that is described. This is taking off from the lights for example with power.
Any thoughts are appreciated!


Alex

 

This is the car... in Racing Green of course!

 

My favourite colour for Jaguars.

When you experience the 'surging', is the MIL on, or flashing? If the MIL is on, what DTCs are stored in the system?

How many kilometres/miles are on the vehicle and what other driving conditions can you list?

 

Thanks for your reply...


Its done 230,000kms and is in beautiful condition everywhere else!


No warning lights or the like are on at any stage and there is nothing anywhere to suggest a fault. If I take off normally it is fine also... it's just when you put your foot down!


It only does it whilst in 1st, once it gets to second (for the purpose of working this out I kept the pedal down!!) it takes off like a rocket! (also does it if it kicks back to 1st - only whilst in 1st).


Thanks
Alex

 

i'd look for the maf. clean out the throttle body. start small.

 

First read the codes. They are stored so not having a light on does not mean there are no error codes.

Then clear all the existing codes if any and drive the car. You need to get a baseline to see what the car thinks is going on before you start changing anything.

What I do with every car I buy is to start with basic maintenance like changing all the fluids and filters. Especially the gas filter as that's hidden and does not get changed much.

Just as a suggestion from long experience but to keep the costs down plan to do the work yourself. We have all the tools and advice on this forum.

With the age of the S Type most everything has been found out good and bad.
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With 230 000 km on the vehicle, if you do not know the service history, change the fluids as tbird6 suggests and change the spark plugs as well. What you may be experiencing is a failing spark plug or coil unit, which often do not set DTCs or turn on the MIL.

Another item to consider is servicing the gearbox as the ZF 6HP26 can fail if the fluid level becomes low due to leakage, especially from the connector sleeve. There are several threads discussing the 6HP26 that are informative.

 

+1 on the above except don't do anything with the throttle body especially yet - it's a high tech unit with a scary price and they tend to just work.

Get an OBD tool with live data, like the elm327, as then you can read codes and also data like fuel trims. They're incredibly cheap!