Well the boss women rang me yesterday. The jag has thrown up a dash message "fail safe drive mode" or something like that. I said "I'll have a look tonight when you get home".

You guessed it, she rang an hour later to say the car is dead on the side of the road, its motor cut out. leaving her with a car she could barely steer or stop.... Hmmm... So I hit google again, its sounds like this fault is to do with the acellerator (damn it, I didn't buy an old enough car, why not a simple cable??). Anyway, I drive up to her and first check the battery. Man that sucker is huge, did they think the car was going to have a massive diesel engine with a bunch of glow plugs Anyway, why such a giant battery and pathetic little earth cable .... actually now I look at it, that little earth cable looks corroded. So unbolted it and found, not only is it little and corroded looking, its also bolted down to a painted surface .... How on earth is the car even working ?

Anyway, I cleaned that up and still the same dash message. So I looked under the dash. The accellerator pedal feels like it should (I'm guessing), the electrical connector on it looks clean. So I popped the bonnet to try and find the throttle spindle figuring it would be burried somewhere.... Oh .... Guess what is staring you right in the face on the top of the motor .... Guess what I pressure washed the merde out of just last week..... Woops, I've always said "never, ever, ever, ever, ever pressure wash under the bonnet of a car". But this sucker was going in for a roadworthy, and I wanted to clean it all off so there was no evidence of leaks.

Anyway, no suprise, I unplug the throttle spindle electrical connector, blow on it, give it a shake and plug it back in, and the car is perfectly fine again. Talk about self inflicted pain.

seeya
Shane L.

 

Good it's working but something sounds odd about that earth. Never heard them being thin or to a painted area. Not like that on my car!

 

Have you ever unbolted the body side of the earth cable. Its bolted down to the painted boot floor. it must get all its connection through the threaded part of the bolt.

 

There are a couple holes in the boot it can be connected to. Maybe it’s connected to the wrong spot as there is a bar that holds the battery in place that can be confused with the ground hole. Has the bar that secures the battery been deleted?

 

honestly, I don't know, what does it look like

 

Very easy to confuse where the ground goes if the bar was removed because the bolt threads are identical

 

Oh, yes that is there, nowhere near the battery though, so its not doing much retaining. See where that earth point bolts to the body .... its bolted over a painted surface!

seeya
Shane L.

 

Yea I think it only keeps the battery down if you hit a speed bump goin too fast or something like that. I have it deleted on one of my s types is why I was thinking it was connected to the wrong spot

 

The bar is to keep the battery in place even in a car upside down, so preventing any shorting out in such a case.