My new to me 2001 S Type sits in the driveway occasionally. This morning I go out and 3 of the 4 windows are open all the way. I never leave them open. I reviewed video to see who was messing with the car and the video shows:

• 11:14:03 pm, Internal lights come on,
• 11:14:05 pm, Windows come down,
• 11:14:22 pm, Internal lights start to dim to off,
• 11:14:28 pm, Internal lights come on,
• 11:14:47 pm, Internal lights start to dim to off.

There was nobody seen around the vehicle, nothing was taken, no traffic for quite awhile before and after. I live on a court.

I got the keys, went out to check the voltage and read 12.0V. The car started and ran fine. I rolled up the windows. The left rear window wasn't down. I tried to operate it down/up but all I got was a clicking sound at the door. I guess that doesn't work and will need some attention. I'll also guess it would have gone down had it been working. I've only had this car for a couple months and don't remember testing that window. I did not test to see if the car was locked or not before hitting the unlock on the remote.

Maintenance done in the last month? Replaced 14 year old Michelin tires and had the failed headliner and pillar posts recovered.

I'm wondering if my Aunt and Uncle are visiting their car or is there a better Jag-Scientific answer to what happened.

 

My Ford Explorer would sometimes randomly unlock and sometimes lock the doors. I would leave it locked and return to find it unlocked. Does your car have a remote control setting that would unlock all doors and lower all windows? This may be malfunctioning (somehow some sensor may be stuck) and sending a message on it's own. I finally added a battery disconnect switch so that I could be sure that it would stay locked.

 

Often due to one of the fob buttons having bad contacts - triggering global unlock or the like.

Or possibly a failing fob battery doing that.

 

That is way too low. These cars are very sensitive to prestart voltage. Ideally you want to see 12.6v or higher before start. Below that, the starter typically spins just fine, but various computer modules will act up. That fraction of a volt may not seem like much, but it’s the difference between a full charge and nearly depleted.

You may have a chicken/egg conundrum. Could be whatever module controls the windows is acting up in response to the low voltage caused by reasons unknown.

Or this module could also be the reason why the battery is running down. The various modules are supposed to enter sleep mode within 45 minutes of shutdown, but something may be staying awake.

Here is some excellent info on the subject. Don’t be intimidated, it’s easy to follow this guide if you take your time:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...-drain-123535/

 

I had a similar problem a few years ago when I had the '01 S-Type, with walking out of work and finding the windows open, sometimes finding them open in the driveway. The worst time was when I looked out the window during a torrential downpour to see all windows and sunroof open even though I had closed and locked everything up. It took a while but I finally figured it out. I always carried the key fob in my pocket, attached to the fob was another metallic type fob on a chain. Occasionally as pocket contents would shift, the metallic fob would press against the unlock button for enough time to activate the global open. Started leaving the key on a shelf in the house or in my desk drawer at work and never had the problem again...

 

Other clues, the recent interior work could mean pinched or shorted wiring looms.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ck-open-89553/
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...25/#post768058

 

Thanks for all the quick replies. I'll take the easy one first, the FOBs. One fob has broken switches and hasn't had a battery in it for a month. the other was sitting on a table unmolested. I was unaware of the global unlock/lock features. More reading in the future.

Now, for the battery. It was dead when I went to pick up the car a couple months ago, jumped it and drove about 75 miles. Battery died again after a few days. Bought a multi-stage charger and when it went into 'fault' mode (bad battery mode?), I disconnected it, counted to 10, reconnected it. Every time I reconnected it it tried to charge but would go back to fault mode . . . at least the first 5-6 times. It finally started to continue charging and I left it on there for a few days until it reported a Full Charge.

The longest I've left it between driving (without charger attached between driving) was about 2 weeks, and it did start and run fine. It has been about a week since I drove it last and with the battery down to 12.0 V, I think I'll go ahead and first check the Quiescent Current Draw after waiting an hour and I'm guessing I'll find I just need to bite the bullet and buy a new battery.

NOTE: although I'll continue to monitor the forums, I'll not be able to test or work on the car till probably late summer to early fall. When I do, I'll post results. In the meantime, it is parked in the garage.

Thanks again,

 

It sure sounds like your battery has turned into a paperweight.

If it has run down to the point of needing a jump more than once or twice, I wouldn’t mess around trying to eek out more life from it. Set it free and let it go to battery heaven. Your car will thank you.

Re: The car in storage until the end of summer. Several forum members have experienced seized fuel pumps after long periods of inactivity. Not the end of the world to replace the fuel pump, but as cheap and lazy as I am, I’d avoid the scenario if at all possible.

Given the chance to spend your time and money, I’d suggest simply replacing the battery and enjoy driving the car over the summer. Unless the window ghost were to return, I’d see no need to run that quiescent drain test.

 

Thanks for the fuel pump reminder. I'll have my son start the car weekly while I'm away. When I return, I'll replace the battery. As the tires were 14 years old, I suspect the battery is quite old also.

 

Before I left yesterday, I found the windows down again. The only 2 changes I can think of are the location of the car (in the garage) and the condition of the battery (on charger, reportedly fully charged. Battery was at 12.7V).)

I rolled the windows up, disconnected and reconnected the charger (charging). I came back a few hours later and the windows are down again.

Anyway, I'll be back in Aug or Sep to look at it again more closely.

 

This is certainly an odd one. Two quick things:

Take the batteries out of any fobs you have. See if that makes any difference.

Check the spare tire well for water. These cars are notorious for rainwater getting into the trunk. Moisture in the trunk can cause the electronics back there to misbehave.

 

If the car does have global open then:
1. check with the key that it works to globally open
2. as a fob wasn't involved that really only leaves either a voltage/power issue or perhaps a damaged wire/loom which in effect simulates the key global open (in which case trace the wire(s) which are involved when using the key as in item 1)

 

The FOB does do a Global Open. When I return, I'll take the battery out of the 'working' FOB and see if that may be the issue. The non-working FOB had two of it's internal switches come apart. Now I wonder if the same is happening to the 'working' FOB.

The trunk is completely dry.

Thanks, JagV8.

 

One more thought, offered for free and worth every penny:

We could dig through the wiring diagrams, in search of circuits that could send the unwanted global open command. Pull the corresponding fuse one at a time and see if the problem stops.

If the windows were opening every three or four days, try a single fuse removed for a week or so. If the fault continues, then it wasn’t that circuit. Reinstall that fuse and try the next one.

It sounds like the car will be sitting most of the summer. Such an approach will take advantage of all that idle time. It would be easy enough to have your son try one fuse per week.

 

I'll buy that, KR.

I would not know where to start looking for that piece of logic. I do have some down time while I'm away so I'll give it a shot though.

I'll work on this fuse issue when I return. I'll set up a camera to monitor the car in the garage to see if/when the Global Open occurs. The 'working' FOB possibility intrigues me. I'll do the following when I return;

1. Replace battery with whatever battery it is supposed to have, ensure full charge (has a large AGM paper weight now, not sure what size or age). If issue continues,
2. Pull battery out of 'working' FOB, inspect the switches, keep battery out and see if issue continues. If it does,
3. Check battery voltage to see if I need to investigate Quiescent Battery Current Drain or not,
4. Track down involved circuit and check for wire conditions.

That's about it. I do appreciate the additional comments. I'm hoping it is a fast, simple fix (Battery or FOB). I'll let you all know when I return.

 

Hi folks, I'm back from my 10 week, 6,000+ mile maiden trip with my Arctic Fox. I returned Wed evening and by Thursday afternoon I placed a BSN battery in the Jaguar. BTW, all the windows were open. I put the charger on the battery to bring it up full, then this morning rolled the windows up. I also did the accelerator pedal thing where you exercise it slowly from up to fully depressed a couple times. Not sure if it needed it or not, but I did it anyway.

So, back to the windows. If you remember from my initial posting I mentioned the driver's side rear window wasn't going down when the others did, and when I tried it individually, I only got a clicking sound from the door. Fast forward to this morning. As I was raising the windows (3), I inadvertently hit the rear driver's side window switch to the 'up' position and heard what sounded like the window going up. The window was already up. Hmmmmm.... hit the switch to put the window down and heard what sounded like the window going down. The window is still up, hadn't budged a bit.

Now I'm wondering if there is something in that door that may have produced the ghostly encounter. I'll wait a bit, a few days anyway, to see if the other windows stay up. If so, and even if not, I'll tear into the rear door and see what's up in there. I think there is a thread somewhere hereabouts that shows what to do and how to replace whatever is not working.

Back to morning brew . . .

 

Hi folks, I want to thank you all for being so helpful and here is the update. After the new battery was installed, the car sat in the garage for almost 7 weeks. The windows stayed up the whole time. I had it out on the road again and she drives just fine. I didn't put many miles on it so I put the charger on overnight to top off the battery.

Now, to tackle the rear window issue (mechanism goes up/down, but the window doesn't).

Thanks again

 

Glad you got the ghostly visitor issue tackled. Who'd have thought a bad battery would cause that?

For the window lift mechanism, here's the procedure for the front doors. The process for the rear is nearly the same, IIRC:

http://www.jagrepair.com/WindowRegulator2000SType.htm


If the cables are in good shape and the motor operates normally, the problem may just be these little clips have broken:

 

Thanks for the quick reply, instructions, and clip link. I ordered them ($10) and they'll be here late next week. I'll wait till then to tear into the door.

Again, thank you.

 

All fixed. Here is the new thread on the window fix and the issues I had while completing it.