I've had an intermittent fault lurking under my dash for almost 18 months now. It's actually more of an annoyance than anything else. But something's come adrift, so it's definitely a fault. What it is, is a loud ticking noise emanating from deep within the dash area, around the instrument binnacle. It can happen anytime, the motor doesn't need to be running even, just the ignition on. It sometime happens multiple times per trip, but it can also stay silent for weeks. I call it the Timebomb, & always wonder how much time I've got left before something goes bang. But as nothing has gone bang for 18 months, I just put up with it as an occasional annoyance, which is doing no harm (so far), as it's such a big job to pull the dash out. Anyone got any ideas as to what exactly is happening under my dash?
PS I did pull the mobile phone holder out of my car, as it kept flying out of it's hole & scaring my passengers. & I did get a bit brutal getting the cable out, i.e. I cut the mongrel! So I'm wondering if that could be thrashing around under there. Apart from that, I got nuttin'!

 

Steering column telescoping mechanism? Try fiddling with the control switch on the side of the column. Perhaps the switch didn't fully release and it's occasionally sending a bad command.

 

What mobile phone holder? Sounds non-standard and such are often the cause of problems.

 

Nope. It was definitely standard equipment on my car, & it's a base model SE, so I'd imagine the rest of the range got it. It was a large rectangular carriage that sat in the middle of the dash & telescoped out when pushed in, presenting a bespoke Jaguar phone. The trouble is that as that mechanism got older it became much more sensitive & would shoot out from being knocked by a pothole. It was VERY annoying, & quite scary for my passengers, especially those who'd never experienced it before. I recovered the covering plate, complete with Growler emblem, from the carriage & stuck it back in place to cover the big ugly hole. It's not the best look, though way better than a hole, & I plan to do something about it when I retire the car from it's daily hack duties & give it some serious shed time.

 

Certainly not on the 2002.5+ cars (*). Never heard of it at all, either.

Still, less likely to be the cause of the noise you posted.

(*) like mine, which has the jag phone, but it's nothing at all like what you describe

 

Yes the later series dash is totally different to mine. I've never looked inside another early series car, like mine, so I don't know how rare it is. But it looks like standard equipment. If the phone worked I might have persevered with it. But it was so old I don't think it would've worked in our in our G3/G4 system. I never tried because I was already hooked on my iPhone by then anyway.

 

I installed MANY mobile phone PRESENTERS in the X200 when they were new. We were paid 1.75 Hours to install the phone system.

I still have a few presenters that I removed when the phones became obsolete and installed the cassette cubby in it's place.

Fascia Presenter XR8 1479/XXX - AGN (Mid-Antelope), AEK (Sable),
LGR (Dark Grey)

bob

 

Thanks Bob. I feel, somehow, vindicated.

 

I kinda liked the presenters as a mechanical device. The phone would slide out and up!!!
Pretty cool actually.
I need to find a few in my pile-o-parts and play around with them for old times sake.

Thanks

bob

 

Scared the bejesus out of me the first time it flew out of it's perch, & quite a few of my Passengers have come close to requiring a change of underwear too. Softly damped, it definitely wasn't!

 

The dampers failed in your presenter. When NEW they 'gracefully' present the phone to you!!

bob

 

I suspect it doesn't tick, though.

Maybe one of the a/c flaps?

 

Doing what?

 

Hunting.