2002 X-type 2.5 almost 50000 miles (primary driving to work, 3 miles each day)

The above has occured a few times (2 years ago) and once today. It appears that if I am on the petrol pedal and at the same time activate the cruise control, than the engine will store and all the lights in the dashboard will be flashing. The car will lost all power. Once the car is stopped and restarted, everything will be fine. The first 1-2 times, it happened outside my home, with limited traffic.

Since then, I learn to activate the cruise control after the car starts at the garage, nothing happened since.

Today I was on the motorway, and I "may" have touch the cruise control whilst accelerating, the engine again stopped and the car slowing came to a stop. All lights in the dashbord lighted up. Fortunately, the traffic behind me slowed down.... I restarted the car and everything was fine and got home safely.

Is this a frequent occurance and is something bad going to happen to the car? I quite like the car. I have frequent services and no fault codes were noted (last service was 4 weeks ago).

Will not touch the cruise control again!

Any info will be appreciated. Thank you

 

Pikachu, let me look at the drawings. But, from what you are describing, it is sounding like you are loosing power tot he ECU, which is shutting the engine off. I will see if I can figure something out and give you something to look at.

How are you with using a multimeter? THis will give me an idea of how detailed I need to be with my descriptions.

 

Thank you Thermo.

I really do not know much about cars (sorry). I do not even know what is a multimetre is .

When I did a google search, it seems a few (7 from the webpage) X-type users experience the same. They all had taken to the dealer and as expected, no abnormality was noted. I think one commented that it must be something to do with the cruise control electronic got mix with the engine one (?).

When it happened to me the past few occasions, I believed I was always switching on the cruise control. at the time I last power of the engine. Lucky nothing happened,

Just spend quite a bit $ in fixingg the A/C (condenser issue) and change all the brakes. I hope to drive it a bit longer.

It is a good car, just some scary things happen that is a bit worrisome.

many thanks again.

Pikachu

 

PIkachu, I want you to do an experiment for me. I want you to find a deserted road (or one with very little traffic on it that you can get up to say 50 mph (75 KPH). Now, with no one around, I want you to hit every button on the steering wheel, one at a time, except for the "ON" button for the cruise. Does the car appear unaffected? If no, what button did you press that caused the car to stop? You may need to do this a few times to be able to press all the buttons and see how it affects the car.

Looking at the diagrams for the car, I am suspecting that you have a bad ground that feeds the steering wheel controls and that is causing the ECM to go into a protection mode which then shuts the motor down. I found in the diagrams where the steering wheel controls are grounded through the ECM, but when I look at the ECM diagrams as they relate to the engine, this ground wire is not there. So, something fishy is going on.

If I can't figure this one out, you may end up having to take the car in to have it worked on. I am thinking you may have an issue with a piece call a "Clock spring". It is what allows the electricity to pass from the moving part of the steering wheel to the stationary dash. But, before we just start guessing at parts, lets see if we can expound upon what the symptoms are and maybe that will shed some light on things.

 

Thanks Mr. Thermo.

I will have to look for an empty road first, that could pose a challenge .

So far, staying away from the buttons in the steering wheel does help

Pikachu

 

Today at 4 pm, was driving to tennis court (40-45 mph) and the 2002 X-type 2.5 just shut off, even without touching any cruise control button. On hindsight, the incident 1 week ago (posted above), the engine likely shut off by itself.

Fortunately the brakes did work and the car slow to a stand still. I turn the key off, and trying to restart. One thing I consistently found is the brake pedal was stuck (I cannot press down with my foot). As usual, after some panic and cursing [], the car restarted and I drove to my mechanic so that he can have a quick look. I confirmed that when the car is shut down, I could easily depress the brake pedal.

He used the computer gadget to check and mentioned some "codes" came up due to recent disconnection of battery (sorry about my limited understanding), and the "computer is still learning". A recent change of battery was made by the same shop 2 weeks ago and he went and confirm everything was connected well. The mechanic is a very to down-to-earth gentleman, and suggested to take back for a thorough check up if it happens again (no charge for today).

So, the car once again shut down and lost power with pressing any button. Also, I have noted at least 3 times, it will take a few mins to get going and all the 3 times, the brake pedal appeared to be stuck.

WOuld this be a mechanical or electrical fault? This would unlikely be due to recent battery change as it is confirmed to be well connected and these episodes happened before any battery change, though now is more frequent and concerning.

Any suggestion / recommendation, or time to get a new car? It is scary that the car will suddenly lose power.

Many thanks, Pikachu

 

PIkachu, when you take the battery in for the checking of the battery terminals and whatnot, have them do a detailed check of the battery cables. it is sounding to me like you are getting the cables to bounce around and it is causing the electrical system to jump around, confusing the computers and therefore shutting the engine off. If you could get the codes (5 character codes) and post them here, that might give us some much needed information. The codes are going to be something like "PXXXX" where XXXX is 4 numbers. You will be amazed as to how much information we can gleam from just those 5 characters. If you don't want to bother the mechanic, you should be able to stop by the local auto parts store and they should be able to read the codes for you at no charge.

NOt to get nosey, but ballpark, where do you live? if you are in the DC area, I would tell you to come on down to my place so I can put my hands on the car and see what I can find.

 

Thank you Mr. Thermo.

Will try to get the mechanic or to Auto Zone (local car store) to tell me the code.

Thanks for offering to help, but I live in Texas.

I just drove for 20 mins, just a smooth ride, with no issues. Well, will avoid motorways etc for the time being. The 50000 miles service will be in 2 months, and touch wood if nothing happens till then, will have Mr. Mechanic to have a detail look.

Will keep you posted. Good evening.

Pikachu

 

I am having a similar issue with my car that I am trying to work out. 2002 2.5 manual. While on longer drives (after about an hour on the freeway) the car will sometimes completely fall on its face after using the cruise control. It may happen without cruise control but I have not experienced that yet. I often take the same drive and use cruise maybe 1/4 of the time. My car will not completely stall out, it will run very roughly at about 1500rpm, but not make enough power to move itself forward. Any application of the throttle will slowly bring the revs up to 2000. Once the car sits for about 5 minutes it will start up and run again like nothing has happened. The check engine light wont even be on. I suspect its a broken vacuum hose somewhere that may be causing the problem. I had previously had a rough idle problem and it was traced back to the crankcase hose that leads to the manifold was cracked. I will hopefully get a chance to work on the car tomorrow and will let you know if I find anything. Best of luck.

 

I think my situation is (was) slightly different.

A few years ago, I recalled when I activated the cruise control, the car just lost power (went dead immediately). It will start again immediately. When I thought the events were associated, I just activate the cruise control when I start the engine (not sure why the cruise control does not stay activate, like my older Honda). Since then, I have no problem.

On hindsight, when I started the original thread a few weeks ago, I probably did not hit the cruise control button, but the car just lost power out of no where on the motorway. Since then, it happened up to 6-7 times. Once it would not start after I finish work in the evening. By the time it was towed to the mechanic on the next morning, the car started again magically.

The local mechanic was so nice, and do not want to jump into conclusion to chnage things. He ran a series of tests (as no check engine lights were one) and he drove the car for almost 1 week (the car died once on the motorway and has to be towed back to his shop, but since then he can make the car stall again whilst driving after putting all the gauges on).

We suspected the issue to be fuel pump, but it sounded like an intermittent problem as the pressure was "OK" when he checked it (after it was towed to his shop or after when I manage to restart the car again after 20-30 mins of rest).

Cut long story short, the fuel pump was changed (there was 2 pumps actually). During the change of pumps, it was evident that the pumps were in quite bad shape.

It is now the 3rd week since the repair, the car is driving "silky smooth". All along, I thing the pump has been bad for the last 2-3 years as the drive is now very different.

I have a blessed 10 years with the car without major issues, and hope I can drive it for a few more years.

I just learn not to use the cruise control as I only drives short distance to work.

Sorry that I am not of much help, though the Forum has very nice colleagues and I am sure one of them will give you some helpful insights.

Cheers, Pikachu

 

Methinks you are right on with suspecting a(nother) vacuum leak. One thing the Cruise Control does that "normal" pedal driving doesn't is to tend to "stomp" the pedal to keep the car at the pre-set speed. That can cause some rather low intake vacuum by itself, and an added - ever so small - leak could be kicking you into Limp Mode.

*** Pikachu - Glad to hear your issue was resolved! Is probably that rotten Texas crude oil making bad, gritty gas that ate your fuel pumps. North Dakota is on line to move you folks out of the #1 spot for oil production quite soon; we hit 911,000,000 bbl for last month. All "sweet" crude, almost crystal clear, and it smells like clover honey.

 

Reviving an old post with a 'placeholder' of one possible contributor, on a vehicle not known to me to even be identically wired... but might be.

2005 XJ8-L, identical symptoms w/r total shutdown, cruise-control initiated.

Background was noticing that the speed '+' or increment function worked only erratically, and the '-' or decrement function hardly ever. All other functions sharing the 'clock spring' - audio/CD the most heavily used 'complex' one - are faultless.

With cruise-control engaged, was rocking the +/- switch back and forth to see if it was dirty contacts that would 'wipe' themselves clean when ...the system suicided.

Coasted to the shoulder, counted 60 seconds. Restart.

No further issues that tour as I thereafter began to cancel with the brake-pedal, adjust to desired speed manually, use 'Set' switch, so as to avoid the dodgy increment/decrement switch outright.

Relevancy of codes has unfortunately been obscured due to a later, apparently unrelated, incident of higher priority (misfire, #3 cyl, and associated Sputniks ).

'To Be Confirmed', but suspicion is that the control module was presented with near-as-dammit simultaneous conflicting '+' and '-' commands ... and the firmware initiated a hard bail-out, not limp. That takes on-faith that the inputs are buffered in such a manner that a hardware short / Earthing that could cause a reset is not possible. Or so I'd have implemented 'em, anyway.

Will look at that switch and its wiring again after the parts to clear misfire arrive and that has been sorted...

...priorities...

 

I'm not sure the car is going into limp mode, last time that had happened the motor was restricted to a certain RPM, I think 3000, but ran fine otherwise. This time it seemed "stuck" at 1500. Either way, I was poking around everywhere and could not find any vacuum leaks or any other obvious cause of the problem. There did seem to be a little oil leaking down from the lower intake manifold runner valve thing (forgot what its called, big round thing on the end with the door that directs air in the intake manifold) so I should probably have a look at that. Otherwise I have no codes, no problems, cruise works, no noises, runs smooth...