Hello,
I'm new to car forums and was hoping to get some feedback from some knowledgable people. I have a 2002 x type 3.0 and I live in California. My car has had minor issues but nothing major. About 4 months ago my car didn't start one day. I waited a few minutes and it started up. I didn't think anything of it until it happend again a few weeks later. At the time I was at work and my co-worker looked under the hood, cleaned some corrosion off of the battery and it worked fine for another 2-2.5 months.

It happened again and I got myelf to my jag mechanic. They didn't have the space to put my car up on the lift but they made an educated guess it was the ignition or starter. As they were looking at it they had my battery charging. After I left the shop my car worked fine for another month or so (This past Saturday). When it didn't start I had the car jumped and it worked fine again until Today(Tuesday).

I went to start and same thing. When I turn the key all of the lights on the dash light up, the radio works, the headlights work and the windows work but no roar of the engine. It sounds like the is humming but there are no loud or disturbing noises. The battery is at 100% voltage and is working fine.

I was wondering if anyone has had this issue before. If you have experienced this was it the starter or ignition like the mechanic suspects? Does anyone know what an appropriate price range for replacing something like this would be? I want to be knowledgable when I take it to the shop tomorrow. I'm really clueless about cars and want to be sure the price range is fair. Thank you for your time and effort!

 

I've never heard or read about the actual ignition going but there are a million threads here about battery issues. Starting with a pooched battery, on this first page Thermo descibes how to test for an alternator failure to rule that out, then mainly there are cable issues where it is suggested that if you replace the main cables off your battery you will fix it. You have to figure one of 2 things is happening. Your battery is not getting enough of a charge, it gets some because it would go dead from a day of driving with lights radio etc on and no charge, or the battery is not accepting enough charge (dead cell etc) you can jump your car right?

 

heymistay, based on what you are saying, I am venturing to guess that you have a bad cable. As a general rule, the negative cable is the bigger offender.

I want you to try something for me. Get your hands on a set of jumper cables. Preferably ones with a heavy gauge wire (6 or 4 gauge wiring). When the car will not start, I want you to take the black lead of the jumper cables and connect one end of it to the negative battery terminal and then connect the other end to any large metal object on the engine. Attempt to start the car again. If the car starts this time, then this confirms a bad negative battery cable.

If you want more checks, let me know. But, like was mentioned, I have a few posts out there on how to diagnose problems like this using a multimeter.