Hi everyone,

I just picked up a 2005 X-type to go with two more 2003 x-types I already owned. I was pretty excited to get the new steering wheel since the early style tended to warp in the sun. What I did not realize was that like most real cats this little kitty has a mind of its own. Particularly with the cruise control. It will come on when it wants and will not respond to the controls on the steering wheel. Sometimes the cancel button will actually cause it to accelerate and other times it does nothing. The CC light will come on while I am coasting, however, it will turn off when I hit the gas and then turn on again when I take my foot off the gas. I thought I would just pull the fuse and go without a Cruise Control. But I believe it is also the same fuse for the brake light. Any thoughts?

 

Sounds like somebody liked to drive with coffee and sodas. I would try some electronic spray cleaner and give the switches a good rinse.

 

Thanks Avern1, I will give that a try. I hope it helps.

 

OK. so I tried the cleaner and it did not work. I will look for a tutorial to figure out how to take the steering wheel off and clean for thoroughly. In the meantime, my kids have named the new car Herbert. They wanted to name her Herbie after the famous VW with a mind of its own. However, Herbert sounded more British.

The other day I was on the freeway and it set itself to 70MPH that was fine, but when a Semi tried to pass me on the right it kicked into overdrive and wanted to pass the semi. I had to reel Herbert back and keep the foot on the brake.

Some other symptoms I have noticed are that if I hit the cancel button it will go off and then come back on again. If I hold the cancel it will stay off until I let go. If I hit the brakes it will turn off for an extended period of time. It turns on only when it wants and usually if I have been at a given speed for a prolonged period of time. 30MPH it will stay there, 70MHP it will stay there. sometimes the roller will let me increase or decrease speed sometimes it will not.

If anyone else has a car with a mind of its own I would love some feedback.

 

ddsand, from the sounds of things, your "Cruise ON" button is stuck in the ON position and this is causing the system to always try and put the car into cruise mode. To figure this out, I want you to try something for me.

At the base of the steering column, you should find a 14 pin connector that controls what is on the steering wheel. If you look, you should see a yellow wire with a green stripe in pin 14 and next to it a yellow wire with a red stripe in pin 13. These are the wires that control your cruise.

You will probably find this easiest to do if you find some connector pins that you can slide over these 2 pins with wires coming off of them that you can then touch your multimeter to instead of trying to hold the leads on the pins and then attempting to also push some buttons on the steering wheel.

The first check you are going to do is on the yellow/green wire, connect the red lead (multimeter set to read resistance) and then touch the black lead to any metal part under the dash. Does the multimeter continue to read "OL"? If no, then you have a wiring problem with the cruise buttons and it will probably be easiest to simply get a new set of switches. If yes, then move the black lead over to the yellow/red wire. Does the multimeter read about 4300 ohms (may read 4.300 with a K at the end). If no, is it reading 2100 ohm (2.100K)? If yes, then this confirms the ON button is stuck shut and trying to kick on the cruise. If no, then push each of the buttons, one at a time and see if you get the same resistance that I list here:

ON button: 2.100K (2100)
Resume: 1.100K (1100)
Set +: 600
Set -: 300
Cancel: 120
Off: 0 ohm

All of these readings are ideal and you may find that you are going to be off slightly. That is ok. We are looking for gross problems (ie, you hit RESUME and it reads say 300 ohms (what should be Set -)). You may find that all of your readings will be off by say 10 ohms. This is the resistance inside the steering column for the wiring and the spring clock.

The final check that I want you to try is moving the red lead over to the yellow/red wire and then attaching the black lead to the chassis of the car. You should see a very high resistance (OL most likely on the multimeter). Turn the steering wheel as you watch the multimeter. Do you see the resistance changing? If so, then you most likely have a wire that has been damaged over the years and it is grounding out, throwing random things at the ECU for the cruise control.

If you need more info, let me know. I will help you figure this out.

 

Thanks Thermo,

I will have to work on this on Saturday. I am hopeful we can figure this out. It makes for an exciting drive the way it is.

Is there a specific on switch on the later steering wheels? I know on my 2003 there is a switch to turn the whole thing on. On my 2005 it looks like you just roll the wheel down to turn it on. Is there something I am missing? If there is no official switch, how is it getting stuck?

 

Normally, it is a 2 stage thing where you need to turn on the system and then press the Set+ button to activate it. The other possibility is that the ECU has an issue and that is causing the cruise to kick in. That would be the only thing I can think of that would cause what you are seeing. This is where you can do the "idiot check" and simply disconnect the plug at the base of the steering column. This will throw a code, but that will force the cruise not to work. Just a warning though, your horn is not going to work also.

 

I took a look last night for the 13 pin connector. Is it the one under the dash next to the fuse box. There were two connectors on the right side of the fuze box. The one on top had a yellow and red wire.

 

Hi Don't know if it helps but on my UK spec motor you roll the cruise switch UP for on.
Rolling it down reduces the set speed by incriments.

 

Thanks Dunks,

I guess we think differently on this continent. I was trying to turn it on by pulling down and also trying the two buttons underneath. I will take it out later today and see if I can get the other to work.

 

My 2006 works like Dunks. To engage you roll the + up to turn on, down to reduce up to increase (constant force for continual reduction/increase) short rolls for 1 m.p.h. Per short roll), resume button to go back to set speed after touching brake, cancel button to the obvious.

 

Thanks Dell,

Tried to roll the wheel up this afternoon. I got nothing. Then while on the freeway it kicked in three times on its own between the 21st south and bountiful on the i-15. Once it took off from 70 and I was able to stop it before it reached 80. That 3.0 has a little punch to it. Tomorrow I will get out the multimeter and run Thermo's tests on the system.

 

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all for your feedback and trying to help me fix this problem. Here is the latest update.
I could not find the yellow and green wire Thermo had spoken about. So, I pulled the steering wheel and disconnected the Cruise Control switch. Everything seemed fine until last night when the cruise kicked in again. It is less of a problem now that I have disconnected the switch, however, last night it kicked in twice in a row and then stopped.

Thermo, based on your last post it sounds like the ECU is the problem. Does anyone know what I should expect the cost to be from Jaguar for reflashing the ECU?

Dell Gailey, do you know anyone other than Jaguar in Utah that can reflash the ECU for me for less?

One last thing, Could it be the brake switch?

Thanks,

David

 

Only Jag I know of is Garff on 5th South. I don't think an independent foreign car shop could/would do it. I would be hesitant to flash the ECU through anyone but dealer, just in case.

 

Idk what this "clockspring" is but =

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...roblem-153051/

 

Hi Dell,

Thank you so much for finding that. Here is another link that shows what the clockspring is.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...val-faq-61287/

This is one from an S-Type, but ours look somewhat similar. I did notice that the clock spring in the car moved freely when I removed the steering wheel. I had no idea what the clockspring was, but that part did not seem to be fixed. I will dig into this in a week or two when I get back to see if this is one of the problems.

Thanks again.
David

 

I found the "name" of it on a British site =

JAGUAR CANCELLATION CASSETTE MODULE

 

Thank you all so much for your help with my Jag. I have a couple of more questions and a little more information that might help me diagnose before I finally take My jag into the dealer to have them re-flash the ECU.

First let me say I was confused when I disconnected the switches on the steering wheel and the Cruise control still turned on, on its own. I did a little research to find out the components of a modern cruise control. It appears that in a modern Cruise Control system there are only a few components.
1. the controls on the steering wheel and the brake switch.
2. the Cruise Control Computer
3. a Vacuum Actuator
4. a Throttle valve.

In a diagram I found and will try to attach it looks like 2-4 might all be part of the Throttle Position Sensor. (This was a generic diagram not one from an X400)

This triggered a thought. I have been getting some vacuum leak codes. They do not come often. They have only come twice since owning the car and they have gone away on their own. My questions are:

1. Could it be a problem with the throttle position sensor?
2. Could a vacuum leak be causing the Cruise Control to kick in?
3. Is there a separate Cruise Control Computer in the TPS?
4. Is the Cruise Control still managed by the ECU?

Thank you in advance for your help.

David

 

ddsand, on the X-Type, the ECU gets a signal from the wheel speed sensors (via the ABS system) to know how fast the car is going. The steering wheel provides the button control to the ECU to tell the ECU what you want it to do. The brake switch is there to override the ECU should you need to slow the car down. The ECU will send an electronic signal to the throttlebody to tell it how far to open up to maintain speed. Only when the gas pedal is depressed farther than what the throttlebody is opened will the gas pedal "override" the cruise control.

If you have lights coming on the instrument cluster to say that the cruise control is engaging, then it is a button issue or a computer issue. If you have the buttons disconnected, then this pretty much only leaves the ECU as being your problem. Out of curiosity, when was the last time you cleaned the throttlebody? What you are describing somewhat sounds like a sticking throttlebody and by stepping on the gas pedal, this is forcing the throttlebody to move, freeing it. The gas pedal is not really a possibility as it has 2 rheostats that have to read the same to make the engine accelerate. The odds of having both of them fail the same way at the same time with a random problem is pretty low. If only one was failing, the car would be giving you error codes. The same is true for the throttle body. The throttlebody position sensor has 2 rheostats and they need to agree with each other or the computer starts throwing codes. I also don't see a problem with the power wires to the throttlebody getting shorted to something. I think you would recognize that as the car would accelerate like you mashed the gas pedal all the way down. That tends to get peoples attention when they are not expecting it. I get the feeling that the car is accelerating at a "slow rate" (not like you mashed the gas pedal down).

Kinda like based on what you are describing, it isn't a steering wheel issue either. With the push buttons on the steering wheel disconnected, if the cruise is engaging, then you would have a miracle happening. The cruise needs to see a very specific resistance. This is not something that 2 wires touching each other would cause.

There are no vacuum components associated with the cruise.

If you need more info, let me know.

 

Wow, Thermo thanks,
There are times when the car takes off like a bat out of hell. At least until I hit the brake or hold down either the cancel or resume button. It seems to get worse the hotter the day is. Not how long the car has been running. If it is closer to 100 outside, then more often. I just went on a 400-mile round trip excursion today. No cruise control whatsoever for the early part of the day. Then all of a sudden the car started to take off. I hit the brake to slow it down and it immediately wanted to race again when I released the brake. I held the resume button down and I could drive it like normal. The cancel button would do the same, but as soon as I release them it is like someone steps down on the pedal accelerating from 75 to 90 in no time flat.

On the way back I noticed that I could use the resume button like a set button. I would accelerate until I got to the speed I wanted and then I would hit the resume button. It would hold at that speed. If I tried to roll the wheel down to drop my mileage it would reduce speed and then accelerate at a gradual pace until I stopped it.

As I mentioned earlier, we named the car Herbert (British for Herbie) because it had a mind of its own. Sometimes when being passed by another car it would take off in a big hurry as if someone stomped on the pedal.

All that being said, any idea where I should look for a short in the wires? or do you think it is still an ECU issue?

Thanks,