Hi all. I need help please. I have a jaguar x-type 2004, which I've been driving for years with pretty much no problems. Yesterday I drove the car, parked up, and after about half an hour tried starting it again and not a sound! The car was as quiet as a mouse.


Did initial checks and the battery is good, all lights on the dashboard light up, horn, headlights, radio, etc., all in working order, but the car won't turnover. Fortunately I have breakdown cover. The guy came out, checked all fuses, did a battery reset, back started the starter motor, which was only time the car revved, but still wouldn't start. After about an hour and contacting various people for a way around it, he dropped me home leaving the car behind. I've been told the car has immobilised itself and as my breakdown guy didn't have all the diagnostic tools to ascertain why, he couldn't help any further.


Any advice appreciated.


Thanks

 

Welcome to the forum jaguarjen,

I've moved your question from General Tech Help to X-Type forum. Members here with the same model will be able to help.

Is this a repeat of the issue in November last year?

Please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum and post some info about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see. In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

Thanks for the response Graham.


No, this problem is different to the one I posted before. Any ideas??


Thanks

 

To eliminate the selector mechanism, will it start in 'N'?

As the dash lights up and the breakdown service could get the engine to turn by powering the starter motor directly, it could be a faulty Inhibitor Switch preventing it starting in 'P'.

Graham

 

Jen, it is possible that your battery has a cell that died. This is what my car did to me when my battery went. Started just fine, drove 5 miles to a store (just happened to be a car parts place ironically), went to start and nothing. Yet, all the lights lit up perfect when I went to get into the car. If you can, get someone to monitor the battery voltage as you go to start the car. If the voltage remains at 12.5 VDC as you turn the key, the car is immobilizing itself, if the voltage drops to say 11.0 to 12.0 VDC, then you have a bad cable that it is dropping the power, not the starter, if it is dropping below 11.0 VDC, then you have a bad battery (normally you will see it drop to like 6 VDC or something really low).

This should atleast get you going in the right direction so we can tailor things to look at. But, like Graham said, try moving the tranny to Neutral and starting it there. That will atleast eliminate 1 thing.

 

Thanks for that. Could it still be the switch even though the car is manual? On each occasion that a start was attempted it has been in neutral. Haven't tried starting it in gear though. Is that likely to make a difference?

 

Cheers Thermo


The breakdown guy did monitor the battery and it was at 12v. However, I don't recall him checking to see whether voltage dropped on starting. I'll try that and see how it goes.


Will keep you posted.

 

NO - not on a UK spec vehicle.

The devil is always in the detail - I always assume Automatic with a Jaguar unless told otherwise!

The Jaguar Workshop Manual (JTIS) has a diagnosis sequence for failure to start. As you don't yet have sufficient posts to download documents from the forum, I've put this on my MediaFire account for you. Follow this link to download it free:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/kt9t87...ing_System.pdf

Graham

 

Jen, it may be possible that your clutch switch has failed and it is not closing to allow the start signal to go through (this is done to prevent starting the car while the clutch is engaged). If you want to momentarily bypass that switch to see if that is the problem, let me know. we can get this figured out.

 

Thanks so much for this! My mechanic is unable to get to my car until tomorrow so this is great. Will keep you posted.

 

Thanks for this. Right now I need to try as much as possible! Would this something that I'll be able to do?

 

Chris,

According to JTIS, the requirement to depress the clutch (clutch switch?) before the ECM will operate the starter relay is only fitted on US spec vehicles.

It seems a very sensible safety feature but presumably Jaguar didn't think it was necessary in markets where manual transmission is the norm.

Graham

 

Graham, I thought all manual cars would come with something like that. Guess you learn something new every day.

 

"The breakdown guy did monitor the battery and it was at 12v. However, I don't recall him checking to see whether voltage dropped on starting. I'll try that and see how it goes. "

The X Type does not like to run on a battery that is just putting out 12V. Little electrical things start going wrong intermittently. Closer to 13V is ideal. A new battery will usually read over 13V.

 

Hi All.


Sorry to take so long to update you regarding this thread; unfortunately a hip fracture got in the way! Not while working on the car though!


Anyhow, the issue has now been sorted and it turned out to be the starter relay. After doing numerous checks on all the fuses, my mechanic spotted that the relay had malfunctioned. However, as that particular part is located under the cover of the fuse box, it couldn't be replaced easily. Anyway, with a new relay and a bit of rewiring, all is well!


Thanks for you all your help and advice!