First things first, dashboard is telling me multiple problems are happening all at once. My question for you would these problems come from my alternator going out? The plan today is to replace the alternator and see what happens if anything. The car is giving me a gearbox warning , as well as driver and passenger door open and a couple others. It has the 2.5 v6 and the five speed automatic transmission. The car is acting like it's in limp mode, I.was told it did this before the alternator went out so I'm wondering if anyone has any idea about why this may have happened. I'd really appreciate any ideas that could help me sort all this out. A big thank you goes out to everyone. There are no dealerships or jaguar techs in alaska and it'll cost me 8000 dollars just to ship the out of state and back not including transport to and from a shop and the repair bill so if I can't fix it then I'll have to send it to the scrap yard. I don't want to go that route because my wife really likes the csr.

 

timmy, from what you describe, it is sounding battery related, not so much alternator related. The X-Type is very sensitive to an older battery, especially when it is starting to go. So, I have 2 checks for you to do. Both are going to require the car to be cold before starting.

First is to take a multimeter and using the probes, measure for 12.6 VDC by touching the lead portion of the battery terminals only (ie, do not touch any of the metal from the terminals with the wires attached). If you are getting 12.5 VDC or less, then odds are, your battery is starting to go. The next check will be to have a second person start the car as you are holding the leads as mentioned. As the motor is cranking over, is the battery volage dropping below 11.0 VDC? If yes, then your battery is getting weak and will need replacing. Then as soon as the motor catches, you should see the battery jump up to 14.5 VDC. Is it there or down around 12.6 VDC? If down by 12.6 VDC, then you might have an alternator issue. Let me know and I will give you some more checks to make. With the voltage up at 14.5 VDC, it should stay there for about a minute or so and then slowly ramp down to 13.7 VDC (13.5 to 13.9 VDC). If your car is not doing what I mention, tell me what it is doing. Keep in mind that all of this assumes you have everything electrical turned off initially.

The second check. Start the car when it is cold (ie, has not run for the last 10 hours or so). Let the car come to high idle and then turn on the dash fan to high, headlights on, both seat heaters on, and the rear defroster on. Let the car sit like this for 5 to 10 minutes. You can finish up the testing from the first part I mention above. After the 5-10 minutes, turn off everything electrical and then turn off the engine. Now, using your hand (or if you have an IR thermometer, that is even better), I want you to cup your hand OVER!!!!!!!! each of the battery terminals and see if they are the same temp as the surrounding under hood metal or if one/both of them is extremely hot (when I say hot, they can get to the point of cooking an egg hot, hence why I sav to be over the terminal and not touch it). If you can feel a temperature difference, then that cable and terminal needs to be replaced. You can get cables at your local auto parts store. You do not need Jaguar specific cables. Big thing is to get the biggest gauge wire cable you can get that is the correct size (length wise).

The final check you should get is to go to the local auto parts store and have them do a "capacity check". They should come back and tell you that your battery has XX percent capacity. Do not accept "your battery is fine". Ask for the specific number. The X-TYpes seem to need a 75% capacity battery or better. This number gets a bit higher if you are running a battery that has say only 660 CCA. If you do end up getting a new battery, get the biggest (highest CCA) battery that you can fit in the car. The car will be better off.

 

Thermo has a great suggestion. I followed his advice on the cable and it helped a lot. It did not solve all my problems, but it did solve some.

The door ajar switch is located in the striker mechanism and are known to be problematic. There is a thread that shows how to "hack" this to indicate the door is closed. Some people say that using silicone spray inside the unit will free it up and problems resolve. In my case, slamming the doors hard helps sometimes. I really should address mine. https://www.jaguarforum.com/threads/58703/

In my case the throttle position sensor give me "limp home mode" I was able to disassemble mine and fix it. Not a job for an amateur.

I really enjoy driving my 2003 X-Type with 5 speed manual! So I feel it's worth learning about the "fixes".