Hi.

Brand new here but I am going to try keep my Great looking Jag whatever it takes.

I started the car this morning and I only got 1 minute driving and I got a DSC fault on the dash and the car cut out.

After another minute my wife mentioned there is smoke coming from the bonnet.

I opened up the hood and there was smoke and a small fire. A neighbour gave me some water and the fire kept coming. It all took a few minutes (somebody called the fire brigade ) I eventually disconnected the battery and pulled off the engine cover where there was a small fire , which I again dashed with water..

Some wires at the top of the engine are burned and the large one at the air filter I think.
I left the car in situ.

I read up on this and apparently there is a problem with the positive battery cable getting worn against the engine and causing this. Is this true.

I want to keep the car but I think insurance will write it off if I phone them.

Do you think this is a big job.

Thanks in advance.

 

Paige, welcome to the Forums. Lots of good people here and lots of people willing to help you out. We do ask one thing from you, please stop by the new member section and give us a little intro about yourself and your kitty. We pride ourselves in being a better car group than you will find elsewhere.

As for your problem, a little more info about the car will help people give you a better response. Please tell us year and type/size of engine. We can figure out most of the other stuff from there.

As for what you are thinking about it being totaled, you are probably fairly correct. The X-Type (atleast here in the US) is not worth a lot of money and therefore becomes an easy vehicle to total. If you could get some pictures to post about the damage, that would also help us to assess if the car is going to be able to be restored or not. Your interpretation of the positive battery cable has some truth to it. From what I have seen of the X-Types (I owned one for 7 years), the battery cables are known for failing, but they tend to fail at the battery, not on top of the engine. So, what you saw is more than likely a fluke or someone made a modification to the car and it failed catastrophically. If the problem is pretty much limited to some burnt wiring and that is it, then a good wrecking yard should be able to get you back on the road for fairly cheap if you do the work yourself. If you take the car somewhere to be worked on, the repairs can very easily exceed what the car is worth. But, again, the scope of the damage plays into this a lot.

 

Thank you Sir for your reply.

It is a 2009 x type diesel. One of the last of that model I'm told. I will try and get pics tomorrow. It is just that here in Ireland you have to report the event fairly quickly. So I do not know whether to call a garage or report it to insurance whom will only give approx 2000 Euro for the car.

Thanks again.

 

Paige, I would say if you have a garage that you deal with a lot for the car, send them pics and see if they will give you a price quote for what they see based on the pictures. If you are at 1500 Euros or more for their estimate, then odds are the insurance company is going to total the car (atleast that is the rule that they use here in the States). The other question is whether this is a car that you are willing to do what it takes to keep it on the road. Like I said before, if you can fix it yourself, then it will be a lot cheaper. But, not knowing the full extent of the problem, hard to say if it is worth saving. One man's junk is another man's treasure.

 

Welcome to the forums Paige Dublin,

I've moved your question from General Tech Help to X-Type forum. This is the place to post questions about your model.

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 information 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

 

One thing I learned from many years in the parts/service end of a dealership -
NEVER put out a car fire. (unless it's inside the building!)

 

Also never ever just open the bonnet on a fire or you are liable to get a face full of nasty. Thing to do is pull the bonnet release which opens the front of the bonnet slightly Fire your extinguisher through this gap.

 

1) Get a quote from your local garage for repair.

2) If your insurance totals out the car (likely), ask them how much they will sell it back to you for parts.

I don't know about the insurance companies there, but here in the US, they love to sell the car back, CHEAP. It means that they don't have to deal with picking it up, selling it to their usual parts buyers, etc. If it can be fixed for less than the difference between what they offer you and what they will sell it for, it might be worth keeping and restoring..

 

Hi from the dealings i have had with insurance companys they will wright it off i work for a recovery company and have seen vehicles writtern off for very minor damage and if its written off you should be able to buy it back BUT it will be down as as that and if you put it back on the road you might have trouble getting insurance on it and if you do it will cost more as for the damage so long as the paint work is ok i would get it fixed by the sounds of it it was an electrical fire so should be quite an easy fix something went dead short but check the ecu as this might have been electricaly damaged you should to be able to get a second hand one and get it sorted to your vehicle hope this helps cheers Roadsider