Hello all,
I need the collective genius to tackle a problem that I'm having on my 18 SF-S Sportbrake. I live in San Francisco and have made two trips up to Lake Tahoe in the past few months. On both occasions (above 4,000' elevation on the way up the Sierras to a peak of 7,000' at Donner Pass) while pushing hard (90+, slow for traffic, speed back up, mostly on inclines) the engine has suddenly lost power - it doesn't shut off, still downshifts, just doesn't make enough power to even maintain speed, my speed drops down to about 50 in the 60-90 seconds that the power isn't there. Modulating throttle doesn't make a difference, nor does being in normal or sport mode. it lasts about 60-90 seconds, then hiccups once and I get full power again for anywhere from 2 to 6 minutes and then it happens all over again. It happens less frequently if I drive like a sane individual, but since I am not, that doesn't do me much good for long. It doesn't happen when I am on my way back from Lake Tahoe where I only have about a 1,000' elevation climb to get to 7,000' and then it is decent from there (about a 10-15 minute climb).
I took the car to Jaguar in Reno, NV and they checked for codes and, nothing. No check engine or any other lights come on the dash when it is happening. The coolant temp is completely normal.
Is it just monitoring my driving and invoking Idiot Mode? It seems to have something to do with working it hard at elevation, but beyond that, I've got nothing.
Thanks in advance.
Jared

 

Hi again!
We talked about your oil smell back in December but I don't see a solution / update posted in that thread.

If it's not a weak/failing battery or cylinder head temperature sensor then the oil leak smell may indeed be a cause or symptom.

Was the TSB I posted back then the "recall" that was performed?

 

@F1Virginia
The oil smell issue has gone away. Most likely some oil that had puddled somewhere from an oil change or top-up, that took a while to burn off. The car has been mostly sitting -with a battery tender attached - since May as I embarked on a building project up in Lake Tahoe that forced me back into my pickup truck. twice now, i have had the time to return home and grab the Sportbrake for my next round trip to Tahoe and both times I had the described incidents. I have a service scheduled soon and will bring all of your suggestions to them to check, but I doubt it will come of anything as there is no code for them to follow. we'll see how engaged i can get them in trying to sort out a problem that, to them, does not exist.
Many thanks for putting some thought into this.
Jared