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The owner's Handbook doesn't appear to give any clue! This illustration from the Parts Catalogue shows where to start the hunt:
The battery in my XK is hidden behind a trim panel in the luggage compartment. Looks the the XF may be similar.
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Be aware that, due to Jaguar's brilliant design, if the battery fails completely (which AGM batteries have a tendency to do) you won't be able to open the trunk to get at it! This is because there is only an electrically powered lock on the trunk lid, and no emergency key-operated lock. At least in the US there'll be an emergency trunk lid release on the inside of the lid because in the US this is a legal requirement, and you might be able to operate this using a long pole through the drop-down flap in the rear seat. In the UK the bean counters eliminated even this.
I haven't have a battery failure yet on my XF, but I've read on this forum, normally the car will give you a message "Low Battery/Start Engine". If you get this message, have your battery check immediately so will not get stranded. If it calls for a new battery do it the soonest.
Assuming your battery just died overnight & the next morning your car will not respond to your remote, to gain access inside the car, there is an emergency key inside the remote. At the driver's door handle you will see small "key icon" & below that is a small rectangular hole where your emergency key fits. Fry that off using your emergency key and now you can use your emergency key to open the door. Open the hood/bonnet. You can now have access to jump your car or have the access to open the trunk/boot to replace the dead battery.
One thing for sure, owning a Jaguar is like a having treasure map for a lost treasure. There are small things that will see in the car that will give you a hint but you have to figure it out.
I haven't have a battery failure yet on my XF, but I've read on this forum, normally the car will give you a message "Low Battery/Start Engine". If you get this message, have your battery check immediately so will not get stranded. If it calls for a new battery do it the soonest.
Assuming your battery just died overnight & the next morning your car will not respond to your remote, to gain access inside the car, there is an emergency key inside the remote. At the driver's door handle you will see small "key icon" & below that is a small rectangular hole where your emergency key fits. Fry that off using your emergency key and now you can use your emergency key to open the door. Open the hood/bonnet. You can now have access to jump your car or have the access to open the trunk/boot to replace the dead battery.
One thing for sure, owning a Jaguar is like a having treasure map for a lost treasure. There are small things that will see in the car that will give you a hint but you have to figure it out.
Yes, using the jump start terminals in the engine compartment might provide enough power to operate the trunk lid. However, some owners have reported that their battery failed so completely (and suddenly) that it, in effect, absorbed the jump start power and still wouldn't provide enough power to open the trunk lid. There is a dealership method of getting around this - it involves removing the rear seat and some of the rear trim panels to access the actual power supply to the trunk lid lock- and then applying a 12v supply to this. What a palaver! So it is wise, as soon as there is any evidence of battery failure, to replace it. This really is a Jaguar design fault and it applies AFAIK to all XFs and XEs.
Yes, I have a CTEK and use it regularly to keep the battery topped uop if I'm not using the car often. The terminals under the hood/bonnet are very convenient for connecting it.
My concern about battery failure and subsequent access comes from my experience with a Dodge Charger, which also has the battery in the trunk/boot. This was running well and I parked it at an airport. When I returned a few days later the battery was completely dead with not enough power even to operate the door locks. It had failed completely after just 3 days of standing and with n o azdvance warning.
I was able to get into the car using the skeleton key, but of course I couldn't open the trunk lid to get to the battery to replace it. Luckily the Charger has rear seats that can be folded down and the release buttons for these are accessible from inside the car (which is not the case with the XF/XE where the release cables are only accessible from the trunk). So I folded the seats down, crawled into the trunk and could then reach the trunk lid emergency release handle. Of course this handle is only present on US XFs/XEs - it is not present on those sold in the UK and Europe.
So, problem solved with the Charger, but I'm not so sure how it could be solved with the XF/XE. Even in the US, where the XF/XE has an emergency trunk release it will be difficult to fold the rear seats to access this handle, because the seat release cables are only accessible when the trunk lid is opened!
Your XF setup is similar to my F-PACE with the battery next to the spare wheel and identical +ve and -ve terminals in the engine compartment. If you power those terminals, then even with a dead vehicle battery, it should allow you to open the luggage compartment to get to the battery.
I haven't experienced this myself but I've seen accounts on other XE/XF forums where applying power to the terminals in the engine compartment did NOT allow the boot/trunk lid to be opened. Speculation was that a totally failed battery (rather than one that was just very low on charge) effectively shorted out any power applied to it. Unfortunately (and unlike old style lead-acid batteries which seem to fail slowly) modern AGM batteries do seem to fail suddenly and completely.
Given this possibility it does seem to me to be a JLR design failing not to include a simple (and cheap) key operated lock on the boot/trunk lid.
The battery does not power the vehicle directly in these models. The intermediate connection is the Battery Junction Box .........
........ and the engine compartment +ve stud goes direct to this:
It doesn't matter whether the battery is alive, dead or not even there.
This is why my XK does have a manual lock on the luggage compartment. On the XK the +ve connection is direct to the battery then to a CJB (Central Junction Box) inside the vehicle and there are circumstances where powering the engine compartment emergency stud will NOT open the hatch/lid.
Thank you for your informative reply. Just to check my understanding - for the XE and XF, powering the engine compartment stud will always allow the luggage compartment lid to be opened, even if the battery has completely died or is not there? But on the XK this is not the case, so Jaguar does provide a manual lock on the lid in this case. In which case the design decisions are more logical than I thought, though a manual lock on the XE and XF lids would still have been useful and would surely be a trivial extra cost - even for the bean counters.
I've so far not chosen to test my XE with the battery disconnected to see if I can open the lid by powering the engine compartment stud - I have not wanted to risk being locked out of the luggage compartment! I guess though I could test it with the the luggage compartment lid open and just see if the lock will activate.
After several years of XJ saloons (X300, X308) and XK8's not having a manual unlock alternative which led to some 'interesting' emergency access methods, Jaguar finally did add one to the XK. Here's my XK showing the lock which is normally hidden behind a standard size UK/European registration plate:
It's essential on this model because the +ve battery lead links directly to the CJB (Central Junction Box) inside the vehicle. If the battery is totally dead, powering from an emergency stud in the engine compartment doesn't ensure the tailgate will unlock.
X250, F-PACE etc have a more advanced design where battery power goes direct to the BJB (Battery Junction Box) and the emergency +ve stud in the engine compartment making the alternative manual access unnecessary. However, I agree it's a foolish economy not to have it.
Jaguar aren't alone in seemingly strange engineering decisions. I recently traded my Porsche Cayenne for an F-PACE. On the Porsche, the battery is under the front passenger seat. First remove the seat and then cut the carpet to access it!
Graham,
The stud in the engine compartment is connected to the battery through a 450A fuse as shown on your wiring diagram.
So surely it does matter if the battery is still connected.
If the battery has shorted cells then it could be a struggle to get the voltage up enough to operate the trunk lock.
I wonder how much angst the design committee suffered pondering the dollars or GBP saved by omitting a key lock ?
I guess they all drive Jags paid for and serviced by the company - why should they worry.
My 2017 XF was bought 2nd hand and has one more service in January before extended warranty expires. Then I will mostly do my own maintenance. Last time I asked on this forum if there is a source of documentation for this the answer was "No".
Has anything changed ? For instance is the wiring diagram you show actually for a late model XF ?
The diagram is a generic X260/X761 for 2017. As I see it, the engine bay +ve stud goes direct to the BJB busbar .....
If you are looking for the itemised Service Schedules for your 2017 XF, any UK member with the same model and year can download the checksheets (free) from Jaguar OSH (Online Service History). Here's an example for my XK:
There's an individual itemised list for each service interval.
If you want the Workshop Manual for your VIN then signing up to TOPIx and buying one day 'time' is sufficient to download it. Although TOPIx is the JLR Dealer portal, anyone can register for an account as an 'Independent'. I'll not go into details for that here as it's way off the thread topic.
Thanks Graham,
1) I already signed up to TOPIx last year, but at the time baffled by the complexity.
Today paid my 30GBP and downloaded a few items but obviously you cannot download a complete workshop manual as such - or can you ?
It would be a massive file.
2) I could not find a wiring diagram like you show. I will start new topic.
..... Today paid my 30GBP and downloaded a few items but obviously you cannot download a complete workshop manual as such - or can you? .....
Sorry for the late reply. I missed your post.
The entire Workshop Manual can be downloaded BUT as individual PDF's. Both my XK and F-PACE manuals were over 1000 files so it was then a few hours work to rename, combine and index as a single PDF. TOPIx content is nowhere near as comprehensive as the old paper Workshop Manuals but there's no alternative source.
05-27-2019, 08:06 AM
