Hi gang, I'm still only about a month into my 2017 XF and loving it. One thing I noticed is that even though the auto start/stop switch is on (as it does when starting the car up), it has never once stopped itself at a stoplight, etc. Please note that I'm not complaining about this, as I hate that "feature" in cars. But should I just thank my lucky stars and move on? Or could there be something wrong? I was planning on doing the mod where you pull the black plug in the trunk above the breaker panel, but realized it's never seemed to work anyway.

 

Turn if OFF and ON on the Menu list from the instrument panel and see what happens

 

Your battery may be too low on power to activate it. The 'system' should tell you that though. Maybe someone has already deactivated it by pulling the plug (worked for me) but it should show "A OFF" in the information panel when you start the car.

 

I don't have that option on the instrument menu in my car (2017 Premium).

 

Hmm, maybe? But visually it's acting completely normal. The button is lit up when starting the engine, there's no error on the display, then when I push the button, the light goes off, the auto start off message shows briefly, and the little A off icon is in the display. But at no time does the jag turn off on its own. Very strange, but again I'm not complaining :-)

 

Good, don't make a good deal out of it. Your car's starter will have a longer life in return.

 

Since you bought it used .... Check to see if it has the correct battery installed and I bet it's not the original one. At least 80Ah 800Cca. JLR did away with the two battery configuration to run Start/Stop and went to one big (Ah/Cca) battery with the X260.

 

Thats definitely a perk!

 

the battery should be an AGM to cope with the extra start/stop function. If this is not working its telling you your battery is not up to scratch. These models are sensitive to battery condition so I would get it checked out otherwise you will get other faults pop up.
Also get a proper charger. CTEK MXS 5.0. is the one.
Cheers

 

Does my car have only the single battery? Or is there a second one for the start-stop?

 

Single battery on all X260.

 

Awesome, thank you!

 

Personally I keep the start stop on and use it as an indication of my battery state. When I start the car and drive for a short while if the car stops I switch the system off for the day. No big deal to do it once.
Also, the start stop system is actually very sophisticated. The car system knows when it is stopping and stops at exactly the same point in the cycle. The cylinder has a full charge and the engine just needs a little kick to get it going. Clever.

 

The usual reason why stop-start doesn't work is that the main car battery is getting near the end of its life. Although it can still start the engine without a problem, the system detects that its voltage is a little lower then optimum and inhibits the stop-start.
This situation can of course be left as-is, but the downside is that modern batteries tend to completely fail suddenly - like overnight. You can drive up to your house completely normally one evening, leave the car overnight and when you try to start it the next morning it's completely dead - I've had this happen to me (not on an XF but on a Dodge Charger).
So renewing the battery might be adviseable - though you'll then of course have the hassle of turning off stop-start every time you start the car! At least the XF has a dedicated button to do this. Some cars hide this control in touchscreen sub menus.

 

Sounds like you're in luck. If auto start/stop isn’t kicking in and you don’t want it to, you might just enjoy it as-is. Could be normal based on battery level, A/C use, or other factors. No harm done if the car’s running fine.