Hello everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster.

I am in need of some help. Before anyone tells me I’m an idiot and it’s all my fault… I know. I rolled the dice and it didn’t come up with my numbers.

So… I have a 2017 XF, 2.0d on 88k. Serviced on time and every time. The car has intermittent use over the last year as I now live in Germany and I keep the car in the UK for when I’m back. 2 weekends per month usually.

However, the car had been parked up for 2 months, unused. I got in and it told me the battery was flat. Fair enough, right.
Started first though without so much as a hiccup. As I drove away I had the usual low battery barrage of faults about ABS, Auto Emergency Brake etc. I accepted this and carried on my 20mile drive to my friend’s house. When I got there I told him and we went out to drive and see what’s what. To my surprise the faults cleared after I set off. I googled this and it seems as thought the battery had some charge in it and then the faults cleared… awesome!

The next morning I set off to Dover to get the ferry for my 700 mile road trip. My thought was that if the fault clears after a short drive then I should give it plenty of new juice with a long drive.
this wasn’t the case as the faults came back I. The morning and then never cleared. Even after many hours of driving. But I was commuted to the drive so I carried on. I know I should t have but I did. Also… the infortaianment screen had the black and white lines on it. I attributed this to a dead battery too.

Now we need to skip forward 680 miles. Still on the same tank by the way!!
I left some road works and accelerated. The car got to around 3,000rpm and changed gear. The instant it changed gear I lost drive. Zero response from the accelerator. And the loss of drive came with a bit of a jolt of the car too.

My inmate reaction was to:
Check the rear for smoke… none.
monitor the engine for unwanted noises… none.
monitor the engine for unusual running… nothing.

Luckily there was a services exit just there so I went for it. The car was decelerating as normal with the gearbox downshifting as you’d expect. I then put it into neutral in the hope that would let me coast a little further. I made it to a parking bay and as the car stopped the engine cut off. Now it will not start.
I have a fault code reader with me so plugged it in… 5 faults:
P0341 - Camshaft Position Sensor A Circuit Range/Performance Bank 1 or Single Sensor
P23E8 - EGR C flow excessive detected
P006A - MAP - Mass or Volume airflow correlation bank 1
P0342 - Camshaft Position Sensor A Circuit Low Bank 1 or Single Sensor
P0299 - Turbo underboost condition

I haven’t tried to jump it as the missus doesn’t have jump leads and only has a Polo, 1.0 petrol. I think the battery for that is 4xAA so won’t help anyway. The engine tries to start but just won’t. I have a video of this should be required.

I done some extensive searching and have found that these motors have 2 main problems:
Timing chain
Dead battery causing carnage.

I’m not a mechanic (famous words) but I’ve undertaken a lot of my own work over the years on what I call analogue cars. So I’m quite confident that the timing chain hasn’t jumped a tooth or snapped as the engine would not have ran in the way it did until I stopped.
And for the battery… would a simple gear change under acceleration really cause a meltdown?

Any help, anecdotes, advice and yes, criticisms for driving the car knowing it needed a new battery… all welcome.

Currently the car is stranded in Germany. Parked safe and off the road.

Thanks all

Ben

 

I forgot to mention that I had the “Performance restricted” come on too.
I pulled over, turned off, went for a coffee and when I came back it cleared.