So, my first post. Let me give you a quick (edit: WARNING - This is NOT quick!) bit of backstory...

I have ALWAYS loved Jaguars. As a child I thought that the XJS V12 was the most wonderful thing that I had ever seen! I remember telling my grandfather, a mechanic, that when I was older I was going to drive one. He laughed and said that there wouldn't be one for me to drive by then, and he was pretty close to spot on! Once I hit 17 and got my licence, the likes of a Jaguar was far out of reach, of course, but I never stopped dreaming that one day I would splash out and treat myself.

That went on for 3 marriages, two children (thankfully both with wife #3 who I am with to this day!), many life changes and some fairly hard moments - All told, about 35 years!

Just over a year ago, I finally made it. OK, not a brand new Jaguar, not quite there yet, although I am actually glad that I didn't. I bought myself a wonderful 2011 XF 5.0 V8 N/A in Caviar with an Ivory interior that had a little less than 80,000 miles and was in simply stunning condition. Great service history, the works. In truth, thanks to the absurd price of petrol, the fellow selling it pretty much made me an offer that I couldn't refuse, and a bargain was most certainly had! The past year has seen almost nothing spent aside from normal servicing (I also had the gearbox done, despite Jaguar telling me not to bother) and have ploughed around 13,000 effortless, joyful and, at times, hugely fun-filled miles onto it since then!

I love it. I truly do. None of the novelty has worn off and none of the feeling of pride has lost its shine. Every time I get in it feels like the first time again. Rolling along motorways is so effortless it is borderline silly, driving through the back lanes is exciting and even taking it into town is none of the chore that I thought that it might be! All in all, I am one happy bunny and, although we decided that we would keep it for a couple of years and then trade up to a new car, I just don't see that happening, such is my love for it!

Now, just to finish this outrageously long "intro" up, while I only became an owner a year ago, I was actually living the life of a Jaguar owner vicariously through you all for a few years, too! A lot of the general chat here really helped to focus me on getting the right car when the moment arrived, and I want to thank you for that. I truly wouldn't have chosen this particular model, especially having to import it from the US to Poland (and now to Spain), had it not been for the conversations that I have read here over the years. It also helped to prepare me for the myriad "foibles" of Jaguar ownership too, which may be some of the reason why there are things that are not perfect about the car that simply don't bother me in the slightest.

With all of that out of the way, I (finally) will get to the point - "So many questions!"

After one year of ownership I have found a few things that I believe may be related, but have not managed to find a mechanic (Jaguar included) that has been able to find a fix for them. These are:

• Tyre Pressure Warning System Failure (No codes and no ability to even communicate with the module which has been replaced to no avail)
• Heated/Cooled Seats do nothing when activated (Hot or cold and, again, no codes)
• Bluetooth Phone Search button does nothing at all. It simply presses and, well, nothing (Not that concerned, as I understand that I cannot stream music with this anyway, but I feel that it may be related and thus useful info)

Aside from those:

• I have nothing more than an AUX jack in the centre console with a fairly nasty looking blanking plate where the iPod and USB "should" be
  • Is this just something that happened on a Premium Luxury spec 5 litre car back in the day, or did somebody perform a cheap "fix" to avoid a repair/replacement bill?
• I have a boot floor that seems to be bent or twisted and doesn't sit flush (the wooden piece that lifts to show the spare wheel)
  • Is this something that can be corrected or should I replace it?
• Both of the front windows have a habit of suddenly not closing, almost as though there is something blocking them, and they drop down again. Do it three times, break the program, reset it (as learned here!) and it eventually closes, however, they only do this once in a while, but do it a lot for about a week or two and then all is well again. I tried getting super detailed while cleaning the seals and glass, but it was pretty much spotless anyway, and this didn't make any difference. I even tried a squirt of WD40 in the edges, but no dice!
  • Does this need a replacement part, is there a trick that I am missing or, as a mechanic recently told me, would replacing the battery probably fix it?
• There is a ticking noise when the engine is running. It is very faint and sounds a lot like an exhaust pipe cooling down after a good run, but it isn't! It is coming from the engine area and doesn't appear to have any noticeable rhythm to it. Bonnet up or down doesn't seem to make a great deal of difference to the volume level and it is not consistently there, either. In fact, 100% of the times that I have taken it to a mechanic, it has not done it!
• The A/C is far too happy to pump in whatever is outside of the car, usually some deliciously heady diesel delight! I have changed the cabin filter for the A/C (I paid the price and got the expensive one with the "gold" in it - Not sure if this is actually a thing, but I paid the price for it anyway!), but nothing changed.
  • Is there a way to improve this?
• The sun roof has started to drop over the driver's side at the front end of the car. It also rattles a little at certain speeds, although I also think that there could be a wheel balancing issue that is making this worse.
  • Is this a known issue with the sunroof on these cars and is there an easy fix, or is it a main dealer job and potentially expensive?
• Finally, the interior lights have suddenly started to have a life of their own! They have started to switch themselves on and off as they see fit. It only happens for a few seconds, usually ends up with them switched on when they shouldn't be and seems to resolve itself when I tap and hold the main switch to turn them back to auto mode (when they flash before going off again). This usually happens when I am driving and I wonder if it may be connected to the sunroof dropping and potentially pushing on the switching beneath the headliner.

OK, I am going to stop! I know that most of these are not actually that important, but I really want to keep up with things and, as a good deal of these have been looked at by mechanics who have not solved them, I wondered it there was some input from here that may help me to better understand what may be causing them or even possibly point me towards fixing them myself!

Thank you all once again for all of the help that you have already and unknowingly given me over the years and for any help that you are able to give me with the list above!

 

Awesome, I feel the exact same about my XES! All my cars have been s**tboxes (fast ones, but still...) and I've dreamed of being able to afford a luxury vehicle since I was young. Always thought it'd be an Audi or a BMW, but the Jag came along at the right time and I fell in love. A year and a half later I still love it

Re: the windows, there's a thread here where the guy had the same symptoms, and @Vasara posted a solution at post #9 although we didn't get an update from the OP about whether it worked. I can't really help with the rest of the problems, however I can give you one tip - the search function here can be very broad so I find it works best if I limit my searches to certain forums, and sometimes get a bit creative with terms to narrow down the results. If your Google-fu is good, you can use Google to search the site by entering your search term along with the parameter "site:jaguarforums.com" (for example "window won't close site:jaguarforums.com") which often returns different results, sometimes better sometimes worse.

A Jaguar is the kind of car on which you should definitely fix things that are "not that important"

 

I can help with two of your questions:
The engine ticking is normal for these engines and most of the time it is just the ticking of the fuel injectors.
The AJ133 (both NA and SC) is GDI - gasoline direct injection - and uses very high fuel pressure even at idle, so it "ticks".
It could also be worn tappets/lifters, not unknown on this engine but relatively uncommon.
The interior lights playing up is a very common problem on the XF and is usually caused by poor connection of the globes/bulbs.
The best fix I found on both my XFs was to replace the OEM bulbs with LEDs (COB is best), no more acting up and much better/whiter/brighter/nicer light.

 

Thank you @dangoesfast ! And, yes, that is a beautiful cat you have there! Congratulations!

I actually read that thread in the past, but couldn't find it when I looked again. I definitely need to get my GoogleFu up to scratch!

 

The ticking does sound like tappets, but way quieter. Maybe that is part of the engineering itself, with the car so focused on being graceful and quiet. That said, the fact that I can't ever seem to get it to do it with a mechanic present makes me feel as though the car gods don't want me to spend too much time or money on it, so I will leave it until such time as it reveals itself at the right moment!

Changing the bulbs seems like a great idea! The "orange" hue is not the prettiest and doesn't mix well with the blue mood lighting either. I will take a look around the local area and find a source for them. Looks like my weekend project is all set!

Thank you!

 

You mention no codes but did not say what device your using?
Many different code readers and most won't read what you need on a Jaguar.

Also we never got any Diesels in the US and the people on here are mainly US guys.
There is a great UK forum and it's full of Diesel questions!
UK Jaguar Forum
.
.
.

 

@clubairth1 Thank you for replying, although I won't be needing a UK forum, as you can see!

The codes were checked by mechanics, not by myself and that includes mechanics (sorry, technicians!) at JLR, so I am assuming that they should be able to find them if they exist.

 

Sorry for the wrong info! My mistake.
Yes but to help we need the codes numbers?
.
.
.

 

No worries! It was a LONG post!

In terms of the codes, that is just it. There aren't any. Literally the entire system doesn't even respond to the various devices that various mechanics, including JLR mechanics, have tried.

 

Get a cheap OBD tool which does live data such as elm327 and do not clear codes but do check the live data (ECT, IAT, MAF, fuel trims, ...).

At least you'll find if it talks to the PCM and whether the DLC (OBD connector) works somewhat. Debug the DLC if not, or then splash on a better tool.

 

Hi VPOps, hopefully I could address a few of these experiences you have had with mine.

1. TPMS issues and errors. Our 2010 is very particular with these sensors and even after replacing with OEM sensors, still have to swap out until they properly link. I have tried new antennas and swapping the module but still extremely picky while the 2014 has no issues even with aftermarket.

2. Heated seats seem to take a long time to warm and engine must be running for them to work while cleaning the fan made a big difference for the cooling but that means taking out the seats and nothing it placed under the seats.

3. Bluetooth phone search, other than a lot of voice repeating, either can still performs this but not as smooth as i would have hoped for. Found Iphone worked a lot better than android.
4. Aux sounds a bit strange and might need a pic to see what is there.
5. boot spare cover sounds like something heavy or wet caused damage and might need replacing.
6. Window issue, I'm guessing you went through the recalibration process used for changing the battery, A4 process which battery is disconnected for more than 2 minutes before reconnecting, running the motor and at least 20 commands to lower and raise the window with the single touch feature? Operation is based off the current draw from the motor to determine if properly shut.
7.Ticking has been addressed.
8. Air cabin filter is a particulate filter and not design to isolate scent.
9. Sunroof issue, must identify the seal issue or bigger problems will arise. Depending on use, keep the seals clean and treated as well as cleaning and lubing the track.
10. Lighting, clean contacts but as already mentions, switching to LED solved most concerns but with a leaking sunroof, might be a product of the moisture.

Well that's my 2 cents, hope it helps a bit.

Kevin

 

Smashed with a huge project at work right now, but just wanted to thank you so much for taking the time to provide so much insight here. I will respond to the points and get some photos together to clarify some things, but I genuinely wanted to at least acknowledge your reply and let you know how much I appreciate it!