Hey guys - new here. Recently bought my first Jaguar, 2013 XJL. Been dreaming of this car for a few years but wanted to wait to get a used one for a lower price.

A little about my ride: Bought it at a dealership, had 1 previous owner with 53k miles on it. Carfax was clean, maintenance done on time, no accidents or issues reported, etc, etc. Drives like a dream thus far and I absolutely love it. I can't believe I drove Cadillacs all my life before this. Anyway... So I've had an "electrical" issue happen a couple of times and wondering if A) it's related and B) it might be something serious I need to get looked at ASAP.

So the 1st time I had any issue, I was driving over one of those speed bumps on a residential street and something on the bottom of the car scrapped slightly and suddenly my dash went through all of these prompts, as if it's cycling through an issue and attempting to correct a sensor or whatever. Nothing serious, as everything went back to normal within 2-3 seconds and no check engine light came on, so figured a sensor just got temporarily rattled.

2nd time I noticed it did it while I was both, charging my phone and using the bluetooth function to play music off of it. Same thing, just flickers quickly, no time to read any of the alerts or issues. This happened again 1 more time, after having started the car with my phone charging on the cigarette lighter, music, etc.

The last time (4th) however is the one that scared me - I had just filled up the gas tank completely and driving home with my wife, phone is charging, listening to music and at a red light the car completely shut off. The shift knob switched back to "Park" and receded back to it's turned off position. I didn't understand why. I'd had my foot on the brake obviously, but this wasn't the ECO feature, as that just shuts off the engine, not the whole car. Obviously I simply pressed the ignition switch again, knob came back up and shifted back into drive and went home.

My biggest concern is that this issue could happen while I am driving on the highway at high speeds or if this is a known problem with either the cigarette lighters or the ECO engine feature, etc. Has anyone here ever had similar issues? Appreciate all your help!

 

Battery.
Long story short all modern Jags are plagued by random problems once the battery is less than 100% healthy which is often when it gets to four+ years old.
Stick a new battery in, preferably an AGM, and all your problems should be solved.

 

Hey man, appreciate the speedy reply! When you reference AGM battery, what does that acronym stand for?

 

Sealed Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) these batteries are more stable and hold a better higher charge. In an XJ X351 don't leave home without it.

 

Personally I think the problem just happens at random times, and has absolutely nothing to do with your phone charger, bluetooth etc.

I think the first thing I'd be doing is checking the security of the connections at both batteries.

 

Both batteries?

I was looking to go buy this one today at Walmart.... but you're telling me I have 2 of them? That's some pricey replacements.

 

I wouldn't bother with that boutique battery. There's an Everstart Platinum AGM H8, for $150. All the common places have versions of AGM H8.

Also, what makes you think that battery will fit? It looks like totally the wrong size, shape, and terminal type.

Also there is the secondary battery for the stop/start. Unfortunately that one is about $300, Jaguar dealer only.

Having said that, I am not a fan of the "throw parts at it and hope it will start working properly" approach to diagnosis. What will fix this car is careful diagnosis of the problem. Personally I'd consider taking it back to the dealership and making it their problem.

 

AGMs have two main advantages : the acid can't spill, which has advantages for some applications (not in ours, how much time does your car spend upside down?), and the second one is that they can accept faster charging and discharge. This is important for start/stop applications when the battery needs to be charged very quickly (ie, when braking).

They also have some serious disadvantages : real world life is frequently shorter than flooded cell (despite what the manufacturers claim), they have tricky charging requirements, and they cost more.

 

Advance has the battery and you can use one of their 20-25% coupons and normally they go on sale.
Part # H8-AGM
https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...agm/10210828-P

 

Yes try a new battery first. Any idea how old yours is?
Then report back if you still have problems.
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So I actually bought this today - appreciate the guidance. Unfortunately, after buying it and having it installed at a mechanic - I had the Advanced Auto guy "test" the old Jaguar battery and he said the readout stated it was a good battery but since I had already installed the newer one, I was not able to return / refund the new one (unless there is a defect, then the warranty kicks in). Alas, I will wait until if and when this problem arises again - either way it's never a bad idea to get a fresh battery when buying a car that isn't new.

I've attached some pictures of my old battery and trunk area - the old battery did not have a date stamp on it and said "Made in Italy" <------------- ??? Are you guys able to tell the age from the pictures / codes somehow?

 

Guys, bad news. The car did it again last night, twice.

While driving from Chicago to Toronto, about 2 hours into our trip the whole car starts flickering. Did you ever see that scene in the second Batman movie where he sets off an EMP? It's kinda like that. We had music on the Bluetooth through my phone (my phone was also charging) and the music started skipping all the dash would go off completely and come back on, etc. It's scary at 75 mph...

When it stopped flickering the "eco start" turned itself off on its own. After about another hour... Even with the Eco start off now, it briefly flickered a few times. But keep in mind, I'm not talking about lights "dimming" on and off. They don't dim. They turn on and off, on and off.

Ugh, not sure what to do now.

 

Did you check out this thread?

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ickers-215902/

 

Well, I can tell you what I'd do. The vehicle is dangerous to drive. I'd take it back to the dealership you bought it from, and demand that they fix it or refund your money. Not sure they legally have to oblige, but I doubt they want your bad reviews all over Yelp etc. A responsible dealership wouldn't be happy with selling you a dangerous vehicle either.

 

Did you ever change the battery?

 

Yessir. I think I might need to change the other one now. The eco start one. I'll try that before escalating... Also, does anyone know if there are any cables or wires underneath the car, at the undercarriage? The first time this ever happened to me, was because I went over one of those horrendous speed bump things and it scrapped he bottom and started going all Christmas-tree like.

I'm wondering if maybe that didn't loosen some harness or cable-ties or something?

 

I've got a bad eco start battery. It doesn't matter. It just disables the stop/start feature.

 

Yep, it sounds like you have a loose or broken wire somewhere, and as Mark SF says the stop/start battery can't cause your problems.
Either take the car back to the dealer to have it checked out, or better still to an auto electrician with some experience of working on modern Jags.
The dealer will probably say you caused the problem when you scraped the speed bump so it's not a warranty repair.

 

I appreciate the responses guys. I'm honestly not ready to give up on my new ride. Gonna try with the dealer, without mentioning the speedbump and see if I can at least get them to identify the problem. If I can get that information, the rest is easy.

 

When I have been in a vehicle that has a power issue to the point that the dash starts going on and off, the motor lost all its power too. Mine would also flash the dash (granted, this was in a Ford, but there are some shared components).

I helped out a fellow member that was getting lots of errors with his car and was being thrown into limp mode with no real reason that we could find. In the end, it turned out that the CAN bus connection on the back of the radio was loose and it was causing the car all sorts of grief.