So, I got my XJL back from the dealer. They declared the ride "normal". While there, they replaced my 1yr old battery, due to frequent "Low Battery Warnings". They also changed the software at my request to make the paddle shifters on the XJL work in "D" mode. They say the same can be done on 2012 XF also. It works fine, the only difference is that when you put the car in "S" mode the transmission gear indication displays in the left virtual gauge. With this software change when I use the paddles in "D" mode the gear indicator pops up in the smaller little circle on the right side of the pod where the normal "D" would be displayed.

After test driving the other 3 Jags, I got back into my "normally" riding XJL and was simply horrified at the ride. Now it is even more pronounced how horrible the vibration is. Not sure what the the test driving technician was smoking to declare this "normal". Needless to say the issue will have to be escalated.

So, lets talk about the other vehicles that I test drove.

2013 XJL - I certainly could not feel that the new 2013 suspension was any softer than my '12. But, the car did not have the vibration which made a world of difference.

2013 XF 3.0 - I was entirely impressed with the power of the supercharged V6. Plenty of acceleration power and INCREDIBLE gas mileage. On my way back to the dealer, a 5 minute (1 mile) city traffic and 42 miles of freeway driving produced 32.7 MPG. My XJL on the way back did the same at 25.6 MPG. Huge difference.

The engine, while more than enough, does feel a touch rougher than the V8. The deal-breaker for me, however, was the good 3 seconds lag that occurred every time I smashed the accelerator to the floor from a cruising speed of 70 MPH. Can not tell if it was a unique transmission adjustment issue or, was it the "normal" lag that it would take for the supercharger to actually deliver the boost into the combustion chambers. The noise increased almost immediately as I smashed the gas pedal but, the trust did not come in for a long 3 seconds. That is unacceptable. My V8 XJL in the same scenario would take less than a second to deliver the acceleration trust. I must say, however, that at lighter levels of acceleration that transmission and the engine appeared to respond much quicker.

2014 F-Type. I must retract my claim from 2 days ago on the XK forum where i said that I felt cramped in the F-type. That was because apparently the "Low Battery Warning" on the showroom floor car did not allow the electric seat operation and it would not go all the way back to provide for sufficient leg room for my 6' frame.

Today, I test drove a top of the line V8 car with the optional sport seats and I had plenty of leg room, even though when my legs were fully straight the seat was at the end of its travel, pressing hard against the rear bulkhead.

The V8 F-type is both and animal and a fine car. Most interestingly, since I have ride issues with my XJL I was looking at the ride quality. To my HUGE surprise, I found the ride on 20" wheels to be smoother and definitely better than my vibrating XJL on 19" and even better than my V8, 2012 XF on 18" wheels. The steering wheel was rock solid and calm, no undue road vibrations or roughness coming through the chassis.

I started out with the exhaust cut-out activated and, I must say, that some 25 years younger I would have been impressed with the near completely un-muffled, unruly, back-spitting, crackling sounds. Today, however, as I leaned hard into the throttle on the freeway, I strangely felt the need to apologize to the poor drivers that I blew-by with that really LOUD and unruly exhaust. I would assume it could be the equal to a Harley Davidson with custom, straight pipes; music for some ears, super irritating for the rest of the public.

Luckily you have the choice to press a console button and close the exhaust cut-out, which immediately civilizes the car with a nice muffled sound and still more power than any sane person will use on the streets.

This is really the first convertible car I have ever driven and I realized that I was not the fan of verts. At 70-80 MPH the air turbulence was so loud and violent that conversation with the nice young sales lady was nearly impossible. The wind was tearing at our hairs more than what I would find comfortable. She did say that Jaguar officials indicated at their factory event that the coupe version would be available as early as the end of this year. According to her, people who toured the factory reported seeing a line of coupes being build.

The fully loaded V8 F-type stickered at $105K. We guessed that the coupe might sneak-in under 100K with the same options. I was VERY impressed with the car, it is a great toy and from my test drive experience would not be a bad or uncomfortable touring car for distances either.

Albert

 

Sorry to hear this. When you escalate the problem hopefully they will take care of you.


Do you remember which tires the 13 had? Were they Pirelli?

 

No, I did not pay attention to the '13 tire brand/model. The car was a XJL Portfolio, otherwise identical to mine.

Albert

 

It's a shame, what 's happening here. Really sorry about it, if I was you i will stop driving others cars now or reporting satisfaction with other jag vehicles, call a lawyer and jaguar usa and I will be cold and firm.

Maybe we should open a thread for this goats dealerships!!! this will helps all, customer, Jaguar! and these sheeps!!!

Its psychological where we are driven loose, with unsuccessful repairs, as we have MUCH more integrity than some dealers, you have to be good and brings back positive points etc,,,but its' not really how to resolve a severe issue i am sorry.
And what about the damper issue now, (it's gone with the wind) they could not set the other xj wheels on your car, this was too difficult to do??????? so they have you tried others cars in case it resolved your problem? I am not laughing at you Albert, not at all, i have lot of respect, i am just pissed off. It is interesting to see the efforts done not to resolve the problem i will say, it take less time to swap wheels that trying 2 cars. I will go and swap my xf wheels to the xj at any tire shops, and i will forget this group of sheeps for a while.

The battery issue, "low battery signs" from what I understood is here to avoid you abuse electrical stuff while the ignition is off, it has nothing to see with a low battery, I had mine change oem at jag, a week after i was getting this error message. What people don't understand and jaguar dealer again more , is that we constantly need to add distilled water into the battery but I will bet you on 10 jag dealership maybe one is doing it. Nobody does, so you run out and pay a new one. You probably resolved something that did not need anything, you could even got a newer battery stocked there one year, with a low water level!

All the best Alfred

These resolutions, trials, seems more appropriate to have you trade your car from a problem well known or too difficult to diagnose and resolve than actually fix your car. For me this is a run around, sorry to say so. Plus, when ones, tells you its perfectly fine and you suffer from this ride, is not acceptable. It is exactly how they do when they try to do all except resolving the issue.
It is easier to take your cash give you another car, fix this one and sell it. In this case indeed they may know what's going on with this car.

 

I went for the small range rover I bought, the alignment guy said we had a right front arms bad, he did hsi best for the alignment but said ti was not great, they told me it is going on the right, before and after the alignment, which really I did not even noticed before or after the alignment indeed! Francisco said the tecnician here will double check it and confirm if we need to do something, and yes it is needed both front arms, I do not feel anything wrong, but we will do it wednesday. Cause the alignment guy worked it out his best, I heard you can align a range in 15 minutes, he passed more than an hour...or 2 with balancing etc.

I have 2 copies printed showing the part numbers, price, labor time, and he showed me the part on the computer and explain how it is set etc...labor is 240 something like this and I got like 40 or 50% on labor. It is simple it is the kind of job they may not make any profits at all. This is a good service.

 

On my wife's new XF the front driver-side wheel has -0.2 degree camber and the front passenger wheel has -1.4 degree. I still have my alignment tools from my racing years and tried to adjust the driver's side to equal the -1.4 but, guess what, the camber is already at its maximum at only -0.2.

Since my wife hardly drives that car, no hurry to take it back but, I do intend to complain about such large deviation from the factory between the two sides. I already know the answer; "both are within factory specs". However, I would very much prefer to be able to get at least -1.0 on the wheel as most of my wife's local driving is on tight winding roads and -0.2 is simply not enough. It is going to wear the outer edge of the tire plus, I can certainly feel the improved handling that results from more camber. I sure hope that they have a different sized concentric bolt that will allow for more adjustment. You would think you could expect to change the alignment within very reasonable parameters to suit the usage.

Very sloppy factory quality checks as even the non-adjustable rear wheel cambers have significant differences between the two sides.

Albert

 

Next car I bought I will go with a metal bar and a level and if one wheel is out I will not buy it. I will do such check that they will feel bad about it. I use to care and i do not care now.
sorry i did not want write 2 posts yesterday and hijack your thread, I hope they fix the xj very soon.

 

Any news Albert?

 

Thanks for asking but, nothing good. After the 4th dealer trip with the same ride issue the ride is still bad. They are failing to recognize the problem.

I don't entirely blame the dealer service as during their short test drives the problem may not become evident. It comes and goes and requires a long test drive. Just yesterday my wife and I took a drive and for the first 50 miles it was almost OK. My wife would not even notice the occasional vibrations from her passenger seat. I am so tuned to it now that I recognize the smallest manifestations of it now. On the way back, however, she complained about the near constant chassis vibration. It was a lot worse then.

The Service Manager is trying to help, asking me for a suggestion on what to fix. I can only guess, I think it is one of the dampers, just like it was 5K miles back. But, then, there was an error code in the car and now there is not. He is willing to work more on the car but, I really need to take him for a longer test drive and actually point to the problem when it is happening. That is really difficult to arrange because by the time I get to the dealer, after work, the freeways are jammed and the problem is at freeway speeds. I may have to take a day off from work, just for the test drive.

Albert

 

Thanks Albert,
Yes I think it's really worth to take a day off, or to update with the xf wheels and check it ( I did not understood if the xf problem you had may interfer with a swap or not, this will be my first trial). If the dealership ask on advice why not considering updating the dampers, and communicate with jaguars about it, so you have more attention and time, myself too when I was trying to diagnose the direction problem, due to bushings, there was no wind or when there was some wind they were 5 inside the car. Maybe this error code could have been cleared out for ever?...Anyway and for sure the problem is not gone, too bad as it is scary for new xj buyers. Keep us update if you take the day to the dealer. Have you tried emailing a couple of UK London, Coventry aera service manager to ask an advice, I know it sounds like...
i got my xk doing some weird things yesterday under the cover. lol. alarm start ringing real bad at 6 am i woke up stopped it, came back at 9 started the car was ok, but i noticed the remote not being so responsive anymore, i took the battery off to buy a nnew one but error i should not take it off that long so all remote were disprogrammed. I could not start the car unless i was inserting the remote in the console there, but it took me a while as I thought the battery was dead. First time when it happenned i found the rear trunk door opened, but second time nothing was open and the car ringing and ringing again for 1 minute or 2 then stops then ringing again, my neighboors was mad of mad.. at the dealership the smart guy that is always right asked me if i have been around a police station or something. They reprogrammed the remotes due to my error but we do not know why the car was ringing like this. Maybe my jag is suffering of not driving it and or she dislike the sierra calderonna now...? lol... they said it could have been a failure with a door lock or something but did not found any. Hopefully my car has not been breached. Sorry Albert I thought it was the thread I started in this section before...anyway, I had to disconect the battery manually and then i looked for my keys 2 hours around cause due to the stress and all i forgot my keys was on the trunk there but since it was lifted i could not see them or remember I left them there...anyway, remember if you remote do not work to plug it inside the console and update the battery quickly. Small problem without clear explanation. Today all day it was nice and quiet.

 

Electrical issues tend to remind me to the Jaguar years of Lucas electric components. I could tell stories about Lucas and their constant failings for days. Now I can laugh about them but, at the time, they were absolutely horrendous.

Battery issues are very common on these forums and have been found to be the cause of many strange electrical issues. When batteries begin to age or weaken, strange things happen to our cars.

Yesterday my wife came home in her 2012 XK with less than 2K miles on the odometer and told me that she could not open the trunk. I tried and no luck. You could not even hear the electric solenoid pickup. I figured a blown fuse and called the dealer to make an appointment for next Monday. This morning she goes to start the car and the trunk opens. I tried it several times and while it took two presses on any of the 3 actuators, it worked. I lubed the latch mechanism, thinking that it might be binding. Still, I should have heard the solenoid trying to pickup, binding or not. When she came home, I tried it again and this time it opened on the first attempt several times. So, cancelled the Dealer's appointment for now and waiting to see if and when it will occur again. Someone posted on the XF board that his trunk would not open and the dealer has not been able to fix it for a month now! That got my attention.

The logistics for me to take a day off to go to this remote dealer are not easy but, I will have to do it if I wish to have any chance for fixing it.

Good luck with your electrical issues,

Albert

 

My battery was changed 5 months ago, even the old one was not that bad and i kept a correct water level too, I do not know if i opened the trunk door by error with the remote being in my pocket it happen so often but with the cover on i could not see any light or the trunk opened, my bet was that the battery was lightly discharged and then the remote start to be wicked. and trying to use the remote may have engage the alarm, I am not going to do a big deal at it, i know so many times thing come and disappear the same way, so .....
someone could tried to robbed the car by opening the trunk door the first time, but then the range rover was behind it, no way he will have been able to get out so i have doubts about it. maybe the trunk door openner failed twice...and open itself, so the alarm was still active...my car is excellent despite the transmission thing but and again its not that bad, i am a perfectionist and somebody else will not notice anything.

Thanks Albert, if i was you but its me and i have much less money than yourself and therefor what i put in my car is sacred and a lot for me so i will go the soonest as possible there trying to find a fix. or take both cars to a tire shop to swap the wheels. all the best.

one thing is sure if the battery run low the remote key stop working, if you take too much time to replace the battery remote same thing, and both happened, now not sure why the alarm start ringing but instead of disconnecting the battery, I will have done better inserting the remote into the console, this may have stopped all the weird things to happen, instead I dis-programmed the remote and also disconecting the battery is not the best, by chance I choose the black negative one. And I will not keep the jag remote in my pocket with my other keys if i do not use it, so I will not open a trunk or door by mistake anymore, specially while it is under the cover and it is not possible to see it.

And I bought at the dealership a battery charger to maintain it, it is only 56 euros come with a jag logo and you plug it to the trunk electrical plug there, not the battery so its simple. Was thinking there is not enough power to start the car, things works but not enough to start, while it started very well with the remote plugged into the console, i still buy this charger cause i use the jag once or twice a week only sometimes for 10 days i do not drive it so....but indeed my battery was fine, the fact the remote did not worked anymore, were not recognized, make me think i did not have enough power to start it, well wrong! men I had to call the assistance from france as i did not thought or remember plugging the remote there, which he reminds me, but while the guy shows up, I have not retrieved my keys, so I politely ask the guy to go over the garden door etc, which he did many times to go and come back indeed...lol... so remember plugging the remote into the console if any problems if you do not want run crazy like I did. If someone knows what I should do now for the idle due to the battery disconnecting for one hour, not sure if the shop has done anything else than reprogramming the remote.

I did not know too until i red the book that pushing the two mirror button in the same time will release the mirrors too.
and i used to hide the other remote in the garden inside 2 ziplocks and a table plastic foot but it was confirmed not working by the dealer (or only when plugged, i may keep it as is for security, if found the thief may not know how to use it), and i removed it from there it could interfer with the other remote. So I do not know why it has ring like this but i did like 3 things to avoid this happening again.