Good morning everyone. First post.

I have a 2013 XJ - 5000 miles. Yesterday and today I had frightening issues of acceleration where the gas pedal stuck to the floor. Only way to keep the car from moving was standing on the brake. Managed to get the car into neutral and then turn it off. When I turned it back on again, it went to over 5000 rpms. I let it sit, in the middle of the road, for a few minutes and tried again.

It will be towed back to the dealer today, but the first thing the service advisor said was, "... never heard that before."

Has anyone else heard of this and could you point me in the direction where I might be able to obtain information?

I really narrowly avoided a terrible accident today and really don't want to EVER get back into the car without a concrete resolution.

Thanks.

 

Very scary! Sorry you had such bad experience. I have not seen this happen, at least not on this forum. I would not want to drive that car until full resolution, as well.

Can you state what powertrain to you have? Assuming the 3.0 Supercharged?

 

I would suggest you visit and use the website Home | Safercar -- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

 

yep - 3.0 Supercharged. Thanks.

 

atty2000, this could be caused by a few things. Some which is an intenral failure of the ECM leading to a wide open throttle signal being sent to the throttle body. The other could be simply a shorted wire that is driving the throttle body full open. I guess the check that I would be doing is to have the car parked (set the e-brake) and then turn the car to the RUN position (do not start it). Then you can remove the intake tube from the throttle body and see what the position of the throttle body is. If the throttlebody is open, then turn the car off. If the throttle body remains open, then you have a failed throttlebody that for some reason, the internals have frozen and resulted in too much air getting into the engine leading to the racing engine (as the computer is going to try and not make the engine run lean by adding more fuel, leading ot rising RPMs). If the throttle body goes closed, then this would confirm an electrical issue. Without some special electronic gizmos, figuring out whether it is the ECU or the wiring being the problem, they will end up swapping the ECU to see if the problem goes away most likely.

 

Glad he understood what was happening and brought the car under control. Honda and Toyota people just crashed.

 

Thank you. This is really helpful.

 

It was actually kind of surreal. I was on a busy road, on a curve, heading into ongoing traffic. I was actually changing modes to get the computer to "do something else." Winter, regular, sport etc.... Then I made the decision that if I couldn't get it into neutral, I was going to veer into the wall to my right. I actually went through the thought process of, "that wall is just a few feet away, the crash won't be too bad, it'll hold the car and I won't hurt anyone else." All the while trying to get to neutral then off.

I've never really been in a situation that dangerous. When I got to a safe place I was really shaking, but while it happened, I have to admit, I did pretty darn good.

 

Next time (if ever) don't try to control the speed with the brakes. Shift the transmission to neutral and pull to the side of the road and stop. Once stopped, shut off the engine. Revving to the engine redline will not hurt it.

Don't start it again till the problem is found and fixed. If the gas pedal is physically stuck to the floor or frozen in position, that's a giant clue.

 

Yes, thanks. Believe me, I was trying to get it into neutral. Couldn't!

 

May I ask what prevented this?

 

Was (or is) the pedal physically down? Was the car in cruise control at the time?

 

Yes. The pedal was physically down. I had just accelerated and when I let off the gas, it stayed down. Not in cruise control. Sport and dynamic mode both active.

 

Hello Atty2000,

I am sorry to hear of your experience. So that I can get my colleagues to look into this and contact you, please can you supply me with the following information:
Full Name
Email
VIN
Dealership

Many Thanks

Mike

 

Any updates? We are also rolling around Great Falls/McLean in a 2013 XJ and were wondering if you, or the dealer, had any answers yet. So far (14 months/12k) this car has been nothing other than outstanding!

 

I expect either a pedal jammed down (by a mat or whatever) or - rather unlikely - broken.

I believe the jag pedal has 2 different sensors and multiple redundancy, completely UNlike the other makes of cars that have had problems. (I took an X-Type one apart and there's no way it can give false readings that aren't detected short of some horrific abuse or fault.)

 

Hi Atty2000
Could you give us all an update, please.

 

Unfortunately no resolution. Dealership unsuccessful and Jaguar NA completely and utterly unhelpful.

 

Dealership unsuccessful at what?

 

Dealership "couldn't recreate the problem." The service manager said, "I'm authorizing the loaner for another 24 hours and you need to pick your car up." That was it.

Every time I called Carmen at Jaguar NA I would leave a VM. She never picks up the phone!

The whole episode has soured me on Jaguar. I and my family have been driving Jaguars since 1971.

No more.