2011 jaguar xjl 5.0
Vehicle got a coolant leak, immediately had the car towed too the dealership. After about a month of no response which they said was due to them being super busy, I was given an estimate for 30k to replace the engine because they say it's seized. I really amazed how it went from coolant leak to new engine with no explanation. So decided to just fix the leak myself. Replaced the coolant flange and water pump, which ended fixing the leak altogether. The dealership told me the battery was dead so I brought a jumper with me but to my surprise no response whatsoever, not on the dash not anywhere. I can't even get too the battery, unless there's a way too remove the rear seats. Any ideas? Recommendations would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance!

 

2011 jaguar xjl 5.0
Vehicle got a coolant leak, immediately had the car towed too the dealership. After about a month of no response which they said was due to them being super busy, I was given an estimate for 30k to replace the engine because they say it's seized. I really amazed how it went from coolant leak to new engine with no explanation. So decided to just fix the leak myself. Replaced the coolant flange and water pump, which ended fixing the leak altogether. The dealership told me the battery was dead so I brought a jumper with me but to my surprise no response whatsoever, not on the dash not anywhere. I can't even get too the battery, unless there's a way too remove the rear seats. Any ideas? Recommendations would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance!

 

ANdrey, in your keyfob is a metal key (you have to open it up). That will get you to unlock the doors (assuming that they are locked, if you need more info, just say so). From there, open the hood/bonnet of the car. If you are standing in front of the car, in the upper left corner is the fuse box. You can remove the cover off of the fuse box. This will expose 2 studs. One is the positive, one is the negative. If you look on the cover that was over the fuse box, it will tell you which is which. Hood up your jumper cables to those points and you will probably need to wait about 15 minutes to let the battery take on even a partial charge. At this point, you should be able to get into the car and atleast power everything up. From here, you can pop the boot/trunk and access the battery. This is where you may want to disconnect the battery, put it on a charger to give it a good full charge and then see what the condition of the battery is. Leaving a car off for a long period of time with no battery tender can hurt the battery and damage a cell, resulting in what you are seeing (especially on an older battery). Once you get a full charge on it. take the battery to an auto parts place and have them do a load test. If it is above 75% capacity, then reinstall that same battery. But, if they say it failed their tests or has a capacity less than 75%, replace the battery. Then lets see what you have.

 

Wow thanks for the fast response!! Getting into the car was no issue. I will try to trickle charge the battery from the front like you said and see if anything happens.

 

Noooo! Don't do that! The jumper cable terminals in the fuse box under the hood are ONLY for providing power to open the trunk. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO START THE CAR WITH JUMPERS ATTACHED TO THE FUSE BOX TERMINALS!!! Doing so can damage electronic modules.

Here's how to charge your battery:

1. Open the trunk, lift the carpet panel and hook the black plastic handle to the body so you can access the battery.
2. Attach the red positive (+) pigtail of your battery charger directly to the positive, (+) battery terminal.
3. Attach the black negative (-) pigtail of your battery charger to a chassis ground. Do not attach it directly to the battery negative terminal. Your car is equipped with a Battery Monitoring System module that is attached to the negative battery terminal. If you attach your charger to that negative terminal your BMS module can be damaged.

For detailed instructions and photos of how I attached my CTEK battery maintainer, click:
CTEK Battery Maintainer Installation X351

 

Thanks for the input, yes I understand that but it's not even giving me any power to pop the trunk. I'm starting to think that the dealership did try to start it like that. I'm doing all of this in they're dealership lot after all. If that did happen, any idea what modules might have to be replaced?

 

What have you attached to the fuse box jumper terminals, a trickle charger or jumper cables from another car? If it's a trickle charger, it probably doesn't have enough amperage to open the trunk.

Most "dead" batteries really aren't totally dead yet. But if it really is totally dead (i.e. all cells are shorted out), no jumper will be able to help and your only solution is a new battery.

Modules may or may not be damaged. It depends. Don't guess, diagnose with SDD.

 

Here's another thread worth reading:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...eeping-239817/

 

Again just want say thanks guys, this is my first time on a forum and the support is awesome. Ended up opening the truck, moved the ground of the jumper too the other side and opened the trunk. Plugged the jumper too the back now its just cracking and not starting. I'll run a computer too it and see what's going on, maybe clearing old codes will reset the system. In any case it's better then this estimate they gave me!

 

Andrey,
You posted the same question in another thread (click here) yesterday and it has received several replies. Because this duplicate thread has no replies, it should be deleted.
Stuart

 

My bad, first time using forums I'll try to delete it. Thanks

 

Hi Andrey,

I merged your two threads so all of the replies received are not together in this thread.

Are we to understand that when your car was towed to the Jaguar dealership, the engine would start and run, but was leaking coolant, then after about a month of waiting for a response, the dealership informed you that your engine was seized? You could try turning the engine via the crankshaft pulley to see if you can confirm that it is seized. If it is, a new battery is not going to help. But a lawyer might be able to.

Cheers,

Don

 

Yes. So I ended up plugging the the ground from the jumper to the drivers side bolt, and that ended up being a good connection for the electronics to light up. Opened the boot and tried to Jumpstart it, but it was just cranking. Afterwards plugged a computer to the obd port, cleared all the codes and it runs good as new. Drove it right of the dealer lot, I might need that lawyer after all if they try to charge me for diagnosing the car saying it's siezed..

 

Wow!!!!!!! That’s why I never trust them! Did they say anything when you started it?

 

They haven't said anything yet, but they did tell me they tried turning it by hand and it wouldn't turn. That's how they say they came to the conclusion that it was siezed. Now I'm no expert by any means but from what I understand is an engine doesn't sieze from low coolant but from low or no oil. I tried to be nice and just told them I'd do my own research and try to figure it out. It just really blew my mind that there was no further explanation of where the coolant was leaking, just battery dead and engine siezed. Thank goodness there are some good people out there who post vids of fixing coolant leaks on jags and land rovers. I then got the part numbers of the plastics that might have coolant leaks that were stated in the YT videos I've seen, and they gave me an estimate to replace those parts for over 3k with labor. And still pointing to the fact that it won't make a difference because the engine is toast. I asked them why so much if parts are about 1/4 of that price and they said they charge 180 an hour for labor. Now I don't make anything near that much an hour but this was just outrageous with that thought of them telling me my engine was siezed I didn't know if I could lay down that kind of hard earned cash and trust them with doing the job correctly. In the end ended up changing everything my self in the dealer parking lot, with the limited tools I had. Took me a full day to change everything that couldve had coolant issues but I gained alot of knowledge, and saved alot of money. Thank you again for the input guys! will for sure be going back to forums before I ever think about a dealership

 

That’s just amazing andrey! So glad to hear you figured it out by yourself. I can’t believe they tried to bend you over like that.

 

Just shows again that the ONLY way to own a used Jaguar is DIY! It's just a car and you can fix it as all the problems have been figured out and documented if you look.
Glad you got it fixed and Stuart saved you many dollars and there was really nothing major wrong with the car!

A suggestion? As the battery went thru some aggravation with this repair I would recommend you replace it if you plan to keep the car.
Just a bit of cheap insurance.
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Little update, drove the car around a full day and check engine light came towards the end of the day. Next day tried to start it, and just crank no start. Also the cooling fan comes on right away. I plug up the obd, clear all the codes and it starts right up. What do you guys think? Change the coolant temp sensor? Or something else could be the issue? These are the codes that came up

 

The X351 Workshop Manuals and Electrical Guides are in a Sticky at the top of this Forum. They can help you interpret the DTCs to pinpoint the problem(s) instead of trial and error guessing.

 

Can't say as codes should not stop the car from starting?
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