2004 XJR 59,000 miles and now it begins...
 

2004 XJR Summer car only and now it is being a finicky cat.
Seems like every summer I have an issue that is most likely due to the car being 15 years old.
This year I had two inches of water in the trunk. Solved with the TSB and RTV silicone and 5 hours of time.
#1 Now the audio sound is dead and a CD changer that has no power. Nav works. Pulled and bench tested the AMP and all okay.
So any advice as to why the CDC is not working. Fuses all checked out,
#2 Then the Air Ride Suspension decided to stay at a lowered height in back. Left side seems a 1/2 inch lower than right side, It is not slammed just lower than normal and stays there.
One day last week when I parked and shut off the engine there was a swoosh sound of air to the rear and it went high and stayed that way until i got home and it went to the lower level stance.
Also I must mention I had it out for a 12X mph run for a few miles.
So is it the accelerometer, the ride height sensor, or the leveling block that was in water ? The car sits stored 5 months during winter and never lost its height.
Thoughts and advice much appreciated.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...0be74e14ff.jpg
A thorough fixing of the water leaks. Mission accomplished. Now on to the next. 04 XJR 59,000 miles.

I am having a hard to understand your issues. It appeared that you bought a nice Jag but do not have a clue what you are get into to. review link below so you will have a better understanding of the suspension system. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ration-174819/

Where did the water come from?

Thank you for your reply. A little about me. My father, years ago owned a shop and I've worked on cars in the past putting in engines, transmissions and such. I waited and researched the X350/ XJR for the past 10 years before I was fortunate to find the one I had been waiting for in the right color and year. The ONLY thing that caught me off guard was the water leaking in the trunk area of the seams and rear deck lid. I have known that the shocks can and will go, the sensors could also and much more with the suspension. I thought I would put it out there to the forum my turn at issues and see if there was per chance something else that someone had done to remedy their situation. This forum is and has been a great source of information from the many subscribers to keep folks like me from being clueless, as you say.

-Cheers

Water came the rear and right side top by the hinge of the trunk area. I found out when I was hooking up my trickle charger and saw standing water in around the spare tire and battery. All is fixed as I tore the rear apart and sealed every area that the TSB mentioned and more.

Hey Tim,

Can you point me at that TSB? My car shows some minor damage to the rubber seal, with slight tears, and the seal is twisted and squashed at 2 spots at the base of the opening. It doesn't leak at all, but needs to be replaced as a maintenance item. I drive an 07 VDP X350, so it's possible they made a running change to address the water ingress issues. The 04 cars can be reasonably reliable, and, other than not offering a LWB version until 05 (Jaguar was still bringing the aluminum (aluminium to the Brits!) pressing plant a Castle Bromwich up to ful production) they can be, and are wonderful cars. There was a group of running changes in late 05, adding bigger brakes to the non-supercharged cars, variable valve timing to the SC AJ34 engine, a few body trim updates, deleted the chrome around windshield and rear glass, removed the protective strip midway up the body, but the major changes were to the cars electronics.

The software platform of the cars changed from having a VID Block, to having a CCF (Car Configuration File) same as the Land Rovers, and later Jaguar models. The software format of the major modules changed from using .bin files to .vbf files.

None of which makes an 04 or early 05 car undesirable. At the right price (and used Jaguars can be had for amazingly little money) all Jaguars are desirable!

I'm not a big fan of the facelifted 08-09 cars. I certainly dont dislike them, but they seem conflicted I purpose. Jaguar was trying to address criticism that the cars had not been modernized in way to long. I found it appealing that instead of putting new styling on an aging platform (what most car builders do), Jaguar designed and built a world class car, in an Aluminum monocoque that was 400-600 POUNDS lighter then Audi's A8 Aluminum space frame design. But people said it looked old. Jeez. The XJ had used those lines since 1968. So Jaguar attempted to "modernize" a classic design. It looked nice. At first. It hasn't aged as well, and besides the polarizing "blade" on the front fender (it looks decent on dark color cars when its painted body color in my opinion)

Anyway all that was to explain how I arrived at an 07 car. It seems to be the sweet spot for me.

Black on black is challenging in the Southern United States. I have designed Windows Shields out of cardboard to keep the heat out. My car has the "warm weather package" -rear sunshade and shades on rear door glass and 4 zone HVAC. Still, black is high maintenance.

For you height challenges, check the rear sensors. 04 cars had 2 front and 2 rear sensors. Later they switched it to a single front sensor which I always considered a strange move. See if one of the rear ones has come loose

Tim;

Good suggestion from Blairware to check out the rear height sensors. If both rear height sensors appear adequately secured and correctly positioned, you might want to look at active data for the ASM and see where the ASM believe the height sensors are positioned. In other words; the ASM will add or vent air until the sensor reads " 0 ". If you have one corner physically high but the ASM believe it is low; the height sensor is suspect.

Best Regards, William

Any messages or lights on the dash?

If not suggest that you scan the vehicle for DTC's.

" or the leveling block that was in water ?"

I assume you mean the valve block on the boot floor?

Is it possible that water has leaked onto the top of the RHS strut?

If you check on that carefully spray some soapy water in that area to check for leaks

This is the PDF for you to go over. It was posted some where in a forum board earlier this year.
Hope this helps.
Tim

Meirion1,
No dash warnings at all. It just sits lower unlike before. I filled the tank with gas and it stayed at the same ride height. And since the valve leveling block in the trunk was wet, I wonder about it's role in the ride height mystery. I put it up on a friends lift and took a look. No air hissing or stained shocks. We put it on the Snap-On computer and it showed a suspension fault but did not pinpoint it. So I will have to take it to the Dealer to have them give the car a health report (Pre Delivery Inspection) and see how many items are noted.
Cheers-

"So I will have to take it to the Dealer to have them give the car a health report (Pre Delivery Inspection) and see how many items are noted."


Ouch. But sometimes the info gained is worth the price. Certainly beats "part replacement diagnostics"


DID you get a look at the ride height sensors when on the lift?


I know a lot of owners overthink the air suspension, disconnecting batteries before jacking the car and similar moves. Sometimes they end up faking themselves and the system out, getting weird ride height issues like yours. As a last ditch effort, that wont hurt anything, have you tried disconnecting the battery, waiting a while (perhaps 10 + minutes) ? You can also remove both cables and touch them together to clear some memories. This made me very nervous the 1st time, but it cleared a number of items. Except my radio stations, that appear permanent, lol

And today with 59530 miles the XJR was sitting lower on all 4 corners and would not level up to the proper ride height. I wonder what the morning will bring when I go out to take it to the local dealer for a look over PDI/PPI report. Every summer I plan on $1000 for some thing to go wrong. And this summer is no exception with numerous items needing attention. Any other make of vehicle and I would be selling or trading in, but this X350 body style has me hooked and I'm not letting this one go. I'm sure I'm not the first to be emotionally attached to such a fine Cat.

Tim; (Unfortunately) the problems you are describing are not uncommon symptoms for an aging air-suspension system. Both time and use cause wear. It is possible to spend unnecessary money trying to resolve this if you cannot pin-point the specific problem (airsprings, hoses, fittings, compressor, valve-block, pressure tank, ASM, etc).

Do you have, or can you get access to, a code reader capable of reading the Jaguar specific codes? With these codes members of the Forum can offer advice based on their experience trouble-shooting similar problems. Of course a Jaguar dealer can provide these codes..... at a cost.

Best Regards, William

wwr
Attached are the work copies from the dealer. I found it interesting that the tech said he could not communicate further to see what is the issue.
The car is sitting steady at a the lowered height two weeks now. It has an sportier look as there is still clearance above the tires just not as high as factory.
So any thoughts???
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...b1cffcb845.jpg
The compressor checked out and the tech said it sounded great.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...e8efed0bb6.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...2fbc1c4b73.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...59e9c79a31.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...e9077e756b.jpg
I'm not so sure about the power as the CDC wouldn't respond to the button depressed. I re-looped my D2B cables and have audio now without the CDC

Tim; There seems to be a lot of issues; I don't think I'm going to be of much help. It looks like you had the codes cleared not long ago (P1000 is not set). I'm assuming the current list of DTCs are real time issues. Here's a few things/questions that stand out to me.

There are communication issues:
CAN, D2B (temporarily resolved), SCP. (see pg 18 of the XJ Electrical Guide for illustration). PAM (parking aid module) is not a major issue. Inability to communicate with the ASU (I assume this is the air suspension module) prevents you from getting specific data regarding the status of your suspension (position, status, pressure, solenoid block valve position, etc). I'm not sure what the 'ARM' is (someone else help please).

I believe you are going to need to address the communication issues first; then determine if the 'non responding' ECUs are not responding because of the communication issue, or are in fact defective. Once you can communicate with the ASM you can read the DTCs it is reporting in order to hone in on the specific suspension problem. If you're lucky you may find the inability to communicate with the ASM is the extent of your suspension problem.

I strongly suspect the water in the trunk (high humidity) may have created electrical connection / communication issues. Pulling the trim panels in the trunk you'll find several ECUs (REM, PAM,) and your problematic CDC. The ASM is on the panel separating the trunk from the passenger compartment (behind the seat back). There are also 5 ground points in the trunk area. Unless someone else offers a better plan you may need to start by cleaning, drying, and checking connectors to these trunk area ECU connectors and ground points (do not over torque connections to the aluminum ground studs!).

If you have not already done so...… down load the XJ Electrical Guide from the forum. The electrical guide illustrates these ECUs, ground points, and connectors I mentioned. Grounding issues are common.... search the forum. Consider an OBD2 scan tool capable of reading the Jaguar codes.... without this you have no easy way of knowing if communication is being restored.

Best Regards, William

Thank you for the direction and advice. I've been out of town and returned last night to find my car sitting high on all four corners. I fully expected to see it to the ground when I got back. It looks like I could take it off road. I will include a pic or two of how it looks now.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...1f52d8e2de.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...6ba7791416.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...92c65fa1d1.jpg

Tim;

The state you describe suggests that the reservoir had sufficient pressure stored to raise all four corners. I'm not sure you can conclude much beyond this until you restore communication with the ASM and read the codes. The factory manual states the car checks/adjusts for level once every 24 hrs when not in use... so not a huge surprise something changed from how you left it. You may want to measure the ride height as is: Factory Manual specs: Front 386+/-15mm, Rear 373+/-15mm.

Best Regards, William

William,
This morning the car is still in the higher setting and hasn't changed at all.It's interesting that when it was in the lower stance it remained at the prior level for 3 weeks. I'm wondering what part the air temperature would effect this as it finally got to the high 80's here and it was warm in the storage area while I was out of town. And then it may have nothing to do with it. I will measure the height and report what I find.

The ride height looks to be at the normal setting to me. Here's how it compares to my Vanden Plas.

Dave

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...715b2159e5.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...0c8ed9dfe3.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...f6b7ff109e.jpg

Looks about right from here, fender always look a little close to the wheels, on any i have seen.
Cats like the warmth over cold, keep it in a heated cage in cold weather.