I recently had my throttle body replaced after getting the classic "VSC/Park Brake/Engine Fault" warning and the car going into limp home mode.

The issue is the throttle position sensor on the side of the throttle body, a part that does come off the throttle body but they do not sell it separately. It is a known problem with these cars (there was a recall for the earlier series) and instead of making it right for the customer by selling this part separately for say $200-400, we are required to buy a $800 assembly. We are actually lucky in one respect, it is a $2400 part for the pre-04 cars. If Jaguar is wondering why their cars depreciate, this is one reason.

Ironically it is a Denso part (translation it is made by Toyota) that fails....and they use a near identical TPS on the Toyota Avalon but the pins are reversed. If you want to torture yourself look up how much is charged by Toyota dealers.

I would like to get a petition together to urge Jaguar to sell the TPS separately from the Throttle Body. Thoughts?

 

I had the exact same problem....jaguar dealer charged me $1600 for the repair ! I wanted to sell the car after that.

 

ouch, i hope i never have to do that on my car

Cinci, you aren't still trying to sell your car I hope

 

The throttle bodies are available rebuilt from several aftermarket suppliers, so somebody found a TPS source.

 

Yeah, its still forsale but im not pushing the sale or advertising hard tho. I do love the car, its just that repair of $1600 left a bad taste in my mouth. I have never paid that much for a car repair ever.

 

Cinci,

I agree! If you aren't inclined or don't have the cash or appitude, owning one of these wonderfull cars can be a chore. I got the appitude and some of the cash but at my age getting "out and under" is a real pain in the ***.

 

Exactly !

 

Funny thing is that when the TPS fails you shouldn't need to change out the throttle body but as they are sold as a unit that is what happens. If anyone knows of a TPS source, the shop I use (JagMac in Dallas) would love to know as they want to just change the TPS. It is almost a death sentence for some of the 98-03 cars when the $2400 throttle body needs to be replaced. I hate to see cars that are otherwise perfectly good get scrapped out because of OEM greed.

 

I don't get why Jaguar only sells these as a complete unit. They lose hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing these under warranty. So to me it wouldn't seem to be greed.

I assumed they were set and calibrated as a complete unit or some such nonsense.

-David

 

Not one to cause any ill will against page sponsors. I was able to find a remanufactured throttle body not new for nearly all jag aps. Including 2 year warranty.

I would invite you to check these guys out.

http://www.jaytanindustriesinc.com/

I have not spoken with any one at this business but from what they are supplying on reman components, they appear to know what they are doing.

 

They actually don't lose that much replacing them as a unit under warranty--their net cost is really what they pay the OEM supplier for the Throttle body assembly. The money they charge the dealer and then the dealer bills back nets itself out. They make a ton of money on all the units replaced out of warranty. Mine failed at 55000 miles. (Just like one of my air suspension pumps).

We should try to organize a petition to get them to sell the TPS separately. They have a known problem with these and it does create a lot of ill will among the owners of their cars.

 

Jsherd, how much did you pay for yours? Mine was 1400 at about the same mileage. I believe it was failing while it was under warranty, but the dealer just kept cleaning out the injectors when they should have probably replaced it. How often is this happening to others? Maybe there is grounds for a small claims court case against dealers who blow this off?

 

Mine was a bit over $1000 including labor and tax. The TPS failure is a known/common problem with these engines, there was even a recall on the earlier generation (98-03) car. If the dealer was cleaning out the injectors as a solution, that isn't going to work...and they should have seen enough of these failures to know what the problem is. Proving that is another matter entirely.

The longer term solution is to get a petition together to get Jag to sell the TPS separately to bring down the cost of the repair when failure occurs, and it will occur.

 

Jsherid1-Jaguar absolutely loses tons of money on these. I would estimate about $500-$700 depending which part number. The early v8 throttles are almost $2200.00 ! Jaguar has to absorb the cost of the part as well as pay a fairly large markup to the dealership if replaced under warranty.-David

 

@jpamparts--Regarding Jaguar losing money on the cost of the part, as someone who worked in Powertrain Purchasing at Ford for 10 years I can tell you that the OEM price for the Throttle Body part is not anything close to $2200, more likely on the order of $100--their only cost on a warranty repair is the dealer markup on the part (which is not full retail) and the labor.

That being said, why not sell the TPS separately? Their warranty cost would then be a smaller parts markup and a minor labor charge as there are just two screws and a connector on the TPS.

The answer is probably that they fail just out of warranty....like mine and a few others did so we are on the hook vs. Jaguar. The Parts operation is the most profitable part of any OEM, as a rule the price the dealer pays is a minimum of 6x the OEM price for a part.

 

It happens all the time, mine went bad with 46,000 miles on the clock. The only thing that save me was my vehicle was CPO. I'm READY were do I sign up.

 

The TPS is not designed to be replaced separately, for liability issues. Think about it...if something were to happen on a fly by wire car, which resulted in injury, who do you think would try to blame who? We live in a VERY litigious society.

Food for thought.

 

Makes sense.

 

Jagtec1-

That's the answer I was looking for! Not sure why I didn't think of that before...

On a C2A1444 Throttle body Jaguar pays about $800 just in markup and labor.. not including the cost of the part, which is about $200

-David

 

Why is it that replacing the TPS introduces liability for Jag? I don't buy it.