On Sunday on a trip out to Haworth in Yorkshire, (wife is a big Bronte sisters fan), I noticed the climate control fan wasn't running. So today got it checked out, to find that the electronic gizmo (resistance box ?) that controls the fan had burnt out.

These things are NOT cheap at £106 ! all this plus our 20% VAT, plus fitting labour !! Not something I wanted to fail after last weeks bill for annual service, plus a few other things

 

Servicing and repairs are going to end up costing more than the holiday at this rate!

Graham

 

Well, not yet, (so far). We had a very good holiday !

 

Forgot to mention I also had a "check engine" light on the dash last week at the same time It stayed on at engine start and wouldn't go out on restart. At the shop, the code was cleared off, and the light went out. Tech explained the software seems to have detected a fault with the transmission interlock on the tranny control. That was Thursday, and the damn thing came on again on Sunday. Car drives perfectly OK etc. Rang shop and tech said keep under observation, and it might clear after 7 starts. If not they will have another look to see what the cure is. He mentioned a new tranny control at £hundreds !! So I said why can't the interlock switch just be replaced. He did commiserate with my troubles as I seem to be there all the time at the moment !

Matter stands there at the moment. Anybody had a similar fault and what was the prognosis ?

BTW, Tech is Jaguar-trained and very knowledgeable. This is an independent shop and very well regarded in the UK Jaguar fraternity. Could a failing battery be the cause, as I am still on the 2003 original with car on 61k miles.

 

Do you mean this? Jaguar x350 AUTO TRANSMISSION GEARSHIFT LEVER / J GATE SHIFTER GEAR BOX | eBay

 

Hi Merion1

Yes that is the piece of kit apparently involved. He did mention using a 2nd hand part not new if a replacement was needed. Why Jaguar cannot just sell the part that fails, I don't know ! From what he told me, the system carries out a check before allowing engine crank and start, and it has picked up an anomaly in this interlock which is supposed to prevent engine start if the lever is in the wrong place. I pointed out that I always start in Park after car has been standing.

However, at the moment, nothing has failed, fortunately, (and knock-on-wood !). I'm going to just keep it under observation for the time being as car is driving normally. Perhaps a bit of black tape over the light !

 

A battery from 2003, Fraser I think you are living on borrowed time on that one, even if it's not the cause of the problem I would think about changing it out. I know I don't have to tell you how sensitive our jags are to voltage drop.

 

I am going to check out the voltage when is stops raining here. I mentioned the battery last week but tech did not think it would be significant for this particular fault. I'm also going to get battery checked by a local battery shop too. ON my first service in 2010, the dealer mentioned a low battery voltage, but as everything has been fine so far, I have let it run.

 

Well, the Check Engine light went out today, late afternoon, so this must have been the 8th start after it came on on Sunday. So fingers are crossed it will stay out. I'm still going to get the battery checked out though.

 

Although I love my Jag, this sort of thing is why I will never buy another. Here in the states it makes much more sense to buy a car that can be serviced anywhere. My next luxury car will be a Cadillac. A quality brand that has endured the test of time.

 

Well, no doubt you can get it serviced in many more places than you can a Jaguar, after all it is a US-made car. Jaguar really need to appoint service agents as well as main dealers if they intend to sell more cars in the US.

As for your choice of next car, certainly Cadillac has endured, but surely you have to admit they have gone through some bad patches in recent times. Of course I have no direct experience. Virtually nobody here in the UK has experience of the modern ones in the UK, as Cadillac don't make RH drive cars, thus cutting themselves off from all markets with this side drive, like Japan, Australia and many other places apart from the UK and Ireland.