...although at 210,000 miles that's to be expected, right

1. Had a friend following me yesterday (during the daytime, I might add) and he said to me that everytime I'd hit my brakes, all the brake lights would light up fine but when I let off them, they'd go off but then the tail lamps would illuminate. And funnily enough, I thought I noticed that my tail lamps were on the other day when driving past a shopfront window I glanced at the reflection of the car and saw the tail lamps lit when my headlamps were shut off. Thought I was going batty but perhaps not...so any ideas?

2. Periodic "ENGINE FAILSAFE" message popping up albeit with no loss of performance whatsoever. Pulled codes with IDS, found driver's side catalyst efficiency low, but nothing else. Odd thing, however, is if I leave the cruise control switch off, the FAILSAFE message doesn't seem to pop up, or at least not so far today, but I've yet to put the car back on the highway since experimenting with the cruise control button. Brake light switch??

3. Coolant level sensor; How is it replaced? Is it just a snap-in type deal or is there c-clip or other means of receptacle holding it into the bottom of the expansion tank?

4. Sunroof; The sunroof is totally inop. I found an old invoice from the Jag dealer stating "customer states sunroof stuck open, will not close. check and advise. sunroof needs module. close sunroof manually, customer declines module replacement at this time." So, am I safe to assume that a duff module will completely knock out sunroof operation or may there be something else as a contributor?

5. Steering play; Have about an inch of play in the steering wheel. I had the car up on my lift and the outer tie rod ends are tight, so I assume that it's an inner tie rod wear issue--but are those serviceable or is a replacement rack the only answer? Alternatively, is there a steering coupling that gets worn? Forgot to look while I had the car up in the air.

6. Last but not least; The electronic latch for the bootlid does not work. Fortunately, the keyhole is still functional since I assume the PO was doing it this way for a while. I don't believe that a "BOOTLID OPEN" warning will appear on the driver information panel when the lid is in fact open, so this tells me that the fault could be in a microswitch perhaps? Anyone with some good test procedures up their sleeve?

Thanks and sorry to be so long-winded. This XJR is my second one (first was a '97) and my umpteenth Jaguar overall. I bought it a couple of months ago from the original owner, who, while he did take pretty darn good care of it (massive sheaf of records from Jag dealer and Jag indie), he did begin to cheap out once the car crossed the 200K barrier, which I suppose in a way, is understandable, however the car is in great aesthetic and mechanical shape, runs and drives beautifully and (almost) everything works---save for the items I mentioned above.

Thus far I have replaced a couple ABS harness links and cleaned the wheelspeed sensors to cure the TRAC/ABS UNAVAILABLE messages and had the brake module rebuilt, as well as replacing the rear upper and lower shock bushings and a right rear wheel bearing. Beyond that, the car has been great. Perhaps it realizes it's with an owner who will continue to lavish on it regardless of mileage/market value

And besides, having it is saving the wear and tear on my Turbo R

Only "grey area" are the timing chains and tensioners. There is absolutely ZERO noise at startup or anytime, indicating chain stretch or tensioner problems, but I don't see any invoices for these ever having been done, and at 210K miles I have to think otherwise, but perhaps I'll whip the valve covers off and have a gander and for $550 or so for a new chain and tensioner kit, will go ahead and change the whole lot out to be on the safe side.

Ok, thanks again, look forward to some replies, as my goal is to have this car back to proper 100% condition.

 

1. could be the security locking module as the rear brake lights go thru this. Cleaning the connections to/from it and checking wiring, it's underneath the fuse box in the boot, you'll need to unbolt that to get to it. Also clean the contacts between all the rear light cluster bulbs and check for any issues in the the cluster.

2. Sounds like the brake/cruise switch.

3. Sensor is snap in. But have you tried the finger trick first? the float that sends the level may be stuck in the low position or catching, this is due to the shaft it runs on being contaminated - manually moving the float up and down can clear this and get it to operate correctly, might need to remove some coolant to locate it.

4. Pass.

5. Some say rack. I've tried shifting a set, it's no fun. Locate a lower miles one, someone was breaking a later XJR in this forum last month that may still have the rack.

6. Check the wiring at the rh boot hinge, strip back and inspect each wire. Repair any breaks or splits. Chase the lock wiring too and clean the microswitch It's held in with 2 screws (can you open the boot on the fob and inside the car boot button?)

I'd suggest the first thing is the tensioner check, lets prioritize the laundry list. High miles to these cars isn't a problem, it's the owners generally, if looked after, then they're superb. One of my favourite XJR's sports 285 thousand miles and still has an urgency about it, but meticulously maintained, a great example.

 

Sean,

Cheers for that, thanks. I agree that the cars seem to handle higher mileage pretty well and that it's the owners who are their downfall. My car's aesthetics are in fantastic condition given the fact that it's 12 years old and has done 210K miles---one would swear that this car has less than 100K on it if they just looked at it inside and out--which is what was so baffling to me about why the owner started to cheap out past the 200K mark (even though he continued to have it looked after by a Jag specialist and continued the synthetic oil changes every 5K on the dot), but he began to leave some of the more fiddly issues go. I know he wound up buying a new XJ Supercharged, as I was standing at the indie's shop the day he had it flatbedded in when the RR wheel bearing went bad and said that he was done putting money into the car and was ready for something new which, I guess after 200K miles in the same seat, he was probably ready for a change of scenery

I shall try the suggestions for the coolant level sensor and bootlid microswitch and will also see if I can find whomever it was that is breaking the XJR for the rack, although I see a reman available through a local company here for $350 or thereabouts, which doesn't seem bad at all.

Thanks again, I have every intention on keeping the car as best maintained as possible, as it's such a great runner. And yes, still has that sense of urgency about it

 

Hello,

I've been away for over nearly two years on a project overseas but now back in the US!

I just wanted to comment on your "play in the steering" issue. I had experienced something like on my vehicle (2000 XJR) and the slippage in my situation was occurring between the upper and lower steering columns. Somehow the retaining screw that is supposed to secure those two parts had come loose. I shudder to think what could have happened. When the problem began it had a play to the tune of about 5 degrees but it widened quickly over a period of a few days to about 20 degrees, at which point I had it flat-bedded. A repair shop at the time replaced both the upper and lower columns even though the repair probably entailed just tightening the screw between them (I didn't know enough then to insist on a more conservative repair and because it had to do with steering I opted for the "right" fix as the corrugated/striated ends of the rods had been stripped due to the play).

I don't know if this is a possible root-cause for the play you're experiencing but play in steering is not something to take lightly. If you think it's related to the front suspension then try to take it to a suspension shop (in the US, I recommend an NTB that has experience doing suspension work--they have been outstanding servicing my XJR). These shops should be able to spot a tie-rod problem straightaway.

Regards,
Jon500

 

Thanks Jon, I'm going to send the car over to the local Jaguar specialist to have him sort that along with R&R'ing the lower ball joints and also going to go ahead and have him sort the chains and tensioners while it's in.

 

My car does exactly what you listed in number 2.
It also only occurs when the cruise control button is engaged. When it is off it never happens. Been like this for 2 years. (cruise control works fine)

 

Turns out my "symptom #2" was sorted by replacing the brake lamp switch. 10 minutes and done!

 

Can you put that in laymen terms? What is a brake lamp switch? Where is it located? How much money? Can someone not mechanically inclined do it?

Thanks!

 

One nut and bolt, located on the top of the brake pedal in the footwell, you'll need to feel flexible to get at it, it has two micro switches, one has failed or is intermittent. You can either replace the whole assembly or the microswitches from radioshack.

 

Hi
look at post# 8 in the following thread - It has a photo of the brake pedal switch:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...n-light-76654/

Jim Lombardi

 

Thank you to all of you above^^^^ who helped me with this problem.
I have had this problem for so long! and it is finally fixed !!