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Left home in Durham at 4:00pm on Saturday for the 337 mile slog down England's congested motorways to Eurotunnel and crossed the English Channel on Le Shuttle in 35 minutes, arriving in Les Coquelles, France at 00:55 local time (one hour ahead of UK time).
The French roads are almost deserted at this hour on a Sunday and we made good progress before breakfast, completing the 671 miles to the Spanish border by 11:00.
After a pause for lunch, we had almost completed the remaining 146 miles to our hotel in Burgos, northern Spain when the XK then went into restricted performance/gearbox fault/MIL illuminated on the autoroute. Limped to the hotel and called my European Breakdown Service. A Sunday afternoon in Spain - the country that invented manyana - it was always going to be Monday before anything happened.
Further call this morning emphasising that being 1100 miles from home and a further 800 miles from our destination, this was urgent. Breakdown truck arrived within 40 minutes and the XK is now at the local Jaguar Dealer.
I'm hoping this is either a temperature sensor that has given up the ghost in yesterday's heat or a battery similarly died. Waiting to hear from the Dealer.
Left home in Durham at 4:00pm on Saturday for the 337 mile slog down England's congested motorways to Eurotunnel and crossed the English Channel on Le Shuttle in 35 minutes, arriving in Les Coquelles, France at 00:55 local time (one hour ahead of UK time).
The French roads are almost deserted at this hour on a Sunday and we made good progress before breakfast, completing the 671 miles to the Spanish border by 11:00.
After a pause for lunch, we had almost completed the remaining 146 miles to our hotel in Burgos, northern Spain when the XK then went into restricted performance/gearbox fault/MIL illuminated on the autoroute. Limped to the hotel and called my European Breakdown Service. A Sunday afternoon in Spain - the country that invented manyana - it was always going to be Monday before anything happened.
Further call this morning emphasising that being 1100 miles from home and a further 800 miles from our destination, this was urgent. Breakdown truck arrived within 40 minutes and the XK is now at the local Jaguar Dealer.
I'm hoping this is either a temperature sensor that has given up the ghost in yesterday's heat or a battery similarly died. Waiting to hear from the Dealer.
yikes - hope nothing serious and you can get back to enjoying the journey!
The dealer has eMailed suggesting it "looks like an ignition fault" requiring all 4 coils and plugs replacing on the left bank. I've replied asking them to confirm that they arrived at this conclusion after using Jaguar Diagnostics and if so, wanting a list of the DTC's.
After spending so much time on the forum reading others misfortunes I'm surprised you don't have an Icarsoft or similar stashed behind the seat for emergencies like this. Write down the codes, use a 10mm wrench to unhook the battery for a bit and fire it back off hoping for the best.
Hoping it works out before your holiday is over. What's plan B if not? Rental and go on hoping it's fixed by the time you get back?
I'm carrying SDD on my laptop and a Mongoose cable but my Breakdown Insurance would be invalidated if I'd cleared the codes - it could look like a pre-existing fault and I'd have no way of refuting that.
Repatriating a vehicle from mainland Europe to the UK is very expensive so I'm letting them play their games first.
I'm surprised the Spanish dealer didn't provide the DTCs for misfire(s) situation as it's highly unlikely all the coil units on one bank would go bad at once.
Ask them to provide you with the battery voltage, which should be a minimum of 12.6 volts with the ignition off. If the ambient temperatures in Spain are 32 C or more, the battery may be the culprit.
Hi Graham, good to talk to you earlier, but sorry to hear of your issues
Please pass any further info as you receive it and hopefully some of the tech legends here can help, if not resolved sooner
Wish you the best of luck for a quick fix
I'm surprised the Spanish dealer didn't provide the DTCs for misfire(s) situation as it's highly unlikely all the coil units on one bank would go bad at once.
Ask them to provide you with the battery voltage, which should be a minimum of 12.6 volts with the ignition off. If the ambient temperatures in Spain are 32 C or more, the battery may be the culprit.
I've asked for the DTC's as I'm equally suspicious of an entire bank failing simultaneously and am not giving them carte blanche to clear slow moving stock at my expense!
Battery was my first thought when RP was accompanied by gearbox fault and MIL so that will be my next "suggestion" if the DTC's don't give proof of multiple misfires.
No response to my request for the DTC's. They have proceeded on the basis of their initial diagnosis and are changing 4 left bank coils and plugs. If this doesn't fix it, it'll be an interesting exchange of views tomorrow.
I'll be happy to be proved wrong but will be truly amazed if coils and plugs are the answer.
Remember to ask for the faulty coils & plugs back!
I think all of the plugs will be iridium so usually last for 100k miles IIRC?
Coils on my X100 lasted for 178k miles (100k in my ownership) and only had to replace 3 in almost 14yrs, I didn't think they were a weakness area on either model.
The plugs may physically be fine, but if they were fuel soaked or continually bombarded with contaminates, they may be worthless.
My dad used to 'rehab' plugs way back in the olden days when money was scarce; a wire brush, a good soak in something I can't remember (not petroleum based), filed and re-gapped. I GUESS they worked fine afterwards, I was a little kid.
The plugs may physically be fine, but if they were fuel soaked or continually bombarded with contaminates, they may be worthless. .....
YES - I'm not bothered about the parts cost but I hate to be ripped off. IF they are borderline, I'll happily pay but if they are still serviceable, I have the time and energy to make things difficult.
At least the weather in Spain is nice this time of year. Not a bad place to have to lay over with a 'failure to proceed'!
I'm pleased to say Mrs G. concurs with your diagnosis but her patience may start to wear thin tomorrow if we don't progress towards the villa booked for a three week stay.
The number of times when I've taken cars in for work (e.g. tranny or engine and I've asked for everything back) the costs have always been lower than when I haven't.
In the same way if I have any work done on the house, I get at least two quotes done with my cars off the drive...in almost all cases the quotes are half the price as when I leave them on??
Quotes based on the perception of ability or willingness to pay are always inflated. Unfortunately bills based on "you've got nowhere else to go" can be even higher!
Restricted Performance - and a long way from home
