Hello all,

I want to start by saying that I love Jags, I lived in the UK and have owned Alfa and Maserati in the past but in my move to Florida I felt the Jag was great. Loaded options and nice top down V8 cruising. Perfect.

Anyway all is good except for the dreaded hot misfire.

Took deliver of the car with 31k miles on it and within 1 day the misfires started and engine light came on. Took it to Crown Jaguar in St. Petersburg FL who have been very nice and efficient.

First time they re-set the error codes in the computer which I was told was the problem. Picked it up on my flight back from Belgium and within 20 minutes the misfire started again (but no engine light). Being 21:00 at night Sunday I was irritated but took it back immediately and left the keys.

Today they looked over the car and was told nothing could be found so I went back down to collect it.

20 minutes later at THE SAME EXACTLY intersection the misfire started again but kept driving home and the engine light coming on soon after. Soon after that again the "Restricted Performance" light came on.

Went to dinner after which started her up and drove fine with engine light on then soon after the misfires stated again.

So my issue is a warm misfire for sure.

Reading the forum posts on misfires I am growing seriously worried that I have unwittingly bought into a known Jag XKR problem which has a problematic solution.

Any ideas what Crown Jaguar in Florida should be looking for?

Thanks so much, your advice will calm a new Jag owner who wants to sort this asap so he has no regrets.

 

ermoalfa,

I have a 2008 XKR convertible with 28K miles on the clock. On a rainy but warm day I stopped a local store on my way home from work. Had just driven about 45 miles. Came back out to start the car and at first nothing, then on 3 starting attempts the car wanted to start but sound like the timing was off. Check engine light came on, then on the forth attempt it started right up.

At a service appt just last week I told them about this and asked to have the codes pulled. When I picked it up they told me there were no stored codes. Weird. Good luck and finger crossed for both of us.

Tim Madden

 

Did the check engine light stay on?

 

Crown Jaguar and Rick Andersen did a great job and in the end they did find that coil number 1 was fowled and not firing correctly.

I collected the car today and it's working great, I'll re-confirm later in the week.

Also I independently confirm that having the XKR CPU overflowing with uncleared error codes can result into the engine going into restricted performance mode.

 

Fantastic! How much did that set you back?

 

Nope the check engine light went out on the re-start. Glad to hear it all worked out for you.

Tim Madden

 

Asking was $49k in Texas had it delivered to Florida for about $48k.

It is a wonderful car, now that it is running correctly I am very very happy.

Less happy with Texasdirectauto.com and Texas First Auto Inspections....

 

I meant the repair!

 

I bought the 07 I had from Texas Direct Auto...did not like the way they treated me when I was there. Felt like a head of cattle...

 

So, the engine misfire is more than a random occurrence. What bothers me is this car is an 08 and RJC's car was a 12. That means Jaguar has allowed this problem to go unresolved all this time. I can't buy a car from a company like that.

I still gonna keep looking at them though. They are so beautiful. Makes me think of a hot chick with an STD. You can be really dumb and sleep with her unprotected just because she is so hot. You can be kinda stupid and use a condom. Or you can use common sense and stay away.

 

You're making a lot of assumptions about facts that are not in evidence. There is nothing about these symptoms that resemble the symptoms that RJC complained about. In fact, they are completely opposite. RJC said his misfires occurred only when his car was cold...while this situation is about misfires that occur only when the car is warm.

...not to mention the fact that we're talking about 2 completely different engines.

 

Ah! Sorry, $387 probably a little reduced as I came back 3 times to get it sorted.

 

I read the situation with RJC's car and agreed it seemed to be a cold start misfire, the warm misfire (once they were able to see the codes) is easy to diagnose and fix so don't jump to conclusions.

There does seem to be lots of misfire chatter here and when the testers were done flogging a new XKR-S they also had an engine light on...

My problem was when I first brought it in there were too many codes as they were not cleared by a main dealer for a while they couldn't diagnose. When I brought it back the next time it was misfiring but there was no check engine light so I guess that meant no codes. The third time I kept driving it and driving it hard to provoke the codes, got the check engine light and brought it straight back the next morning. Luckily at 07:00 as I was leaving the car Rick the service tech was just getting in and he was able to hear the misfire as well, for a while I think he started to worry if I was being an Auto hypochondriac!

Again goes to show you that Toyotas, chevys and other cars you can get from whomever, cars such as these should be bought from main dealers.

I am going to look at an XKR-S today in Sarasotta... just the thought of it tingles my nether-region...

 

Yeah well Texas Auto Direct will do everything in a mili-second before you buy the car, as soon as you do it's like you are a leper! Took more than a month after paying to receive the title and only after I sent five e-mails and made several unreturned calls....

Regarding Texas First Auto Inspections I am not happy at all, they didn't tell me:
1. The car had only one key
2. No manual
3. No tow-hook
4. Didn't tell me about cut in front seat leather....

I tried to contact him to see if the car had these items when he inspected it but no reply, so I am disputing the charge.... that should get a response...

 

I don't care if the problem happens cold, hot or in the middle. There are misfire history issues. The fact there are 2 different engines makes it worse.
Why does it bother you or anyone else that I am becoming turned off to this car and the brand. Actually, I'm not turned off. I love the look, the style, the interiors and the overall Jaguar identity. But they have a history of unreliable cars and I thought it had gotten better. Maybe it has. But I'm spoiled by the Asian brands reliability and it's hard for me to buy a car from a brand that clearly appears to not care about reliability. If you've read some of my other posts you know I have a friend who works for a dealer that has begged me to stay away from Jags. I was going to go against that advice but I've come to my senses.

No big deal. I mean no disrespect to any of you loyal owners. I will continue to admire the cars and might consider a short term lease one day....but I'm not going to purchase a long term headache just because of emotional stimulus responses.

 

For an enthusiast, buying a car is an emotional experience. You have to weigh the positives of styling and performance against the negatives of possible maintenance issues. I have owned 5 Jaguars over the years and never felt that they had any more maintenance problems than any of my other high end cars yet they are some of the most beautiful and best performing cars on the planet--that's why I keep coming back. The new AJ 5.0 engine has gotten rave reviews since its introduction from most of the car magazine editors for being pretty much bullet-proof so I take this talk of misfire issues as coming from the vocal minority. RJC bought an XKR that sat on a Florida dealer's lot in the baking sun for 7 months without being started or moved--maybe that had something to do with his problems. I also believe that some owners do not care to live with the fact that the supercharged engines have a slight rough idle when cold, which just doesn't bother me. Nor does it bother me when someone complains about a problem they are having on this forum as long as it is a productive discussion, but just stirring the pot and trying to make it sound like Jaguars are terribly unreliable and that there are some epidemic defect issues going on when there is no evidence of this is a little over the top. That might be what bothers some of us.

By all means, stay away from Jaguars if you are nervous and go with the "Asian" brands as you call them. Personally, I find most of them boring and not very exclusive which turns me off no matter how reliable they are (and yes, I have owned some and they have their problems too). As far as your statement that Jaguar does not care about reliablility, I'm not sure where you get that--my experience has been that they bend over backwards to identify a problem and fix it and are genuinely concerned about improving their cars, especially since Ford and then Tata have owned them.

 

<shrugs> All cars have their issues. My 350z dropped its third gear synchro at about 30k miles. They tried rebuilding it once, but it was still fubar so they replaced it with a whole new unit. Also had some odd issues with the rear half shafts as they were over tightened from the factory. Those had to get fixed as well. Of all the ironies, my Dodge Ram -- made in Mexico RAM, has been one of the most trouble free vehicles I've ever owned. It'll be 7 years old come October.

My only point in saying anything at all in this thread is that statistics are only as relevant as their data / sampling set. My wife suggests that reliability doesn't bother me because I'm OK fixing machines... and that I'm terribly high maintenance myself so... /chuckle

 

I was spoiled by the Japanese reliability and build quality with my LS400. But then I realized what I was missing when I hopped over to Jaguar.

The lack (or perceived lack) of reliability is so worth it. Reliability rarely factors into my love of a car. I mean, with your Japanese cars, do you get EXCITED about how reliable they are? I sure don't! Might be better for your wallet, though!

My two cents!

 

Not bad at all. I was thinking it would be at least a grand!

 

I completely agree with your thoughts.
My point is people have different priorities and values for their car. I place high value on reliability. Any lack of perceived emotion in my Lexus is compensated with mods. Plus, it is very much an emotional satisfaction that my Lexus never leaves disappointed. Any problems are addressed THE FIRST TIME by the dealer, not several trips.
But there is merit in appreciating a car for its other attributes and I acknowledged that previously.
My focus has changed to the GTR. Not boring by any means. Not my first choice, obviously....but lots of driving excitement for sure.

I still might lease an XKR one day. We car lovers are unpredictable.