Driving to work the other day and noticed an engine malfunction type message on display. Thought it was throwing a code, but ok as engine was running and car was driving fine. A few minutes later the engine and all electronics stopped. WHILE I WAS DRIVING!

Eased over to side of road and tried to start. Car started fine and I went on my way. A few miles later, exact same thing happened. I eased off the road again.
I took a look at the start button and noticed that there was some resistance when pressing. As it turns out there was some dust or dirt that was causing the button to stuck in a lower position than normal. I keep the car pretty clean, it is a convertible and we do have quite a bit of pollen in the warm weather. In any event, I was able to clean between the button and bezel and it started to operate as normal.

I guess this is just a public service announcement to keep the console clean. I found it odd that a complete shutdown was possible when this button fails. Pretty sure I cannot press engine start button while driving and shut care completely off. Not sure what the sticky button would allow that also while in gear and moving.

 

Although I haven't tried it with the Jag I did try it on my Lexus. It is a safety feature that when you press and hold the start/stop button down it will shut the engine down but still allow you to steer. It was meant to act as a safety feature especially when the Lexus phantom acceleration issue popped up. Some day I might try it to see if it works the same.

 

Interesting. If I translate this to a normal key ignition, I'm not sure I would be able to turn key to off position while in gear. The long press for the button makes sense for accidental button hits. I'm thinking a shift to N before being able to disable engine on purpose may be the way I would want it to work. My scenario may not have been in the list of testing scenarios as it is very much an outlier.

My takeaway is to keep my console very clean. Which is good practice anyway.

 

So what did the display actually say? Should have been something along the line of 'shift to park before shutting off'.

 

My speed limiter switch did the same,it is exactly the same design.I took both switches apart and cleaned them both.Another Jag part poorly designed.

 

Tommytess ... How, exactly, did you 'take them apart'? I've been wanting to do that for years! Thanks.

 

Ranchero, it was not an instruction. Can't remember exactly but was to the tune of engine malfunction detected.