Hello there everyone. I've been surfing here as a guest, but I feel it's time to join.

My XKR convertible has developed a fault. It's an 02' model and has ticked over 20,000 genuine miles, and is mint with no previous problems.

Yesterday, I finished work early so decided to wash the car. After a couple of hours, I decided to go and get some petrol, only to be greeted warning screen messages (in amber) coming up "traction not available" and "ASC not available", and the engine management light is on (amber) and the ABS light is on (also, amber).

And now today, the warning center has come up "Gearbox Fault" (again, message in amber) and now I do actually have a slight loss of power and the car struggles to reverse. It kind of feels sluggish.

I'm in Stoke-on-Trent, UK and rang up XJK (a local specialist), where I have it serviced, but they're closed today, and rang up Stratstone Jaguar (my local main dealer), to be told they don't look at this kind of work on Saturdays.

Is it likely to be a serious problem?

 

First question is did you wash the engine? If not this sounds like it could a weak battery. Did you have the doors open for a long time with the puddle lights glowing?The weak battery can cause numerous spurious issues such as you have described.

 

Hi, and thanks for the quick reply.

No, I didn't wash the engine. But it does sound rather strange that all this has occured after I washed the car.

Yes, I had the doors open for a bit to dry the outer skin of the doors after I washed the car, but each door was open for 10 minutes maximum to be honest.

 

This TOTALLY sounds like a weak battery to me. I had the exact same symptoms, then a week later the car wouldn't start (dead battery). I jump started it, and a day later it wouldn't start again. I replaced the battery and I've had ZERO problems since then. That was about a thousand miles ago.

By the way, one of the symptoms was also flickering headlights at night. My 2003 has the HID headlamps, and those require a certain voltage to work. Below that voltage they start flickering and acting weird. One night I was driving along and the headlights were flickering. I flicked on my high beams, and everything went black. A second later everything came back on, but then I had a "gearbox fault", "traction control" and DSC errors,

 

I agree, especially since there are so many sensitive electronics on these cars. If you just bought the car it might be a while since the battery has been replaced and not a bad preventive maintenance measure in any case.