Well, my greatest fear happened. The wife called this morning and the car went completely dead in the Costco parking lot today. I mean dead Nada, Nothing Zip. Except for ablinking red light next to the gear shift and the clock still kept time. Antenna up, side window past weather seal on door opening. All else Very Very dead....Nothing.

After waiting for a tow Company twice for two hours[:@]. One did not have Dollies to get the car out of the space in which it was parked. The next one popped the hood and jumped the car of the passenger side terminals. The car started. I drove it directly across the street to Lamborghini of Portland. While there the side window would not park properly and kept inching down with each open and close of the door with the car running.

I just got a call from them. They report the battery checked fine, was discharged some but came back up. The battery checked normal on their diagnostic machine. The Charging system is fine, andchecked fine. The only thing they could find maybe related was an engineground connection at the frame with a slight little bitofcorrosion. At the end of the day, they have no idea why the Battery just went down and the car went dead..... No explanation. They cleared any codes and report thewindow parks properly now.


What they did findthat is kind of hard to believe.A weeping water pump and thermostat housing. By evidence of a trail of dryed fluid trails..... Needless to say they arereplacing both on the extended warranty. I have since called the dealer I bought the car, and they will be picking it up for re-inspection. I told them about the cold rattle...Maybe they will at least address thetensionersthatthe extended warranty wants to gamble on those breaking first according to Lambo! The selling dealer of course is concerned because they pre-inspected and certified the car, and want another goodlook at it.

What I am really uncomforable with is, there really is no identified cause to this jag just going dead..... A ground will not discharge a battery. I am scared as hell the next time I go out of town and the Cat justdecides to go dead thats gonna have the wife in a pickle. This dealer does Jag work and has a Jag technician on staff, and says we have seen this before with XK-8s no rhyme or reason towhat I just experienced but they have certainly seen it before. Is this something programmed into Jaguar? Any idea's that will make me trust this car forward and what could be the actual cause of it? And why does the window default in a position you cannot fully close the drivers doorwith the window parked up to high? Just Bizarre!

Thanks for the suggestions comments etc..... I amjaded on this one after having it all but 6 days.....Big case of buyers remorse! Lambo is getting me for $220. 95 for inspection, 100 deduct, and something about a fee for getting rid of the antifreeze......

 

check the mega fuses in the trunk to the left of the battery there in little black boxes.. wud explain no voltage at the front of the car and him just boosting the car form the front fuse boxes... the megafuses melt cause they come loose. and give intermittent no starts and nothing when you turn the key.. also there isa power stud on right side of the center console under carpet.. they can come loose too.. common on xj and xk

 

A Geniune Thanks! I will have the selling dealer take a look in the areas you just pointed out!

Big Thanks!

Donny

 

DonnyLee,

Your biggest problem is that the XK* is your WIFE's primary transportation. The Jaguars are like the motorcycles of my youth. You have to love them for them to start. I love mine!

 

could also just be abattery that isn't holding its charge.
Dont be unhappy with car. You just got it. You will get through the lot rot problems quickly then have happy car.

 

Once again Jag Techyou were right on the mark! Lambo Portland called friday.... Went something like this "Mr Williams we looked bit further on the electrical problem, and we located some loose Mega fuses in the battery area! I had not shared your responce with them directly. Only to the selling dealer who wanted to look at the car after they were done because of the initial responce from Lambo that they did not know why it did it...but had seen it before with XK8s...... Anyway, your impressive,and have nothing to prove to me, you certainlyknow these cars!....You were dead center on the cause! Another one for your scoreboard! It must be fun though to see if you can make a correct calla blind date symptom and never seeing the actualcar! You did on this one! Many thanks my friend!

 

Lol not me.....jag genius deserves the thanks. Good call genius.

 

Well I spoke to soon, did it to me yesterday instead of the wife. When I turned off the key the interior went complete dead again interior, Antenna up,Dark interior, No start, a few red lights on the guages lit...That was it! Did it in my own driveway fortunately. I immediatly popped the trunk with the key, jiggled, thenpulledandreseatedthe mega fuses no difference. Jumped it from the front fuse box, with a commercial charger I have andall lit up again, re-set the window memory, thendrove the car and it was fine. Car started this morning no problem[]?????????//

I will go searching myself this timefor the power stud next to the console passenger sideand see if its loose. 3 different shops have now looked at this car[:@] and it still has the intermittant problem of going dead inside when you shut the car off.... And I mean dead nothing! Seems to go a few days and it wants to strand you at shut off. I will let you know what I can find with the power stud. But this problem is incredibly frustrating! Anyone that can directly guide me to its exact power stud location mentioned, it would be most appreciated. I will pull the positive off the battery once I find it.....and check it out for myself.....

As always thanks!

Donny

 

I wish you luck, that sounds very frustrating.

Take heart, the power loss CAN and WILL be found, eventually. It is just going to take some time to find it.

Did you see the XF dash that FJT took apart to find a short in the touch screen? At least you won't have to go that far. Won't it be easier to find the 'open' circuit when the car is dead though? I mean, once it's running and starting, won't that make it hard to find?

 

Yes, hindsight 20/20 with an intermittant like this.... It was dark out last night when it occurred and have to leave town this afternoon....So I did what I did to get it going again. Raining (Oregon)and the windows not parked properly when dead. 3 dealers have looked at it. I am going out to look at it rightnow before I leave townand record voltages when its normal. Also look for the 12VJunction that has been described Passenger console side. I asked the last dealer today when they look at the mega fuses that they said were loose, and figured "It" was the obviousproblem to them,asked if they had also looked at this 12Vjunction point passenger consoleandThat answer was no! I can only pray thats the issue.

They want to wash their hands of it, telling me to take it to Jaguar service....They have better diagnostics then we do and we have no idea what wrong with it...... Great! Another trouble shoot fee and Deductable to me.... That is unless I find it myself! Wish me luck until the next episode!

 

directly were the shifter is to the right pull the carpet down gently.. and the power stud is there.. also there is a common one on the right side under the hood.. you will see for the passenger side lean in and see a black cord from the starter follow it up to the top of the inner fender and it will stop and there is a boot there pull it off and remove engine cover with one screw.. see a conjunction.. they come loose and melt.... I have also seen a mega fuse go open circuit internally and go back to close depending on temp.. you will have to do voltage drop tests on the mega fuses as they sit in the car.. across both studs of each mega fuse.

 

Ok, Somy initial checks is what we all expected without the problem occuring 12.33 VDC at the front fuse boxes at the battery and at each side of the megafuses.

I looked at the Mega fuses they appear to be new replaced from the last place that worked on it last weekand are infacttight. All connectionsI checked for clean contacts including the battery. They are clean and tight. I then started looking at the console.... Hmmm how to get to the secondsuspect location that I confirmedhas not been checked at all by thesedealers(12V power stud passenger side console?) I have no idea, but could do it with some run down helpon what and how to remove things to get to it. It looks like it potentially could bea bit of ajob as the carpet is tucked in high into the side of theconsole and that carpet is molded. Does the passenger seat and molded floor carpet need to come out of the carto get to it, the console need to be removed?Or all the above? None of the above? Just need to check orcoverthis 12Vjunctionfor clean and tight. But looking for direction on just exactly howto get access to it.


I think its safe to assume at this pointI am intermittantlyloosing power, to one or bothfrontfuse boxes connected via heavy 12V cable at their inputs. Andeach of the individual 12V cablesare apparentlyjunctioned togetherunder the right sideconsole for a common connection point from the cable coming up from the trunk fromaMega Fuse output from the trunk. Do I have that correct? I should see 3heavy 12Vcables nutted togetherside console area. 1. from Battery/Megafuse 1. to left side frontFuse box, 1. to Right side fuse box.

If so any picture illustrations description specifics on what to remove to get at this junction pointat this location is what I need to check and what I do believe in the end will bemy highly frustratingproblem with this newride. If I can do it, it will save me atminumum of$200 for deduct and troubleshoot. And thats why I am real motivated now to do it myself. Not real happy 3 people could figure this out, while getting paid handsomely to figure it out.

Any other thoughts? When I jump from a passenger side frontFuse boxit comes back to life, and may not playdead insideagain for severaldays....My gut tells me this creates an arc at the resistance point, makes it good for just a little while until it looses contact and things get dead again.

HELP get me to this spot correctly without damaging any interior...


As always many thanks!

Donny

 

you can just pull the carpet down it takes 2 seconds.. nothing rips or tears if done gently.. as if your sitting there in the passenger seat where your left knee wud be grab the carpet going under and pull it down.. one big battery cable from trunk goes up trani tunnel and then from there brakes off left and right for each side of the dash then go out the fire wall to the front fuse boxes.. you may wanna remove the fuse boxes in the front.. the power cables sometimes corrode at the connection under the fuse boxes.. remove and clean..want me to send youa copy of the power harness layout

 

That would be Awesome on the layout pics! I see was still writing last you responded and posted right after you did. (Bad timing from me) I did getthe carpet down and found that location.As you say once you know it ok to do it being carefulno problem. Just a tight area. So the bolt appears snugtight at the console, but I did not have time to pull that connectionapart and look for corrosion as I was having to leave for the airport. That said, I found the other connectionunderbonnetjust below the passenger side fuseblock. That one I would call just barelysnug. Not loose as a goose but less then tight and I bet not absolutely clean underside. This is another area that needs to come off and be checked for corrosion. But I carefully tightened that one up quickly as it was easy to get to.

Yes if you can lead me to every 12Vjunction it will be much easy to cleans these all up, and IF it crops back onme,make it MUCH easier for me to troubleshootthe next time I cannot believe the amount of junctions, fuse boxes, and relays in these cars..... Its mind numbing! No wonder why these cars have so many electrical issues! Lots of points of failure!

Anyway, I would be truly grateful for a copy of the layout on the main 12V cables. Many thanks you got me going forwardon this catnow.

Donnylee@ccwebster.net