Oh my Drama Queen. We were headed to Eureka Spring Arkansas this weekend, about a four hour trip, tootling along a 70mph with the cruise control on, when I remember moving my leg and my knee pushing on the key fob. Next thing I know loss of power, the dash was black and the warning bell for having the car in gear while the key is off was chiming. I tried to restartit in neutral with no luck (no cranking) and I didn’t feel like turning the key all the way to off position at 60 mph and trying it again. Luckily we were just coming into a small town and there was a farm implement dealer there. I slowed and made a smooth stop in their drive with no power steering or brakes, thanks Brimbo’s. After stopping I put the car in Park and turned off the key, radio and HVAC. Went for the restart and she fired right up, no more problem for therest of the weekend.

Just had to have a little drama to show me who’s boss!

 

well done not getting in err trouble with the loss of power.
now keep yer kin legs still and away from the ignition switch

 

It's happened to me as well a couple of times. The first time, I wasn't aware that my knee had done it, so a little bit of panic before I realized what had happened.

 

Yes then the wipers go on and the trunk opens.

 

Damn, this is an extremely serious malfunction, not too different from the GM ignition switch problem in which people were killed. Does anyone know if there was a safety recall or even a TSB on this issue. It has to be somehow related to the transponder in the key. Even though these cars are old now, this is something that should be reported to Jaguar. It would be a duty or age related issue with the transponder and could result in a crash.


Mark

 

I don't think it is anything to do with the transponder. When it happened to me, it was because my knee physically knocked the key, which was aided by the weight of other keys hanging from the keyring, which in turn rotated the key, switching off the ignition. In my instance, I just switched the ignition back on and the engine instantly started and we carried on our journey, which is just as well as I was overtaking a line of lorries (trucks), nose to tail on a hill on the M11.

 

The reason I call her my drama queen is because this is just another of a long history of her acting up about the time you think you have everything sorted out. This summer she interrupted out staycation by losing power just about the time we were turning into a fancy hotel with valet parking. After a new battery (unneeded) and throttle body, I went out to start her and found a completely dead battery. Another day of trouble shooting before I found out the new battery had just died!
Oh well she's cleaned up from the trip and in the garage probably for the winter. It went from the 70's to teen's here the other day with lite snow.

Projects for the winter are to find another coolant leak and get both headrests to work.

 

There was another thread about this some time back. Since then I find myself doing the same thing with my knee. I'm about 6' tall and weigh 180 lbs. ---very average build. Didn't any Jaguar engineers do a live test and drive this design before cutting it loose to the marketplace? I believe this is a problem area which could have a negative outcome. Bill, I'm glad you had a place to pull off safely.

 

Try driving a TVR 2500M. I'm only 5'5 and had to be shoehorned into it. It was like an adult go kart. The car was so low to the ground and the seats so low the transmission tunnel was along side you and you had to reach up to shift the manual trans. I can't imagine someone 6' fitting in it. But man it was a blast to drive. Until you had to crawl out of it later.



Dave

 

Ah yes, I remember my old TVR 2500, the gas tank stinking inside the cockpit just behind you, the seats bolted to the thin fibreglass floor under you and the nose lifting whenever I exceeded rational speeds. (Hard to steer that way) At least the manual fabric sunroof was easy on my head since I'm 6'.

 

That wasn't a sunroof it was a chimney to let all the heat out. Otherwise you got roasted. And after 2 hours of driving it the vibrations had my hands so numb my fingers needed to be pried off the wheel.





Dave

 

If they did that, it wouldn't be a Jaguar.
Probably would be something German or Japanese.