I am driving down the interstate and my top opens up and my back windows go down. What kind od POS is this car, I was freaking out and pulled over to the side. I have never seen a worse POS as this car, I have put $2000 into it in less than a year and I am afraid to drive it anywhere, I bought it at 63k miles and have 99k now, Jaguar should ashamed of thereselves for putting at this piece of ****. my vette is way better than this and cost thousands less. I am trading in this piece of junk, why anybody thinks this is a even half way good car is behold me.
Jags are ****, do not buy one!!!!!!!!!

I have owned a lot of cars and I have never seen anything like this, except Yugo's.
Save your money and buy a something else!!!!!

 

I must admit that would be an unnerving moment for me as well and sorry you are so frustrated with your car.

In it's defense, I also have a 2001MY XK8. It has 103k miles and I have been the owner for 1 year. Only two major repairs required, an alternator and the coolant expansion tank. I had the secondary tensioners replaced, but that was preventative work.

My suggestion is to sleep on it and if you are still this angry afterwards sell the car. Some cars are just not right for some people. Jag convertibles are supposed to be fun to drive. If it isn't for you, get rid of it and spend the money on your corvette.

 

I wrote a clever reply about you sending it to me and I wouldn't even charge you freight but I deleted it after taking a second to put myself in your shoes.

I can imagine it was a harrowing experience, but probably something that can be tracked down and resolved fairly easily. (certainly not a common issue) As for the $2k in repairs- a car payment for any car you purchase would be above that number, and repairs are part of owning any car- I am sure once the issue is sorted you will be happy again.

Please document what you find so that we can all be proactive in preventing a simlar incident.

 

I have driven it from Birminghan to Key West and felt good about it, but tonight scared the living you know what out of me, I was going 70 and then from no where the windows went down and the top came up. That was VERY unnerving to me.
What scared me most was that I did not touch anything and yes I am going to trade it in as fast as I can,

 

Wow! That is unprecedented as far as I have ever seen.

The only thing that I can think of that could be the cause is a very peculiar BPM failure. The car has an electronic interlock which should prevent the top from operating above about 15 mph.

I remember you were having electrical problems with the windows not too long ago. Do you have a new battery?

 

randyb, I would probably do the same thing. That's just unacceptable with any car and could cause not only an auto accident but for the wrong person a heart attack, etc.

 

Just tried again and the rear windows will not go up an the top will not lock down, could it be a fuse?

 

As this is so unlikely an event I have to ask: does the car have aftermarket alarm system?

 

No it does not have an alarm, I did have it detailed Friday,

 

What is the voltage on your battery with the engine off? Is there corrosion on ther terminals?

 

This is not a good situation! As Steve mentioned has an electrical interlock to prevent it from operating at speeds above a certain level and at the moment I do not recall what that it. Also I wonder about the sequence the windows should have gone down first then the roof latch that leads me to the control module. This is a bit unsettling. Do you know if any modifications were done to the car? My car has a little over 126,000mi on it and to date nothing like this.

A thought;
Did the detailers have the roof open? Could it be that they did not close it properly, now if that were the situation you should have had a fault on the roof.

 

Whitexkr, the battery is less than a month old. It has up in til the last month, not given me to many electrical issues.

Man my BMW never gave me this many problems, in 30k miles I have replaced.

All four roof lines
top latch
t-stat housing
all ball joints
all tie rods
all shocks
shock mounts
front brakes and rotors
a piller and header cloth
seat heating elements - both
radio
intake duct
all vacuum lines
fuel pump
housing on top of tank - it rusted out
left headlight housing
water pump
MAF
tensioners

I spent 2600 on my 93 vette in 8 years and 1700 of that was to rebuild tranny at 159k miles.

 

It is still worth checking the battery. New batteries have been known to fail, usually due to a shorted cell. Also check the two giant primary fuses at the back of the boot for solid connections.

Bizarre electrical problems can be caused by interruptions in power.

 

You didn't get all that for 2k did you? If you did that sounds like a bargain IMO. Hopefully you paid cash for this and not too much at that. Did you get this from a lot or a private seller? That's a lot of issues.

 

You already have Gus & WhiteXKR on this (two of the best), so I don't know that I can add much, but I am curious...when was the top work down on the lines, latch and top header?

Could something be amiss from that work?

 

That would be worrying?

Just a thought to follow on from Steve's voltage questions, any chance he detailers had the doors open and the radio playing while they worked?

 

Hi.

That sounds like a hairising or rather hairblowing experience. The only similar incident I have heard of was my wifes Citroen 2CV in her younger days with the hole roof hanging like a blowing flag after the car.
Now, just curious, did it open all the way, was it blown to pieces or did you managed to close it?
Sorry to hear about your experience with the car. You must have been getting a really bad sample. I have had mine for a while, and have only had some minor quirks.
All the best.

 

Latch and lines were replaced by me last June and I have driven 100 miles since the detail was done, though they did manage to pull the screws out of the header panel on the driver side sunvisor.

Going to check voltage now, but the top will not go up or down.

BTW: thanks all for putting up w/my ravings. Took me a long time to calm down last night and many adult beverages.

 

oyster, luckily I saw it when it was open about 2 inches and I grabbed the top and held on to it, till I could pull over. Even luckier, I was only about a half mile from my exit.

Man on christmas day, I went on 'Mister Toad's wild ride' and now this and people wonder why I won't skydive.

 

Just a quick thought. I had this happen once while driving my '03 xkr. I, unfortunately don't remember what speed I was traveling. Anyway, here's what happened. I was reaching down to play with the radio. I inadvertently let my little finger rest on the top button. The top did not unlock, but the back windows rolled down. I noticed the noise and draft and lifted my finger as soon as I realized what was going on. No damage done.

Don't know if this is a possibility with you, but that was my experience.

Good luck, Hope you find the problem.

Darrell