Just got a new-to-me '02 XKR coupe registered in ON and decided to go through a quickie touchless car wash. Everything was great until the point I put it in Drive after the wash cycle and starting moving. TRAC and ABS not available messages came on after a couple of inches of forward progress. I shut the car off and restarted in hopes that the reboot would reset the faults. Nope, no such luck. Both messages reappeared on ignition and CEL decided to join the Dashboard Christmas Tree party as well. I'm worried that water has gone into the engine compartment through the hood vents and wrecked havoc on the electrickery bits.
Has anybody has similar experience with car washes? How likely is it to recover after a thorough drying?

 

Sounds like a classic case of moisture getting into the throttle body. Search this forum using "throttle body moisture" as your key words then sit back and read for an hour or so. I would never take either of our Jaguars through an automatic car wash, and I also do not spray the engine bays down with degreaser and then garden-hose them, either. Far too many bad things happen to the electronics in these cars when you introduce water under the hood....

 

It's the XKR's way of telling you to wash by hand next time!

The TRAC and ABS messages are likely to be triggered by water / dirt getting onto the wheel speed sensors or even into their harness connectors.

There's a good chance after drying out the TRAC and ABS messages will go on the next restart.

If the wash pressure was sufficient to drive water through the bonnet grilles, you may have more complex issues. As Jon says, there's a lot of complex electronics under there with a definite water aversion.

Graham

 

I've also noticed that the cruise control enable button no longer functions? So... does that mean that my brake switch is the likely culprit?