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Strange 'ignition' issues

3K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  Indianajons 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I'd be interested in thoughts on the below.

  1. Sometimes when I try to first start the car (foot on brake, quick press of the start button), the car goes to start - e.g. the dials do their full swoop - but it then turns itself off. If I press the start button again, it starts correctly. This is intermittent.
  2. I was recently in stationary traffic on the motorway. Stop/start had kicked in, I'd put the handbrake on and changed to neutral (the engine restarts if left in drive). At some point when I went to move again (unsure whether it was when I changed to drive, tried to accelerate away, etc.), the car turned itself off similarly to above. I pressed the start button and all was fine. InControl shows two separate journeys.

I found a post along similar lines to the second but it was intended behaviour and related to seatbelts. I didn't remove my seatbelt at any point and the car doesn't ever complain about it being undone.

The first is a minor irritant, the second was more concerning.

All thoughts welcome. Thanks!
 
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#5 ·
Jeff123 said:
If I am driving along with the stop/start disabled and put the car in Neutral, when I put it in Drive again, the stop/start has turned itself back on. Seems to me some of what you are describing in point 2 is pretty normal.
Mine doesn't…. with s/s switched off I can put the car in neutral, apply the handbrake, put the car and drive and pull away without s/s switching back on. I believe what landscape is describing is the engine switching off and having to be restarted manually
 
#6 ·
Hi all,

Many thanks as always for your thoughts and responses. Much appreciated!

Fighterpilot said:
Have a look at this re seatbelt and instrument cluster. https://car-recalls.eu/model/xe It may not solve the problem but may give the dealer something to look at.
Thanks - the car is an early 2015 model - an interesting page but nothing seemed applicable. It won't be going near a (main) dealer. :D

147daytona said:
Turn the Stop/Start off :lol:
I appreciate this was somewhat in jest - nevertheless - could help with (2), but not (1) - the car doesn't start for me to disable it!

Indianajons said:
I believe what landscape is describing is the engine switching off and having to be restarted manually
Exactly right, Indianajons. The car shut down completely - fans went off, displays went off (possibly Jaguar logo? Can't remember). Very strange. Tried to repeat in a quiet car park, but couldn't.
 
#7 ·
Indianajons said:
I believe what landscape is describing is the engine switching off and having to be restarted manually
Exactly right, Indianajons. The car shut down completely - fans went off, displays went off (possibly Jaguar logo? Can't remember). Very strange. Tried to repeat in a quiet car park, but couldn't.
[/quote]

I had the same problem as your number 1, which got progressively worse until the car wouldn't start at all… after having the car recovered three times, the starter motor replaced twice under warranty and spending a total four weeks off the road at the main dealer, I insisted they check all the relevant wiring and it turned out to be a wiring harness connector from the under bonnet fuse box to the starter motor that was not pushed fully home!
 
#8 ·
With regard to your 1st point, could it be that you may not be pressing the Start button for a long enough time?
I keep my finger on the button until the engine spins over, rather than just a quick prod, and I've never had your issue (that's not to say this is the cause, just thinking of possibilities).
 
#9 ·
147daytona said:
With regard to your 1st point, could it be that you may not be pressing the Start button for a long enough time?
I keep my finger on the button until the engine spins over, rather than just a quick prod, and I've never had your issue (that's not to say this is the cause, just thinking of possibilities).
I too have wondered this. However, whilst the problem is intermittent, I use the same technique every time (and did with my previous XF which never once did this). I think the fact it responds, goes to start (everything comes alive, the dials swoop and then ... it turns itself off) suggests it's getting the signal to start - just not doing so! If I immediately press the start button again for the same duration, it will then start. Thinking way back, it may have not started a second time, and in that case I did hold the button down until the starter kicked in.

Pretty strange.
 
#10 ·
Indianajons said:
I had the same problem as your number 1, which got progressively worse until the car wouldn't start at all… after having the car recovered three times, the starter motor replaced twice under warranty and spending a total four weeks off the road at the main dealer, I insisted they check all the relevant wiring and it turned out to be a wiring harness connector from the under bonnet fuse box to the starter motor that was not pushed fully home!
Thank you Indianajons - this is incredibly helpful. Do you happen to know whereabouts/which end the connector was? I will try and do some digging in the helpful documentation that has been published here previously, but thought I'd ask in case you can point me to something specific to check!
 
#11 ·
landscape said:
Indianajons said:
I had the same problem as your number 1, which got progressively worse until the car wouldn't start at all… after having the car recovered three times, the starter motor replaced twice under warranty and spending a total four weeks off the road at the main dealer, I insisted they check all the relevant wiring and it turned out to be a wiring harness connector from the under bonnet fuse box to the starter motor that was not pushed fully home!
Thank you Indianajons - this is incredibly helpful. Do you happen to know whereabouts/which end the connector was? I will try and do some digging in the helpful documentation that has been published here previously, but thought I'd ask in case you can point me to something specific to check!
Between the back of the engine and the bulkhead…. not sure exactly where but the tech told me he found it by following the wiring down from the fuse box on the rhs. You might have to crawl under the car and remove the under tray to find it if your arms can't reach it from above
 
#12 ·
Indianajons said:
landscape said:
Indianajons said:
I had the same problem as your number 1, which got progressively worse until the car wouldn't start at all… after having the car recovered three times, the starter motor replaced twice under warranty and spending a total four weeks off the road at the main dealer, I insisted they check all the relevant wiring and it turned out to be a wiring harness connector from the under bonnet fuse box to the starter motor that was not pushed fully home!
Thank you Indianajons - this is incredibly helpful. Do you happen to know whereabouts/which end the connector was? I will try and do some digging in the helpful documentation that has been published here previously, but thought I'd ask in case you can point me to something specific to check!
Between the back of the engine and the bulkhead…. not sure exactly where but the tech told me he found it by following the wiring down from the fuse box on the rhs. You might have to crawl under the car and remove the under tray to find it if your arms can't reach it from above
Thanks again - really appreciate your help. A job for the weekend, I think. If it involves access from underneath I think it'll be a job for the indie at the next service!
 
#13 ·
landscape said:
Thanks again - really appreciate your help. A job for the weekend, I think. If it involves access from underneath I think it'll be a job for the indie at the next service!
From a relatively quick look I can see the fuse box at the top right of the engine has the fuse for the starter motor as you say and the starter motor is at the front of the (Ecoboost petrol) engine. Quite how it gets from one to the other I haven't worked out yet, but there seems to be quite a thick yellow wire to follow at least.
 
#14 ·
landscape said:
landscape said:
Thanks again - really appreciate your help. A job for the weekend, I think. If it involves access from underneath I think it'll be a job for the indie at the next service!
From a relatively quick look I can see the fuse box at the top right of the engine has the fuse for the starter motor as you say and the starter motor is at the front of the (Ecoboost petrol) engine. Quite how it gets from one to the other I haven't worked out yet, but there seems to be quite a thick yellow wire to follow at least.
The fuse box also has the two starter relays…. so something else to check, although they rarely go wrong
 
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