The Patron Saint of English cars stopped by during my journey home this evening.... The navigation screen failed to power up upon startup, and steadfastly stayed off and blank for the entire trip home. Needless to say, all worked fine after a restart when I got home, but it was interesting to see that our car pays homage to the old English classics in more ways than one....

 

His legacy lives on!



On other models, the Nav screen either doesn't power on or is at reduced brightness after the vehicle has been parked up for a few days without a battery tender.........

Graham

 

Got my practically brand new (5935 Miles) XKR yesterday. Looks and drives perfect. I drove it home yesterday and when I restarted it a couple of hours later the Nav screen would not come on for at least 30 seconds. Then, it was normal. Don't remember my previous XKs ever taking that long for the screen to power on.

This morning the screen powered on instantly. Yeah, ghost of Lucas. Hopefully, nothing like my early 80s XJ6, where Lucas was the at the heights of its glory... I could tell stories for hours about the electrics on that car...

 

You'd think Jaguar would've fixed this issue over several model years of all their cars suffering the same problems...

 

Well, he paid me another visit this morning....

Two trips this morning. On the first, the display worked just fine. On the second, it steadfastly refused to fire up.

Looks like a trip to my dealer might be in order....

 

I believe that the navigation system is a Blackberry (QNX) driven device, the same as in BMWs and others. I only mention this because my '09 M3 had similar symptoms occasionally. A restart/reboot mostly sorted it out, and at least no Lucas smoke was ever emitted.

Could be worse: could be Microsoft, who Ford have just ditched!

Chris

 

Please let us know what the dealer says. I’m sure one of us will “suffer” the same visit.

 

will do. It was fine again this afternoon, though....

 

My 2007 XK does the same thing. It seems to do it more often in cold weather, and I don't think it has to do with the battery because I just had a brand new battery installed and it still occurs.

 

I've had the same thing happen twice now.

 

And he's back! Happened again this morning. Haven't had a chance to visit the dealer yet with a lot of business travel but will try to do so next week.

 

In case anyone is interested and/or has experienced the same issue, my car is at the dealer as we speak and they tell me that Jaguar is aware of this specific issue and has released a software update that should apparently resolve the problem. Unfortunately it's taking some time for the new software to be transferred to them so it can be installed, but when it does it should hopefully correct the issue. I'll report back when I get the car (should be tomorrow).

 

Killing myself laughing here. Please buy old Joseph a pint on me.

 

This sounds more like the "Son of Lucas" who majored in computer science.

 

Sounds like you're running low on smoke.





Here is presented for your perusal one Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke kit, P/N 530433, along with the very rare Churchill Tool 18G548BS adapter tube and metering valve. These kits were supplied surreptitiously to Lucas factory technicians as a trouble-shooting and repair aid for the rectification of chronic electrical problems on a plethora of British cars. The smoke is metered, through the fuse box, into the circuit which has released it's original smoke until the leak is located and repaired. The affected circuit is then rectified and the replacement smoke re-introduced. An advantage over the cheap repro smoke kits currently available is the exceptionally rare Churchill metering valve and fuse box adapter. It enables the intrepid and highly skilled British Car Technician to meter the precise amount of genuine Lucas smoke required by the circuit.


Unlike the cheap, far-eastern replacement DIYsmoke offered by the "usual suppliers", this kit includes a filter to ensure that all the smoke is of consistent size, It has been our experience in our shop that the reproduction Taiwanese smoke is often "lumpy", which will cause excessive resistance in our finely-engineered British harnesses and components. This is often the cause of failure in the repro electrical parts currently available, causing much consternation and misplaced cursing of the big three suppliers.


These kits have long been the secret weapon of the "Ultimate Authorities" in the trade, and this may be the last one available. Be forewarned, though, that it is not applicable to any British vehicle built after the discontinuing of bullet connectors, so you Range Rover types are still on your own...


This Genuine Factory Authorized kit contains enough smoke to recharge the entire window circuit on a 420 Jaguar, and my dear friend and advisor George Wolf of British Auto Specialty assures me that he can replace ALL the smoke in a W&F Barrett All-Weather Invalid Car(147 CC) with enough left over to test a whole box of Wind-Tone horns for escaped smoke. How much more of an endorsement do you need?


More, you say? Well, I once let the smoke out of the overdrive wiring on my friend Roger Hankey's TR3B, and was able to drive over 200 miles home from The Roadster Factory Summer Party by carefully introducing smoke into the failed circuit WITHOUT even properly repairing the leak. Another friend, Richard Stephenson, was able to repair the cooling fan circuit of his Series 1 E-type by merely replacing a fuse and injecting a small quantity of smoke back into the wires. So there!

 

Looks like an excellent product!

 

swajames...I'm sure you will get your issue resolved at the dealership. I don't want to be redundant, but having a battery tender (I use a CTEK-3300) seems to keep many of the electrical gremlins in check. Our car's electrics seem to work best with a fully charged battery or close to it. Once the battery charge drops below a certain threshold, issues can arise. Even though I may drive my car regularly, I still hook up the CTEK every time it is parked overnight in my garage. Knock on wood, no issues to report at this time. It's a must have with Jaguar ownership. Good luck with your car.

 

thanks for the suggestion, Bocatrip. The car does get used most days so the battery ought to be relatively well charged at all times, but you never know... I used to keep my 911 on a tender, but I didn't use that car as much as I use the F Type. I'll ask the dealer about this when I pick up the car.

 

"relatively well charged" can sometimes not be quite enough. If you are driving every day with long straight highway runs with not many start ups or night driving, it might work. However, each time you start the car and put on the a/c and lights it takes away from your close to 100% fully charged battery. Little at a time, the state of charge drops. Maybe a 90% charged battery is fine, but maybe 85% is not. If you do a search on this forum, there is much discussion on how the state of charge of our batteries affects the electronics. The CTEK 3300 is around $57 on Amazon plus another $10-$15 for a comfort chord will give you an additional 8 ft. Jaguar has the same charger with it's logo on it in the accessory book. It's the best investment you can make. Enjoy your ride.

 

Hi all, just to close the loop - the dealer was able to replicate the issue with the display failure and per the recommendation from Jaguar they installed the new software which apparently resolves the problem. I'll report back if it reoccurs, but fingers are crossed that the new software will address it. I also had a minor issue with a noise coming from the center vent as it raised and lowered, they were able to duplicate that issue too and after firstly trying a software update to address that issue, they ended up replacing the part. I'll look into a battery tender as well, though that hopefully would just be an additional layer of protection if this specific issue was indeed software related.