Hi all,

I have a 2016 F-Type R which I bought new back in October 2015. I have done around 13,000 miles so far with a last service done in Nov 17. After a relatively issue free run for 2 years, now several issues are starting to develop in both interior and exterior. These issues are really annoying and they just takes away your enjoyment with the car. I took good car of my car and always drove in good conditioned roads, so i am really disappointed that the car seems to fall apart after only 2 years of ownership with such low mileage. I have a 2012 Audi A6 that I bought 6 years ago with 95,000 miles and it is still bullet proof both in interior or mechanical parts.

Below are the list of issues that my car currently have. I will take it to the dealership maybe next month, but i wanted to hear your opinion and experience with these issues first so i can instruct the dealership on how to fix them.

Exterior + Mechanical:
1- Rear diffuser part (the bar below the exhaust pipes) was loose from both parts. I pushed the diffuser from both sides until it clicked, but there is still a gap in both sides and it still feels a bit loose.

2- I can feel and hear a mechanical thump/bump from the rear when slowing down to speeds under 20 or when removing my feet of gas then re-applying again. The dealer replaced the rear differential in my last service but the issue is still there. I am starting to think that this is a normal behavior of the car?

3- I can feel and hear a slight mechanical thump/bump when changing gear to reverse. It does not happen when selecting drive. is this normal?


Interior:
for interior issues, I found a guy on youtube who had similar issues and he uploaded videos for these issues.

1- Both seatbelts are creaking

2- Car B-Pillar is ticking

3- Both interior door handles are creaking when opening and closing the door or when applying pressure to the handle . The interesting thing is that I rarely have passengers in my car, so the passenger door is rarely used, but it still developed the issue.

4- Rattling from dashboard, although mine is not as bad as the video

5- seat belt receiver squeaks. The video is for jaguar xe, but i guess the issue runs in the family

6- creaking noise heard from back of both seats when turning the car 90 degrees or when driving on speed bumps
listen to back of seat1.mp3 attachement

7- seat cushion creaks in the right part when i move my right thigh
listen to car seat cushion.mp3 attachement

8- buzzing noise from area between the seats behind the storage box when driving slowly on slightly bad road.

 

there was a service bulletin about rear suspension thunk - it might be relevant to your car.

Seatbelt against the seat has a service bulletin the dealer should be aware of.

Ticking from the b-pillar could be the glass squeaking against the rubber. I had that on my V6S and thoroughly cleaning the rubber - and applying some rain-x to the glass helped a lot.

Seatbelt receiver rubbing against the leather. My SVR actually came with some adhesive felt on the sides of the receiver to stop it rubbing so they may have done that during the PDI.

I also had a really annoying sound right behind my head - sounded like a plastic bottle cap hitting something hard over slight bumps. After going through the entire interior and trunk with adhesive felt on anything that looked like it could move I finally narrowed it down the the black strip across the top of the trunk lid - seems to have some flex on one side compared to the other. Temp fixed by wedging some felt between the stop light LED bar and the black part over the top.

Was a worthwhile excercise as I think I've eliminated most of the less-annoying sources of rattles and squeaks as well.

 

i also believe that for the price range of my V8S i should not have these noises, but that being said, JLR has tried hard to address 95% of them, and the remaining i have worked out with some exploration on my own.

The noise in the center between/behind the seats in the worst IMO, the lid on the lockable storage box was causing that on mine, i would press on the box lid (hard) when it made the rattle and it would stop. i used 2 3M rubber feet from the office supply store at the corners in the storage box to hold the lid solid while closed. has worked for over a year with zero rattle. may work for you. Good luck.

 

Thanks for all replies.

I am not sure that the issue is from the suspension, it feels more like a rear axle issue.

For the b-pillar ticking, i tried cleaning the windows and the rubber, but the ticking is still there. I can hear the ticking even when the window is all way down. The noise is getting worse with time.


For the sound coming from the back, i opened the trunk and began inspecting the parts. The plastic cover parts on both sides of the trunk actually squeak when i press them. Even the plastic cover parts that surround the two pillars behind the seats squeak a bit when pressed. So i am not really sure about the noise source.

I will try the lockable storage box fix and see if it works.

Also, for "7- seat cushion creaking", the noise comes from the right corner side of the seat, where the cushion meets the backrest. interestingly, if I push the seat all the way back, the noise disappears. The more I push the seat forward, the worst the noise gets.

 

Welcome to Jag ownership. Squeaks are part of the experience.

Exterior + Mechanical:
1. That is a common problem - the plastic of the rear diffuser deforms over time and gaps open where it fits against the rear valance. AFAIK there is no long term fix - I replaced mine with new and the gaps were back after a few months. I can easily pop the clips out with my hands, but I have not yet had any come out after driving.

I'll do no's 2 and 3 backwards:

3. Your description is exactly what I experienced with my 2015 R. The clunk when changing from reverse to forward gear (and vice versa, depending on which was engaged first) has a TSB to resolve it. It is caused by a small amount of backlash between the drive shaft and the rear diff splines, and over time it will cause wear and become more pronounced if not addressed. I recall the fix involves removing the drive shaft from the rear diff and applying some specific types of Loctite to the splines to remove the movement. That fixed it on mine.

2. I still have this after the fix for no. 3, with no noted change. As Jallitt mentioned there was a TSB for early cars that described a clunk in those circumstances that was caused by the upper part of the rear suspension springs coming into contact with the mount, and was resolved by adding a sleeve to the top of the springs that looked like it was rubber or similar. My car is a model year earlier than yours, and the TSB did not apply to mine as it was supposedly resolved on production cars about a month prior to my VIN. I am interested to see what other responses you get for that symptom because it is the only thing that still regularly irritates me with my car.

Interior:
1, 2 and 3 could probably be resolved with topical application of a spray silicon oil in the areas where the trims are rubbing. Don't spray anything in your car, but put some in a cup or bowl and apply with a cotton wool bud. Don't use an oil based lubricant, use the silicone ones in little drop bottles used with pneumatics as they are easy to apply. Cotton wool buds and wooden tongue depressors are really handy tools for temporarily wedging between trims to see if that resolves a rubbing sound.

The door handle (no. 3) might be harder as it could be the fixing creaking in which case you would take the door panel off, remove the handle and use foam washers and tesa cloth tape ( ) to isolate the rubbing parts.

4. The central dashboard rattle in that video could be from the plastic grill contacting the leather trim on the central vent. When I dismantled mine to fix the broken rise fault from earlier cars I noted that some tesa tape had been added along one side, presumably after delivery to fix a squeak. If you apply pressure to the speaker grill does that stop the rattle? Or you could pop it off and drive without it to see if the noise stops.

5. You can wrap tesa tape around the stem of the belt holder to prevent it rubbing anywhere along the length to remove that squeak. The seat cushion side should be fabric there to prevent noises, so it may be rubbing against the plastic trim. If you don't have a foam block on the rear of the head/casing as well add one to stop it rubbing on the centre console.

6 and 7. Is the seat back far enough that it contacts the parcel shelf trim? Mine make similar noises if they are fully back, so I keep them about 1cm forward and they are silent. As you mention both seats it is unlikely to be a loose floor bolt, but check those are tight if the seat is forward a bit.

8. Is the buzzing electrical (like a small fan), or mechanical/vibration? I'm not sure if those videos are of your car or not, but if you have the coupe pop out the cover between the seats to see if the noise changes (it is clipped either side at the top and hooked over at the bottom, so pull the top off then lift upwards)

The rear leather-coated trims above the rear wheels either side of the cargo cover, and that fit up against the parcel shelf, are an extremely poor design and move around quite a bit. I fixed a rattle behind my outer-ear by wedging a dense foam block between the bottom of the parcel shelf trim and the side trims to hold them in place. I wouldn't describe it as a buzzing, but if yours are very loose I suppose it might vibrate more.

Every Jaguar dealer will have a squeaks and rattles kit supplied by the JLR tools distributor which contains various density foam pads, tapes and silicones. Personally I have never had any luck getting a dealer to chase trim noises so I do them myself, so you might be able ask nicely and get a selection from the dealer foc, but you can also buy one if you want the full set. I went round my car moving every trim piece by hand and isolating squeaks with tesa tape and knocks with small foam blocks from the JLR kit. It took me a day but I removed most of the interior trim noises.

 

I believe Unhinged treated the back of his seats with armor all to stop some squeaking. I used griots garage vinyl and rubber dressing. I need to turn down the stereo and turn off active exhaust!

 

Yes, but that was a long time ago. Hasn't been an issue since.

 

Would you still recommend then?

 

All the noises that my car may be making are not noticeable due to the beautiful exhaust Note!

 

almost everyone uses this as an excuse why something doesn't work on this car..... it only works so long before it becomes an annoyance and Jaguar loses the gains it had over the past couple of years.

 

 

I haven't owned a Porsche but get the impression that this final level of fit and finish is what Jaguar needs to turn the final corner. Not sure if the Porsche halo is an illusion or real without owning one. I watched the making of the new/old E-types (the racing version of the Etype) that were recently completed. The care in the details needs to transfer to the production vehicles. The new Jaguar has more right than wrong, just needs tweaking. Price shouldn't go up, but could help depreciation values. The beauty of the f type trumps the niggles as long as they are just niggles and can be addressed without too much pain. Impatiently awaiting for winter to subside and get back on the road.

 

I had a 2015 Cayman S and the fit and finish was no better than my Jag, maybe worse. I had to chase rattles in that Porsche, more than my F-Type. In fact, the only thing better about the Porsche was its handling through twisties.
Larry

 

I actually have Zero complaints or noises at this time on my F-Type.

 

A few of the build quality issues at least appear to be very common (such as the B-pillar tick that my car currently has on the passenger side) so hopefully it means that once we figure out the cause all of us can address it.

The B-pillar noise might be coming from body panels according to other threads. Sadly no TSB for this that I can find, so it means either I or the dealer has to discover it on our own.

 

I have it too and refuse to let my dealer chase it. Too much damage has already been done to my car on service trips. I have found that the noise goes away during the hot and humid months which are shortly upon me. It's most pronounced below 50 degrees.

 

+1 The car is loud to begin with (exhaust, road/tire noise, etc...) but that's the traditional nature of a sports car - two seats, pretty fast, good handling and noisy.

 

Thanks xdave for your comprehensive response and thanks for all other responses.

For the gearbox, i will check with the dealer for a fix.

I will try WD-40 silicon spray for seat belt issues.

for 6, the noise lessens when I push both seats forward. However, when I push the driver seat forward, driver seat noise (issue 7) appears. The creaking noise comes from the right corner side of the seat, where the cushion meets the backrest. If I push the seat all the way back, the seat noise disappears. The more I push the seat forward, the worse the noise gets.

For the buzzing noise, as Itismejoshy suggested, it might be from the storage box lid. This noise does not happen often and I feel that it usually happens with open active exhaust gradual acceleration noise. I will try your suggestion as well.

As suggested, i will try to identify noise sources in the trunk. I will also try all other suggestions and see how they will work out.

Btw, the videos are not mine, but the attached sound clips are mine.

 

Hi Totti, that's funny, those are my own F-Type R videos! I can understand your frustration I spent so much time with my car in the shop (8 weeks+ of shop time, mostly San Jose dealership incompetence/slowness), that in the end the overall experience was frustrating. I have since reached an agreement with Jaguar NA and returned my car after only a year and half into the lease. Have not had a chance to write a full post about it here...

Yes I miss the driving and the exhaust, but I don't miss the quirks as I put 13K miles on it of daily driving and road trips. I eventually got the sound fixed, as many know there's a TSB know thanks to it, as for the other issues, some got fixed, but more damage was done elsewhere after they tore it apart so many times. The silicon lubricant really helped with creaks around the car, applying it around door seals and trunk.

 

Does anyone know how to remove the rising center vent assembly to resolve the issue illustrated in #4 in the OP? Mine is somewhat like this in the ‘up’ position but only after it sits out in the heat/sun. After the A/C channels cool, it stops.