Just back from a road trip to Canada.
Went fom Boston via Maine to Quebec, then north of the St Lawrence River to the Les Escoumins ferry crossing, down the coastal roads of the Gaspe Peninsula to St. Andrews and back via Portland, ME.
The car ran great. Put on another 2,210 miles (now close to 7K) and got an amazing 26.1 mpg even witth a lot of fast driving and mountain terrain. The mpg well exceeded the rated combined 22 mpg, and used no oil.
No problems (except see below) - just as well since the nearest Jag dealer was several hundred miles away for most of the trip.
During the whole trip, we only saw 2 other Jags, and no F-Types. Lots of positive comments.
Overall a great drive and good experience.
Incidently it seemed like Canadian drivers consider posted kph signs as only recommendations, so we were able to get some pretty fast driving in.

Now for the only issue encountered. Fortunately it was near the end of the trip in Portland.
I went to park in a garage near our hotel and needed to apply the parking brake to put my card into the entry gate on the ramp leading up to the parking levels.
The brake would not release. Apparently (according to the Scarborough, ME dealer) this happens from time to time when parked on a slope (like a parking garage ramp).
The car would not move and was blocking the garage entry ramp.
I tried the usual approaches of stopping/starting, apply and "releasing" the barke, changing gear etc.
I got messages saying the car was not in gear and other confusing statements of the problem.
Finally I just had to gun the engine (which sounded almost as though not in gear) and creep the car off the ramp and up to the first parking level, with the brake still on.
Once on the flat, I pumped the brake pedal a few times and that (or something else??) released the locked brake.
Overall it was quite stressfull adn more than a little embarassing, to have people watching my super F-Type which insisted on back firing each time it restarted but would not move.

The next day I stopped by the Scarbough, ME Jag dealer that was on our route and asked about the problem.
They indicated that they had seen the problem when stopped on a slope but did not really have a solution, though they did suggest restarting the car - which did not work for me.

So, watch out oif you park on a slope with the car in "park". If anybody has a better explanation of why this happened and a how to correct it, please provide it.

 

Gosh, I've parked my car on my sloping drive for the past 3 years and never had that problem. I do apply the EPB manually before selecting "park" - I wonder if that makes a difference?

 

I thought there was a manual parking brake release in the center console? Ive once taken off a trim inside of there and saw a cable with a handle. Always figured thats what it was but never searched for it on the forums here.

 

Pics of what I am talking about



Pulling but no engaging

Holding trim piece that covers this red rope handle

 

I've never used the parking brake for anything. Why would you with an auto?

 

If parked on a slope, it takes the pressure off the gears holding the car in place.

 

Just to clarify, I did not use the parking brake, I simply put the gear shift into the "P" position, to hold the car while I fiddled with getting a credit card into the reader that was higher than the car window.

 

Ah, well that makes more sense. Original post says "Parking Brake".

Even on my BMW with the old selector, it can be difficult to get out of Park Gear if you dont have the park brake applied since the weight of the car is sitting right on the gear, and needs to be forced out.

 

So, Nodnarb, are you thinking that I should have first applied the parking brake because of the slope, then selected the "P" gear position?
I am thinking I need to check it out on my own driveway.

 

Yes. Either Emergency/Park Brake (it shows up as a red PARK on your dash, hence why ive always heard it referred to as the Parking Brake), then Park Gear, -or- Hold brake pedal, then Park Gear, then Emergency/Park Brake, then release brake pedal.

Ive always been taught to do this, since in my youth I always had to park on the street which had a slope. One day, my transmission gave out when I tried to get out of Park Gear and had to get it fixed. Father and shop owner explained to me that its good to put on the Emergency/Park Brake to take the weight off the transmission. They also showed me how when you have a lot of weight sitting against the gear, thats why it POPs when you pull out of Park since you are sliding metal against metal up and out, and eventually eats away at the edge of the gear. This may also explain why your car couldnt get out of gear, because since its electronic, it only has so much force to pull out the gear, and physical selectors might stand a better chance since we can really force it manually.

Ive just made it a habit to always apply Park/Emergency Brake whenever I turn off the car. Bonus points on this car is that once you shift out of Park Gear, it automatically removes Park/Emergency Brake.

 

Thanks for input Nodbarb

 

That’s great (the road trip, not the brake) - these cars love road trips. Entering Ontario, there are large signs saying that 50kph over the limit results in roadside license suspension and seizure of the car, so I go slower than that.

Keep meaning to drive up to Nova Scotia/Cape Breton in the fall for golf, but hasn’t happened yet.

 

Nodnarb: In my youth ( a long, long time ago) there was a long floor mount lever called the hand brake and a long stick with a knob from the floor called the gear lever.
Some times I wish they still both still existed!!

 

Woah woah woah Mr. Fancy with a proper cockpit setup! Sure beats the snot out of my '84 Buick LeSabre Limited! Had the floor Parking Brake and a truck-like gear selector behind the steering wheel.... Sure rode nice though, like a couch on a waterbed on wheels

 

On mine the EPB is applied automatically when P is selected, but i preempt it for reasons of easing the pressure on the gearbox.

 

Correct. Mine works the same way. Automatically applies the EPB when shifting into park. I wonder if this was the case here and just didn’t release when he put it back into gear because of the slope.

 

Not sure when the EPB became automatic - it isn’t on my ‘14.

 

Same here.
And that "red strap" shown in post #4 is the emergency Park pawl release and nothing to do with the EPB, see your Owner Manual.

 

The parking pawl got jammed on the parking ring on the output shaft, once you moved the car it should have released or made a clattering noise as it bounced on the parking ring as the output shaft turned. In my early days of driving there was one or two beaters that I slammed into park while moving, thus I know the clatter LOL

Just curious how come you caught the ferry at Les Escoumins instead of Baie Comeau?

 

Hi SVR575:
Yes we took the ferry from Les Escoumins to Trois Pistoles because the schedule was a better fit.
It allowed us to drive from Quebec in the morning and board in the afternoon without an overnight near Baie Comeau.
The crossing was smooth as a millpond and we saw several whales and dolphins.