Hello all!

First of all I'd like to thank all of you for the unknowing help you have given me in helping to make up my mind to purchase a 2003 Jaguar S-Type R. I saw it online and fell in love with it and am currently bidding to win. I have already taken mental ownership of it and have planned out the parts I want/need in order go for preventative measures first and performance later. I was amazed to read all the stories (here and other places) with regard to this models performance and longevity... All at a fair price! Take care of it... And it takes care of you!

I am curious, however, that I have not seen much/any talk about anyone hacking or playing with the ECU. When I had a Porsche 911 one of the guys on the forum came up with a scan-tool program and supplied the schematics and software which I rapidly turned into a PC board to make myself. It cost literally $5-$10 in parts to make. It was fairly elementary with limited uses but it could help in a lot of cases. My BMW was similar. You could find various suppliers of scan tools that would allow you to code the ECU to do things you would normally have to go to the dealer for or to give your American BMW a European touch. A few of the more common things you could do was turn your daytime running lights on or off by default. Activate your alarm feature. Everyone can open their windows with a hold on the unlock button but only the European models came coded to close upon pressing lock... An easy fix! You could set your service intervals, etc. I don't see where anything like this is available for the Jag. At least I haven't stumbled across any threads like that.

Anyway... I wanted to stop by, introduce myself, say thanks and tell you that I'll be back on after I win the bid on my new car!

Rick

 

Welcome aboard Rick.

 

Welcome to the Forums.

 

Welcome to the forums Rick,

Good luck in the bidding.

Look in General Tech Help for threads about Jaguar SDD (Symptom Driven Diagnostics). This is the factory/dealer tool for the kind of intervention you have in mind.

Enjoy the forums.

Graham

 

Welcome to Jaguar Forums Rick,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help

 

From one S-type owner to (hopefully) another... Welcome. The S-type forum is populated with a very friendly group and contains a wealth of knowledge.

 

welcome to the forum - enjoy

 

Graham... Thank for the tip on SDD... I've read a few threads and already looked them up online. Looks like a future purchase!

I noticed that several people mentioned the Panasonic Toughbook in the SDD threads. I used to custom build those, adding custom wifi, my own internal GPS and antenna, etc. I probably have 10-15 down in my basement in various states. They used to be the "go-to" as they maintained their serial port when other laptops went totally USB. Plus, techs can drop them to the concrete and they don't break. When I was on the Porsche forums with my 911... I built a scan tool and we just made it the "Forum Scan Tool." Whoever needed it just asked and it was shipped to them. We had a thread devoted to keeping track of it. Maybe in the future...

 

Hello, Rick,
Welcome to the forums from ElinorB.
(';')

 

I have a Panasonic Toughbook CF28 running an early version of SDD for older Jaguars gathering dust in a corner. My current XK needs v1.50 upwards and I just have this installed on a Lenovo Thinkpad T430. SDD is free to download from JLR IDS server:
Index of /265935/idscentral

It only runs for 24 hours - after that it requires time purchased from JLR by the hour, day, week, month or year. There are "offline" (cracked) versions available but look out for the warnings in your reading.

Graham

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

I learned Toughbooks on CF-28s. They are very forgiving! I shorted wires and chips many times in trying to learn GPS pin-outs. I never did make the magic smoke appear. They also have the lowest failure rate of any PC to this day! I've never had one fail. I outfitted a construction company with a set of CF-29s many years ago. He said he was sending one back for repair. I laughed as I opened the box... It had been crushed by a bulldozer running over it. The outer case, screen and keyboard had been crushed... But he had still been using it in a port replicator with external screen and keyboard for over a year. He decided he needed it back in the field so I built him another. I love them!

 

From one Virginian to another: WELCOME!

Dwayne