Usually it means the battery is dying. Plenty of proof on here of that.

 

As a prospective buyer of a S-type R (throttle problems free!) I have to say that this thread does give one pause. I'm 58 and I've seen the gamut from a 39 Plymouth in college up to a 2001 Mercury with several exotic Italian cars in the middle. My Ford product Sable hasn't been perfect but considering that it has been sitting outside in the NE of the USA for 10 years and I've had no issues like this I'd say that's pretty good. I've been hoping that some of that sort of reliability has rubbed of on jaguar.

I have an older friend in his early 70's that's thinking of dumping his top of the line Lexus now because of the electric steering on that car. Apparently there's an issue with putting the car through repeated vigorous R & L hand steering maneuvers where the steering wheel gets out of alignment due to an ECU fault and so the car no longer goes straight when the steering wheel is at center.

The issue of on-board fault diagnosis going haywire is not uncommon even amongst high end cars. Another friend who was in charge of their gearbox systems at Aston described the issues their gearbox supplier was having with the paddle shifting type boxes. As you can imagine, that sort of gearbox has a lot of internal sensors and computer controls to prevent internal damage when something's gone wrong or the idiot driver is asking for something they should not. There were a lot of diagnostic codes and limp home episodes on those cars, Ferrar's and Maserati's. The supplier eventually had to reengineer all of the internal sensors in addition to software changes. A real mess. Something a standard clutch and a nice 5 or 6 speed would have bypassed. Sadly, I believe we are all in for a lot more of this in the future. Complexity has it's downside.

My friend with the Lexus is now thinking about getting a really nice & clean 15 year old car with steering, brakes and throttle controls that still have a mechanical basis in the event of an ECU systems failure. I don't blame him.

I was originally looking into a real nice used Audi but I heard so many horror repair stories I decided to pass. I've heard better things about these generations of Jaguars but this thread doesn't help.

With respect to the sealing of the throttle body I might suggest that you use a product called Stabilant 22 on the connections. A lot of Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini owners use this and it cuts way down on spurious ECU codes due to connector corrosion issues. That guy from Aston uses this and he's now at another high manufacturer where they use it as well.

Sealing the harness and plug with silicone is something I've done on really old and ratty cars. But I'm not clear as to how you guys are doing this.

Is it just between the wiring loom and the connector on the end of that loom or are you actually using it to effect a seal with connector plug to throttle body? That sounds like a hell of a mess for any subsequent service work.

Bob S.

 

There are a lot of cars which don't have throttle body problems but naturally you don't hear about them.

All modern cars are struggling to meet emissions laws (to tight limits and in some cases warranty for 7+ years) and are resorting to complex electronics. Buying an old car avoids this - for now. Or get an electric car, maybe, but it feels a bit soon (and generally the performance etc is dire).

To a large extent the reliability of earlier cars cannot rub off on any company's recent cars because of the radically and quickly changed emissions laws (and other laws but they'll affect other modules than the PCM).

Thanks for mentioning that product.

There are more weird codes due to failing batteries but they're easily fixed so you don't hear any more about them.

 

I call it "microprocessor madness" Bob S. And like yourself, I've been thinking that buying a good-condition vintage car just COULD make a lot of sense. As regards pollution, certainly with CO2 pollution, I can't say that overall there has been any improvement to speak of via the mpg. figures achieved by modern cars. In fact in Europe, due to safety legislation, small cars are getting heavier. The old 1970s Golf GTi f'rinstance actually beats the modern one for acceleration and top speed as exemplified by Jeremy Clarkson on his "Top Gear" tv show. (Poss. now available as a re-run from the BBC website).
Granted the old cars weren't in some cases all that reliable, BUT, they were easy to diagnose and fix, and didn't usually cost an arm and a leg in the process. The only real prob. I can see now with running an old motor would be getting spares.
Leedsman.

 

There was a LOT more non-CO2 pollution.

I think you've forgotten that the new GTi is as fast as or faster than the old but that the one(s) in between were slower.

The newer ones have lots more safety features, but not everyone cares about safety, granted.

 

Sorry to beat on a dead horse here but my 03 S Type just ran into a similar issue. I'm not getting the Engine Systems Fault, or DSC not available, or any other codes- just the park brake fault. The code came up on my way home from dinner, I noticed when I put the car into gear it kind of jumped a little when the light came on. I didn't go into limp mode as I crossed my fingers on the way home, about a 5-8 mile drive.

I tried to do a hard reset and was able to get the park brake to re-engage, however when I put the car into gear or I disengage the park brake the same fault comes back up and the ABS light comes back on. I'm assuming that this may follow along the lines of what I've been reading as far as moisture being a culprit. Recently it rained so badly that a few of the roads where I stay were blocked off due to flooding.

I've been reading a few threads and they mentioned the possibility of this being a recall. How true is that statement? Naturally I'd hope that I don't get hit for too much in repair fees seeing as how I'm a student and my car is outside of the warranty area from all the trips from FL to VA.

 

Couple of quick simple steps to check:

1) Open trunk remove trunk liner floor look into the spare tire compartment for water.

2) Check the brake fluid reservoir make sure its between the add and full level.

3) How did you do the hard reset?

 

I did the reset by disconnecting the battery for 15 minutes then reconnecting it (I believe that's the same way everyone else has stated they reset it also). I'm assuming it's not faulting due to low battery as I just replaced the battery two years ago, but I do remember my battery draining about 2 weeks ago. I'll go outside and check the brake fluid reservoir now. I'd hoped that I wouldn't have to deal with any issues with my Leaper before graduation but apparently luck isn't on my side. So far most of my issues were minor and I've been able to fix them in the driveway- I'm hoping this is the case again.

 

Trunk was clear of water- though I know I've had that problem in the past with moisture getting into it after hard rain when I first got it (when I first got it after a hard rain, my passenger seat air bag light sensor come on. I was asleep and the windows were open).

Also I checked the brake fluid reservoir, that seems to be fine. Its not too low or too high.

 

Look in your manual and there is a EPB (electric parking brake)reset procedure. In a 2005, turn key to #2 postion step on brake pedal, lift up on EPB lever for a few seconds.

 

I think this is what I did to reset the first time? After I reconnected the battery it states to apply park brake (however I did apply the brakes a few times before actually applying park brake to make sure they were connecting). Is this what you are referring to? I've also tried applying the brake and lifting up on the park brake, and the park brake light flashes then goes off. I'll try again now and hold the button down for longer.

Could it be that the pads are low? Now that I'm thinking about it I don't think I can recall the last time I changed the rear pads (car has over 100K in highway miles- when I got it it had 30K). Outside of low battery or the possibility of the throttle body getting moisture from the rain (I think I read someone mention this) I'm not sure what could cause it. Though I didn't notice the appearance of any type of moisture under the hood when I checked the brake fluid.

 

****HELP!!! I had this same problem two days ago. I just had my 50K service performed about 2 weeks ago. My car was in drive and I was stopped on the side of the road. Suddenly I began seeing the error messages DSC unavailable, cruise unavailable, CATS system failure so I put the car in Park and turned it off. I tried to start it again and it would not respond just shows me the errors over and over again. Tried to push button start it over again for 45 minutes with no luck. Had car towed to local dealership who I really don't trust. Anyway, when this happened to you and they changed the throttle body has it occurred again? I am very concerned because I drive my 3 y/o around in this car daily. Any advice would be helpful and greatly appreciated. HELP!!!

 

please excuse the duplicate entry. please see above question.

 

*****

 

elindo - are you saying you have an XK? Different in many many ways so you'd do better to ask on the XK forum.

Without more to go on (and for an S-Type) it would be almost certainly the battery (or power related) and very unlikely the TB.

 

I had this problem with my 2005 S-Type 4.2 V8. I had it last year and cleaned my Mass Air Flow Sensor and it went away. Then it came again this Spring and replaced the MAF but it didn't go away. I then replaced my throttle body (very expensive) and when it happened again I was dismayed, but determined to find the solution. The only common denominator was the gasoline I used.

I went to the auto store to get some Dry Gas (four of these errors occurred on the way to the store). The store didn't have Dry Gas, but they did have an Injector Cleaner with a moisture inhibitor in it. Read the contents. I bought a can and put it in the gas tank, topped off the tank from a different gas station than my normal, and I have not had the problem since.

I believe the problem was caused by a tank of bad gasoline. Either the octane was low or there was water in it. The injector cleaner will inhibit the moisture as well as boost the octane. AND, it only cost $4.99 for the can, not $110 for the MAF and $769 for the throttle body.

Try this first before taking it to the dealer.

 

I think Jeffg has put his finger on something here, as in UK a few years ago there was an almost-crisis over bad petrol, people having to have their tanks cleaned out etc.
As most if not all cars nowadays use fuel injection rather than carburetion, I know personally that injectors can get clogged, petrol or diesel, and need cleaning. Sometimes the clogging is obvious, sometimes subtle. The least effective is the "chuck some injector cleaner in the tank" method (of these the 'Forte' additive is by far the best), the medium-effective is to put the Forte in the fuel filter, and the most effective is to remove the injectors from the engine and take them to a specialist injector cleaner firm; I understand ultra-sonic cleaning methods are used nowadays. With diesel injectors, they would replace the pintle as a matter of course, but that was with the old passive injectors. My XJ6 suffered from clogged injectors, running rough on petrol, but running fine on LPG which didn't use the injectors. This problem happened because I was able to start the car on LPG, so never used the petrol at all. That how they got clogged. Something in the petrol left in the injectors had changed.
I remember back in my youth, if you had to store the car,say over winter, you had to drain the carburettor of petrol, and hold down the clutch with a brick.
Leedsman.

 

This is a problem that has occurred consistently when it rains or when my STR rolls out of the car wash. It's happened 6 times over the last 2 years. It's definitely a moisture issue. I think it's time I roll up my sleeves and make a run at the silicon grease. My issue is that the graphic depiction in the service manual CD is rather sketchy as to where I'm supposed to apply all that grease around the throttle body. Has anyone taken any pictures that they could share with this thread? It would sure boost my confidence while I'm knee deep in the slimy stuff.

 

The water shouldn't be getting to the TB. You have a leak somewhere, I think.

 

Before you go under the hood, invest $3 and put some dry gas in your tank and top off your tank at a gas station that you do not normally use. You may save yourself a lot of hassle.