I went to start my car the other day and even though all of the lights, radio, windows, etc. work just fine, it will not start. I do not hear any click sound that I am used to hearing on other cars when a starter is bad. Just silence. Since the car is back into the driveway I see that when I attempt to start the car the rear lights that are shining on my garage door go dark when I turn the key to the start position and turn back on when I release it from that position. Maybe that is normal.

About a week prior I had a right rear turn signal bulb go bad and I am waiting for the new bulb to arrive.

At least 3 weeks prior I had a shop change the transmission fluid, fluid pan/filter and a seal that was leaking the transmission fluid. They said they had to reset a computer and that it would need to learn again how I drive. When I picked it up the heating/air conditioning display was on Celcius instead of Fahrenheit where I usually had it. Ever since then the heating and air conditioning system only blows really hot air, even when it is set on about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

I do not know if these two issues are related or not. What should I check?

 

Does battery have at least 12.6 volts across the terminals?

 

I have a trickle charger. I hooked it up and it read 14.8 volts. I just noticed one other thing that I had not seen before. The plastic light cover over the brake light area has a hole about 12 mm wide. I have no idea when that happened, but it was not there before. We had a lot of rain just around the time the bulb went out and the no start problem, but I did not see any water in the trunk/boot. It has had many days to dry though.

 

Ignore the charger's 14.8. It's the battery voltage that needs to be checked. Put a decent load on it for a few mins first or you just get the surface voltage (which will be more than the true one).

 

Hmm, it's not easy to come up with any plausible way that "resetting" a computer would cause the HVAC system to act up. I suspect the reset was simply disconnecting the battery. Maybe the reconnection caused a fuse to blow?

In the HVAC system, the default position is full heat to the defroster vents. The Dual Climate Control Valve (DCCV) has two internally valves, both spring-loaded to the full open (max heat) position. The fuse and the DCCV are easy enough to check, detailed in post #2 here:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ol-how-185002/

 

I have had a few flat batteries with my S-type (never on the car's fault) but in my experience it either starts or it does not. I mean if voltage is too low it does not even try to turn the starter. So I think you have battery problems. Mayba the dccv or the climate control has gone bad and it sucks current.

 

The HVAC defaults to Celsius display after battery disconnection. So the xmsn shop probably disconnected the battery for one reason or another. Does the one-touch-auto-up function work on your windows? (that's another setting you must re-do after battery disconnect)

Hot air sounds like your DCCV is not getting power or has failed. Plenty of threads on it, here, but may's well start with Karl's exhaustive HVAC troubleshooting thread.

Lights all functional but going dark when you turn the key to start sounds like a bad connection, incapable of carrying large current - better check your cables at the battery terminals (Clean, dry and tight) and the grounding cable at the other end can be a culprit - so make sure the connection between cable and car is good.

 

Ooh, I must have been half asleep. I missed the "no start" condition. Kinda hard to check the HVAC operation like that...

As mentioned above, inspect and clean the battery ground cable, especially where it attaches to the body. This is a known problem area. There may have been a marginal connection that was disturbed when the shop unhooked the other end at the battery.

 

All that I have had time to do so far was remove both battery cables and clean the terminals with my terminal cleaner (wire brushes in a hole). Car still did not start. I will try the one-touch window to see if that works.

 

Oh. I forgot to mention one other symptom that may help with diagnosis. The morning that it would not start we were planning to push it into the street to let my wife's car out as I was trapping her in. I could not even put it in neutral with the key turned to the correct position and with my foot on the brake.

 

will it start in Neural?

 

If you now have at least 12.6V standing battery voltage as per post #4 by [JagV8] . . . and if you have checked and cleaned all major power distribution and ground connections . . . I would now check the trans park/neutral interlock circuit and especially, the shift cable bolts. There are plenty of threads and posts on these 2 bolts being either loose or missing. Point is this . . . if for any reason the a/t believes it is not in P or N, it locks out the start circuitry.

Best wishes and keep us advised.

Ken

 

I hooked up my charger this morning to the jump start position. Got in to start it and it still would not start. I checked the messages on the dash. It said I was missing the tail light bulb, as I had mentioned before, but I had not pushed the button on the end of the turn signal stick. I pushed it and it told me to push the brake and apply the parking brake. Nothing happened. I tried doing the opposite, releasing the parking brake and it wanted to roll forward. I thought that odd since the shifter is in park. Well the reverse light is lit up instead of the park light at the shifter, so that is what it is. I will look for what causes that now in the ocean of threads on this site.

 

Take a look at post #12 on this thread.

 

As Norri has said, please see post #12 in this thread.

More details about the P, R, N, and D indicators in the following thread, specifically post #3:


https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...-usual-184878/

"On the 6 speed models, the P, R, N, and D indications are feedback originating at the transmission."

If the R indicator is illuminated while the lever is in P, the most likely culprit is the two bolts securing the cable to the side of the transmission.

 

Take a look around 1:30 here,thanks to Chris.

 

I took it back to the same shop that worked on it before and they told me that the shifter is bad. He said they cost about $700 from the dealer and 3 hours of labor to install. They cannot find any used ones in the country for a price that is much less than the new one. He said these go bad frequently. Is there a place we should look for one that would cost significantly less?

 

Used to happen on the early cars but does not seem so on your era - I would suspect they do not really know the car.

All the usual issues have already been covered but some seem unaddressed such as the bolts. If you rely on a shop it can be hit and miss plus costly unless they are experts in this car.

 

This shop specializes in Land Rover and Jaguar. For the prices they are talking about I think I want to park it until I can find a cheaper used shifter.

 

So they've never heard of eBay?:


https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...ifter&_sacat=0



A quick search for "Jaguar S-Type shifter" returned at least a dozen hits, with most examples in the $150 range. I didn't sort by year, so be sure to skip over the 5-speed shifters for the early models.