Background info

I've had my new to me Jag about 4 months now and I love it, ~20k miles on the clock 2015 (last of the X250s) and has been looked after by the last owner and me... i thought.
I'd been having a few electrical "glitches" the last week or so, battery is original and between lockdown and a recent cold snap I put it down to battery being a bit flat but not shot, I got a ctek MXS 5.0 charger (basically an unbranded jag charger as far as i can tell) to see me through until next month, when its due its service & M.O.T I was going to ask the mechanic to install a new set of batteries (save me faffing on with this bolt that i hear seizes up). I didn't disconnect the battery but i did ground the charger to the chassis rather than the negative terminal so the battery monitor system should of been aware it was charging, id read several forum posts where this hasn't been an issue for people.

The Breakdown
Decided to go for a little drive around with my partner, this was probably a bad idea but its only done short journeys the last 2 months, I wanted to give it a run out to make sure I don't start getting DPF warnings, pretty much 1hr exactly into our journey i get a "Battery not charging" message on the screen, uh-oh not good but not the end of the world, battery needs swapping out ASAP, i'll order one when i get back home ~40mins away, i thought the alternator should be good to get me home? Well 4 minutes later it became clear that wasn't the case, ABS fault flashed up on the screen, the infotainment system started turning on and off; I pulled over in a safe spot, I put the EPB (BIG MISTAKE!) and put it in park, turned the car off then tried cranking the engine after 30 seconds or so, it kicked the starter but everything went off then completely died, no electrics whatsoever, then the burning smell, uh-oh, popped the bonnet and sure enough the engine compartment was smoking, not tons but visible smoke, something plastic-y burning.

Phoned the recovery guy and described the symptoms, after having to open the boot with the key, the battery is warm to the touch, he puts the jump pack on but it sinks the power immediately, my guess is the recovery garage owner can turn coal into diamonds up his backside , so no second attempt as the one jumper pack on this huge recovery truck is now dead. It seems logical this was the result of a short, we do not know how to bypass/disconnect the alternator, if we could of done that we might of had enough juice to release the EPB, I go to consult the manual to find out how to:

1. Release the EPB (so i can be winched onto the recovery truck)
2. Disengage Park gear (so i can be winched onto the recovery truck)

First problem is there's no power to open the glove box (the cache must be electric) so no manual we do manage to google enough info to find you can disengage the gear selector from a hidden panel in the center console (bet that wont ever go back on right) but we never do find out how to disengage the EPB (still stuck on now), so the company providing my breakdown cover has to fork out £60 more for "skates", these also seem to be too expensive for the garage owner to have more than one set, they seem to be shopping trolley wheels on a bit metal tubing... so that was another 30 mins while the poor driver had to go get the one set they did have from another recovery driver.
Its back home now in front of my house without too much damage other than the door handle trim now being extremely flappy where i had to pop it off to lock the doors manually.

The questions for you sages

• Can you disengage the EPB without power? this will make recovery to a garage tomorrow much easier
• Has anyone known of an alternator failure at ~20k miles 5yr old car? i've literally never had a breakdown in ~15 years of driving, could it be something else?
• Is it possible charging my battery has done something to screw the whole system up for such a big failure later in the drive? or is it more likely the alternator failed long ago and I just didn't notice?
• Solving the flappy door handle trim, least of my problems - seems its not the cover but the plastic the cover clips onto, what would you even call that? Maybe epoxy resin for that is the answer.... if the car is repairable and hasn't toasted the ECU etc.

Anyway I'll keep you all posted once i get the word from the mechanic what it is likely to be, hopefully without having to remortgage my house.

 

My alternator burnt out last year at 7 years old, I was told by the mechanic that it was the stop start battery that caused it. He said when the stop start battery fails on the jagaur's it often takes the alternator out with it.

Mechanic replaced alternator and stop start battery and that solved it, although the main battery failed a few weeks later so I replaced that.

 

Here are the relevant pages from the handbook re: transporting a dead car.

 

Seems were getting our EPB mixed up with out EPR!

 

Without using the royal WE, I read up to point 2, where he asks about releasing the gearbox from park. I then dug out my handbook, looked it up & took a couple of pics (as it's getting late)

I can't recall how to disable the EPB, although I think there should be some tools to do in the boot..

 

John and Robinus, much appreciated anyway, I must admit I cant recall putting my foot on the brake pedal when engaging the EPR. unless the recovery bloke did that, unlikely but perhaps it also releases the EPB, i suspect its more so the car doesn't roll back. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow.

Robinus thats still very useful to post the pictures of the recovery procedure, I'd check my manual but like i say its stuck in the glovebox

Car is still stuck dead outside the house as my local garages are busy (or don't want to deal with it when i mention the alternator), I've got the main battery on charge now, once full It might give me a chance to turn off the EPB, i've got a clamp meter to see if its shorting out and drawing too many amps without the engine on.

 

You know that might make sense, about a week previous I had a really slow cold crank but it flashed up about ECO mode being disabled/unavailable, that being said I charged the main (not the little S/S) battery up the next day and stop/start did kick in at some point without issue.

 

Go to the Stickies in this forum & you'll see a link to Handbook downloads.

I admit I initially didn't read past your first points & the handbook in the glovebox. I have now read your full post, glad you got the EPR sorted anyway.

 

My 2015 did the same thing....Battery not charging....then stuff started shutting down until I pulled over and stopped. Alternator gone. For the tow, under the hood, near the windshield was an orange pull chord that releases the parking break so that this could be put up onto the flatbed. I don't own the car anymore or I'd post a picture, but there is a release chord....

 

TL;DR:
Got the alternator replaced with a non-OEM one for £564

As an update, the (independent) garage finally managed to get the car in, unfortunately they've not been the most diligent in terms of diagnosis of the issue, they just said the alternator was thoroughly trashed (shorted) and replaced it with a lucas one (LRA3641), total cost was £564 which was mostly Labor and included battery check but they've not broken it down but he did hint at ~5hrs to swap it out, this seems quite reasonable to me having seen youtube videos of trying to pull the alternator out.

Batteries where tested and where fine so its likely this alternator could of been failing for some time, I did get the battery charger for a reason, i.e. when it struggled to cold start one cold morning and threw a warning. So although it failed catastrophically I'm starting to think it was indeed malfunctioning and I'd simply not noticed, unfortunately i'd not tested the voltage when the engine was running.

So in all I'll put it down to just a bit of "bad luck" and although the car has only done 21k miles it is 5 years old and things fail with age as well as mileage. I'm sorry I can't give any information as to exactly what failed on the alternator, as it might give some clues as to what the underlying fault might of been (if any). I asked if it was the diodes, voltage reg, mechanical failure etc and he just said "alternator" lol. 1yr warranty on the new alternator, if you don't hear back on this thread assume it fixed the problem! Could of been worse, could of been a fire or taken some of the electronics with it.

Never did figure out how to release the EPB, just had to charge the battery up, reconnect and quickly release it before the short killed the battery, obviously detaching the battery ASAP.

Things that now need fixing

• Tow eye cover was opened with a screwdriver, its chipped the paint on the bumper and cover
• Center console EPR cover is wobbly now, one of the metal clips vanished off down into the void
• Passenger door handle lock cover/bezel is now super wobbly and i fear a stiff breeze will knock it off

Anyway thanks for the help everyone!

 

Glad you got it fixed. Thanks for updating us.