i was wondering if anyone has had a problem with the xkr in the following area,. after riding on the highway at steady speed for a while hour or more, the car goes into a bucking mode after decelerating. it only lasts for 5-10 minutes usually but the dealer and jag cannot find problem.
also has anyone had a steering problem when turning the wheels, they go into a mode that feels jerky and like the tires are hitting.. really appreciate any information i can get on this. thanks.

 

jbbeede,

Can you tell us about your car? Convertible or coupe? Miles? Adaptive Cruise Control? Tires (brand, treadlife/wear pattern, etc)? Are you the first owner? When did the troubles show up, and how suddenly? What does the car drive like at normal speeds around town? What color is the car? (ok, kidding, color irrelevant)...

Then more details about the problems: does the bucking mode only happen when the engine is really hot? If you only drive for a half-hour (@ same speed & with cruise control set the same as when it give you trouble) does it NOT happen? Have you found any correlation or border on when it happens (like time spent, temperature, speed, cruise control used or not, etc.)?

When you say 'bucking', I assume we are talking stuttering when on throttle? So you drive a couple hours, all is well, then you exit the freeway and when you accelerate from a stop the car shudders, won't accelerate smoothly? Or does it buck even when you are off throttle and say coasting down a hill @ 30-40 MPH? Do you generally have good power and no sense of motor trouble until this happens (idle normal, etc)? And it does it even if you, say, put the car in 'S' and picked second gear and accelerated in second? In other words, have you picked a gear so as to rule out the transmission being the issue?

And when it 'bucks', have you popped the shifter into neutral and revved the motor? What happens? Can you take it smoothly to redline in neutral but still get stuttering acceleration in gear?

Likewise, the steering problem, too vague to offer much of an opinion. I think our steering setup is pretty pedestrian, nothing tricky... You say it 'goes into a mode' where it feels like the wheels are hitting something, can you elaborate? Like it doesn't always do it? What brings it on?

Let's see what we can figure out. I'm hesitant to offer any hope of a cure given the dealership's inability to fix it, they are trained AND had the car, but maybe we can offer some angles that weren't thought of...

Skeeter

 

Welcome to the forum jbbeede,

I've removed your personal eMail address from your post. Web crawlers pick up on these very quickly and you would soon be inundated with spam.

What has the Jaguar Dealer done to investigate the issue? Have they exhausted all the options of pulling diagnostic codes, fluid analysis and a transmission hard reset/reflash?

When you get a minute, please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum and post some info about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see.

In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

thank you so much for your speedy reply. here are the answers to your questions which i might say are better than the dealers after 6 visits.

I purchased the car with 8000 miles and am the second owner. the first owner reported same issue with studdering and never was fixed and car was sold to me unknown about this problem. i purchased the car in florida and never drove it but shipped it to nj for use. since beginning which was may problem has existed.Cars tires are continental, great shape no wear, has adaptive cruise control which incidentally i thought was the culprit. the car drives perfect at normal speeds and most of time. by the way car is silver. the studdering only occurs when car is hot and after it has been driven on the highway at say 70 mph rather constant speed for more than one hour, any driving less than one hour nothing happens. i originally blamed the cruise control because it seemed that when the car was running on hwy at constant speed adjusting little by little it started the problem, but i purposly did not use the adaptive control and drove the car the same way and it occurred. here is what happens. after driving a while 80 plus miles or so when i take my foot off of the accelerator and slow down and then put my foot on the gas it studders for anywhere from 5 min to 30 min. worst is 30 min. no engine lts come on and it does not register on jaguar computers. It happens the same all the time under these conditions. example. this week drove hwy for one hour and got off and car was good. drove around a little while and got back on highway for another 70 miles and it did it. this last time a little different, the car was in adaptive cruise and it slowed down for a car ahead and i heard a slight funny noise as it dropped out of transmission and then proceeded to studder. Dealer tells me when battery is disconnected everything resets and now refuses to test like it happens and wont do anything till they can duplicate it. very uncooperative. it never studders in coast mode that i can tell. but maybe.. your suggestions are good and i have not tried it. changing gears, putting in neutral and revving, but i intend to do this. i do not believe it is the motor. it is very frustrating as i love the car but with this.......
regards steering here is the problem when car is cold mostly and wheels are turned not all the way but alot like backing out of a driveway and turning to go forward it feels like the steering is for lack of a better work studdering. or like the wheels are sticking and letting go. they tell me it is a normal occurrance on this car somthing to do with the caster and camber setting but i have a hard time believing. it only occurs when turning wheels a lot, not all the way but a lot.
you are very kind to offer these suggestions and i hope this sheds more light on it. thanks so much

 

I had a Corvette years ago that acted that way. It would run fine for about an hour until I got to the off ramp and then it would sputter and back fire. It drove us crazy trying to figure it out. After taking carburetor and gas tank apart and cleaning to no avail we finally replaced the ignition black boxes and problem was solved.

 

If you can operate the car on the freeway with no problems for an hour and the problem only happens when you slow down on an off ramp and press the throttle it sounds like an engine management problem or fuel problem. Just my 2 cents. You need to recreate the situation for the dealer before your warranty runs out. Be nice to them but persistent.

 

The dealer is carrying out what is known as a 'hard reset'.

Disconnecting the battery discharges storage capacitors and loses the engine management adaptive settings such as fuel trims. It also loses any useful and pertinent information that could be obtained from DTC's (Diagnostic Trouble Codes).

When the battery is reconnected, the ECM settings are at default. Adaptive settings are in response to your driving so it will take a while for the car to get back to the state it was before the battery disconnect.

Battery disconnect does NOT lose transmission adaptive settings. These have to be reset with the dealer diagnostics.

I would ask them precisely the sequence they have carried out to investigate the issue because all they appear to have done is to reset the engine management to default in the hope both the problem and you disappear!

Graham

 

jbbeede, Good luck with this problem. It doesn't sound like the dealer has made much of an effort to fix this problem. Care to share the dealers name? I ask becasue I am taking my 2010 XKR in to Monmouth Jag in Ocean NJ this afternoon...

The dealer is probably not to interested in driving your car arouund for hours to observe this problem. Maybe you can "warm it up" and arrange to pick up the Jag tech to demonstrate the problem? Alternately if you haven't done so, take it back to them as soon after the problem occurs and ask them to run the diagnostics on it. It might be a good idea to discuss this potential plan with them. If they are reasonable they should work with you, if not, find another dealer. I realize finding another dealer is often not too convenient, and was a major factor in my reluctance to buy this brand. Let us know how it goes.

 

the dealer is madison jaguar. i have offered to ride with the tech or have a computer installed in the car and driving to duplicate the problem but to no avail. all they want to do is drive it around like they want to and not how i tell them.. frustrating. another dealer is an option but far away. not many dealers around so service can become a problem and with the xkr not to many of them around either so becomes even more difficult.. do you have any problems when you turn the wheel say when backing out of a garage or like that when you turn the wheel a lot to one way or the othere. what year is yours.. thanks for your comments

 

have you had any other problems with your car?

 

to dgl have you had any steering problems with your xkr like when you turn wheels alot going slow or backing out of drive etc.. they tell me a normal contition is lots of slippage of steering and it feels like tires are coming off.. is this normal

 

When I first bought my car they had to ship a module for the entertainment system to New Jersey for updating and I flipped--I wanted to end the deal. I never anticipated my new car being dismantled with parts being shipped across the country before even seeing it--every time someone messes with your car they cause damage by taking it apart and reassembling it. However, since I received my car I could not be happier. It's everything my sold XKR 175 was and a lot more. My point is Jaguar cars, like all other high end cars, are specialize cars and not a widget manufactured for the masses. Current model Jaguar cars are reliable. They are also relatively expensive to maintain like all high end cars. Don't sweat over your problem, I'm sure all you need is to get in contact with the right technician who has a passion for these cars. Call Allan Wolfson at West Palm Beach Jaguar where my car came from. They are extremely patient and well known for their expertise.


I have not experienced any problems with my car since I received it. To answer your question about the steering. I have noticed twice when I was making a slow turn, a sensation that I was driving over small rocks on pavement. It quickly disappeared. I'm not sure what it was now, but at the time I thought it may have been something on the road. My car is now in storage until late March.

 

Have had my 2010 xkr coupe only since 10/23/13 but not noticed any steering problems. I have to turn it pretty sharply to get it out of the upper driveway and to turn onto the street without bottoming out, and no weird behavior. Maybe try to take your car to Ray Catena in Edison? No experience with their service dept though. Had a hard time even finding an XKR locally to drive but they had a 2011 which sold me on the car --not that particular one though. There is another dealer in Cherry Hill I think that lists glowing references, how true I know not.. Sounds like you have a sort of odd problem and this one time you might have to drive a bit to get it looked at. You should get a courtesy car from the dealer but I realize its not a convenient drive. Hell, driving in Jersey is never convenient!

 

AVMIII is on to something when he suggests you 'prepping' the car by heating it up till it shudders and then take it in... Alternatively, and this is HIGHLY recommended, the next time your car does this, get out your phone or camera and VIDEO the problem. That way you have solid evidence should this turn into a problem with the dealership.

My first XKR was your exact car (a coupe?): 2010 Silver XKR. Bought it used with low miles, stock tires like yours. NEVER had any of these problems. Do NOT buy their excuse about the tires sticking as being normal or part of the camber/caster settings. Total falsity. Both my 2010 and 2011 XKRs steered like a Lexus at low speed: totally silent (even @ the limits), smooth, and even. No grabbing or sputtering, no uneven turning or sense of bumping or resistance. I'd have them put you in another Jag on their lot and have them show you how 'normal' the supposed non-problem is Even another used 2010 will not do this and they'll be forced to admit the issue is a problem. I'm assuming this didn't start in freezing weather out in Texas and it does this on a variety of surfaces, including smooth pavement...

Also like AVMIII, I wonder about it being a fuel delivery problem, but that should show under diagnostic. I bought a bluetooth OBDII reader and some fairly inexpensive software for an Android tablet and it's pretty cool. You can look at a crazy amount of data, real time or recorded. If you already have a tablet or even a smartphone, you might want to take a look. I bought a wifi based model to use with IOS devices but haven't had the occasion to use it yet, so you can go that way if you have an iPhone/iPad.

But if you've burned through more than one tank of gas that eliminates bad fuel as an issue... I'm curious as to whether it'll rev smoothly without a load on the motor (i.e. in neutral). Of course some engine problems only manifest when under load, but it'll be interesting to see if it pauses and stutters when you try to rev it in neutral, or if it bucks just as bad going 20 in second or third gear...

Let us know and we will keep on with the hunt. Bummer to have a bad experience with such a fantastic car. Trust us, these things are usually pretty bulletproof, so once you resolve these issues you can expect trouble free pleasure for a good while

Peace,

Skeeter

 

Yeah, I have to do a 3-point turn before I can drive out of our street - when the surface is dry and I'm having to take the steering lock-to-lock, it shudders quite a bit. I don't really notice it at any other time - maybe it only happens before the tyres & steering system are up to normal temperature.

However, the steering on mine is the same as the XKR-S, so a bit different from a normal XKR - that may have some relevance.

 

have you done anything about the steering issue with jaguar. what has been their response? i am told it is standard but on a 100,000 car??????

 

It's not normal but it does happen more with the large wheels and tires we have on these cars.

My 2005 STR had a little shudder pretty much as you described and I recently changed the P/S pump because of a leak and now I find the shudder is completely gone. Don't know if the pump was the problem or changing the fluid fixed it? Lucky that the P/S pump is a common Ford one and only cost $60 for a lifetime rebuilt unit! Of course Jaguar won't tell you that!

So the first thing I would do is change the P/S fluid several times as a start. This is cheap and won't hurt anything. I do almost all my own work so I do things the simple/cheap way first. I remove the inlet screen on the P/S reservoir and then use a turkey baster to vacuum out the fluid. Then I use a paper towel and wipe it out good. As the miles build I find some small amount of deposits build up on the bottom of the reservoir. Then refill with new fluid.

Use the correct fluid but I use a clear P/S fluid because I can tell how well the fluid swap is going. Usually takes at least 4 times to get to a mild red color.
.
.
.

 

I guess we all know what happens when we make assumptions, and I have assumed that your dealer has ensured that the steering system is at full capacity?! The only shuddering I have ever experienced (not with my XKR) has been with air in the steering system and when you approach full travel one way or the other, I have experienced shuddering in the system. Any chance this is what you are enduring?

 

I've noticed this studder when backing out of the driveway and it seems I first noticed it about two weeks ago. It only happens when I first drive out the driveway and not later in the drive at all. I'm wondering if it's something to do with the front brake pads and backing out of the driveway.

You back out of the driveway........then you have to make a hard turn to the left to clear the parked cars ........and as you move fwd it feels like you get a studder of the front wheels. LIke your turning on a patch of ice and the wheels grab and then let go....grab and let go..........and when you straighten out all is well. If I go to the end of the street and make a hard right turn it does not happen at all.

It does not sound serious at all, but caught my attention a couple of weeks ago. I never noticed it before. Maybe its the front pads not fully releasing ? Got me for now.

Just in case: it does not happen driving backwards, only when you turn the car to go down the street and quits once you straighten out.