Jaguar F-Pace Non Runner

[Escy]

larrylamb11 said:

I've had an incredibly difficult 'failure to start' issue before where there was corrosion inside the battery terminal where the lead was clamped to the terminal that allowed low amperage 12v to pass, energising all the 12v electrics, but as soon as you tried to engage the high amperage draw starter motor the corrosion prevented enough amps from reaching the starter to spin it... even though it would 'click' and all the other electrics worked....
It took some finding!
A test involved clipping another battery to the high amp connections on the starter and then using the car's electrics to energise the solenoid.... at which point the starter engaged and started the engine. Once we knew the starter wasn't defective (it had been off and rebuilt twice by that point!) we were able to work back through the main power cable and eventually came to the terminal itself. You couldn't see any issue, but changing it resolved the problem and an autopsy revealed corrosion inside.
If the starter works on the bench, but not on the car you'd it's a weird one and you'll just have to follow the breadcrumbs. At least the engine isn't seized!
Good luck Escy! I know we're all rooting for you.

That's a great post. Thank you for sharing. When I searched the internet for the generic non start fault code I did find a forum post about a guy with a Jaguar XE where the main power cable running under the car had pulled apart where there was a factory splice. I'll use your technique of another battery directly on the starter motor but using the car to activate the solenoid.

[Escy]

I had a proper look at it this evening. I connected both starters up to a spare battery. The old starter wouldn't spin freely, a clump with a hammer would get it going again so that starter was definitely faulty. In retrospect I shouldn't have fitted it back on and gone with the XE one as it's taken a beating trying to turn over a locked engine.

IMG_20240515_184608213_HDR

So I've confirmed I have a good one and a bad one but the good one wasn't starting the engine either. I connected the good XE starter directly to a spare battery but left the plug for the solenoid connected. It would spin. I then bolted it back into the car and gave the solenoid 12v at the relay. There's 2 fuses and relays for the solenoid, one pushes the pinion out (5 amp), one makes it spin (30 amp). I was trying to spin it without pushing the pinion out so it wasn't trying to turn the engine over. It would spin but slowly started to die off a bit and eventually it wouldn't spin any more.

IMG_20240515_191353800_HDR

To rule out the 12v supply I ran a jump lead from the battery in the boot straight to the starter motor. It didn't help. I was reading the multiple comments on here saying the ground. I'd initially ruled out the ground, when it was broken down and I was waiting for recovery, I had jump leads in the boot and ran one from the block to the chassis and it had done nothing. I attached the ground on the jump leads to the battery ground and the other end to the block near the starter motor. It turned over slowly. I got another jump lead and ran it from the block to the chassis and it started fine.

I took off the main ground strap and cleaned it up and it's all good now. So it was a combination of a faulty starter which has then caused the ground contact to be poor. Easy fix which cost me nothing.

[Escy]

There's been so many posts, I just want to clarify a few things.

I'm not emotionally invested in any car. I can run a car for years, love it and when it's time to move it on, if it's worth more in parts than complete, I'll tear it apart even if there's nothing wrong with it. I've always got my eye on the numbers. I put the engine in the Jaguar as it was probably worth 6k as a non runner and hopefully worth a bit over 10k as a good running car. I thought it made the most sense.

There's not a personal challenge between me and the car, if you are willing to throw enough money at something you'll always win. I wanted to get it sorted for a decent amount under it's value. It never sounded right and I ended up upside down due to post covid market adjustments and the engine blowing up has compounded it. There's no pride for me in any of this. There would have been if I'd fixed it cheaply but I've accepted the L long ago.

Regarding my wife and the tears, don't look into it too much. She's a South American so can be a bit mental. She once cried because when I plated up an Indian takeaway for her I poured the sauce over her rice and apparently that was wrong. It's up to her if she want's to persist with it or get rid. She's going away this weekend and has the choice of the Jaguar or the BMW, if she chooses the BMW it's probably curtains for the Jag. I'm not influencing her in either direction. She's pretty easy going, it's broken down a few times and she's been happy to carry on driving it, I know lots of people wouldn't be. She's never given me a hard time over any of this.

[Escy]

LunarOne said:

But if you don’t have confidence in it, would you really feel morally okay with lumping it on some unsuspecting person?

It's been said before, it's the same prospect as any other F-Pace of the same age and mileage. As it currently stands it has no known issues and everything works.

There's a good chance the next owner gets years of trouble free motoring. There's also a good chance the steering rack fails or the turbo blows up again and takes the engine with it. You roll the dice with any JLR product with 100k under it's belt.