S Type Diesel

[steve955]

Hi,
I have been a proud owner for 7 months of my first Jag. It has not been plain sailing by any means. The car is 10 years old but with only 36k on the clock. 5k of those I have put on myself. I am getting an intermittent fault light on the dash, DSC not available and some times the restricted performance comes on as well. I have been using my local independent jag specialist for the repairs so far, they have had to replace the air flow meter and vacuum valves and take off the DPF and carry out a deep clean and regeneration last July. I visited them again last Friday and this time, they have told me the passenger Turbo needs to be replaced at a cost of £1200 for a recon unit. Fault code P0299 was registered when they carried out the diagnostics. Not knowing anything about Diesels, am I just unlucky or is there another test that could be carried out. Thanks Steve in Weston Super Mare

[Brakebuster]

first thing i would visit is the battery !
our cars don't like poorly batteries and unstable voltage can throw all sorts of codes, in these days of dark mornings and evening, with the wipers and lights and heater fans, ensure you have a good battery , average life is 7 years, so if yours is original, its time to replace

then once the new battery is fitted you can start fault diagnosis,

btw, welcome

BB

[steve955]

The battery is original but the indie said it was ok. Halfords on Tuesday then. anything they need to know when changing the battery or is just a case of taking one out and putting a new one in?. I have the radio code. Thanks

[steve955]

The fault light I get (DSC not available), in the past you could just turn off the ignition after start up and then re start it again and the light would go off. Occasional it will come on while you are driving. Now this could be a stupid question but I can understand when the car goes through it checks on start up if the battery is duff then it could give up fault lights. If the fault light comes on during driving could this be due to a faulty battery?. Either way I will change the battery on Tuesday. Thanks

[J44EAG]

Regret to say you can do much better than buy a Halfords battery. I have always found their products short lifed.

I`ve transfered my alegence to premium grades, namely Bosch or Varta Silver types. Winter performance is much more reliableand rather stronger in my experience. There is no substitute for a top of the range battery.

As my good and learned friend Brake Buster says, replace the battery, then begin diagnosis. DSC type faulting particuarly during the winter period almost always points at an unstable battery voltage problem. Only a properly carried out test using a drop test loading unit will reveal the true condition. Verbal opinions without substanciation are not worth much. Regard a battery as a consumable item just like oil and filters. A good new battery can cure many issues.

It is well worth employing the services of a local Terraclean business. They are well equiped as specialists to deal with diesel DPF and catalitic converter issues. Many see a blocked DPF as a challenge and they revel in the fact that some so said totally blocked DPF units can be unblocked given the enthusiasm and technical excellence of a good technician. Costs of a service will be appreciably lower than replacing a DPF on the say so of an ill equiped general garage operative.

See my post on the Engine Section of the X350 BB for the positive results of having a petrol Terraclean done on my X350R. Terraclean can also internally clean diesl engines as well.

The final advice is that the 2.7D engine is best used for long distance cruising where DPF unit regeneration can occur without interuption. These units clog up very badly when used for short journey work. This can result in huge repair bills. So if you journeys are short ones, take another car!

Mike K

The correct sequence for battery replacement is that the -Ve lead is removed first during battery removal. With the new battery fitted, connect the +Ve lead first, then the -Ve.

[Montana5]

This is the Varta Battery you want, comes highly recommended as does the supplier Tanya Batteries, it also comes with a 5 year Guarantee. I fitted one of these to my STR a few Months ago. Remember to give the new Battery an overnight charge before fitting.
https://www.tayna.co.uk/Type-019-Varta- ... P3127.html

Bear in mind that some fault codes take a few starts/journeys before clearing.

Please don't rush into paying for a new Turbo unit just yet, many have had that code and found it to be other related items, wait and see what happens after the new Battery is fitted and if any faults are still present. Sorry but if your Jag indy had been up to scratch they would have advised a new Battery before they started to take money off you.

Doug.

[J44EAG]

Yip, thats the one, Doug.

It also has a useful extra 10ah capacity in the same sized case as a 90ah. It cranks with real gusto in cold conditions on my 350R. Highly recommended.

Mike.

[steve955]

Hi Mike,
After the deep clean of the dpf, the engine had an EDT Engine Decontamination plus new oil and filter back in July. The new battery will be fitted on Saturday, lets see if it makes a difference, Fingers crossed. Thanks Steve

[steve955]

New battery fitted now, reset parking brake, radio and windows. Taken it for run at different speeds and then down the motorway. DSC light still on at the moment but the restricted performance message did not appear. I will give it another run tomorrow, performance is the usual smooth delivery. If the issue is the turbo, what would I expect to see? Steve

[J44EAG]

The only really accurate way to get to the root of most issues is electronic diagnosis. This is not as frightening or costly as you might initially think.

The most cost effective option is to buy your own diagnostic tool and save on paying out to garages for a service that you can easily do yourself. If you have an Android or IPhone with bluetooth, then you are half way there. Download the professional version of Torque. The cost is around £3. Then source an OBD11 ELM327 plug in chip unit from ebay. The cost is around £7. Pairing the two units together gives you your own diagnostic kit. That is one way to get on the ladder.

UK Diagnostics market the iCarsoft 930i dedicated Jaguar Land Rover diagnostic kit. It is very easy to use and you can instantly clear fault codes and interogate your car at quite a high level. The cost is about £100.

I use both of the above units. They form an essential part of my tool kit and both stay in my car permanently. I`d be lost without one. Both units are as good as each other.

Your DSC fault crys out for diagnosis to get a decent idea of where the fault eminates from. Either of the above units will help you towards a correct diagnosis and avoid you spending huge sums of cash on parts you may not need. Wild guess work is not an option with modern cars. Having diagnostic gear in your tool kit will save you money in the long term and make problem solving less of a worry when your car plays up.

DSC faulting is often voltage platform related although now you have a new battery, things should become better for you. In this case, I suggest you disconnect the battery at the -Ve terminal for at least twenty minutes and see if you can normalise the car. Sometimes long standing faults can be difficult to clear. This hard dump clearance method can work where other clearance methods can fail. Try a hard dump and see if that clears the issue.

Mike

[steve955]

Hi Mike, downloaded professional torque app. On Amazon they have a pumpkin mini ELM327 OBD2. OBD11 V1.5 Bluetooth Diagnostic Interface. Is this the correct item to buy. On offer at £8.99

[J44EAG]

I have a 1.5 which pairs with my Android. PTJS1 however, has a slightly later version but both seem to work well.

You will find that once paired, the phone and ELM 327 offer interesting and intrigueing possibilities for diagnostics and monitoring. A generated fault code "points towards" the general area of a problem. After that, lateral thinking comes into play. This an example of what you may find.

PO171 & PO174. If you simply Google those codes, "Lean Bank A and Bank B" will be the result. It would be tempting to then chase for fuel leaks or blockages or Lambda sensor issues. One has to think slightly differently at that point because a typical reason is likely to be a problem shared by both banks of cylinders on a V6 or V8. The course of action would be to work backwards from the cylinder heads towards the throttle body and look for components that could have the propensity to leak air. In a hot environment, the many rubber hoses, pipes, unions or elbows would be prime suspects. Careful examination could reveal a disintigrated vacuum or pressure pipe leak causing a massive air leak and consiquental lean engine running. Replace the pipe, clear the codes and off you go again.

It sometimes follows that if after finding and attempting to fix a fault, you still have a fault code present. Perhaps it will not clear even after two or three attempts. If that were the case you would need to re-diagnose the car. Once again you would run a diagnostic test in the hope of revealing a fault code. With the code to hand and content understood, you would repeat the above actions until you achieved an error free diagnosis with engine check, message centre legend and MIL lamps extinguished.

The Android/ELM combo offers a good, cheap and effective solution to diagnostics. It opens the doors to an elevated and useful level of maintenance that is appropriate and necessary to the modern electronic controls found in our cars. Some fight shy of enguagement with this type of kit. The secret with diagnostics is not to be frightened of it but to spend some time experimenting with the equipment. The fog soon clears and you gain another useful skill and a higher level of knowledge.

Mike

[steve955]

Disconnected the negative lead on the battery this morning. The DSC light is still on and the reduced performance message comes on for a short time. Driving the car you don't feel any difference in engine delivery. I am going to get another diagnostic done on Friday after work in another garage for a second opinion. Lets see what the outcome is, keep you posted! Steve

[jeff1954]

I have read elsewhere that once both battery leads have been disconnected they can be held together to clear old faults stored in the cars memory that that no longer exist.
I myself have DSC and ABS fault's flashing up momentarily on the message centre when starting the engine.

I know for a fact that both systems are working correctly but I can't bring myself round to doing the above procedure. Apparently the gearbox may lose it's memory and have to be re calibrated by running through all the gears manually ect then driving for 100 mls or so to let the gearbox re learn.
Also my engine has been re mapped so I don't know if this will be lost as well.
Any thoughts anyone?

Jeff

[J44EAG]

I know what you mean about touching pos and negs together. It does go against the grain. However, I`ve done myself without issues. ie no loss of any services.

ABS and DSC minor faults after starting are usually caused by the ECU failing to complete a successful start up diagnostic. That is most frequently down to battery condition.....Here we go again!

Any re-mapping will not be lost. It is well buried and inaccessible. Faulting issues as described previously essentially fall into a flash type file. Hence how easily we can usually get rid of them.

Mike