Good evening wonderful people!! Whist I love my Jaguar (2014 LWB) X351 , I am less than pleased with its latest habit and the Jaguar Dealer agents. The issue I have which I hope someone will be able to tell me by experience what needs replacing is as follows. If I approach the car and pull the drivers door handle, the door opens, if I then sit in the car and start it and want to exit, pull the handle and nothing happens, so the next thing was to put the window down and pull the handle from outside, no that does not work either. The only way I can exit the car is by switching off, open the window with the proximity key fob in my hand and then pull the outside door handle, it then opens. It also did something odd this weekend in that I decided that as I just wanted to move the car, I would leave the door slightly open (had to be careful as it has self closing doors) after then wanting to lock the car later I pushed the door expecting it to self latch, no did not want to do that, I recall I had to get in and start the car and select gears and other things before I could eventually get it to close. I did contact one of the local Jaguar Dealers, who said they would charge me £160 to plug it in and see if the door would work. I think that was a little strong, I did point out that I wanted them to repair or replace whatever it was not simply to 'USE' them but they told me that was there charge to tell me if the door worked (perhaps they didn't explain themselves very well, I know its not right) So if anyone out the KNOWS what I need to replace or do please I would be VERY grateful for your help. In respect of the dealer network, they seem to be a little poor on either knowledge or customer care. I asked my local dealer Barretts Canterbury Jaguar to check some functions on my car, they told me they were never fitted, so I went back to the build sheet and every option was fitted, I also asked them to check if the Sat Nav was up to date, they told me it was, I emailed HERE (the people who do the mapping) they told me it was an old version and a new one was available, is this poor or what. Anyway, please let me know what you can tell me about my door issue. Kindest regards, Simon (Mercury RV)
DRIVERS DOOR HANDLE PROBLEMS
- Thread starter MercuryRV
- Start date
Welcome sir. Always good to meet a new owner, even in unfortunate circumstances.
Door motors are a known weak spot on our cars. It is something that one with a modicum of skill can do oneself (there is even a helpful guide in the stickies https://www.jaguarforum.com/threads/guide-door-locking-motor.103525/).
For those of us not blessed with such skill, it is about £250 in a competent indy to get each motor replaced.
It goes up to north of £300 for a main dealer. (Although I think that they will offset the price of their diagnostics against the price of the repair, this is not guaranteed)
Door motors are a known weak spot on our cars. It is something that one with a modicum of skill can do oneself (there is even a helpful guide in the stickies https://www.jaguarforum.com/threads/guide-door-locking-motor.103525/).
For those of us not blessed with such skill, it is about £250 in a competent indy to get each motor replaced.
It goes up to north of £300 for a main dealer. (Although I think that they will offset the price of their diagnostics against the price of the repair, this is not guaranteed)
JimC64
Senior member
As Mac says above, this will be your issue and a very common fault / issue.
I'm surprised that at least one or more haven't already been replaced on a 2014. You may find that one or another goes in the near future too, use dependent I'd imagine
Best
Jim
x-dave
Active member
I did write out a long reply with detailed steps to go through to rule out two of the most common faults (failed latch where a plastic guide wears and becomes misaligned, and friction in the exterior door handle not letting the latch fully engage and leaving it in a semi-latched state), and to also check it wasn't just the Bowden cable disconnected or broken off as you mentioned a dealer visit in another thread, but after writing that out I think you would be wasting your time - you have a failed latch.
Given the self closing didn't work that one time, but not every time, It fits that you had that symptom because one of the microswitches inside the assembly was reporting the door was either already closed, or still open and not in the first latch position (there are two - the first tells the soft close to run to cinch the door closed). You would know which way round it was if you saw a 'Driver door open' message retained on the instrument cluster. That would fit in with the first common fault above.
I cannot think of any other scenario when you would experience the complete mix of symptoms you describe.
You would be able to prove it with diagnostics and live viewing the status of the latch switches if you really needed to justify the replacement, but the cost of someone else diagnosing that will be similar to the cost of just replacing the latch first.
The only other step I would take before ordering a new latch would be to confirm the Bowden cable between the interior handle and the latch is connected ok and not loose, rusted or binding on something. To do that you would need to remove both the facing and inner door trims. The guide Chris has linked above shows you how. If after checking the interior handle does move the little lever at the other end then replace the latch (you can manually engage and release it by forcing a screwdriver into the latch jaws).
If you send me your VIN in a private message I can lookup the part number.
Given the self closing didn't work that one time, but not every time, It fits that you had that symptom because one of the microswitches inside the assembly was reporting the door was either already closed, or still open and not in the first latch position (there are two - the first tells the soft close to run to cinch the door closed). You would know which way round it was if you saw a 'Driver door open' message retained on the instrument cluster. That would fit in with the first common fault above.
I cannot think of any other scenario when you would experience the complete mix of symptoms you describe.
You would be able to prove it with diagnostics and live viewing the status of the latch switches if you really needed to justify the replacement, but the cost of someone else diagnosing that will be similar to the cost of just replacing the latch first.
The only other step I would take before ordering a new latch would be to confirm the Bowden cable between the interior handle and the latch is connected ok and not loose, rusted or binding on something. To do that you would need to remove both the facing and inner door trims. The guide Chris has linked above shows you how. If after checking the interior handle does move the little lever at the other end then replace the latch (you can manually engage and release it by forcing a screwdriver into the latch jaws).
If you send me your VIN in a private message I can lookup the part number.
PROBLEM SOLVED.......If it is of any interest to anyone on the forum, I contacted 4 dealers to ask them for an estimate on costs to repair, plus also to replace the cambelts and the pump drive belt plus water pump, all as a precaution as it has only covered 56,000 miles and first registered in 2014, so I would have thought that may have given them an incentive to WANT to do the work, and not one of them replied, and I know they all got the email and opened it. So that says to me what the dealer network is like, a great representation of Jaguar. So, in view of this lack of attention, I decided to have a look myself at the door lock. I have a spray that I refer to as a 'Miracle Spray' (it is called DeoxIT D5) I use it when re-building old 45 rpm Jukeboxes on the mechanism and the electric solenoids as it does what I call it. I sprayed it in the visible part of the lock in the door shut whilst also tripping the lever to get it to latch and power in the system, after doing this perhaps 10 times, I gave it a try, it opens from outside fine, it opens from inside fine as well, and days later it is still working just great. So thank you Jaguar dealer network, I think the time has come to look outside the franchised dealers, they simply can't be asked. And also, thank you for your help and advice on this forum. Kindest regards, Simon (Mercury RV) By the way, does it ever annoy others that people come on a forum with a problem, but they never update it if they solved it! Is it just me?
Glad to hear you’re sorted Simon and it cost nothing to do it. And yes, it pretty much annoys everyone when people can’t be bothered to update a thread when a fault has been rectified, more so when forum members are involved in the rectifying of said faults.
JimC64
Senior member
Nice one Simon, congrats on the free n easy fix.
You need to get yourself a good Indy sorted for the future though.
Yes, very very annoying when members come on here, post about a problem and ask for help, getting lots of replies and useful info, then silence, nothing!
No word as to whether they've resolved the issue, paid someone to do it, sold the car etc etc etc, unfortunately that's not going to change
Jim
Cris
Member
Good job Simon, yes main dealers are the pits. I've got a great helpful and reasonably priced independent. Like you i refused dealer £175 to diagnose suspension fault that independent did for £65 and found a simple free fix. And this was the air filter 2 months after a supposed full service and about 500 miles.
That's shocking!
I thought mine was bad, I'm sure main dealers only change the oil and filter.
Eek!