My experience, well worth a read.
A common overlooked fault that throws all sorts of problems from blowing bulbs to flat battery, and recording loads of DTCs and ultimately cooking the alternator is water and dirt ingress into the watertight box type assembly located behind the off side wheel arch liner next to the screen wash bottle. This is where the power cable comes through the floor from the battery and connects to the alternator and starter motor via a 10mm stood and eye terminals. Its a bad design because all the water, dirt and salt runs down from the front screen and scuttle behind the wheel arch liner and over the box. The box fills with salty conductive mud and starts to track to body earth and that burns away the nuts on the stood. This is a massive problem because the alternator is unique. It does NOT have a built in regulator as is the norm. It is controlled by the engine ECU in conjunction with the BCM. Because the tracking to earth is inconsistent due to changing moisture content in the box, The amount of charge in the battery is not what the ECU and BCM expect. This is because power is been consumed by a means not monitored by the BCM. As a result the alternator will under and overcharge the battery at random, often to destruction. This will be a problem on most if not all older cars. My car is a 208 xf. Ive owned it for two years and had loads of intermittent electrical problems. I found this problem by chance after about a year when the windscreen washers were not putting out enough water. Most was appearing behind the front wheel on the road. By chance, the hose from the water bottle was routed by the terminal box behind the liner, and the burning and tracking had part burnt through the hose. But for that I would probably never have found the fault in the box. I wish I had found it sooner because the alternator shorted out and killed the battery not long after. Probably due to it working overtime cooking and shorting through the mud around the box. My odometer was reading 80,000 miles at that time. I mentioned this to a Jag indy dealer that i know and showed him pics of the burnt box. He was elated! He stated it was common for alternators to fail around that milage, (this may be a coincidence). shortly after this he told me he had solved several problems on cars that had problems from blowing bulbs, cooking or random flat batteries, and random DTCs. All the cars he checked had failed gaskets and evidence of burning/tracking to earth.
The Jaguar main dealers I spoke to had no knowledge of this problem. Probably because they don't get to work on older cars.
Removing the wheel arch liner is a ten minute job once the wheel is off and I strongly recommend checking this out if you have strange or random faults, if nothing else you may save the alternator from self destructing.
Jim
PS I will post about other problems and fixes that i have found and most are a simple DIY fix when I get time, and believe me there are Many!
A common overlooked fault that throws all sorts of problems from blowing bulbs to flat battery, and recording loads of DTCs and ultimately cooking the alternator is water and dirt ingress into the watertight box type assembly located behind the off side wheel arch liner next to the screen wash bottle. This is where the power cable comes through the floor from the battery and connects to the alternator and starter motor via a 10mm stood and eye terminals. Its a bad design because all the water, dirt and salt runs down from the front screen and scuttle behind the wheel arch liner and over the box. The box fills with salty conductive mud and starts to track to body earth and that burns away the nuts on the stood. This is a massive problem because the alternator is unique. It does NOT have a built in regulator as is the norm. It is controlled by the engine ECU in conjunction with the BCM. Because the tracking to earth is inconsistent due to changing moisture content in the box, The amount of charge in the battery is not what the ECU and BCM expect. This is because power is been consumed by a means not monitored by the BCM. As a result the alternator will under and overcharge the battery at random, often to destruction. This will be a problem on most if not all older cars. My car is a 208 xf. Ive owned it for two years and had loads of intermittent electrical problems. I found this problem by chance after about a year when the windscreen washers were not putting out enough water. Most was appearing behind the front wheel on the road. By chance, the hose from the water bottle was routed by the terminal box behind the liner, and the burning and tracking had part burnt through the hose. But for that I would probably never have found the fault in the box. I wish I had found it sooner because the alternator shorted out and killed the battery not long after. Probably due to it working overtime cooking and shorting through the mud around the box. My odometer was reading 80,000 miles at that time. I mentioned this to a Jag indy dealer that i know and showed him pics of the burnt box. He was elated! He stated it was common for alternators to fail around that milage, (this may be a coincidence). shortly after this he told me he had solved several problems on cars that had problems from blowing bulbs, cooking or random flat batteries, and random DTCs. All the cars he checked had failed gaskets and evidence of burning/tracking to earth.
The Jaguar main dealers I spoke to had no knowledge of this problem. Probably because they don't get to work on older cars.
Removing the wheel arch liner is a ten minute job once the wheel is off and I strongly recommend checking this out if you have strange or random faults, if nothing else you may save the alternator from self destructing.
Jim
PS I will post about other problems and fixes that i have found and most are a simple DIY fix when I get time, and believe me there are Many!
