7th Apr 2008, 17:09

My 2005 diesel (UK) car has now suffered two "Gearbox Fault" incidents. With the first one the car "squawked" (Jaguar terminology) when the gearbox changed gear (up and down) under hard acceleration. The drive then became very jerky unless the transmission was under load. The Jag dealer in Nottingham said they changed the whole gearbox and that the problem was caused by the gearbox coolant leaking into the gearbox itself and contaminating the gearbox fluid.

Six months later the "Squawk" returned and the dealer again "fixed" the problem again under warranty. But I am now a little worried that this is just going to happen again and again.

Lovely car though.

12th Apr 2008, 00:18

Hi, I've been looking at a 2000 Jaguar S-Type.. before I came to this site, the first thing I did was research the recalls for this vehicle... ALL of the above problems that people have been posting have been addressed by Jaguar in the form of recalls... just type recalls for Jaguar S-Type (and year) into Google's search engine and it will bring them all up.

However, I've been through hell already with a Volvo C70 I bought a couple of years ago and still have, in addition to my 1998 Lexus ES300, which is a dream, and which I almost was going to trade in for the Jag. Think I'll stick with my Lexus.

17th May 2008, 15:59

Jaguar s type 1999 3.0

100 000 Kms.

List of mechanic replacements:

Valves

Coils, all of the six.

Latch door (door lock), switch indicator, insulator (ac), water valve, finisher trunk (boot open signal), thermostat, bush (quantity 4), and front stabilizers.

Service:

Battery, antifreeze, fuel filter, oil filter, air particle filter, spark plugs, air filter, brake fluid, and engine oil.

Still the car needs more repairs:

Side mirrors function in one way (motors don't function in all ways for view adjusting).

Steering wheel, motor takes command just up and down not in and out. The auto command is broken.

Rear left window doesn't function.

Horn pad barely presses.

Radio mutes and switches channels on its own (do you have a solution?).

I don't know what could show next?

But you could use this list as a list to help you diagnose some of your problems, and the things that could need to be changed.

For any information please contact me at rachad_z@hotmail.com and I could use some of your expertise as well!

19th May 2008, 20:37

Purchased a 2000 S Type about 6 months ago which had 41,000 on it. Now we are having overheating issues at 46,000. Radiator flushed, thermostat changed, and I guess we have to check the cooling fan and water pump. The car is at the point when everything seems to be going wrong and we have experienced the incline shifting trouble already. Thanks for these comments as we are getting rid of this car A S A P. Any other input on this overheating problem would be well appreciated. This was a dream for us and now we are scared we are gonna lose greatly.

kayray2231@hotmail.com

22nd May 2008, 21:38

Purchased a 2000 3.0 s-type in 2003 with 33000 miles. After reading all the comments I feel as though I got a "good one".

My tranny went out at 96000 miles on the odometer. A friend rebuilt it for 1500.00. Did have to have a window motor replaced, along with some AC work. I'll never buy another one.

18th Jun 2008, 12:57

We have a 2000 V6 3.0L, inherited from my mother's estate just 14 months ago 9April 2007) with 33K miles on it. She had battery problems for the entire time, but she hardly ever drove it beyond around town. We have had several issues since then: driver window regulator broke trying to open a window frozen shut, one coil out, new brakes all around, and now the "Failsafe Engine Mode" intermittently just started last night. I have not money to maintain this spending pace, so this site had shown me I had better start thinking about other options. There is a shifting issue right at 40 - 45 mph (I'll check the RPMs tonight on the way home). No other issues, but I can tell I need to be alert and vigilant.

How do I find out if the recall/warranty issues have been addressed in the past? Is it too much to expect Jaguar has kept records by VIN of how the prior issues have been treated?

22nd Jun 2008, 22:56

I had a trouble free S type until the warranty expired. Since then the electrical system has been repaired, twice, suspension replaced, transmission linkage repaired and now the transmission. The worst car I have ever owned and a confirmation of all the horrific stories I have heard about Jaguar. The only thing worse than the car was the customer service of Jaguar. A disgrace to any business. If I am ever in a car discussion, I go out of my way to comment on the faults of the car and the lack of support from the company. I hope I have convinced more than one person never to buy a Jaguar. Try a BMW or Mercedes, we never had a problem with these cars or a Cadillac which we drove 10 years without a single repair.

23rd Jun 2008, 00:50

We have the fail safe engine lite intermittently on also, but when checked on the computer, they could find nothing wrong. This is strange (maybe not for a Jaguar) because there's supposed to be a memory that's records these events. There's no recalls that would address most of the issues on this blog... I've looked. like most of the people here we found out too late about the Jaguar. We've put major work into this car, and now the light is coming on... what the hell could be wrong now?

26th Jul 2008, 08:40

Having permanently damaged my back pushing an Austin-Healy 3000 in my youth, I was skeptical of British cars, but since Jaguar was owned by Ford and the reviews were favorable, I got suckered.

I bought a 2000 S-Type 4.0 loaded demo with 4000 miles on it in late 2000. In 2007 I began to realize that this car was costing me some money to keep on the road. I added up all my bills (all from a Jaguar dealer) and they came to a little over $14,000 - that's $2,000 a year. At that point, I turned on my Jag and began to view it as a liability.

Shortly after the wipers failed, and the service manager sheepishly asked me if I wanted them fixed after quoting me around $600 to replace a shorted-out wiper motor. I had to laugh, I was already afraid to open the driver's window at toll booths for fear it wouldn't close, and now Jaguar was suggesting that perhaps I might not want to drive the car in the rain. I fixed the wipers, but now avoid rain because I don't want to buy a new wiper motor.

I avoided fixing other failures, but was forced to put a new odometer in when I couldn't renew the registration - $1000 at British Motors in Norwalk CT. I call him Jaguar Man. The official price at Jaguar was over $2000.

I stopped driving the car after that and put it up for sale. After a month I drove the car to work just to keep the battery and engine up, and coming home the transmission began to fail. Jaguar Man asked me how many miles on the car. I said about 65,000. He said, gee those don't usually start to fail before 80,000. He said $4,500 to replace it.

I could replace it, but here's the point, if I do, I will have a car I'm afraid to drive in the rain, afraid to drive on a toll-road, afraid to drive at all because of the transmission. I'm just going to trade it in and take whatever they give me - probably about $2000.

I have also noticed something interesting lately about Jaguar. Unlike other car ads on TV that stress durability testing (Nissan), Jaguar just has some cool guy driving the new Jag with some envious babe looking on. That's it. That's what Jag is all about. It's all just a cool prop. There is nothing automotive about it. Jag is just a bunch of union flunkies from the UK pushing dope. Nobody who is serious about automotive engineering and assembly would build crap like this. Every time I see a guy driving a Jag I feel like calling out: "Hey buddy, I've got a bridge down in Brooklyn I'd like to talk to you about - it's beautiful."