XF sportbrake 2013 3.0 V6 - major electrical issue

[samib]

Apologies in advance for the long post, but thought it best not to drip feed! Strap in, it's a long one!

Bought our 2013 xf 3.0 V6 auto in May of this year. We drove it until August with no issues at all. It does round town driving but also motorway mon-fri for work. 

In august, after a 15 mile motorway run, my husband stopped at the local shop. On pulling out of the parking space, the car stalled. After 30 seconds it started and drove home with no issues. It had thrown up lots of errors on the dash (gearbox fault, power steering fault etc.). Once it restarted it was fine. 

A few days later it did the same. We had the battery checked and it appeared to be on its way out so we replaced, had it plugged in to tell it it had a new battery etc. ran fine then until the end of September (about 6 weeks). 

Similar thing again, fine on motorway but as soon as it gets to slower driving, it cut out, restarted, cut out and restarted. Booked it in at the Jag Specialist in Doncaster for codes to be read. Lots of codes thrown up, but likely to be false due to the car cutting out. They advised to wipe the codes and take it back next time to try and narrow down the issue. 

Same thing a couple of weeks later, so took it in, all fault codes seemed fuel related, but again , they thought that this was due to the cut out and loss of electrical power. When they went in the boot, there was water... We decided to replace the fuel and air filter just in case anyway.

Because it seems to only have the issue at low speed, their theory was that water was getting in to the start/stop and causing a short somewhere. 

We located the leak(s) which was the rubber on both slam vents. Sorted that issue, dried everything out... Drove fine for 2 weeks. 

On Thursday, the car has done similar but worse  - cuts out, looses power, cabin lights flickering, all rear lights flickering, horn randomly sounding, emergency brake comes on, no power to the dash or screen. Lots of clicking and buzzing from the back end. Turn it back on and it didn't even do a full rotation of the wheel before doing it again, it was at least 15 times. 

Stripped down the back and the main earth from the battery appeared loose and someone prior to us owning had smeared copper slip all over it. My husband cleaned it up, tightened it, and also found the negative terminal was loose, so rectified that.

Been out today, nipping and popping to several places with no issues at all. Then, when almost home, popped to the shop, same again. 5 times in a row. 

Pretty certain this is a major electrical fault. power loss, flickering lights etc. checked battery, charging/alternator, earth, also, big thing under the sealed red cover near the washer bottle (sorry no clue what that's called 🤣). 

Any further pointers? We're going to ring an auto electrician tomorrow, but any clues would be appreciated, particularly if anyone's had the same issue. 

Rapidly falling out with the car.... And if you are still reading, thank you 🤣

 

[Bigvic]

If the boot was full of water the it’s more than likely that your junction box is slowly dying

It’s a box in your boot that holds relays, fuses and computery things

If it does turn out to be that, then it’s an expensive fix. Although I’ve read that some people claim to have fixed them by removing and drying them out. There are also people on the internet who say they can fix them

All I can say is good luck with this one

[StevoUK]

Hi Samib, I had a simular situation with my old 2010 XF, appart from the water ingress, just an idea, in the boot you have what is called the control module, all this is pretty much a big fues box with relays as well, my issue was pointing to this ( had jag diagnostics lead ect) so instead of messing arround with swapping relays and such like, i bought the whole lot off eBay, they range from £60 upwards complete, however I do have one spare as i sold the car before i fitted mine, if you can, can you take photos of your one so i can see if its the same, if it is, we could come to an arrangment regarding posting ect if you like? and you can try it, see how you get on....