Full marks to Mr RAC man, he found an unusual fault.

[ericmark]

So history, wife bought a car she had always wanted about 2 years ago, a Jaguar XE, and while house hunting, it let us down, simply would not start, seemed strange as not from home did we have problem, on the return after sitting in the car for a time.

Retry a little latter and it started.

This happened a few time, and we took to the dealer to find the problem, after a few attempts they decided it was battery, and was a little uncertain as when it did start the engine flew over, but fault did seem to stop, so £300 was worth it if fault stopped, however we took old battery as it would do for caravan.

Old battery charged and has held charge very well.

So 20 months have gone, and the same again, I said call the break down with have with HSBC which is subcontracted to RAC, jump starting is no good we what to know what's wrong.

So he put his testers on battery and engine and said no fault is showing, so he tried to start and then realised what the problem was, wife does not have a strong enough right leg, it seems when the car is stopped vacuum is stored, so when she presses the brake to start she has vacuum assistance, but while we had been sitting in the car my wife had been touching the brake peddle and has used up all vacuum assistance, so simply was not pressing the pedal hard enough to satisfy the car. So computer would not let it start.

She can always put he boot behind me, but not the car is seems.

 

[Mottie]

I had the same with a Suzuki Burgman I bought brand new. You had to pull the rear brake lever to start it. Starting was hit and miss. In my garage I could actually hear the switch clicking when I pulled the lever but still no start. I took it back under warranty and felt a bit of a plum when they said I wasn’t pulling the lever hard enough. I told them I was as I could hear the switch clicking and could see the brake light coming on and showed them. Yes, they said, now squeeze a little harder. I did and then I heard a second click. Oops!

 

[ericmark]

I have driven earth moving plant back in the 70's where you had to press brake peddle to start, but this was first car with this, didn't even consider a woman would not press hard enough on the brake, as the old stuff I had worked on no pressure was required, only pedal movement.

I did wonder about the old battery removed, I kept it as caravan kept in storage so having a fully charged battery at home seemed a good idea, not sure on AGM type for caravan however as charger rather a high voltage, but OK for a week off grid if needed.

But as faulty would have expected self discharge, and found very little, so was thinking maybe nothing wrong with it before this.

As a foot note, I put the Jag on charge next morning, and it showed 12.6 volt on charger before starting which seemed low, within 15 minutes the charger had dropped to 0.8 amp charge rate, and took 3 hours to show 0.1 amp charge rate which shows a fully charged, so less than 2 Ah put into the battery before it showed as fully charged. It will be left on charge for 24 hours as the stop/start was not working.