My jaguar s type has a new message- failsafe engine mode. when it was amber the car was ok but now that its red i have to limp home. how serious is this please. benn quoted a LOT of money at a jaguar main dealer as im **** with mechanics so does anyone know a jaguar specialist near edinburgh. if not can anyone help with the failsafe problem??

you need to have the car scanned for freeze frame data code reading to see what happened at the time of the limp mode...Let me say that at times after heavy rain or even if you wet the fire wall near the throttle body, that can also cause the limp mode coupled with brake, dcs,and gear box fault and engine fault lights etc...You can actually do a hard reset yourself by disconnecting the neg battery terminal for 30 min..Let the car run and take it for a drive to make sure the shift points arent jerky.But have the car scanned and let me know what code comes up.

the best thing to do is to have the car scaned with the diagnostic computer to see what fault codes are stored.
acording to the fault code you'll be able to work out what's wrong with it.
I'm sorry i ca't be anymore helpfull.

MOST TIME LIMP MODE MEAN ECM FAILING IF YOU CANT ERASE OLD CODE AND REPROGRAM ECM. AND IT CANT RELEARN NEW PART ECM HAS A MEMORY FAULT.

another one this is a common fault this failsafe mode ,just disconnect the battery and join the leads together to clear the fault

take it to jaguar and have the software checked and any fault codes removed ,

Go to your local garage (anyone) and have them read the OBDII code this will tell you what has caused the problem, cost for this should be minimal £7-10 ask them for all the reported codes you can check them out at http://www.bluejag.co.uk if you wish to find out what they mean.

This is the way it is meant to be, first you will see amber and power is present and then red and power is minimal..

to get yourself out of trouble and as long as you are sure that the engine is not in danger of damage you can plug in a cheap scanner and switch off this warning so as to get you home..

You may need to do this a couple of times if you are some distance from home

Hello! Fail safe mode is when the vehicle's computer detects a serious problem an allows you to "limp" off the road or highway safely.

Fail safe mode on a Jaguar is mainly caused by a dirty and gummed up throttle body. The throttle body on your auto has a protective coating, so you can not use just any cleaner. It requires a throttle body cleaner that states "safe to use with a protective coating". The butterfly valve in the throttle body will actually "stick out". This causes fail safe mode to kick in reducing the amount of power your engine can produce.

Also check the plugs on your ECM (computer) and make sure they are all seated properly.


Guru...............saailer


I’m happy to help further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/david_6df67de3b14de867

The failsafe mode can appear following numerous faults being detected - some faults can be momentary and register but not cause a problem. These are normally reset by just turning ignition off/on. get the fault code memory read at a garage and this may give you a clue as to a possible problem developing. Failsafe mode will give you reduced engine performance but will allow you to drive for normally some distance. If a serious problem developes your car message centre will tell you to shut off the engine or it will shut it down.
good luck.

It sounds like your Throttle Position Sensor (TPS); located in the throttle body. (Diagnositic test may point to alternator or TPS; I experienced the same issue and although replacing an alternator is easier on the pocket book, it doesn't correct the problem; which will get worse.)
(My story) The amber transmission light would pop up; after a restart, it'd go off. Eventually this led into the engine dropping into safety mode (15-20 mph); while driving city/highway without fail everytime; inbetween driving distance became less and less. (prior to this I had taken my car in several times; each time they reset the computer and $$replaced my alternator, as suggested by my mechanic).
As soon as I drove it off the shop to my house, it dropped into safety mode; amber warning lights. Drove it back to the shop; had to replace the throttle body (the only way to replace a bad TPS). It can co$t anywhere from: $1700.00-$2,000.00 parts and labor. Shop around; because my shop diagnosed the problem part wrong, I got a deal (but it still cost me...). Since I had it replaced (April 2008), I haven't had a problem since. Jag Heaven (a parts company located in California) can ship parts anywhere; it was cheaper to do this than buy the part from my shop $aved $$$. Good Luck, hope this helps...