Just weeks after admitting its new logistics hub has been the cause of thousands of vehicle parts being delayed, JLR's efforts to resolve the crisis are being severely tested by a spate of failures concerning the electric power steering motors fitted to the Jaguar F-Pace.
It was reported last October that as a result of supply issues caused when JLR reconfigured its UK parts supply network from 18 warehouses to one ‘super centre’, 10,000 of the manufacturer's cars were off the road awaiting replacement parts.
In January JLR boss Adrian Mardell claimed the backlog had been reduced to fewer than 2000 parts and the following month said the company was resolving the problem, although cautioned that it would take dealers time to repair affected cars.
“That's going to take a bit more time but the original bottleneck is actually mostly through," said Mardell. "It’s not where we want to get it but it’s mostly through.”
His words are likely to be received with some scepticism by a group of customers who have formed a Facebook group to share their experiences.
Called the JLR Power Steering Alliance Group, it has more than 580 members, 130 of whom own F-Pace models registered between 2016-20 and which, they claim, are suffering water ingress of the electric steering motor, rendering the cars undrivable.
Among their ranks is Adrian Woodward whose F-Pace suffered failure of its steering motor after it was driven on rain-sodden roads.
"Like the other owners, my car was not driven through a flood," he says. "We've had heavy rain recently and I suspect water entered the motor simply from the roads being soaking wet. I've seen evidence of other cars suffering the same problem where the motor has a hairline crack and the electrical circuit board inside the unit is white with corrosion.
"Replacement motors are supplied with a new steering rack. One member of the group is on his third. At first, insurers blamed flooding and paid the bill but there were so many claims that they will no longer pay out, forcing owners onto the goodwill of JLR."
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JLR (Jaguar) is dead in the water long before their new EV range. The tech is irrelevant if this is the patchy, unsupportive service that customers of a 100k+ car can expect. Sad to say as I'm an XJ owner, but I fix my own and wouldn't trust a dealer to come near it. All 'cashflow' and no heart.
Any diagnosed fault on a warranted vehicle should be fixed at no cost the to the owner unless it's owners fault of course especially where Jaguar's problems made things worse, this situation would make me think twice about buying a Jaguar, not be a of the car necessarily,but of service from Jaguar, I do feel sorry for the frontline the Garages who have to deal with irate customers though.