1. Home
  2. Jaguar Autos
  3. 2000 XJ8 intermittent electrical failure

2000 XJ8 intermittent electrical failure

For 10 months I've walked to my car with a one-in-forty or -fifty chance that it will be electrically dead. The battery and all visible connections are fine. I have to key-open manually - there's no interior lights, no mileage indicator, nothing; as if there was no battery. Usually, after turning the key for less than a minute there's a loud rapid 2-second buzzing in the steering column and the car starts fine... albeit with re-set or blank stereo presets, odometer, and seat and mirror positions. One day this week I tried for 15 minutes to get it started with no results... had it towed.. and Jaguar has for the last 2 days (as with the other 3 times I've taken it in since December '03) been unable to "not start it." "UNABLE TO REPRODUCE." The mechanic is stymied. To repeat: it isn't battery weakness, it's as if it's disconnected, a hypothesis the electronics re-setting supports. It does this hot or cold, parked inside or out. Help!

Reply to
Andrew Nicholls
Loading thread data ...

try the goss's garage web site.he has a radio show on the east coast and will e-mail you back about an interesting problem like this one.he usually knows the right place to start and gets many thankyou's over the air from people he has helped. something most mechanics fail to test is to see if the +battery cable is intermittent.a high reading with an ohmmeter will tell you that it is time to change that cable.pat goss talks about this problem all the time on his call in show.

Reply to
jim mcguire

I had the same problem and diagnosed it by removing one circuit fuse at a time over a period of days and narrowed it down to a faulty thermostat in the door lock heaters. This could be the gremlin plaguing you cat. I unplugged the relay associated with the door lock heaters and have a strong battery ever since.

news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Reply to
John M Shedlock

Hello Andrew, Years ago, I had a similar problem with a Porsche except that it would also just die while traveling down the road. The whole car was absolutely dead except for the clock and radio and then 10 minutes to an hour later, it would be fine for another day or maybe weeks. It turned out to be an faulty internal battery connection. The voltmeter would still read 12 volts when it was faulted, it just wouldn't provide amerage. Solved the problem when a friend left his lights on and I pulled the battery out of the Porsche and loaned it to him. Hope this helps.

Dennis

Reply to
Dennis Rech

Thanks all, I'll pass this stuff on. Dennis: it's unlikely to be an internal battery problem becase one of the 1st things the garage /dealer tried 10 months ago was replacing the battery (though it tested-out at 100%), yet the problem persists. They ran through the fusebox over the last 5 days, one circuit at a time, but could find nothing out of the ordinary. No door lock heaters (California). Grounding to firewall is solid. Ignition / key unit and electronics chip in the key are ruled out. How'd the Jag electronics gremlin jump ship to Ford is what I wanna know...

Reply to
Andrew Nicholls

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.