Ted, based on what you are seeing, most likely it is either a bad battery cable (assuming positive as you should have attached the ground wire to the engine block when you were jumping it) or your starter gave up the ghost and it is all a fluke in the timing. You can try giving the starter a smack with a hammer to see if it will jar things to atleast get it started and get it out of the road. But, that trick only works but so many times before the starter just completely dies on you.

 

I went out just a little bit after trying to jump the car and the power door locks in the keyhole would not even work. It was like the car was totally dead! So I couldn't get in the trunk where my socket set was. So, I brought out the jump pack and as soon as I hooked that up, the factory panic alarm was going off! So I went to Autozone and bought a 2 gauge battery ground cable. It has a standard terminal on the end. I plan to cut the end of the other ground cable and put a battery cable lug crimp on the end and then attach it to the new standard terminal. Also, with all the electrical issues I've been having with this car, is it possible that a battery could be bad. Battery looks brand new and the plastic sleeve on the outside looks to be brand new as well. It's a Napa Legend Batttery. I have it out of the car and on the charger in my garage tonight but I had another idea. My son's car is a 1997 Volvo 850GLT and he got a new battery for his as well. They physically are the same size and nothing is blowing up or burning up in his car so I was thinking of putting the Volvo's battery in the Jaguar just as a process of elimination. I know his battery is good and hasn't caused any weird electrical problems with his car. I can also check the positive battery wire while I'm at it tomorrow. I then plan to check every fuse that I can. Question though, is it possible to test relays other than swapping them around with identical relays? There is a weird looking what I'm going to call relay in the engine fuse box that does not have a cap on it. It's basically a wound up bundle of copper with metal pins on it. And also, I'm attaching a picture of a connector that is unplugged. Does anyone know what it is or where does it connect? Thanks again for all the help!

 

Ted, do not worry about that connector. If you look on your battery box, there is a spot for that connector. That connector is for when they ship the car from England over to the US. It is a battery tender circuit. Plug it back into the battery box or just let is rest where it is. Doesn't matter.

 

I finally have an update. I got my car to start again. I charged the battery and replaced the battery ground cables that go to the battery along with a new terminal. Car started right up. No engine light but the ABS and traction control light were on. Speedometer still not working. But when I parked it and closed the door, by accident I hit the button on the remote and the remote now works too! But then I drove the car around long enough to get the check engine light on and now the remote doesn't work anymore. So I unhooked the ground terminal and re-attached and the remote worked again but after being driven the remote stopped working again. I still have the tail lights hooked up with the bad plugs but the turn signals are working. Here is something weird though, about 1 out of 5 starting attempts, the turn signals don't work. Also, the wipers come on sometimes. I still don't know what drained that battery down all the way. Hopefully it doesn't happen again but even with new grounds I am still getting a few glitches. Remote, wipers, turn signals work and then don't work. Also my bright lights work when I pull the switch but they don't stay on. I know I need the new tail light plugs and need to get them grounded but why am I still having other sporadic issues that are inconsistently going on or off.

I also checked all the fuses in both fuse boxes and the only blown fuse was for the driver's power seat. I put a new one in and as soon as I tried out the power seat the fuse blew again. The positive battery terminal wire doesn't look so hot. Could that cause inconsistent issues? If so I'll replace that next. Any other suggestions as to why the remote stops working? Still haven't seen actual green turn arrows on my cluster, just a yellow light symbol. Wipers randomly going off? Thanks for the help!!

 

While I'm waiting to find some hard to find tail light connectors, does anyone have any ideas on the other multiple electrical issues? Today I went out to start the car and it's completely dead AGAIN!! Tried jump pack and it wasn't enough to start it. I am charging another battery to take it's place but the battery in it, a Napa Legend, looks to be brand new! Is there a way that I can tell when the car is shut off if it is drawing any power from the battery? I'm still having all sorts of electrical issues not related to the tail lights.

 

OK, I have read through this entire thread, and I see some common problems.

First, forget what the battery looks like. take it out, take it to a shop, and have it load tested. Our cars are completely dependent on a fully functional battery and electrical system. Most cars will happily chug along with a battery at 50% capacity...ours become possessed with am 85-90% battery. Really...there is NO margin for error. Many of the computer circuitry is running at 12v, in real time. The rest of the world runs on 5v...Jags engineers saw fit to push the envelope. Also, Jag sensors and computers run FAST...no wait states or averaging...so they want lots of clean, crisp power.

Second: Battery cables are inexpensive to replace, and easy to replace. At this stage of the game, both are suspect. Make sure to clean the connection point with contact cleaner.Also, at the connection end of the ground cable, you'll find a pigtail with extra black wires going everywhere. Find the other ends of those cables, and clean the connections at those bolts.

When you have a good battery in, check the voltage at the terminals. Off, you should see about 12.2 with a fully charged battery, about 12.6V after an overnight. Start the car. At a minimum, you should see 14 to 14.2 volts. Our alternators are designed to be 'hot', I have seen them at 15+ volts! This is one of the reasons that they are so tough on batteries. The jag uses all kinds of power when running, and it counts on it coming from the alternator; the battery is just a big filter for the juice, and that cranked voltage literally cooks it!

Let's see where you are after that; if you still have a drain, we can find it several ways. I actually have a device that suba for the fuses, one at a tile, and I can see the exact current that each and every circuit is drawing; we can do something similar by setting the battery wiring up so we can watch current, and pull fuses one at a time to find the drain. It isn't as intense as it sounds...from under the hood, we can test entire branches of circuits to narrow down the particular bus where the problem lies, then zero in on that buses individual fuses.

Realistically, though, I am willing to wager that the battery and cables are the source of all of the problems!

 

tedh,
wa3ra has a point.
You may find this useful.


Not sure how long our cats take to go to "sleep" hopefully someone else knows

 

I would check all the bulbs to make sure they are the ones jaguar calls for for the location. I've seen some strange problems occur from just having a wrong bulb in somewhere.

 

Ok guys I'm speechless after what just happened today. I ended up putting my son's battery in my car and I charged it 100% to make sure it was fully charged. It started right up. I backed it up and parked it, that's it. Tonight I decided to take it for a short drive in my addition because I still do not have the proper tail lights. Now I know that I have some suspension problems with the car. I planned to fix that after getting the brake lights and turn signals working and my speedometer working. New battery installed, I started car. Engine light is not on yet. Car front wheel makes a popping bang sound when it's turned. Sounds like a ball joint issue? But driving straight forward it seems to be fine. Rear suspension hits hard, hopefully just springs? I know from my past engine codes that it was saying I had two bad wheel speed sensors. So I opened up the door with my remote, yah! Started it up and took off and all the sudden the car almost died out. Engine is running fine but I am hearing all sorts of wheel noises going forward. Car basically went into LIMP MODE. It'll let me get on it for a second but then it kicks in.

I originally started this post saying tons of electrical problems but then we really focused on the tail lights. While that issue hasn't been fixed yet, this certainly can't be the cause of all my problems! Car now is draining batteries. Car keyless remote works until the engine light comes on and then it stops working. Interior chime sound sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Wipers go off on their own when I start it sometimes. All the illuminated buttons in the car light up when I press on the brake pedal. Drove car fine a couple days ago. Suspension was tough and did pop on slow turns but it drove down the road fine. Now all the sudden I have all these wheel noises and its in limp mode but no engine light on yet! Could the wheel noise be related to the wheel speed sensors or the ABS light being on or the Traction light being on? Errrrr...........

I bought this car because I am tired of driving my boring Hyundai Elantra. I actually have had 6 Hyundai Elantras. I drive 2000 miles a week for my job. Every Hyundai Elantra has made it over 200,000 miles and have all been sold running. I've never had an electrical issue with any of them. My last Elantra I replaced one set of brake pads for $12 and a new set of tires and one set of wiper blades and made it 278,000 miles and sold it for $4000. My new 2012 Elantra is much sportier but I miss driving a stick shift and I've always had a spot in my heart for Jaguars. But they don't seem to like me at all.

I wanted this X-Type for a fun car and I'm not having much fun at all. Any ideas guys?

 

Well my X-Type fully drained my son's battery while sitting for a couple days. Something has to be on while it sits and is locked. I put my original Napa battery back in it. As soon as the positive cable was put on, the alarm went off. I turned it off with the remote. Car started and almost immediately the traction light came on followed a few seconds later by the ABS light. I drove it around the neighborhood and this time it did not go into limp mode. I did notice that now again the turn signals aren't working, even the front ones. No clicking at all or any brake light signal when turning on the turn signal. With the brake lights all messed up and still unable to locate new connectors, I haven't been driving it outside of my addition. I drove it around for about 5 minutes but could not get any check engine lights to come on. So I did take it on the main drag a couple times and drove it approximately 50mph but speedo doesn't work so I'm guessing. I drove it home and parked it and still no check engine light. I plan to use my multimeter to determine which fuse is causing my battery drain. Maybe the turn signal issue working sometimes and not other times is related to the bad tail light wires, maybe not? Speaking on the topic of correct tail light bulbs, the tail light assembly sockets say what voltage and wattage each bulb should be. And all my bulbs on one tail light say the wattage and voltage on them. But I have two bulbs that may or may not be the correct bulbs. One is labeled 1156 and the other is 1157. Autozone says the numbers have been converted and those are no longer the correct numbers. So can anyone tell me the correct part numbers for the bulbs on my 02 X-Type?

 

Time is gonna be your biggest cost till you find the cause. There are so dam many plugs and connections on these cars, 12 plugs under the drivers seat alone.
You could get lucky with an IR camera and cold weather, the short should be a lil warm as well as the wire leading to it. You can probably rent an IR camera. Charge the battery while searching.

 

Tedh, look at the Sylvania website for automotive lights. They will list the correct bulbs for each location in your car. I would go off of that, not what you are finding as you never know what the person before you did.

As for the speedo, most likely you are looking at 2 (or more) speed sensors that are not working and that is making the computer question what is a good signal and what isn't. SO, it is leaving the speedo at zero and causing the ABS and traction lights to come on (the car is seeing 2 wheels spinning, 2 wheels not spinning, what should it believe).

As for the other issues, the conditions are changing, so, this would make me beleive that you are dealing with a situation like water in the GEM module or something of the like. If you want to start over again with the troubleshooting, let me know. I would also be interested in whether you have other lights that are not working and/or functioning properly. Maybe there will be some connection I can decifer out of what you point out to me.

 

I drove the car again for awhile and STILL NO check engine lights. I definitely agree with you that it needs at least two wheel speed sensors based on the earlier engine codes that I posted a long time ago. One thing that I've noticed lately is when I start the car and close all the doors, the interior dome lights take a long time to turn off. Ive messed with the light switch and nothing has changed. And when I turn off the car and remove the key and open the door, the car chime starts dinging. If I close the door while inside the car the chiming stops but when I open the door to get out again, the chiming resumes. It's as if the lights are on or another door is open, even though that's not the case. But maybe this chiming sound is what is causing my battery to drain down? I'd love a speedometer but I'm still working on obtaining and fixing the tail lights with new connectors so I want to get the electrical lighting fixed first before installing wheel speed sensors.

 

Ted, the more and more you talk about your problems, the more I am thinking your problem lies with the GEM module. Try pulling fuse F25 in the engine bay fuse box and see if your battery drain problem goes away. That will also kill your dinger issue as the GEM module is what controls the dinger. If that is making the battery last for awhile, then you will need to replace the GEM module. If you want something a bit quicker in response, you can connect a multimeter in series with the negative battery cable (ie, disconnect the negative battery terminal, connect one multimeter lead to the battery post - use some electrical tape to hold it there - and then attach the other lead to the cable clamp - keep it from touching the body of the car). From there, with the multimeter set to monitor up to 10 amps (so, don't attempt to start the car or turn on a lot of electronics inside the car, keep the A/C off, heaters off, even the turn signals, about the only thing you want to come on is the dome light). When you pull fuse F25, you should see the current drop to essentially nothing (should be below 0.050 amps with the fuse pulled). If you shut all the doors and have the car like it is normally parked, even with fuse F25 installed, you should be under 0.050 amps. You can try installing and removing the fuse to see what the multimeter does. Just make sure that you don't have any lights coming on as this may lead you astray.

 

I will pull fuse F25 tomorrow morning. Hopefully it stops raining. Do you know where the GEM Module is located? I want to get the part number for it. eBay has one for $13.32. Thank you for the help once again and I'll keep you posted on the progress.

 

Ted, looking at the diagrams, it is appearing to be behind the dash, tucked up to the right side of the glove box. May be behind the kick panel just below that.

 

To Thermo and all who want a good laugh at my expense.......it finally stopped raining and by the time I got out to pull fuse F25 my battery was dead. So, no remote unlock. No big deal it doesn't work most of the time anyways so I insert the key and raise the handle but the door won't open. I have been having problems getting the door handle to engage. I'd have to tug it 5 or 6 times. Now I can't get into the trunk, dead battery. I can't get into the car, key turns but handle isn't working. No battery so no power. This car has pissed me off 20 ways at least by now. Any suggestions now??

 

Passenger side door? the other option is you can take a long stick and slide in under the front bumper. You can then touch the hood latches and get them to release the hood. From there, you can get to the battery and put power to the car to restore the needed systems.

 

I went outside last night in the dark and the door opened on the first try! I don't know......maybe the 21st try is the magic answer. Any way to fix the door handle so it opens more often? It pulls up fine but doesn't un-latch. And now I have fuse F25 pulled and I'm charging up the battery, again. Hopefully this time it will stay charged.

 

The door handle not opening the driver side door is a common fault - it could be the actuating lever that connects the handle to the electronic switch - you can adjust its action slightly by repositioning it where it connects the the electronic switch module at the bottom of the door, or the switch itself which is most likely (sometimes dousing in WD40 can help temporarily).. on my car it doesn't always work but I accept it rather than to strip my door down and replace the module.. sometimes in my case my inside handle doesn't always operate too - it's on my hitlist of jobs to do but not yet if I can avoid it :-)