I am thinking of swapping out the Sat-Nav for the standard gauges: Oil Pres, Clock, Volt Meter. Does anyone know if the main wiring harness has the plugs already? I can't imagine Jag would have had 2 separate wiring harnesses since the Sat-Nav was an option; they would just plug into to the appropriate connector if the harness had them both. I don't want to pull the dash apart yet, but i'm checking around the salvage yards for the gauges and dash cover plate but don't want to purchase if not compatable. 2000XKR

 

i dont know the answer to your question i just want to know why would you want to get rid of your nav?

 

Whoa, I can. Almost everything on these things is option-specific. Wait 'til you have to replace your windshield. ;-)

As I mentioned in the other post, I used to play around with old Mustangs, and on those, they had four distinct wiring harnesses in 1967. Those things were stone age compared to these.

One time I put electric windows in an '86 Ranger. Nearly all the wiring in the thing had to be replaced. Ford engineers really seem to like having lots of wiring options.

-Joe

 

That's easy, only girls need a nav! Also, the latest update for his nav to the best of my knowledge is 2003 so it's not much use. Also, in my humble opinion that screen is ugly as sin. I'd like to do the same thing to my 2003.

Great post, I'd like to know about that wiring myself but I think that trim piece w/ guages if you could even find it would be very expensive.

 

ive never seen one in person so i really have no clue what they would look like and in ny all the streets have been the same since 1950's lol but i can understand where your coming from with not having an updated nav. i would think its more convenient than using a portable gps though

 

I dunno about ugly as sin but I do think the guages look better. I only ever saw one with guages about a year ago. XKs are fairly rare around here.

-Joe

 

I have done it.....and of course there is a but.....I did it to a 2004 XKR and the wiring was not there, on an earlier car before they updated the looms, maybe?

But what I did I think was better, I got the veneer section off an earlier car and did a 'piano black' finish to all of his dash panels as getting wood to match was nigh on impossible, he was not much of a wood fan anyway, said something about being to young for wood

I bought 3 gauges I wanted, in this case I got the standard, oil pressure, volt and analogue clock, the beauty of this is you now have 2 clocks that actually tell the truth and dont give you a vague idea.
Wiring the clocks up was easy as stipulated by the manufacturer, I had to add another oil pressure switch, the biggest task was making an ali plate to attach the clocks to to then fit into dash so when the veneer panel went over the top everything looked as expected. Unless you had 2 cars side by side and you actually took notice you would never of known.

Job done

 

Do you have any pics of that Piano black finish?

 

"Too young for wood". That's funny. Before he knows it he'll be too old! :-)

The piano black lacquer is a great idea! That would look good. I'm just about ready to start to refinish a VPI turntable's black oak finish to piano black lacquer. It's a lot of work to do it right.

 

I think one of the other member's swapped out his Alpine GPS to a current mfg'er that can be updated and then utilized his old screen. That's always an option I suppose but I really do like the gauges. In any case when I do fire up my car and take it out it really doesn't matter where I go as long as it's not a gravel road or the parts of Houston where angel's fear to tread.

 

I am afraid I dont have any pics, the piano finish was very time consuming but at the end of the day you can do it any color you like even color coded to your XK if you wish.

Basically scotch up the original panels and clean/degrease them very well, years of polishing and if you are not carefull you will end up will silicones/fish eyes. A light dusting of primer then black base coat, start pilling on the lacquer, scotch between coats and flat if necessary, more lacquer.

After about 6 good coats or 10 light ones, flat and polish, you should end up with a finish like glass.

I also used a Gold font Letraset to replace the Jaguar writing and Airbag, the font was not perfect but close enough and very effective.

 

So thanks for all the response...I finally opened a topic of interest. Well I guess the only way I'll know if the connections are there is to take the dash panel off and look behind the Sat-Nav screen/unit. SO BEFORE I BREAK OFF A FRAGILE PLASTIC TAB...IS THERE ANY SPECIAL TIPS TO GET THE DASH PANEL OFF? My goal is to buy factory gauges and the corresponding dash panel..walnut (I love the rich wood look...after all it is a British car my good man)..from a salvage yard. However, if the connectors aren't there it will not be easy...guess I can ask the salvage yard to give me the connector and then wire it up myself. So where do you add the oil pressure sender...down by the right front corner of the engine with a tee fitting to retain the existing senders for the warning lights??? A clock should be easy, just needs full time power, and the volt gauge input right off the alternator I guess. Sure would be nice if the factory harness has the connections behind the Sat-Nav on my 2000 XKR...guess I'll be the first to find out.

(I need to figure out how to have my name include my car. Guess I'll go back to tips for newbies)

 

that wood panel is very easy, if you have a pick, or one of those 4-pc $3 set from harbor freight that looks like a mechanics dental tool set, you just place it on the bottom center, get behind the panel, and gently pull out. The bottom will come out of its two clips, then at a slight angle, lift the top two tabs out. Its very easy. A bent paperclip would work also, at least on mine. The clips were not snug at all. Just don't use a screwdriver, you may chip the wood.

 

Please let us know what you find out. From what I can tell from the JTIS the harness will not be there but it is a "jumper" so it can be added so in theory the sending units are already in place and this is all done through the ECU.

I have been contemplating this mod for a while now, I purchased a new aux gauge cluster off of eBay UK about 6 months ago for about 10 pounds. I also purchased the 3 trim rings from Adamesh. My plan is to have Madera Concepts (http://www.maderaconcepts.com/NewSite/Madera_home.html) supply a new center section to match my existing carbon fiber dash - about $400. I am sure they can take your set and convert it to Piano black too, might be worth a call.

Your dash is veneer matched meaning they used one flitch, or one piece of wood veneer from the same tree, to create all 5 dash pieces. You may have to replace all 5 pieces to get it to look right however you can pick these up on eBay and then turn around and sell your set.

 

I am being tempted to keep the navigation screen and actually use it to display the gauges using this:

http://www.hksusa.com/info/?id=3474 which has a video output and a video to RGB converter such as http://navvideo.com/navvideo-models-nv_rgb_unv.asp.

The beauty of this system is that it does not limit you to only OBDII data, and you can add sensors such as boost and oil pressure. It is also fully integrated so you do not have to mess with integrating a car pc hardware and software with many elements from different vendors.

What do you think?

 

I like the idea alot. Thanks for the tip on the site. So do you think it will display on our Nav Screen? I will call them about it later. Gonna hold off buying the gauges now that you've given me this idea. If so I think this is really a good idea so we can get boost pressure and other stuff to. I was worried about the wood not matching ( not into the piano black finish..guess i'm an old guy!) My greater priority now is the Nameless Perf CATs. All other mechanical up to snuff now except a tempermental window switch..gonna take it apart and spray it with contact cleaner before I buy one.

 

I am pretty sure it will work. The HKS unit outputs NTSC composite video (standard analog video signal). It needs to be converted to RGB video for the Jag display.

H2Oboy has shown this to work with this converter: http://www.nav.tv/files/navtv-technical/NAV-INJAG..pdf and a Garmin GVN-53 navigtion unit. This converter looks equivalent and less costly: http://navvideo.com/navvideo-models-nv_rgb_unv.asp.

 

If you call the guy who runs the navvideo.com site, he actually sold me the exact same NAVtv unit that I had before in my car. I said I wanted the best signal possible, and he told me the black unit was not as good. He did give me a price of just over $200 for what appeared to be a newer model of the navtv box, which was just about 1/2 of what I paid originally.

Now, it just happened again tonight, the box that I have did something, and it now looks like it blew a red or green channel, all of a sudden it's blue...very blue. I'm going to pull the box and take a look tomorrow, maybe try the reset function, but if it is a damaged interface again...I'm going with a PAC VCI-X2 unit this time. It looks EXACTLY the same, but they should be much better to work with on 'replacement' interfaces. I've done some more interface research, and there isn't much else out there, at least in the US. I do like this one that has 3 AV inputs available...if it isn't too expensive ($250 shipped) I may give it a go.

 

Matt, thanks for providing some additional options !

Do you have the PAC VCI-X2 installed ? How does the video quality compare?

 

I don't have the PAC unit yet, but the one I have is IDENTICAL in every way, buttons, locations, wiring....etc. PAC units have always been very good in my opinion, and if the guts are higher quality than the one I am using, that might fix my re-occurring video problems - the blue-out. I'll keep you informed.