I am having problems with the central locking and I have tried all the reboot tricks. I took the door card of the drivers door, removed all the plugs and WD40 them. Replaced all the plugs and the door card. Suddenly all the gauges when from zero to full and back again and the bloody thing wouldn't start. No electrics anywhere. checked the boot fuses and found 4 fuses had blown, 40amp, 30amp, and 20amp. What the hell have I done? I can get a second hand fuse box from Ebay because I can't find the female fuse on line, but I need to know what could have caused before I blow the replacements. Any help will be gratefully accepted.

 

I’m not sure I follow the logic here. For reasons still unknown, four fuses in the trunk have blown. Shouldn’t you investigate why they blew? I don’t see why you want to replace the fuse panel. It seems those fuses behaved properly and opened when their respective circuits were overloaded.

Which fuses were they?

 

Thanks for that, as for which fuses have blown, I am currently scouring a wiring diagram to try and identify which ones they are. The reason I sourced a complete fusebox (20 quid on eBay) is because living out here in the boondocks means all spares have to be ordered on line and this box comes with a complete set of relays and fuses. As to the cause of them blowing, I can only think that the WD40 I sprayed on the plugs and sockets in the drivers door caused a short circuit, so before I replace the fuses I will take them out again a make sure they are dry. I have used WD40 for the past 50 years and never had this problem before.

 

Just did a complete check of the rear fusebox and fuses I thought were blown are OK (70yr old dodgy eyesight) but the bloody thing is still dead. I say dead but I noticed that the temperature gauge and the fuel gauge are flicking, even with the key out! Is it possible the alarm system is feeding into the instrument cluster? The original problem was that if I left the car for more than half an hour, the key fob would not work and when I opened the drivers door with the key, the alarm would sound immeadiately. but once started, the key fob then worked fine, even from a distance. That's why I considered the drivers door lock being the problem, in hindsight I should have lived with it. Any suggestions?

 

This sounds more like something running down your battery after shutting off the engine. IIRC, when the battery drops below a certain level while parked, certain non-essential features automatically shut off to preserve enough power to start the engine.

The car’s receiver for the key fob is one of those things that will be shut off. And when unlocking the car with a low battery, I think the alarm is normal. I know the alarm sounds the first time opening the doors after reconnecting the battery. I suspect the logic is similar for just a low battery.

 

-Thanks for that. I did have a problem with the battery going flat. I'm retired and only use it on weekends so I bought an AA solar charger and it hasn't gone flat since but like you said, maybe the voltage is too low. I'll try charging the battery off the car and hopefully get the thing started. Thanks again.

 

Measure the voltage at the battery before charging it. I suspect you will find it low.

If so, the next step will be to determine why. Lots of possibilities. Could be the battery is not holding a charge very well. Or the charging system is not 100% and the battery isn’t getting a good charge in the first place. Infrequent driving with mostly short trips will do the same thing. There may be a drain running down the battery between drives. Or the ever popular combination of the above.

Please let us know what you get for a voltage reading.

 

Thanks for that kr, I did check the battery and it does seemed to have passed away. I put a new one on today and I will update whether this has solved the problem. Thanks again for your help.

 

We shall observe a moment of moment of silence for the dearly departed. I’m sure it had been a good battery and lived life to the fullest.

One little caution: Most new batteries are not fully charged at the time of purchase. I’d suggest putting it on an automatic charger to make sure it has a full charge.

You had also mentioned having a solar charger. I’ve never had much confidence in them as their charge rate is typically dismal. If you don’t drive the car much, you may want to consider a battery maintainer:


https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ng-port-87362/

Please keep us posted. Fingers crossed that a bad battery was the root cause.

 

Thanks for the respect shown to my recently deceased battery. They are not cheap to replace but the missus seems to be coping well with just one kidney. Unfortunately I can't use a smart charger as where I have to park there is no lectrickery and the solar charger is one from the AA, who swear on their grannies grave that they work but one will have to wait and see. Keep your eyes open for the headline 'Pensioner beats Jag to death' if it doesn't.
thanks again

 

 

Salutations,
following up to my post on the central locking problems with my demonically possessed S type. I have the problem of once I have locked it up and I return, it won't respond to the key fob and when I unlock the drivers door, the alarm goes mental. Now I know that this would indicate a parasitic drain on the main battery but as I am an orthodox lazy git and it's bloody freezing outside I tried to live with it rather than do the appropriate diagnostics. Unfortunately the neighbours don't seem to appreciate late night serenading, so I have hit upon a solution, if I manually lock all three doors (just like we used to do in the old days before wi-fi sorcery) and close the drivers door, everything stays locked and when I return to unlock it, I am met with stunned silence. Now as this confused Jaguar has just had it's 21st birthday and maybe the computers have developed dementia but I would like to think that I have out-foxed a micro chip. I thought I would mention this procedure (as a temporary fix) just in case anyone had a similar problem and also if any much wiser members could advise me as to whether continuing this devilry will eventually cause my all electronics become catatonic. (for hardcore enthusiasts who deplore my laziness please remember, in the UK, it is illegal to shout at old people)

 

I think there is a TSB that relates to the symptom you are describing.

You might want to check the stickies first.

 

It sounds like one door lock is dying. It doesn't lock automatically and stops the central locking from locking up. Can you identify which one? I believe that the Jaguar diagnostics software can but I would expect/hope that just manually locking the faulty one would have the same effect and so identifying it. Now, you don't want the faulty one to fail locked (this does happen) though, as it makes the job of replacing the lock quite a bit harder

 

Thanks for that Catfan,
I found the TSB and it looks like this was a common problem with the pre 2002 Jags. I'll source a replacement door module from a later model and give it a go.
Cheers

 

Thanks for that Neilr
mine does lock all doors when I drive off and responds to the remote for up to 20 minutes after I have parked up. Thanks to Catfan, I have found a tech bulletin which mentions this problem with the pre 2002 S types, so I will try a later door module.
Cheers