The hood latch broke on our 2005 X type, so the hood wont open. and the battery is completely dead. someone told us to try to charge the batter through the cigarette lighter. this doesn't seem to be working. any hints on how to get the hood open or get the batter charged?

 

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your problem but here are a couple relevant threads that should help you.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...t-open-106889/
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...lz-help-15313/

 

Is it the handle in the car or when you pull on it its hard to pull? Or it pulls easy with some tension? There is 2 usual problems with this issue. One is the cable rusts and wire seizes inside and the other the cable attaches to the hood locks come undone and the lock won't open.

Best thing to do is follow what others have posted here. If you have any issues you can pm me. And I can walk you through it.

Good luck,
The Dr!

 

You could purchase a 12 volt cigarette light accessory plug, and hook the wires to a small (2 amp) charger. It will "back-feed" the battery and charge it enough to start the car in a few hours or so.

You'll have to keep the key on (to "Accessory") for it to feed the battery. The lighter plug does not have juice to it without the key on.

Don't use a larger charger (or more than the 2 amp setting on one) or you risk blowing the fuse to the lighter socket out. Make sure you insulate the hot lead of the charger clamp up really well, or you further risk sparks and a fire-department visit! You can get by just using the clamp on the "Hot" (usually red) wire of the accessory plug, and clipping the ground clamp (usually black ) to a grounded bolt or the like.

Just make sure everything is hooked up and "solid", with the charger plugged in, before turning the key on. You don't want a shaky connection when back-feeding, your car's electrical system is very sensitive to electrical surges and the like)

The other option is a charger cable like this one:



It plugs into a Deltran Battery Maintainer, which is an excellent investment for an X-Type (it keeps the battery from going funky, with the constant draw from your "x" will make it do in short order of not driving.



(You can get by for free using any existing battery charger set low, and sacrificing any old 12 volt accessory plug you may have left over from, say, a satellite radio or the like.

All of the above having been said, your BEST bet is to get the hood open and hook the charger up correctly! Many posts on that abound in this X-Type section of the forum, do a search for best solution for you.