I will try to be civil.

The trunk will not unlock. It's 84 deg outside, and I have groceries in there that need to go into the refrigerator. The rear seat is not a pass-through type, so that's no help.

This has been happening on and off since I got the car about five weeks ago. The transmitter works about 80% of the time ... it's that 20% that I find to be very annoying. I've put new batteries in and reprogrammed the transmitter several times. Thank goodness the key works the doors. I bought another transmitter from another member here trying to fix the problem, and it displays the same quirks ... sometimes opening the doors, sometimes not. As a domestic car owner for the last forty years, I've never had so many glitches with a car ... ever.

Anybody have this happen? Is there a fix? Is it the trunk lock mechanism?

Thanks.

 

Does the cat face pushbutton ever work? On mine, the cat face hardly ever works in warm weather. But my transmitter never fails. If your cat face never or seldom works and your transmitter is not 100%, the computer that handles all that stuff might be at fault. The first thing I did upon getting my trunk to open was run one of the release cables to the passenger compartment next to the rear seat back. That way, I can always get in there from front if need be.
For now though, you just have to keep trying until it works. Is your car set for global unlock on the first push of the transmitter? I put mine that way and it improved the trunk performance. If the car is globally unlocked, does the cat face pushbutton on the trunk have any effect? Mine is heat sensitive; works better in the cold. You could try spraying contact cleaner or freeze spray from radio shack in there but not too liberally.

 

Are you SURE there's no ski-hatch pass-through in the middle of the seats? On my 2004 model, you fold down the rear armrest and then you can lower the pass-through door onto the armrest. And I just checked the owner's manual for 2004 North-American (NA) models and it implies that this feature is common to all 2004 NA X-Types.

If you can get any access to the trunk in this manner, then you can probably reach the trunk emergency release handle with a coat hanger.

As for what's causing this, it's going to be difficult to diagnose this issue remotely - no pun intended, REALLY! If it's happening with two different remotes, then I'm going to guess that it's not with either transmitter or the remote receiver. I doubt that the problem is the at the trunk release motor, since you mentioned that the doors have the same problem. Is there any chance that you used the same battery from your first troublesome remote in the new one? Whether or not you did, buy BRAND NEW BATTERIES and try them.

BTW, you never did mention whether or not you tried the trunk release button on the back of the car, under the trunk lip and above the license plate. Is that not working too, or did you just neglect to mention it? The doors must be unlocked for that button to work.

 

"Cat face pushbutton?" If this is the button just under the lip of lid above the license plate, then this is not now working. It's locked and won't allow itself to be pushed in.

I hit the area near this button with my hand a couple of times in an attempt to make it release, but that didn't work.

Not sure about the relationship with temperature though today is warmer than it's been the last several days, and it worked fine during the recent cooler weather.

I didn't know about the global unlock feature of the transmitter. Is that in the owner's manual? If it'll help, I'll do it.

Some type of spray lubricant or contact cleaner is what I was thinking, too. I'm definitely going to be doing some dismantling as soon as I can get the blasted thing open. Though the release cable is a bandaid IMO, it's still a great idea, and I'll be doing that for sure.

Hm-m ... groceries've been in there for two hours, now, and it still doesn't work.

 

Oops. I just posted as you were posting, and I didn't see it.

Yeah, the button under the trunk lip will not depress. The doors lock and unlock right now with no effect on the trunk. I'll check the fold-down armrest in the back for a passthrough. Batteries were brand new, and I was very careful not to mix them up with the old ones. I have three transmitters, and all exhibit the same problems with one hardly working at all.

I'm going to a meeting tonight, and I'll take this car to see if driving it has any effect. Now I'm wishing for a cold front to move in.

Thanks for your help, guys!

 

Again, the doors must be unlocked already for the trunk release button on the trunk lid to work. You didn't explicitly say that you did that, so I'm just going to say it just this one more time.

I have one more important piece of information for you. I was just poking around in my All-Data account for another issue, and stumbled upon a "Customer Service Program" letter (number S5275) and related service bulletin. The gist of the campaign is that some remotes for a variety of Jaguar models from 2003-2006 have a design fault that would cause intermittent functioning of the remote. They solved the problem by inserting a section of insulating foam over the microprocessor in the remote. It's probably a two-cent part - they don't mention a price - and it only takes a few minutes to install it, as per the service bulletin.

As per the service bulletin, the service on these remotes was covered by the factory ONLY UNTIL THE END OF 2008. But since the part looks like it's going to be fairly cheap, and the labor looks to be quick and easy, I wouldn't expect the dealership to be reaching too deep into your pockets for this one. But they CAN fix it.

Hope that helps.

 

Yes. When all the doors are locked including the trunk, I depress the transmitter button once, and the driver's door unlocks. I depress the button a second time within a short interval of time, and all the rest of the doors open. The trunk, however, remains locked ... the button under the trunk lid will not depress thereby allowing access to the trunk. The button on the transmitter that looks like a trunk also has no effect.

Also, I checked, and there's no access through the area behind the rear seat armrest. The "opening" is covered by fabric, and when I push on the fabric, I can feel the carpeting (or whatever) that lines the inside of the trunk. The trunk cannot be accessed from the cabin area.

That Customer Service Program letter sounds very interesting. I just may have to give my local Jag dealer a call and talk to their service dept about that. Just HAS to be way under a C-note to fix, wouldn't you think?

Thanks for your persistence at getting me to be explicit about the problem. Hope I explained it okay. I think I'll go back out to the car and hit a few buttons. Just hope there's no funky aroma coming from the trunk area.

 

Someone posted that the doors have to be unlocked before the push button for the trunk lid will open the trunk. I routinely unlock my trunk without unlocking the doors first.
One day my trunk lid would not unlock with the button I unlocked the doors and still the lid would not open. Then I pushed down hard on the trunk lid and pressed the trunk button and it unlocked. I've found the that trunk has to be securely shut for the button to work.

 

You know, I was about to get a little rough with the trunk lid and show it who's boss when my annoyance level became nearly intolerable. Not sure how much body damage I'd end up doing, so I stopped short of really yanking on the thing. Maybe I should've done exactly like you say and push down hard, etc while pushing the button. I'll remember this.

Well, sure enough, I drove the car to my 6:30 meeting and then tried the trunk. Voila! It opened just fine. I quickly loaded all the groceries into the cabin area and put everything away when I got home around 8 pm. If I don't post up anything in the next week or so, you'll know I shouldn't have eaten some of that food. That, or I'm engrossed in working on that trunk lid locking mechanism.

Thanks to all who had such great ideas on this issue. Hope I'm able to return the favor at some point in the future.

 

You are correct about this. The trunk lid button (on the trunk lid, not on the remote) will also work when only the driver's side door is unlocked.

So I stand 3/4 corrected.

Good catch on the trunk lid latch not fully engaging. Perhaps, while driving, the latch went fully closed when rand49er went over a bump, or perhaps it engaged by being pushed down by the trunk lid's aerodynamics. That might explain how his last driving cycle corrected the matter.

 

What I meant to say was I press the trunk button on the remote and the trunk opens with all doors locked, I don't have to push the button on the trunk.

 

While we are talking about trunk lids how far should the trunk open when you press the button on the remote. Why I ask when I got the car one of the trunk actuators was broken. I went to the Jaguar dealer to buy a new one, the parts guy told me the ones on my 2003 have been changed to a newer actuator, so I would have to buy two, at a cost of $57.00. I installed them there didn't seem to be a right of left and nothing about right of left on the bags they came in. now when I press the trunk button on the remote it just unlocks the trunk and the lid moves upward about an inch, just enough to get your hand under to lift them up. My benz trunk opened almost all the way when you pressed the button on the remote. I think a trunk actuators should actuate the trunk more then that.

 

It pops the trunk, but doesn't open the trunk, so 1" seems about right.

 

I can't comment about how far the lid should pop up - both of mine are broken and I haven't replaced them (yet?) - but there are definitely two different parts. There's another service bulletin (XT501-201) that describes the new actuators. The right side part number is C2S 38555 and the left side gets part number C2S 38556. I don't know if they're marked on the part itself, but you can check that.

 

1"? My Caddy is about the same.

Why on earth would you want it to rise any further? If it's raining, that'd be all I'd need. If it's not, I still possess enough strength to lift it to the desired height just fine.

 

do you have folding seats? if yes the leavers to release the seats are in the runk so you may want to think about relocating the release to the inside of the car... im kinda suprised they have it there... or failing that tie a strong line to the emergency trunk release and run it to the car cabin... if you can make a fail safe option to open it do this.
it may be cheaper to look at a aftermarket remote and alarm.

 

I think I saved the bags they came in I will take a look and see what numbers are on them. Thanks

 

Actually I am more curious then actually wanting the trunk opening all the way. The car has the actuators and I was wondering how they worked.