Hey there,

today the Jag did not want to do anything. At first I thought the battery was flat, so I wanted to jump it but that did not help.
The car is behaving strangely.
There is no power going anywhere else than the dash when you turn the key. No central locking, no radio, nothing. Sometimes the dash shows all the lights, sometimes it doesn't. The needles move and shake...sometimes they don't. Of course it doesn't even try to start.
Airbag and Oil warning light do stay on as well as the indicator lights. Those actually stay on for a few seconds after removing the key. But only sometimes...

As far as my limited knowledge goes I think there might be two things: A broken instrument cluster or a broken wire of some sort...

So does anyone has some ideas where to start?

 

The simplest and easiest place to start is to chnage the battery. If the car was otherwise working properly the last time you drove it and now you get in and nothing happens, usually it is the battery. At the very least get it load tested. They can go without warning. The X-Type is very sensitive to seeing the correct voltage.

 

I alteady tried to start it on jump leads and that changed nothing.
Nevertheless I think the battery is not the healthiest I rule it out for the moment.

 

Have you been having the issues you described for a while or did that happen all of a sudden? Like, everything good when you last shut it off and now it won't start?

 

It just happened. On Sunday I was driving back home for about 30mins (mostly motorway), then parked the car up. Since then temperatures dropped... And today It didn't start.

I also thought about the battery, but as it did not work on the leads and it behaved that strangely I started looking into it. Haven't really found someone else with the exact same thing...only one YT video where there was a broken lead and it looked similar. But now I do't really know where to start...and I won' rule out something else yet..besides the battery.

 

I would still start with the battery and at the very least get it load tested. Simple, easy and maybe even free (at least it is here at some auto parts stores). That way you can rule that out before maybe going down a bunch of rabbit holes.

 

I know where you are coming from, but that would mean that the car wouldn't be able to jumpstart from another car then. That would be strange...

 

Wrong, when my battery went, I drove it quite a ways one day. Parked it, went out the next morning and dead. Jumping did not let it start because obviously (not a battery expert) something died internally. New battery, everything fine 2 years now.

 

All right that gives me hope! Will try that first!

 

Check the terminals and ground cable for corrosion - clean those off. You can then try a hard reset on the battery. Then check the voltage. Anything below 12.5 V is no bueno.

 

You were right I was wrong...and that is a good thing!
I‘ll take the shame for not believing and say thank you for changing my mind!

I put the battery on a charger for 24hrs. It only got to 11,5V but that was enough to power all the utilities and at least turn the starter. So I know the battery is the bad guy here!
And damn that horn is loud when reconnecting the battery...wasn‘t expecting that.

 

Glad you got it sorted.