2012 XJL 5.0

The title says it all....leave it to me to have this happen! I guess when I removed the battery last fall and parked the vehicle the red power cable must be resting against ground in the trunk. Upon applying power at the fuse box all I get is sparks and my meter shows power is continuous with ground.

I need some real geniuses out there to help. Is there any way to get in the trunk mechanically or unhook the power lead externally to get rid of the short?

Any advice would be appreciated. There must be a way. I don't think Jaguar Royal Service will fix this for free.

Thanks,

RSD911

 

This is just a guess... but can you remove the rear parcel shelf speakers from inside the car and then reach through and pull the manual trunk release cable?

 

On the other models the boot (trunk) lock is mechanical - isn't it on this too?

 

+1

There's got to be a backup system ... meaning mechanical lock mechanism.

Should be mentioned in the owner's manual.

 

The manual release for the boot is inside the boot... hence my post about trying to get a hand in. Unfortunately it is a sealed boot. The only way in I know of is via the speaker or via the light cluster.

 

Provided you have the wiring available, there is a +ve post inside the engine compartment somewhere, and you can connect a battery to that, plus an earth point, of course,

 

Just thinking while typing. Given you description, here is what I would try. Find the fuse for the trunk release. Apply a powered wire to the downstream side of that circuit only. The fuse closes a circuit from the main power to the individual circuit being powered. With the fuse removed, if you apply a similarly fused power source only to the downside half of where the fuse plugs in you may be able to power up the trunk release without powering up anything else in the car that will go back to your grounded positive post. Since no power will be running upstream to the battery side of that fuse you should not have the sparking and current draw problems. Just be sure to use a fused power source similar to the fuse you pull so you don't risk cooking anything downstream on that particular circuit if there is another short circuit somewhere.

I would check our XJ's box and let you know which fuse(s) I would try, but my wife has it with her today.

 

On the newer models, Jaguar eliminated the mechanical lock. Neither my X351 nor my F-Type have mechanical locks on the trunk/boot. Only the driver's door has a mechanical lock for emergency access. In both cases, the battery is relocated to the trunk, so this was a poor design decision IMO.

 

Finally figured it out! Hooked up an Ohmeter and took off the rear under tray under the spare tire. Removed one of the rubber plugs and started poking around until I was able to dislodge the wire and the circuit opened. After that I just followed the procedure of putting power under the hood and opened the trunk.

Upon examining the battery location I have no idea what the power cable was grounding on but I will be sure to wrap it up carefully the next time so this doesn't happen again.

Also just a note that a 1 amp trickle charger does not give enough power to do the job. Needed minimum 2 amp charge to energize the circuit.

Thank-you to all those that replied. Hopefully this helps others.

RSD911

 

this begs the question, why are you removing the battery??