I've noticed quite a few non-start posts lately and figured I share an experience in hopes of helping someone out. My wife's 2005 XJ8L recently stranded her. Wouldn't start, all accessories operable, battery charged. Didn't check for a code on the car but to get it home I had to try and shift the transmission from Park in order to winch it onto the trailer. Long story short, the shift cable had lost one of it's cable to transmission retainer bolts and the other was loose, allowing the cable to rock rather than activate the shift lever on the side of the transmission and the transmission was actually in reverse so the neutral safety switch was interrupting the starter circuit. I only got on to this as my helper was near the rear bumper and the backup beeper was going off even though the shifter was in Park. I was able to reach under the car and manually activate the shift lever arm on the side of the transmission to Park where I was able to start the car and then later to neutral so it could be winched on the trailer. (It helps to have owned a few Edsels with the Teletouch Shifter. When they conk out, you get pretty good at this!) It would not allow me to engage drive from under the car or I could have driven it home. Even more fortunately, I noticed a small machine thread bolt on the ground under the car that looked like something that would have been from the car and picked it up. You guessed it. That was the missing bolt! It is now back where it belongs and the car shifts into gear and starts like it's supposed to.


I guess the point is this. We usually jump straight to the possibility of the problem with our big cats as being electric in nature (there may be a precedent for this!) but don't forget to check the basics. In this case the problem was completely mechanical and a lot of times the main problem is the loose nut at the end of the wheel!

 

Cool! Make sure you put some thread locking compound (Locktite) to avoid this from happening again.