1997 XJ6 Nightmare
 

Vehicle sold.

linx:
Aren't we a little overdramatic to call this a "nightmare"? I would suggest checking the firewall power studs (where the big black cables connect and pass through, high and outside onthefirewall). Then it is a simple matter of troubleshooting whilst cold and warm done in the driveway at home. Good Luck.

Vehicle sold.

Well, first of all, after re-reading your original post, I agree it could be the imobibilizer. I missed that because my '95 X300 does not have the transponder. The XJ8's do, and the coil can apparently be a source of failure.
As to the battery in the trunk. It is in a cooler place than under the hood, and transfers a chunk of weight to the rear end for weight distribution.
Now, you have one problem with one 12+ year old car with 160,000 miles and have decided that all X300s are therefore junk. Yep, if the car did not have that feature, that feature would never break. If it had no AC, the AC would not fail. I sugget you take a deep breath, fix the imobiliser coil, then sell the car before anything else breaks, which surely will happen given a car of this age.

Batteries should never be placed in a confined and sealed area like a trunk, since they can explode. Even more ludicrous is placing a power source like a battery near a large fuel source like a gas tank.

Weight distribution? That's laughable. Like a battery is going to make much of a difference in a car that weighs thousands of pounds.

No matter, the junk has been sold.

Right, I guess it's safer to place it next to an engine with sparks going off many times a second. Gasoline it's self does not explode it needs an ignition source.

Actually there should be more weight on the right side to compensate for the driver's weight.

You should have told me, I would have gladly taken the "junk" off your hands.

Hope you didn't sell it for a BMW since most of them have the battery in the trunk to.....

Nightmares!
 

I do not know why we bother to reply to someone who has a nightmare because his 12 year old car failed to start in the shopping center parking lot.

Sparkenzap,

I would have to agree. Having owned many other vehicles, I have found the X300 to be the best engineered and thought through vehicle of them all.

We had a Ford Windstar as our family car at one point. That was a nightmare. The transmission was designed to fail. The main-seal had an expected lifespan of about 3 years. If you think it is hard to get Jaguar to admit a fault and apply a recall, try it with Ford. It was a pain in the backside to work on the engine and it handled like a bread truck.

When I lifted the hood on my first X300, I thought to myself, "Finally, a straightforward engine where everything is easy to get to and there is plenty of room to work."

As for the battery in the trunk.... Recently I accidentally let my battery die from leaving the lights on over night. I popped the hood, placed a battery charger/jumper on the firewall jumper post, grounded it and sent the signal from my fob. The trunk immediately popped up and I was able to properly set the battery out and recharge it. Everyone here knows that the trunk is vented right??? Everyone knows that there is this little black hose specifically for the battery, right???

I wouldn't cry "junk" at the X300 just because a particular set of problems overwhelmed me. It's a good car. It sounds like linx just got aggravated at the vehicle and wanted to let it out here. From what I can tell, everyone here just tried to help. I don't think any of us ought to take offense from his frustration.

Peace!
Jack

yep:
my X300 has covered 236,000 miles on the original engine and transmission and, at least in the 110,000 miles I was at the wheel, it has been thouroughly thrashed about, and still runs strong. Lots of tires, lots of brakes, a heater core, water pump, lamda sensors, hoses and rear end rebuild is about it.

Did he not try to reset the inertia switch in the passenger footwell? Mine did the same thing, parked it at a grocery store, came out, would not start. Had it towed to my trusted and qualified Jaguar Mechanic, he reset the inertia switch, showed me where it was, and said someone may have bumped my car in the lot. Car runs great again.