Hey All,

Well my personal saga has begun!

I took possession of a 1996 Jaguar XJ6.

The short story is that I am an avid barterer here in Las Vegas and a guy asked if I would trade two Chinese scooters for his currently non-running Jag? Now most people wanted me to stay clear of Jags altogether but I am a DIY'er and have kept two very finicky cars on the road - a 1985 Porsche 928S and a 2002 BMW X5. Both vehicles notorious for being high maintenance. Well they haven't beat me down and neither will the Jag. I traded for the scooters and the car sits outside. The cool thing about this is that my wife has always been a huge fan of Jags and always wanted one. She only likes the ones with the four headlights though.....lol. This car will be delivered to her on her birthday, February 7th, 2014. Hopefully, between the resources of all of us we can make that happen?

So the car is a non-cranker. I gave the car a once over and have also been doing some initial reading on the site. It has what appears to be a common problem where the ignition powers everything on but turning the key does not hit the starter. As a matter of fact I can't hear anything not even the fuel pump building pressure.

The battery was dead in the car when I picked it up and has since received a charge and it does work. It is now on trickle maintenance and I will leave that on there for as long as it takes to get the car running. The battery that he had in there is way undersized I imagine. Physically it is 2/3rd's the size of the stock battery and IIRC, it has something like 580 cold cranking amps and 700 or sumthin' cranking amps at 32C. Still I would imagine that when it is fully charged, it should at least hit the starter and fuel pump?

The first item I reviewed was the shift lever switch. The P is supposed to illuminate is what I read but mine does not. Is it supposed to for my car? When I move the shifter in park from left to right a little, I can hear and feel something switching in the steering column. Makes no difference, no start.

I also read about the inertia switch which was already changed on the car by the PO in an attempt to get it running. Made no difference.

So I guess this is where I need to begin. Seems like a common issue that we can work through together.

Here is another thing I noticed. I find there is a lot of play in the key when in the ignition. Basically I can easily turn the key from 9 to 11 o'clock without any resistance whatsoever. Are these ignitions meant to have that much play or could it be a sign of a cylinder gone bad? It rolls through the stages no problem but just a lot of wiggle room on the beginning of the turn.

Could use some quick checklist tips to see where to go start a lookin'.
I am also going to start checking all the ground connections on the car as soon as I learn where they all are. Seems like there are quite a few?

Here are a couple of pics of the car. I hope we can get the job done by February. Great to be part of a group that helps maintain these fabulous old cars.

Bernie

 

Great post Bernie,

I hope your beloved likes the car when you've finalised applying your touch?

I think life can be a good mix of bartering and I admire your zest!!!

I am sure the guys and gals here will be on hand to advise and I will be watching your future posts with relish!


Congratulations on your new babe and the Best of Luck on your hallowed Quest!

Regards, Stu

 

Thanks Stu!

BTW - My fiery wife is of Scottish decent.

 

Hey Bernie, once again congrats on the car for the wife's birthday, the day before mine!!!
I'm on the 8th.

Have you scrolled through and read the "X300 How To quick link" thread at the top of the section??
Full of great info, downloads and much more that you will find useful for sure.

I hope that ALL the techy guru's and avid very knowledgable DIY'ers come and chime in here regularly to help you to achieve your goal......I'm sure they will.

My advice is to use this thread and post here often, with any questions and or changes / upgrades or mods you have done........It will very soon build I assure you and no doubt become popular.

All my best

Jim

 

Thanks Jim,

Yes, have already started pouring over post after post and also looking through the various tech sections.

Once the sun started dropping a bit I went out to quickly mess around again a bit and see how the battery charge is doing. I can confirm now that the P light IS illuminating so I guess I can rule that issue out for the timebeing.

I do want to get into that ignition cylinder a bit because it does feel pretty loose to me. I have had all types of issues on other vehicles because of something as simple as this.

I am hoping that I can rectify that issue as quickly as possible so I can move on to making the car look and feel as it should.

This thread will be my home for the foreseeable future..... LOL

BTW - Do all the 1996 Jag XJ6's come with keyfob entry?
I only have a standard key and not a fob key. I think the locks, etc., are a little dodgy on the car so maybe this is a source of investigation. Does the car lock out the starter and fuel pump when armed or should anything work? What is affected by a car that is armed. I would suspect an alarm would go off though..........hmmmm

 

Hey Bernie, I can't help with too many of your specifics unfortunately but, one thing I picked up on.....

You say that it was / is a non starter.
The battery was dead and is being trickle charged and also about it being 2 3rds the size of the OEM battery.

From reading many many posts here in many different forum sections on different vehicles the one thing that stands out, for sure is the need for a really good quality battery you can rely on.

There can be a whole host of issues thrown up due to an under performing battery or one on its way out.

Perhaps some of the DIY/ Techs etc will chime in and confirm of give their opinion on this?

 

Yes for sure.

The battery is marked as 2011 so its relatively new but it is certainly physically smaller than the original and probably not as cranky

I do think though that it should work well enough to hit the starter or at least prime the fuel system. A new "correct" battery will cost north of 250.00 USD so I would at least like to know the car "will" start before I make that investment. For the timebeing, let's just call it the test battery

Thank You!!

Bernie

 

Hey Lads,

Spent some time reading and also looking over various things that work and don't work on the car. My interest at the moment revolves around keys, door locks and ignition cylinders.

This MY has three keyholes, the ignition, drivers door and boot.

I have only one key and it is not a remote key.
Is the remote key a fob or an actual buttoned key?

As mentioned earlier, the ignition cylinder has play from the 9 to 11 o'clock position. Is this normal?

Now the door locks themselves.
First, the drivers door lock will not lock period. It won't lock with the key, it won't lock with the central and it won't allow me to push it down. It either resists or when it does go down, pops right back up and also cycles all the locks.

The other three doors can be locked manually no problem.

The central door lock button on the center console does cycle the locks. I can hear the the rear doors and the passenger door cycle but only the drivers rear door button moves up and down. You can hear the motors whirr in the passenger side doors but they do not move.

I hear a clicking in the drivers door but no whirring. I am thinking something is mechanically jacked up in the drivers door but that doesn't explain while the other three doors audibly cycle with only the drivers rear door actually locking and unlocking.

The light on the central doorlock button does not illuminate but still cycles the locking system.

The boot release button on the dash does not work at all.

I can get the boot open with the key put it requires a lot of messing with it to finally open it.

I discovered from reading posts on the forum that the microswitch for the boot is dodgy and I did not have any lights in the boot. I dug out the microswitch which I guess is just dirty and used up. After spraying it and playing with it the boot lights now work but this has not had any effect on anything else.

Guess I will start with the drivers door as that one seems to be the worst culprit.

Another hint is that I have NO left turn on my drivers door lock. The lock will rotate to the rear but not towards the front.

Sorry for all that at once, just trying to remember it all ......lol

One more thing.
I get a number of different beeps when I cycle the ignition cylinder.
Maybe I need to download an owners manual to figure out what these beeps all mean.
Will go out and check to see how many beeps and what type I get .

 

i would start by cleaning and lubricating all the door locking system. the key and keyfob are separate components. have you done the simple checks like fuses and relays? altho the PO replaced the inertia switch I would double check that. do you have acess to a scan tool to get any codes?

-chek the relay that is next to all the fuses on the left hand heelboard. and the same on the right hand heelboard. both are ignition relays.
-chek the relay on the left hand engine bay. behind the headlamps you should see 4 black relays in a row. the one closest to the radiator is the starter relay.
-chek the relay on the right hand engine bay. behind the headlamps you should see 3 black relays in a row. the one closest to the fender wall or the windshield washer filler is the MAIN relay.
-chek relay on RH engine bay fuse box. ignition relay.
-check the 2 big fuses on the positive battery terminal.

you can try to start in park or neutral. if you have doubts with the parking switch you can make a temporary bypass by joining the red/orange wire with green/orange on the switch.

- there is a HUGE wiring harness junction in the right hand of the trunk above the fuel tank you could give that a wiggle just in case.

 

Ps, good luck with the electrics and thanks to avioni, I think you will find an OBDII scanner very handy in the coming weeks, keep the spirit Bernie, your Good lady will be thrilled to bits, methinks!! Stu

 

Greetings Bernie... Welcome.

Yes you can do this. There are many little oddities with these cars that can build up over the years. Many can be sorted out with minimal expense. It takes patience to deal with them, but if you can DIY and you give it some attention, you will be rewarded. Especially when the wife gets it. You'll score huge points!!!

I would advise buying or downloading the service manuals. They can provide quite an education while you're not actually getting dirty. Also... don't be too eager to buy new parts unless you're sure the old one is defective! That gets expensive really quickly, and frustrating when the same problem persists.

Cheers!

 

BUMP - For further assistance.

Please add your knowledge here to help Bernie with this project.

Thanks

 

Thanks to all for the support and the technical suggestions.

Certainly, as I plow through the issues we may all learn some new things about these cars. For me, I can only draw on experience from other cars I have maintained for the moment until I wrap my head around the specifics of these cars in particular.

I do own a OBDII scanner so i will give that a look here today.
Will also inspect some of those relays as mentioned.

A question though for anyone with this level of experience.
Since I have door lock issues currently and there is a factory alarm system in these cars, does anyone know if the locks and no crank issues could be related? So far everything lights up on the dash but no fuel pump prime and no crank.

Just wondering because sometimes these issues are related.
Same goes for the inertia switch which I know is brand new and I pressed it again yesterday to confirm a reset.

So many streams to go down with an issue like this so I am trying to see if I can isolate the path by knowledge of the symptoms.

 

Most certainly looking at systematic work on the door lock systems. I had read there are issues with the wiring in the boot area. Looks like that will be a little session all on its own to test the wiring making that bend around the boot hinge.

I did find that little microswitch in the boot for the trunk lights, etc. It wasn't working until I pushed it in and let it out a few times. A part I will replace but the trunk lights did come back on.

Have to go back and see what else is affected by this switch.

Update - I hooked in my OBDII scanner but there was only one code P0400 for exhaust gas recirculation. Doubt this has anything to do with a non-cranker.

Bernie

 

"I believe" unlocking the driver's door with the key disables the alarm...but I could be wrong about that. I know (from experience) it works that way on the 03 S-type cause I unlocked the boot with the key once shortly after we bought the car and while the lone fob that came with it was still inoperative - I was at a school sporting event in support of one of the kids...and when I unlocked the boot, all heck broke loose with the car - flashing lights and blaring squeals drawing me lots of unwanted attention. I quick-unlocked the driver's door and everything settled down.

Occasionally, when I leave work, the fob takes a blow and won't unlock the X300. When this happens I unlock with the key in driver's door, and everything starts and works fine.

Good luck getting it sorted. I know a refusal to crank can be bad-frustrating. I'd concentrate on the many grounds found all over the thing. Just a thought, and I wouldn't expect a problem because these 4.0L have proven mostly bulletproof...but in the interest of eliminating the obvious, you may want to stick a 1 5/16" socket on the crank bolt and just make sure the engine will, in fact turn over.

 

If you turn the engine with the socket, be sure to turn it counter-clockwise, from drivers seat perspective! The tensioner is on the "slack" side of the chains.

I dont think the USA cars have any starter disable, unless perhaps the alarm is activated and sounding. Possibly it has fuel cutoff. Unlikely that it is somehow stuck in disable mode.

Check/swap the starter relay. Also check the power pass thru at the firewall, right near the exhaust manifold. That is the power feed for the starter. Also check the engine ground strap, left side of engine.

 

Nope, no fuel cutoff on USA cars during alarm mode.

 

with my limited experience, I'd start with:

New battery (Interstate brand)
new set of RC12 Champion plugs
pop off the throttle body and clean it up real well
buy an extra set of 6 ignition coils (they may come in handy now or at least later)
new belts
fuel filter
and then just go from there.

Congrats on the purchase!!!!

 

Thank you for the replies so far folks.

It will certainly be one of those issues that takes days or weeks to find and 5 minutes to fix.

It would be really helpful in my troubleshooting if someone else with this particular car could answer this question.

When you turn the key to the position right before the starter, do you hear the fuel pump priming the system? It will just make a whirring noise for a second or two?

The reason I ask is that from my experience, you should hear the system building fuel pressure. If the ECM does not receive a pressurized fuel system signal, it will not allow the car to crank.

I believe the answer to my issue begins with no signal to the fuel pump to prime the system but I cannot be certain as I have zero experience with these cars. It may be that the car has a bad fuel pump and it is sending the signal but the pump won't run so hence the same result.

Just need to know what you hear when you turn the key to isolate the path I want to take for fixing this.

Bernie

 

you are correct. you should hear the pump for a second. did you verify the relays for ignition, main, fuel pump and starter?

i noticed on your pictures the sunroof is not perfectly closed. if water is leaking inside and the drains are clogged you will get water on the top of the ECM. this will cause corrosion on the ECM plugs. worth a look.