I recently did some wiring on my car. I did not (knowingly) touch any existing wires but rather installed something new. I had the panel under the glove box removed and the panel under the steering post removed. After putting everything back together I have some problems. I do not have any gauges working, although the dash lights up with my headlights on, and my windows are not opening. When I turn the the key to the on position I get ten beeps from my climate control unit and it displays er for a few seconds, but the climate control works fine.I am hoping that this last piece of information would be helpful. I of course checked all the fuses and they are fine. Which fuse controls the gauges and the windows??

Any idea as what is going on will be appreciated!

Thanks,
Jomo

 

Jomo,
If all of your gauges are inop, it sounds like you might have dislodged one of the two connector blocks to the instrument pack. Instrument pack is easily removed to check, just 4 screws. The connectors are the lower edge of the pack, so might have been disturbed when you were working around the steering column.

 

The instrument panel is powered through the left heelboard fuse box

When rotating the ignition key do you feel the ignition positive relay click mounted on the corner of the fuse box ?

You can leave the key in the run position and remove the relay and feel it click which will be the relay returning to the open position

Swapping option is the left engine bay fuse box relay which in reality only runs the horn

What makes the relay command closed is a ground path through the ignition switch to car frame ground at pin 5 of the ignition switch connector under and to the left of the steering column . The car side of the connector lifts straight up to bring it out to you . There was corrosion in mine with M' Lady Penelope

 

Parker,
The relay you are referring to, is that the one by the left heelboard fuse box. If not, then where is it? Would this cause my windows to not work?
Thank you,
Jomo

 

I just checked the fuse box behind the left heelboard. I found two blue relays there. One was not energized with the ignition on or off but the other one was. The other relay clicked on with ignition on and then off with the ignition turned off. This relay (the one that I was able to activate) was closer to the (left) door than the other relay which was a just a few inches away. Is this one of the relay you were talking about? Is it working properly?
Thanks

 

The specific relay is mounted on the the fuse holder

A picture of it can be seen on page 28 , labeled ignition positive relay on the print

It's all the way over on the inboard side

http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Auto.../jagxj1996.pdf

The left window fuse is in the left heelboard fuse box and the right window fuse is in the right heelboard fuse box

The master widow controller is on your left door panel and the right window probably relies on the left controller being powered up

What I found on mine was the ribbon connector on the left controller was loose with the socket locking bar migrating loose , this caused the sockets to lose contact But you probably did not disturb your left door card or panel to go through the effort to look at it at this time , focusing on the relay first

 

Everything checks out as you suggested. That is, the relay by the left heel board is energized when I turn the ignition switch. I assume that the wiring at the ignition switch is working correctly because as you said that the ignition switch should control the relay. The issue is that the gauges are not working.
On the left heel board: All the fuses on the top row have 12v when I turn on the ignition. Only half the fuses on the bottom row get 12 volts. Is that how it should be. Does anyone have the labeling of the fuses in the l heel board? I noticed that the front right window does operate but not any other window. Also, the door locks are not working.
I am going to check some ground wires right now. Wish me luck.
Thanks,
Jomo

 

The fuse locations are in the Jaguar manuals if you still have them.
Here is a link to them in the forum
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...cations-44511/

 

Yes on 1/2 the fuses in the box rely on the relay to close for them to be powered

1/2 the fuses on the same box are hot at all times and directly wired to the battery cable

See above Nobeel's fuse map

Relay swap with the left engine bay fuse box ?

The original relay may click saying it has the correct control command but still be bad and have compromised power contacts inside

All fuses should be powered after the relay closes

 

Someone recently had the terminal post on the fuse box loose located next to the relay in question

13 mm

 

Yes, all fuses in the left heel board are hot once the car is running.
Today I will jump a wire across the relay to see if the gauges start to work.
I did swap the relay with three other blue relays in my car. They all clicked with the ignition switch on but the gauges were all dead.
Is the relay giving 12v or a ground to the gauges?

 

The control of the relay has 12 v ( power in the form of control ) sitting on it from fuse X

To close the relay a ground path is provided by the ignition switch from pin Y to 5 to a car frame ground point

The relay in the end is providing power ( in the form of working power ) to the fuses

This gets you back to were you were working and disturbed things

So let us split the relay in the 2 halves of the control pulling coil and the power contacts , the question is do the power contacts allow enough current to pass through to properly run your devices even though it shows 12 v with a meter on the other side of the power contacts

Do the relays have a over center spring to clamp the power contacts closed or does the control current provide the contact clamping force ?

The print below is of the working power battery cable paths

You will see the 2 / 250 amp power fuses on the battery positive post which can have the fuse terminal nuts come loose but we are concerned with the single 250 amp fuse located on the right side under a black plastic triangle once you remove the large rear bottom seat pan . This requires a bit of work and caution you don't drag it out damaging the felt on the door trim but the single fuse terminal nuts have been found to be loose before .

This gets you away from the area you disturbed

Picture later

 

I haven't had time to look into my gauge problem until today. I cleaned the contacts on every fuse in both heel boards and under the front hood just in case one of the fuses was bad. I then went to the relay that powers the part of the left heel fuse box and learned something very interesting. Up to now I only checked that relay when the ignition switch was on, today I checked the relay and found it activated with the key out of the ignition. Now I know why I was having a dead battery if I did not use the car frequently.

So I am assuming that the wire from the ignition switch is grounding out somewhere. Tomorrow I will check that wire to see if it is grounding out right from the steering column/post. If not, then I can simply run a new wire from the ignition switch to the coil of the relay, correct?
The problem is that this does not solve why the gauges are not working.

Does this new information help anyone understand why the gauges are not working? I do not believe in coincidences and believe that beeping sound from the heating control panel has something to do with this problem.

I am anxiously awaiting some replies.

Thanks!

 

Your assumption is correct


You may have pinched a wire or ran a screw through one of the relay control " ground seeking " wires

Above is a picture of the ignition switch and the connector pin map of the switch side half of the connector

The car side half of the connector lifts straight up from a mounting clip in the dash to bring it out to you

The pin 5 is a hard wired ground that in some cases loses it's ground , but in yours one of the other 4 of 5 wires in the bundle has a ground path

In unhooking the connector you can get information on if the switch is faulty ( if that relay relaxes )

The pin 4 to 5 is a linier key in key out switch other then the rotary pin 1 , 2 , 3 to 5

The reading of this switch is not the most confidence building as more then one pin at a time is closed ( making ) to 5

The starter pin 1 is a momentary contact for the BCM that when reading with a meter can waver on you and not be solid closed

The left heelboard relay is pin 3 on the connector

This pin 4 to 5 when faulty and not making or mechanically binding causes problems with the security system not " going to sleep " but staying alive and draining the battery

This is referred to as a parasitic drain that is common on the X300 and the challenge is to keep the 2 different things separated , one being a relay that stays in the closed position and a parasitic drain though the security lock control unit ( SLCU ) that is hot at all time through a fuse in the trunk fuse box ( no relay closure required on that fuse box for that fuse )

Sometimes you have to work one problem at a time even though there is a suspected correspondence that in order to correlate takes a good working knowledge of the X300 electrical system

 

Here is an update. I made some progress and lost some progress.
Here is what I did.
1) I disconnected the wire harness plug under the steering column to find that I have continuity from the harness wire to the relay plug by the left heelboard. I knew that was the case.
2) I made sure that neither ends of that wire that I just tested was grounding out. It was not.
3) Then I tested for continuity from the other end of the wire harness under the steering all the way to the ignition switch. I had continuity.
4) Then I checked, with the ignition switch off, if the wire was grounded out. It was not.
5) Then with the ignition switch turned on I checked to see if the wire by the plug (I checked the correct side!) was getting ground. It was not! Okay, so maybe that wire is bad. Nope. I checked for ground at the other end of the wire, where it is soldered to the ignition switch, and did not get a ground still with the ignition switch on.
So I concluded that I have a bad ignition switch. Not too bad. I continued on.
6) I gave the relay a ground for the coil and heard it click. The relay switch has a constant ground and I guess the other side of the switch needs a ground to give power to the fuse box. I checked the the other side of the switch was only getting a ground when the relay was energized. It was fine. The problem is, and this is a new problem, that only half of the bottom fuses are getting 12 volts. So I thought that maybe the ground from the relay switch was not strong enough. I removed the relay and put a good ground to the wire from on the relay plug. The bottom fuses still did not get 12v. Ah, maybe I should have turned on the ignition switch! Still did not have 12v going to all the bottom switches.

I did bypass part of the problem with the ignition switch by giving the relay it's own ground. Could there be another problem with the ignition switch??
After the relay in the left heelboard gets a ground how does it get 12v to the fuse panel???

I suspect that my problem now is all in the ignition switch or something is wrong between the relay by the heel board and the fuse box.

Any help, as always, will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jomo

 

@Parker 2,
I just re-read your last post again and will check to see if pin 5 has a constant ground.

EDIT: pin 5 does have a constant ground.

 

Pin 5 to solid ground is good

The ignition switch can be removed from the metal key barrel by 2 tiny screws on the 2 tabs that I have extras for lost ones

No new key needed as you keep the same barrel

By disconnecting the connector on the ignition switch pigtail the car and the left heelboard relay should be relaxed or open

You can just hang a switch from the connector without installing it on the barrel and the relay should be relaxed

I have some medical appointments this Monday and Tuesday otherwise I would obtain one from a salvage yard

Editing

 

I bypassed the ground from the ignition switch to the relay by just putting a good ground to the relay switch (I put the ground to the correct wire). I still do not have 12 volts going to the half the fuses on the bottom row on the left heelboard fuse box. How is the 12 volts supposed to be given to those fuses?

 

The 12 v power for all the fuses on the fuse box must first pass through the fuse box large terminal post above your ignition positive relay on this specific left heelboard fuse box

1/ 2 of the fuses are directly wired to this terminal post and the other 1 / 2 rely on the relay to close

This can be seen on page 38 as some even numbered fuses , compare this with page 34 with the direct connection for fuse 1 - 9 which is your top row and bottom row 11, 13 , 15 , 17 , 18 ( even ) leaving out your 10 , 12 , 14 , 16 controlled and passing through the relay on to the fuse 10 , 12 , 14 , 16

They had to make it not straight forward , those bone headed engineers .

http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Auto.../jagxj1996.pdf

Editing

After power passes through the fuses it goes through connectors you can't see attached on the back side of the fuse box , The probability that they were disturbed is small

By unplugging the ignition switch connector see if you feel with your finger meter the relay clicking and relaxing to the open position . Another way is to have the ignition switch connector off and then by yourself remove and reinstall the relay and feel for it clicking . You should not feel the relay clicking with the keys in your pocket . If it does you have a wire going to ground forward of your ignition switch connector under the dash

Past this test if the relay does not click reinstall the connector and then remove the relay from the socket , with the keys in your pocket if the relay clicks you have a problem with the switch providing a ground path not desired

The ignition switch very small screws are slotted blade screws and not allens or torques

The same ignition switch is used on later X308's with the V8

 

I plan on replacing my ignition switch tomorrow. Today I planned on removing it. Not as easy as I thought! Those screws do not want to come out. Are they one way screws? I have a small straight edge screw driver that fits in the hole but will not remove the screws. I'll apply some wd40 now and hopefully that will help. Any other ideas how to get this screw out?