Driving from Punta Gorda FL to Asheville NC in my 1997 4.0 litre XJ6. All going perfectly, no WL's, gauges perfect....life's great. Suddenly there is a single popping noise from the engine compartment seeming to have happened near the RHS firewall. Immediately lost speedo, rev counter and engine but was able to coast over to the hard shoulder. Hazard warning lights worked fine as did the seat adjustment, the horn and the side lights, the interior lights and the door ajar warning buzzer.
Triple A'd the car home. Had to manually override the park inhibit switch to get the car on the flatbed.
Checked all fuses (especially those with any reference to "IGN".) All fuses were fine. By the way, has anyone seen a car with more fuses than the '97 XJ6? Removed the ignition switch and discovered that there was no supply to it. Hence no ignition and no ability to crank the engine and aforesaid automatic gear selector stuck in "P" unless overridden. Removed and inspected the pc board on the main ECM : it appeared fine with all pins in good shape.
Chatted to a friend in South carolina who mentioned the inertia switch behind the carpet on the passenger's side.
Gave that a press, hey presto everything sprung back into life.Now owe him at least a pint.
Moral of the story : apparently you don't need to hit anything to trigger a 24 year old inertia switch......or do parts of Interstate 95 need re-surfacing. 😀

 

You can bypass the crash switch with a paper clip between the 2 White wires in the connector , low current so no arcing hazard

The crash switch does not always reset by pressing the rubber button , fragile design

Pic is for a right hand steering model

 

Thanks for that tip. Great photo which, by the way, is the same for left hand drive save for the pedals of course.

 

Thanks for that tip. Great photo which, by the way, is the same for left hand drive save for the pedals of course.

 

It will always be on the right side by the door hinge

The photo is from someone else from one of those weird countries