Hi,
I recently changed a headlight bulb on my car (drivers side). After that I have been having trouble. Sometimes when I start my car the light bulb out indicator illuminates. When this happens my headlights will not turn on and my car will not shift out of park. I have to turn off the car and restart it until the bulb out indicator does not illuminate (it does for a few seconds and then goes out just like it should) and then the car will shift out of park.
I'm thinking that it is a bad ground wire but why is it affecting the shift lock.
Can someone please enlighten me on this.
Thanks,
Jomo

 

It could be two unrelated issues but you may want to remove your ski slope and clean the shift actuator area. Mine had a similar issue from it sitting for awhile. After cleaning the area and manually giving it some slight help it now shifts effortlessly out of park. Maybe try some electrical spray cleaner.Seems alot of debri builds up under there.

 

The 1st thing I did was clean out the ski slope having read in the past that it gets dirty in there even though I did not think that this would fix the issue. 100% of the time when I can't shift out of park, the bulb out indicator is on and 100% of the time when the bulb out indicator is on I can't shift out of park (assuming I'm in park) . Every time the bulb out indicator is on the headlights are not working.
Last night I found out that I do have ground going to the light lights but the hot heat is intermittent. I plan on checking out the to see if the problem is the headlight switch. If it is not the switch I will simply run a new wire from the switch to the head light bulbs.

 

I plan on checking out the to see if the problem is the headlight switch. If it is not the switch I will simply run a new wire from the switch to the head light bulbs.


Sorry Jomo but it's not as simple as that. Suggest you get hold of the electrical diagrams and check them out before embarking on any workarounds.

The Lighting switch provides a switched ground signal to the Body Processor Module (BPM), which in turn activates the Relays for the lights which turns them on.


I would be looking for a common component for the lights and the Not in Park switch/Gearshift Interlock. AFAIK that would only be the BPM.

 

It may have something to do with your brake light switch not activating properly. If your switch isn't working right it won't shift out of gear and might also be causing your light out issue.

 

You were absolutely correct. Although the brake lights was working correctly the problem was the brake switch. I took it out and since it looked a little dirty I cleaned it, put it back and the problem has not returned for at least 25 starts (the problem was happening about 60% of the times).
I had to be a contortionist to get that switch but I did!
Thanks you, really helped me with this one.

 

Glad it all worked out. No one said owning a Jag would be easy!

 

It was not that bad getting the switch out. It took longer to figure out how to lay upside down correctly then it did to pull the switch out. With removing and cleaning the switch and putting everything back together maybe it took 25 minutes in total.

It may not be easy owning a Jag or two, but driving them is a blast--especially my XJS.

Jomo