I store the car in the winter ( trickle charge and start it weekly ). out of nowhere, the ABS light came on, along with traction control failure and stability control failure . The lights wont go out when I shut off and restart. Is it a fuse ? Can I pull off the positive cable from the battery to see if it resets ? HELP

 

Welcome to the forum shido-in 1,

I've moved your question from X351 to X308 forum. This is the place to post technical questions about your model.

Graham

 

To reset remove the NEG. cable from the battery and touch to the positive post for about 30 sec. with the trickle charger disconnected. While you're there, check that the batt. voltage is 12.5 or above. Those particular warning lights are often the first sign of a failing battery.

It is not really good practice to start the engine weekly unless you allow it to come to full operating temp. Even then, the oil may still be cool.

 

+1 on the advice of a bad battery and winter storage.
Starting every week only makes things worse.
Park it hot, connect the trickle charger, and do nothing after that, just look at her every once a while if you miss her too much.

 

I agree with the others about the battery. Get it load tested and make sure it is good.
Now for starting while stored. The 1998 has the Nickasil engine. If you let ii sit for weeks at a time you will encounter "bore wash". The oil film on the cylinders will dry away and you will have a very difficult time starting.
When you do start it as was stated make sure it comes up to temp. Just a short start up and shut down can cause bore wash.

 

Thank you all. this is my first Jaguar and I never would have guessed the battery . I bought my 1998 xj8l in 2014 with 48000 miles on it. I am sure that it is the original battery. Now...in another forum they talk about when you disconnect the battery, you will lose the memory ( seat position, mirror ) what else should I expect to happen ? Is there a special protocol to replacing the battery ?

 

Not really, just disconnect the -ve before the +ve.

If you have them expect to lose one-touch windows but just retrain them.

You'll clear the PCM's learned values so car will run a bit rough for a while and you'll clear the OBD monitors (used for "smog" testing in many places). They should set again after a while. (Workshop manual may say how to speed it up if it is problematic - does for my car.)

 

OK...so where can I get a workshop manual for my car ? Any info on this ?

 

You can download the manual from the Sticky near the top of the forum threads. It's JTIS21. There is no printed version.