I own a perfectly restored 2000 XJ8 Sport. I was taking somebody home from hospital. When we got to her home I couldn't open the boot, tried for half an hour, in the end I had to call out the AA. Very nice man tried, eventually I told him to remove the rear number plate and cut a hole (chisel a “V” out) on my brand new re-pray. Both the connecting rods had fallen out of the lock mechanism. All sorted I put it back to normal the following day. Question: Is there no other way? Gus.

 

He could have drilled a small hole under the licence plate if he knew where the lock mechanism latch release is located.

Look at these 2 JPEG images of the boot lock mechanism latch Photo and diagram:



Jim Lombardi

 

Why don't you show a photo of the position to drill the hole?
Thanks,
Dave

 

Thanks for that Jim. The two connecting rods, numbers 4 & 12 had fallen off that shiny fan bracket (6). The hole he cut was just in the right place, which would have been dead in the middle on the registration plate. Thanks Gus.

 

that would be nice

 

That both the lock activator rods came off together seems highly improbable. Do you have an idea what could cause them both
to become dislodged at the same time? On all the Jaguars I have seen, the area where those rods are located are protected by
a thick formed felt like material which would normally remove the risk of something either dislodging or interfering with the lock
mechanism. Is that material in place on your Jaguar?

 

Where is the right place???

 

Gus the Iceman is in the UK so "dead in the middle" of a UK plate will be different than dead in the middle of a USA plate.
To complicate things even further, the UK has different sizes of plates, which the Iceman did not differentiate.