Hi there,

I am a newby, Herman, and just bought a one owner X308 XJ8, a 2000, delivered new in Germany to a friends dad.

The cat sat for 13 years in dry and dark garage. So the history of the car is well known.

I brought the car back to life, carefully, and realized this will become another adventure..

These are the problems:

the guage cluster: only the speedo shows a reaction, the needle moves up to 120, no matter if the car sits or drives. All other needles are dead. The checklights work, also the display.

Display shows: low brake fluid, handbrake on, asc not available, gearbox fault, high gearbox temperature, failsafe engine mode, incorrect part fitted.

Does not come out of park.

ABS light is on.

Cylinder 5 does not run.

Does not show any codes except cylinder 5 doesn't spark. Changed ignition coils between 5 and 6. No better.

The best at the end: the odometer showed 108000km when I turned on the iginition the first time in summer, the odometer runs up quick, now it's at 238000km. And keeps running.

What else did I do:

I redid the the dry solder spots in the ABS-module. Didn't make any difference.

Not to forget: the car was parked 13 years ago in a perfect running condition.

I am really excited to hear your thoughts..

Thanks, cheers, Herman

 

Some little vermin have eaten through some wires; 2. some of the connectors are dirty; 3. may need a new battery; 4. check the wires to/from cylinder #5 (left side, forward closest to the radiator; in fact, check all wires near the left front of the engine); 5. check the wires from the wheel sensors to the ABS harness; 6. pull the rear seats and check for mouse droppings and any bites in the wiring harness to those two under-seat fuse boxes; 7. check the wiring to the right rear wheel sensor (I seem to remember that is the wheel that senses mileage); 8. Go into the forum stickies and get a wiring diagram.

 

Thank you!
I put a new battery in already, and doublechecked with another battery. No improvement. Which connectors ecactly--all of them?
Interestingly it only throws a code for the cylinder, but none else. I would think it shows more codes. This leads me to the thougt the can bus system is dead..
Regarding the problems I tried to bridge some ground connections, also no changes.

 

I have seen thread recently dealing with similar situation and it was suggested that if car was left for extended period of time without power modules would discharge and lose their programming

 

The car been parked for 13 years you have to expect these things , replace engine oil and filter also air filter
do pressure test for the cylinder 5 , I hope you have removed the old fuel I think you didn't start the car with 13 years old fuel , disconnect battery terminals and and connect them together for about 10 seconds then install them this might clear some codes , check the fuses all over the car specially rear heel board fuses , my concern is cylinder 5 pressure and the gearbox other than that things looks easy the abs probably 1 or more bad sensor however try to clean them and see if that helps , solve the engine first then the gearbox I used to have gearbox fail became of electrical issue in the car so the gearbox itself might be in very good condition

 

I had the same problem with the speedo incrementing the odometer when sitting once. I replace the instrument cluster with a junk yard unit and that fixed it. In face, I've had three 2000 VDPs. The cluster failed on all three at some point.

 

Thanks. I am not convinced about losing the programming. I reanimated some vehicles which sat for longer times and never had trouble like that. But, you never know.
I ran the car for a short time to heat up the engine, changed oil and filter. The tranny I did not touch so far. Drained the tank, and put fresh gas in it.
I am almost positiv I am not just dealing with only one problem, I guess all this is caused by more than one defect.
Btw, the compression on the fifth cylinder is fine. Like I wrote, the car was parked running without any issues. Was all its life mantained at a dealership until parked.
The variety of problems is just wild, and does not point towards one reason. At least not for me.
thanks, cheers!

 

I agree with your comment and also the advice that rodents as well as prolonged non-use are likely causes. These cars thrive on continual use and regular maintenance. As an example, let's focus on two faults reported in your first post . . . gearbox fault and stuck in park.

If fitted with the excellent ZF 5HP24 auto (only bettered by the later 6HP26), yours will be the first known to mankind that has developed a critical internal fault from non-use after performing faultlessly many years ago. That fault message is one of many that can be flagged by inadequate standing voltage from battery, so check that voltage after a full charge then resting overnight or 5 min of headlights on. Reading of 12.6 to 12.9V at rest is good. Any less is not.

Now, an even easier one . . . stuck in park. You may be aware that there is a disengagement method by using key in slot near gear selector. This will allow you to move selector out of park, but does not solve the cause. The brake pedal position switch (BPPS) is a devil to get to, but notorious for its microswitches to fail through extended non-use. One of these activates brake lights (check upper brake light on pedal push). The other deactivates the park interlock on the auto. You may search and refer to my thread of some years ago in this forum, complete with pics.

I know that that these two are just a start, but that's how you will solve all your issues . . . one step at a time . . . and preferably, in a logical sequence as short cuts or temporary make-do's rarely win. Ask away as no questions are foolish and, above all, keep us posted on progress.

Cheers and best wishes

 

2000 MY jaguars have a CAN bus fault with the INSTPK.
Check yours.

 

What tester do you use? Most certanly there is bus related codes somewhere. Inst cluster can easily be one if the many faults.

 

Good Morning y'all,
thanks for participating!
I did check the brake light switch, took it out and apart, checked the switches, works as it should. I do know about the mechanical override to get it out of park, I did this to get the car on my trailer. I also did a short testdrive, the tranny seems to work fine. Afaik it's the same trans Mercedes used, the one with that big plug next to its oilpan which always leaks oil into the harness ))).
I will take the guage cluster out and check for that solder spot like mentioned in the service bulletin next.
I doubt the problem with the ABS-wheel sensors, because the ATE-system does not recognize bad wheel sensors as long as the car does not move more than 30km/h ~ 18mph. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
I used 2 different testers, a Launch, and a Gutmann. Both are absolutely up to date, actually the Gutmann was better. It recognised the car by itself, the Launch needed help to identify the cat.
And yes, the voltage is good. 12.6 almost all the time with ignition on. Takes at least 30 min to get down to 12.4
Thanks, cheers, Herman

 

Unfortunately I didn't get to work on the car tonight, and I just received a call from work, I'll be out the whole next week. So I won't be able to work on the Jag for the next weekend or so.
Does anybody now a company to fix these clusters within the EU? Just in case I need this done?
cheers, have a nice weekend!

 

Hello friends, perhaps there's a kind soul in GB that could send Mr. Sandcast a cluster? At least to see if that is the cause of the problem?
I once looked into repairing one of mine but ended up finding replacements from junk yard units.
On the control board is a surface mounted RS 232 chip that is probably the communication driver. I'd expect that might be the problem. As I mentioned, I had three 2000 VDPs and the cluster failed on all three. Perhaps it was a bad run of these chips or some other part on the board? I have no solid knowledge of this, just an idea.
That chip was used on a number of machines I used to repair in the past. They sometimes failed in a power surge or some other arc in the system,

 

2000 MY was a known fault. Read the TSB I posted.

 

Hi,
thanks for trying to help, but a mph-cluster won't help me.. I need kph. And yes, asap I will take the cluster apart to check for that mentioned solder spot problem.
thank you! Cheers, Herman

 

The speedo and the anti - lock share a wheel speed sensor as position X

You can do a basic meter resistance check from the ABS module with the brake lines , all 4 should be about the same

The common starting task with ABS is to remove and clean the face of the all 4 wheel speed sensors , there may be removal precautions on the X308s as there is on the X300s that Motorcarman or others would know more about

As a new X308 owner never install car battery in backwards , positive post fwd , ask me how I know ( same on X300 )

Never overtighten postive battery post bolt , breaks special nut underneith

There are some X308 issues of the faulse bulkhead battery cable terminal and the at the side of battery bus protection ( mega fuses ) terminal nuts coming loose that causes strange electrical issues from reading others so just a matter of good housekeeping / uptaking / regular checking

 

I did check that solder joint on all three of my 2000 VDPs clusters and there was no trace of a solder splash on any of them. Since the replacements, I've never had the cluster problem again.
Thanks for all your assistance on many issues throughout the years Motorcarman!

 

ditto

 

Hey,
a buddy of mine was able to take out and disassemble the cluster. Interestingly it doesn't look great, but the spot mentioned in the bulletin looks okay, but another spot looks bad and bridges two spots. This can't be right. My buddy doesn't want to cut that spot, so I need to wait til I am back.
I will try to tell him to check the ground points.
Thanks, cheers, Herman

 

That looks faulty to me too, I'd want to clean that up as well.