Hi There.

It looks like i am going to need to replace the whole body harness on my 1998 V8 Sovereign. There was a short that has actually fused some of the wire together so its caused a lot of harm to the wiring and potentially things like instruments etc. having said that the car will start, the lights, radio and passeger seat all work OK but the instruments are dead.


I have sourced a full harness for a 1995 xj6 4L Sovereign so I am hoping we can make use of it in replacing the damaged wiring.

Has anyone had any experience of how to go about this? the mechanic who has taken on the job has indicated that its a mammoth task, mainly due to getting into the body work. Is there a "best way" to approach this?

Many thanks in advance.


PJV

 

I've moved your question from the XJ (305) XJ12 section to the X308 section to get views and advice from members with the same model as yours.

Graham

 

I don't see how the harness from a 95 XJ6 will do anything for you - your XJ8 is a completely different vehicle with a wiring system that is 100% different from the XJ6.

You can download the entire wiring diagram from Captain Jaguar's Cathouse - http://www.captainjaguarscathouse.co...ec%20Guide.pdf

Perhaps this will be enough for you to fix what has been fused together... I see the full harness replacement as being an incredible daunting task - these cars have more wires than anything I have ever seen.

 

Thanks Graham.

I was hoping that we would be able to use the wiring but am I asking for way too much from anyone to get this sorted?

 

From what I have seen in my cars, you would just about have to strip the car of everything removable to replace the harness, and use wiring from an identical chassis. If it was a rare classic it would make sense, but not an XJ8.

 

i changed out the whole insides of a 98 xj8 from another 98. didn't like the color took me 3 days. wouldn't do it again unless you really -really love the car

 

In a x308 you have a few harnesses, I changes all a few weeks ago.Remove the seats and central console for easy access, the dash also may be needed.
Dashboard harness, going to the instruments, steering column, and to the A post fixings, behind the plastic panels in the foot-well. There is connected the harness that goes to the J gate,radio, AC control panel + fans and doors.
Another one is going form the ECU box, on the left bulkhead, to the main engine connector, the big rectangular one, driver's door ,cats,gearbox, windscreen wipers, defrosting, brake pump, water tank, and to the little front fuse box.
There is another one, on the floor, coming from the rear seats fuse boxes, to the J gate,seats and to the door connectors; I don't have experience with this one, but I don't like it.
I changed mines, from RHD to LHD, so it was like a transsexual surgery, but I did it, plug and play, you must put labels on each connector to follow on the fitting back.

You must choose the exact same chassis number series, if you are using a newer/older one you may have some plugs missing. Have a look on the EPC or jaguarclassicparts site, to see where your VIN is placed and use only similar ones.

I have mines, from a 2002 3,2 XJ8 RHD, but they will not fit your car, only a car from a closer VIN number.

 

I have been a wire harness release engineer for nearly 20 years and have done my fair share of harness repairs on one of the big 3’s prototype vehicles.
I take it you have found where the short occurred and have found all the melted wires. Based on my experience you should be able to do 1 to 1 splices on all the damaged wires by replacing the melted section with wire of the same gauge, I would not worry too much about matching the colours to the existing ones. Make sure you stagger these splices as they will increase the diameter of the bundle, use the heat shrink type splices that also seal when heat is applied. This should get your harness back in working order and should save you all the hassle of replacing the complete body harness. If any coax cables are damaged then these will need to be replaced as splicing these types of cables is not recommended.
If this does not work then you will probably need to replace the complete body harness using one from the same model year and with the same options.
Use the link in QuadManiac's reply to get the schematics.
Best of luck.

 

I am with the group. Fix the harness that is in there.

 

Thanks for your input everyone. Looking again today it looks like the entire harness wont need to be replaced. Also managed to source the parts so hopefully we should be able to get something sorted.


PJV