So I have a 2001 XJ8 Vanden Plas, the battery is dead and the key to the trunk will not work, also the latch to the hood release is broken so I can not access under the hood either, all I’m trying to do is get it Into neutral so we can tow the vehicle to get it fixed because we believe the starter or alternator went out, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

You are not on the good sub-forum for your model of car but
if you can access to the obdii connector, this should help:


Of course use it only to open the trunk, not to start the engine.

The other option is to use the manual override to put the tranny into N, check your Manuel, you just need the right Torx key.

 

sorry to hear

 

kbrowning, odds are, what you are going to need to do is find the cigarette lighter that has power when your car is turned off. From there, you will need to get a jump box (second battery that plugs into your cigarette lighter). Give the jump box about 10 minutes and this should allow you to have enough power in the battery to atleast open up the door electrically which should also allow you to open the trunk. From there, you can probably rotate the key to the RUN position and shift the car into gear. Worst case, you can adapt a cigarette lighter plug to a battery charger and then plug that in and let the battery recharge the battery that way. Unless you have completely killed the battery by destroying a cell (can happen if you deeply discharge a battery)., this will get you back to a full charge.

 

Get into the trunk via the latch and get the battery up and running. You can either go in through the taped up license plate mount holes or drill a hole.

 

The key should open the trunk.

Try squirting some WD40 (or equivalent) into the key hole, and also try pressing down on the trunk lid while you turn the key.

 

...and turn the key CLOCKWISE.