Just before I parked my 1998 XJ8 Vanden Plas for the winter I had a limp home error a few times. the first two times it happened I had put the jag in Reverse and backed out a long driveway, then after switching to drive the faults occurred within a few yards of being in drive the third time it happened after driving a few miles and then trying to put the car into park. A code reader showed a P0706 Transmission Range Sensor A Circuit Range/Performance error.

I took the car to a retired volvo (and import) mechanic and he thinks the transmission is fine but thinks the problem is a neutral safety switch -he said Volvos had the same problems and most of the time they just bypassed the safety switch

Another person that used to work with Jags suggested Check the ball socket at the transmission end of the shift cable - it is common for it to get caught up or seized causing the transmission to not fully engage and triggers the light and limp home condition"

I have a parts jag arriving in a few weeks - I could just get the neutral safety switch or ball socket from that car But its a parts car because of a blown transmission - so it might not be the best idea to get transmission system parts from that car - I think I saw the Neutral Safety Switch is over $500 -----

is it OK to just Bypass the switch as the mechanic suggested ? I hate to do too much out of teh ordinary with anything transmission related since these XJ transmissions are so fragile.

ANY THOUGHTS OR SUGGESTIONS ?

Thanks

 

hi, i dont think you can bypass the switch. the one with the blown transmission should be ok- its really easy to take off, takes maybe 10 or 15 mins, so its worth a shot. based on that you can be more sure what it is. the issue with the cable detaching i think is an x350 one not an x308 one.

did you try going to gear 2, 3, 4? try starting the car in neutral. do any of those have an impact?

 

Thanks for the feedback 2004vdp. - the first 2 times I received the Limp Home mode I just turned the car off and then restarted it and the error went away and the car was in normal drive mode. The third time it happened I was not able to get the car back in normal drive mode despite numerous attempts at turning the car off and restarting. The car did however always start - it was just in limp home mode. So I towed the car to my mechanic. The mechanic while trying to diagnose the problem said the Jag would no longer start - he thought it was an electrical issue - but in the 3 months I have owned the car it never had an electrical issue related to starting and the battery is only 3 months old. So after researching on the forum it looks like the one issue that could cause both the limp home mode AND the no start is the neutral safety switch. Just as a side note I also have the throttle body issue where the jag stalls out if you decelerate too quickly - not sure if that could be related to the limp home mode issue ??
I will try starting it in neutral and moving into different gears. I will report back what that does - in the meantime if anyone has any other thoughts please let me know

 

Despite its newness it's worth suspecting both battery (e.g. perhaps car has a drain so it's flatter than expected) and power & grounds.