Hi everyone,
so I’ve had my 1999 xjr for a month or two now and I’m having a bit of an issue.
started while on a trip to the new Forrest, got ll the way there after about a 70 mile drive and parked up for a couple hours in the sun. Came back to it and all warning lights are on on the dash.
ABS, check engine, stability control fail, traction control fail, gearbox fault, engine fail safe mode. all show up and car won’t come out of park. The dials also show nothing, all sit at the bottom, except fuel gauge.

plugged my icarsoft reader in and shows a p1638 code on the generic reader.
NOTE: when using the specific Jaguar module access mode I can read instrument cluster module but not gearbox or engine ecu. Although instrument cluster does not show any faults using this mode.
The fault cleared after leaving battery disconnected for 15 minutes. This happens two more times on the trip, sometimes not clearing even after battery off and just randomly started working after 45 minutes.

since then I’ve learnt how to manually release it out of park and I’ve noticed that after about 5 minutes of driving the cluster starts working intermittently before just starting to work fully. Until i next drive the car when it happens again, the time delay on this can be just minutes as I’ve had it working driving into a petrol station then fail when I go to leave.

I had a friend take a look and he cleaned some of the ground locations at the front of the car and the problem seemed to go for a few days (possibly also because I left the windows slightly unrolled so it didn’t get too hot) but it now has retuned to basically every time I start the car.
this only started about two weeks ago and I’m pretty sure it’s not water related as it was fine in the cold and wet but we’ve not had a day of rain since it’s been acting up.

I’ve got a second hand cluster in the boot that i tried to fit but it comes up with “incorrect part fitted” not sure wether it’s because it needs programming or because it’s the wrong one but I did match the part number except for the /301 at the end.

any advice would be greatly appreciated, I have a fair collection of tools and experience working on cars and i’m no stranger to a book of wiring diagrams.

 

From P1638, you may have a bad CAN connector or chafed wiring. SOme of the files on JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource should help.

Various parts of the car are specific to the VIN/build spec etc including cluster so swapping needs (re-)programming if it can be done at all.

 

Yes, the intermittent mature of the issue points to bad connections somewhere or a possible short.
I would trace each wire, reseat the connections and look for possible burn marks in the wiring This
not an easy task but it might be rewarding..

 

Hello,
There is a TSB on this issue which I have attached for you review. Perhaps it's a simple as that? Also, I have swapped clusters in three of my 2000 VDPs with no issue except the cars stopped throwing codes.
On my 2003 XJR the word supercharged is shown on the speedo. Perhaps that is the programming issue?

 

P1638 is an Instrument to ECM , CAN (control area network) short circuit or a
connection failure. It could be the instrument panel at fault or the ECM.
Usually it's an open wire. between ECM and instrument panel

David's info is very good.

 

So it’s developed a bit in the last week. Car got to the point where the fault was constant and would show up on every start. Then after about a 40 minute drive with the fault I parked it at my mates house and a few hours later it wouldn’t start, cranks well but not starting. While at his house I did check all the can us connectors I could find and none have signs of corrosion or anything. These were the ones in the engine bay ecu box.

Charged the battery overnight and in the morning it started but next time I turned it off it wouldn’t start again. Tried a new battery still won’t, charged the new battery and got it moved back to my house, where it now won’t start even with a full battery.

I now have “incorrect part fitted” message along with
p1260
u1135
b1595

man’s before anyone asks I only have one key

not really sure what to do now other than get AA to take it to a garage.

 

Went in to the garage and they told me nothing more than I already know and charged me £108 for the pleasure. So I decided it wasn’t going to beat me, and….it didn’t.

after many hours of studying the wiring manual (specifically can bus page) and cracked out the old parkside voltmeter (one I borrowed from work happened to be broken but the Lidl special did a very good job) and started measuring resistance at every connector, seemed to get 120 each way but I knew there must be more to it and eventually we got to the EM2 and EM53 connectors and found I had open circuit between that and the ABS connector, cleaned out the pins with some contact cleaner and scraped some of the crap off and hey presto. Did the old battery clear thing where you touch the two disconnected battery cables together for 10 seconds, put it back on, turned the key, and after a couple beeps from the climate control, all the errors cleared and the the beats fired right up.
Cannot possibly explain through words how happy I was when I heard that glorious v8 kick in.

so for anyone suffering any similar issues, before you take it to a garage or anyone else, grab a cheap multimeter and the wiring diagram I’ve attached and just go for it.

 

Well done