Here's a comedy of errors...

1998 XJ8. I haven't driven her in nearly a year and sadly didn't put the battery on a tender, so its dead. Like many things around my house the key fob also disappeared. I had one of the black keys stashed in the glove box just in case.

Put in new battery, put in spare black key, everything lights up, all the gizmo's work, but when I get to crank I get one big "CLICK" that I assume is the starter solenoid because it is a bigger click than a relay, coming from under the car, and sounds like it's over on the passenger side.

I would normally just replace the starter but the starter was fine when parked, it hasn't been hot or cold in the garage, and the loss of the key I had always used and the dead dead dead battery makes me wonder if there is another thing that could cause the no crank. I've seen the posts about the immobilizer here but it always says there is a blinky light when that is intervening, I note no lights.

Any wisdom before I go spend the equivalent of 5 bottles of whiskey on a starter?

 

The first thing I'd do is try turning the crankshaft with a wrench on the pulley bolt. Then you know the engine isn't siezed.

 

Try jumping the car with jumper cables. That will at least rule out the replacement battery as having an internal fault.

 

Lookup Denso starter repair on the internet.

You will see that the likely cause is the copper ears on the solenoid
wearing out.

Simple repair if you get the parts from any Toyota dealership.

You'll have to match them up by eye because there are three
different types. Jaguar doesn't sell the parts. They want you
to buy a new starter.

 

Thanks guys....I did spin the crank right off and did pile test the batt and attempt a crank with the big 120a box on it. I'll look up starter repair next.

 

There's always the old school, hit the starter with a mallet, fix. If the solenoid is sticking, it might free it up.

 

With the situation you've described, the first culprit that pops into my mind is corrosion or lack of good contact on battery cables.

I would disassemble and clean all contact points, particularly on the "other" end of the cables (not the connections at the battery end), and paying particular attention to the ground cable connections.

If nothing else, this would be a cheap & easy test, and may very well be the problem.

Good luck,
Retro

 

+1 I would look at / clean the ground strap on the bell housing to the frame.

 

One of the first mods I usually do to all my Jags and BMWs is to run a good, solid ground from the battery to engine block. I never got to it on this car. I'll clean everything up and see what happens. If that is all she needed I'm gonna kick my own a**!

 

Also do all the positive side. It's all in segments which I listed in a post some time ago.