Yesterday, I turned the key to start the car but instead of starting as normal, there was a symphony of sounds like relays and stepper motors from behind the dash seemingly from directly behind the instrument cluster, the wiper swiped just once, and the odometer changed from miles and briefly displayed a VIN number. I turned it off and back on and it started normally.

On a couple of random occasions, its failed to start on the first turn of the key. Fortunately for me its never failed to start on the second try. Its too random to try and troubleshoot. I've checked the battery, the main power cables, false bulkhead connector, etc. as those have been suggested and are easy things to check. They all appear clean, tight and as pretty as the day it rolled out of Coventry. The battery is fairly new as I replaced it in May with an A/C Delco battery and it tests fine with a load tester. I've read lots of posts with similar weird starting symptoms, but none mentioned the odometer reading out a VIN number. I wonder if that is a significant clue.

 

Could be the connectors to the throttle body. Get someone else to turn the ignition on while you listen for the noise with the hood up. Hold the TB connectors and see if they click like crazy, if so, there's the problem. Clean them with electrical cleaner and put some dielectric grease on the pins, hopefully that will solve it.

 

I guess I'll have to get back to this later. The Jag has bigger issues. Get in the car after work, back out of the parking space, shift into drive, it just creeps forward. I look down at the dash and there's a message saying "gearbox fault". I didn't try to drive it at all. Just called AAA and had it towed home.