92 VDP, won't start, no ignition power
 

Have a 92 VDP, 4.0L with 170,000 miles, originally from California. Currently it will not start as there seems to be no power at the ignition. When I turn the key to position 2 none of the usual warning lights come on. When the key is turned to start I hear a click from the relay area under the glove box. To back track - I got the car 2 weeks ago and it ran fine for 3 days. At that time the ABS light was on, a bulb out warning, and washer fluid low warning. Driving home on day 3 the check engine light came on and the car seemed to switch off for a millisecond and continued driving fine for the 15km to home. I have no gas cap and thought maybe that is why the light came on and began checking for the burnt out light and filling the washer fluid. While doing that I left the key in the ignition. When I took the key out all the dash lights came on and I had some smoke coming from the dash and no power. Since then, I can not see any burnt wires, have checked all fuses and they are good, have a brand new battery. I have power to the lights, radio, seats, door locks, mirrors, windows, sunroof BUT no power at wiper motor or ignition. I plan to check the ignition relay next but am wondering if it could be the ECU or a fried ground wire as the only evidence of something burnt is the casing for the hood cable is burnt. Any thoughts?

ruby:
Is it possible the inertia switch somehow got tripped? I would also check that. The smoke from the dash sounds ominous... I honestly don't even know where to begin with this one. Relays and grounds, I suppose, as you suggested.

Scott

Ruby,

Is there any non-jaguar items wired into the vehicle, such as fog lamps, non-stock radio/amps or any electrical item that does not originally belong to the vehicle? After-market alarm system?

It's running again! I had checked the inertia switch and it was good. Also, there was nothing aftermarket wired in, although the alarm system is disabled. Not sure how this happened but there ended up being some kind of short resulting in burnt wires and it appears power was grounding out along the right hood cable and fried that along with shorting out the ignition on relay. I can't take any credit for solving this mystery as my wife's uncle, a semi-retired mechanic with BMW and VW experiene offered to pick up the Jag with his trailer 2 weeks ago and brought it to his heated garage. Good thing as it was -30C here that week. He tinkered in spare time and solved it in a week. I drove it this whole week and everything is fine. As a side tip from the uncle - if you ever see something burnt that doesn't usually carry power - well that means power was travelling along it and there is a short somewhere. Also, he noticed that everything grounds on a small bolt on the firewall which he thought was insufficient and recommended running another ground wire to the engine block given the size of battery used.

In case it helps anyone who might be looking at this post, I had a somewhat similar experience a few years ago. I was driving along and all a sudden the Jag just cut off. After pulling off the road, I checked and with the key switched on, none of the warning lights came on. Acted like the battery was disconnected. I can't remember whether headlights worked or not. Anyway, after checking the battery, ignition switch and lots of other things and going through the electrical diagrams in the FSM, I determined that it had to be the ignition relay. Tricky part was taking out much of the console, radio, etc. to get to that little black box hidden in the dash. I swapped it with one of the same type relay from the set on the firewall under the hood, and the lights lit, it started right up and ran fine. I switched the relay back and it again started right up so apparently just lost connection at the relay. I ended up putting the other one back in since the relay is so difficult to get to. Anyway, that was about three years and it has done fine since. BTW, at first I couldn't believe how hard it was to get to that relay compared to all of the other identical relays that are on the car -- almost a dozen of them. Then I realized that you could short across this relay and start the engine with jumper cables so apparently this is part of the theft protection system.