Hey guys,

About two years ago I found an 88 XJ40, high mileage but in otherwise good shape, for just under $700 in a barn. I took it home, got it running again and made this car a very reliable, great car.

It now has 193,000 miles. But back in early July, the A/C blower fans failed. First the passenger's side, then the driver's. I took it into an independent Jag shop near where I live (with a certified Jag mechanic working there) to get the A/C fans replaced.

I had found used/remanufactured fans from a reputable seller that I have dealt with for nearly 5 years, at a price much lower than brand-new. So I took the fans to this shop. They installed them, then called me at work to tell me "your new fans are no good. You should have bought fans from us."

I go back to pick up the car, and not only did I not have A/C fans, I no longer had the following things:

1) Map lights
2) A/C panel
3) Power to the radio
4) Any dash illumination whatsoever outside of the oil/gas/volt/temp gauges, VCM, clock and the odometer. In other words, no illumination of the center console, speedo or or tach, computer panel, etc.
5) Side marker lights
6) Tail lights (although the stop lights and rear fogs work, as do the main headlights)
7) Door locks

There has apparently been a main power bus of some kind fail. Also, I am now getting a Circuit 1 failure for about 10 seconds any time I start the car.

And here's the weirdest one of all -- when you open the doors, THE TAIL LIGHTS, FRONT PARKING LIGHTS AND LICENSE PLATE LIGHT COME ON. The puddle lamps also come on on the door, but not the overhead interior lights. Also, from time to time I can hear a relay clicking under the passenger's footwell, very fast, and when it does this the tail lights, license plate light and front marker lights flash at the same speed as the clicking relay.

And then there's the kicker to this -- I had to pay $700 back in August to get the car out the first time. They kept the car 4 weeks. After I told them about the stuff that was broken during their first repair attempt, they asked me to return the car to them, and kept it another 4 weeks and didn't fix a thing. I just picked the car up from them tonight.

Does anyone know what in the hell is going on?

Thanks,
Jess

 

Jess,

I wondering if the mechanic working on the car crossed the two 25 pin connectors when putting things back together. The connectors I'm referring to are beneath the passenger side kick panel. If you should venture down there, to access the blower, you need to disconnect a plethora of connections (not a problem if you label them as you go). Anyway, there are two thick 25-pin connectors, one is black and the other is yellow. For the connections, black goes with black and yellow with yellow. They will only fit together one way. Feel free to check out what I'm talking about.

Circuit 1 is a blown fuse in the drivers side fuse box.

Hope you can sort it out. It's nerve racking to have a vehicle returned in worse condition than received. It's like you're being taken for a ride (sorry, had to use the pun).

 

fritterfran,

Thanks for the response. That sounds like it's worth me checking out. How much stuff am I going to have to take apart to find these connectors? Can you give me a general idea of how deep in the dash they're located? Thanks.

Jess

 

Jess,

For taking apart the passenger kick panel, it's 3 screws: One on the right side, about knee height from the bottom. The other two are on the very bottom of the kick panel. After they're out, you have to gently pry out the panel because it has those fasteners similar to the ones that attach your door panels.

After you manage to get it all off, you will see a lot of wire bundles. It's not to deep within those bundles. You will see two semi rectangular connectors that are larger than the others (don't confuse yourself with the barrel connectors, they're not part of this exercise). They are the yellow and black ones I referred to in my previous post. They originate to one of the computers for the car, which is located where you are working. The other part of the connector is car's wire harness. If you feel like disconnecting the large connectors and reattaching, you have to squeeze the sides together and pull apart. You'll see what I'm talking about once you're there. They sometimes are a PIA to get apart however if you succeed, make sure you clean the connectors with electrical cleaner then later spray with WD40.

Let us know if you venture down there and what you find. I noticed that Bryan had responded to your post in the other group. You can consider his suggestion as well. My thought for the location I'm referring to is due to the fact that if these mechanical clowns did any work for the blower, all that wiring has to be disconnected and pushed aside in order to remove the blower assembly. Been there....done that this summer.

Best of luck. BTW, since you now own one of theses cars, get ready to get your hands dirty and experience the learning curve. All of us here and the other forums are in the same boat. The key to all of this is that with help from these forums and some investigating on your own, you can fix these little gremlins and feel great that you did it yourself. You'll be better informed about what's happening so if you have to see a mechanic, (whom hopefully knows about our cars) you'll be able to supply tangible information to the possible problems and remedies.

 

Thanks again. I've already fixed a bunch of things on this car myself (when you're buying cars out of barns at $676, you have to ), but I'm a bit skittish around 22-year-old electrical connections, particularly if I were to smoke something by accident.

This is now on my to-do list for Sunday. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Jess

 

Jess,

I was the same as you about touching 22 year old electricals. Unfortunately I had to make some major repairs when my A/C ECU smoked as well as repairing the right side blower. That's where this forums, and others, sometimes gives me the ideas on how to proceed. It's good to have a couple of guides, like the Haynes for superficial stuff and actual Jaguar manuals for the nitty gritty.

 

fritterfran,

Just to clarify -- you're talking about the panel to the left of the passenger's footwell, up against the center console? I didn't find the connections you were describing, but I probably took apart the wrong part of the car.

I took out the right panel tonight (the one that covers the fuse panel), and I saw three relays there. One of them is unplugged on my car (the one for the heated door lock cylinders, as there's a short in that system somewhere and I don't need them, living in the southern U.S.). It was black. There was also a couple of them (red and another color, either black or blue) attached to a panel that was attached to the side of the car. I think there was another one in the vicinity that was light blue connected to yellow.

Anyway, I checked the fuses in the right box and found fuse No. 10 to be blown. I replaced it with a good fuse, and got back about three-fourths of the stuff that I lost. I got the radio back, the dash illumination for the speedo/tach and center switch gear, and the parking lights stopped coming on when I opened the doors.

However, I still don't have the dome/interior lights. You can turn them on manually now from the center switch gear, but they no longer come on automatically when the doors are opened.

But something else happened -- the A/C control unit came on, along with both A/C fans (this was what the car originally went into the shop to get fixed). However, when I rotated the ignition key to off and then back to on, the A/C panel wouldn't come back up. I now have four A/C panels in my possession and all four do the same thing, so I don't think I'm unlucky enough to have four non-functioning A/C panels.

Am I describing a failure somewhere deep in the dash?

Jess

 

Jess

I think the panel he was referring to was the one right underneath the glove compartment (or airbag on later models). I think you may have taken the one off where the electric seat controls are located. As far as I can remember there isnt any large 25-pin connectors in the side one.

The one under the glovebox has 2 screws on the right (by the door-jam) and one on the bottom left (by the center console). You can feel around on the bottom and you will feel where the panel ends (pretty deep in the footwell) and the screw is way down there on the left.

Hope this clears any confusion

 

Jess,

Alex is correct, it's the large panel is beneath the glove box. It's not hard to remove, just a little coaxing. Those connectors I'm referring to are there. While you're down there, look for any suspect connections that haven't been reconnected. If you see anything suspicious, take a photo and post it here.

Regarding the changing of the fuse...good job. You should check all of the fuses if you have any spare time. You may find something else reactivates. Feel free to clean the contacts and dielectric grease the fuse tips if you're really into it.

Regarding the A/C panel failure.....hmmm....sounds to me like the A/C ECU, which just also happens to be accessible with that kick panel out. That ECU is connected to side of the middle console tunnel. It's black in color and has 3 sets of 15 pin connectors attached to it. I've read, that sometimes those connectors get a little corroded and need cleaning. They pull right out. Clean and grease (or DW40 if you choose) before reconnecting. I too have had a problem there, but that's another story.

Keep us informed.

 

Sorry it's taken so long to update -- I just had the chance to work on the car this week.

After getting a new A/C ECU, I replaced the old one and yes, that was the problem. Now, back to the original intent of the post (getting ripped off).

I took down the knee bolster and really wasn't prepared for the mess I found. Unplugged vacuum hoses. Connectors not connected (as in, the cruise control computer). Screws screwed into things that they should not have been screwed into.

Thanks to my handy Chilton's guide, I found the A/C ECU, unplugged it, and immediately discovered the problem. On the top connector, the No. 1 pin was fried black. The wiring harness was also damaged there. I'm not saying the previous shop did this (the problem with the A/C predated them), but anyone calling themselves a Jag shop ought to have checked fuses and the A/C ECU if they'd had the car for seven weeks or more. Basically, I gave the guy all the symptoms and he just ignored me.

I cleaned all the A/C harnesses, treated everything with contact cleaner and buttoned it up, and now my A/C controls work fine. My door locks have suddenly started locking/unlocking again, but I really don't know what I did to make that happen. The only thing that doesn't work now that used to work are the two under-hood lights. And I can live with that.

Jess

 

Thanks for the update Jess, good to see the cure. Although I would be discussing any future repairs in detail before handing over the keys.

 

Nice to read, you got the problems sorted out

 

Jess,

I've been monitoring your post for this, on other forums. You saw my photos as well. Great to hear you sorted some of those pesky things out. For my A/C ECU, I had to cut and re-solder a whole new white connector. That's right, 15 pins worth. And to make sure this issue never happens again, I put an in-line fuse on that pin #1 just to make sure. So far as I can tell, anyone who's had this problem with the A/C ECU frying, has no idea where the problem came from. You'd think a fuse would blow somewhere but that's not the case.

Keep plugging away. You'll eventually get there. Always feel free to ask for help when necessary.

P.S. My under hood (bonnet) lights don't work either. Perhaps that's something for another "warmer" day/year.

 

I saw those pictures that Bryan put up on the other board. That's crazy stuff. Fortunately for me, I didn't have nearly the damage you had. I had a little melting of the white connector, but the pin itself was undamaged and the green wire leading to it was still in good shape.

I can sympathize with you having to re-fit a connector. I lost the 21-pin main ECU wiring harness to a 1987 Mitsubishi Starion once and had to replace a connector, and on that car you have about half the available "extra" wiring that exists at the Jag's A/C ECU. The cherry on top of that experience was the fact that on its 1987 models, Mitsu used a substandard grade of wiring insulation in a cost-cutting effort, and after 20+ years the insulation becomes impossible to cleanly strip.

Sounds like you and I have found the next great Jaguar defect...lol. But at least I know where to look for this in the future and the repairs can be completed quickly.

Jess