89 XJS with the mouse belts, I get in the car yesterday and am greeted by a totally dead battery. Thinking it must be just a bad battery (it was old, anyway), I take it to the auto parts house, where they tell me the battery is just in need of a charge. I bought a new one anyway.

As soon as I hook it up, I can hear a servo clicking on and off from inside the car. When I got in the car, I could tell it was coming from behind the driver's head, where the automatic shoulder belt track is. It sounded like the track was trying to advance further, but couldn't. It would cycle every 3 seconds or so.

I'd been noticing that the driver's seat belt has been slow to respond to things like doors open/closed, or key in/out of the ignition switch for a few weeks now. The passenger's side is fine.

Is there any way to make this stop? I'm having to leave the battery disconnected right now to keep it from draining. Thanks.

Jess

 

Sounds like a dodgy connection. I would start with the drivers side door switch and go from there.

If you don't already have it, download the electrical guide here http://www.captainjaguarscathouse.co...ec%20Guide.pdf

Cheers,

Allan

 

The system has door switches, docking switches, proximity switches......gah!

As Allan says, a poor connection....or perhaps one of the switches needs adjusting? If you remove the trim panels to examine the whole affair something might jump out at you.

Good luck.


Cheers
DD

 

Doug, I thought the same thing but didn't want to scare the OP

Definitely one of the more convoluted circuits on the car. Glad they did away with them!!

Cheers,

Allan

 

My guess ("guess" being the operative word) is that the belt trolley is being told "Go! No, wait, stop! Yeah, Ok, go! No, no...stop" due to a switch problem.

Or......

Since it's been behaving sluggishly......

Maybe there's a mechanical problem and the trolley isn't physically reaching the docking switch (or whatever) and the system is confused, causing a cycling reaction? Thus the constant clicking?

Perhaps the clean-and-lubricate routine would help?

I dunno.

Pure spitballing on my part.

Cheers
DD

 

I downloaded the guide tonight and looked at it. Unfortunately, I don't know how to read an electrical schematic, but at least it gave me the location of things.

I used to have an 87 Mitsubishi Starion with these same belts, and one of the position switches (located on the two ends of the belt track) used to get dirty. You'd have to clean it with dilectric grease and it would work for about six months before going south again.

I can say with fair certainty that it's not a mechanical problem. My wife and I took the car to dinner tonight. On the way to the restaurant, there were no problems. When we got back in the car to go home, we could hear the clicking servo again.

When a failure is experienced, the driver's belt acts differently than the passenger's belt. If you're sitting in the car with the doors closed and turn the key to the "on" position, both belts are supposed to secure themselves in the closed position. When this failure is happening, only the passenger's belt does so. The driver's belt stays put in "door open" position. After cranking the car, the belt waits a few seconds and then moves to the "door closed" position, as if the system can't tell where the belt is but goes ahead and pulls it closed just in case.

As long as the car is running, the servo does not click. The servo only clicks with the key to "off." Whether the door has been opened or not doesn't matter, which is the unfortunate part because the servo will keep cycling after you leave the vehicle, which kills the battery.

From this additional information, does anyone have advice on which switch I should inspect first? I'd prefer not to disassemble the entire interior if I can avoid it.

Jess

 

From your description, I would definitely start with the driver's door switch and then perhaps the reverse inhibit relay. They are both easy to access.

After that it will be a real mouse hunt. With the likeliest culprit being a dodgy ground connection or perhaps a frayed wire.

Let us know how you get on

Cheers,

Allan

 

The seat belt motors on that car are covered under a lifetime warranty. You should contact your dealer & ask about S427

 

This is an excellent catch!!!!

STOP doing anything to the system and take it to the nearest dealer. As JgaXkr has stated the whole motorized seat belt system is covered under a lifetime warranty and any messing around with the system components will void the warranty!!!

here is S427. http://www.jagrepair.com/images/TSB/XJS/3-120.pdf

Cheers,

Allan

 

In addition to the lifetime warranty there was also an actual recall involving 50,000+ XJSs and XJ6s for problems with the motorized seat belts.

Remember, however, that the repair parts....at least the parts specified in the actual recall document.... have not been available for many years. I can't remember the exact recall repair and what parts were called for.

Perhaps *some* parts are still available. I dunno.

So, talking to the dealer is certainly worth a try. But don't get your hopes up.

Cheers
DD

 

Thanks for the TSB! We've got a dealer about 1.5 hours north of here that's been good to us in the past. I'll call Monday with this information and get an appointment.

Jess