Dead Battery How to Open Trunk 1989 XJ-S

Hi

We are new here and have had our first scare and are seeking advice.

Without a warning beep that I left the headlights on, the battery went dead. The next day we were going for a ride and I could only open the doors. I could not open the trunk for a jump.

Fortunately, we had a small thru the cigarette lighter battery to eventually open the trunk and jump the car.

My first question is how can you open the trunk if you can't do what I did ?

My second question is should there be a beeping to warn that the lights are on ? If not can one be installed ?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Follow the cable from the starter to the firewall. You will find a jumper terminal. You can clamp on there to jump start or at least power up to open the trunk.

 

If you apply slight pressure to the trunk release lever whilst rotating the key in the lock, once the key approaches the vertical position, you will feel the lever "give". Apply more pressure and it will release the trunk lid. (At least that works on my 1990 XJS)

 

Thanks for your help.

I knew this was a Great place.

 

Well it took me some time to find this information so if anyone else needs to know what I didn't here it is:

From page 26 of the XJ- S Model Year Update 1989

The trunk key lock has three positions:

Key turned fully clockwise The trunk lock operates with the door locks.

Key turned fully counter clockwise The trunk lock is permanently locked.

Key vertical The key cannot be removed. The trunk can be opened regardless of the door lock position. This allows the trunk to be opened with the doors centrally locked.

 

Installing a lights-on buzzer is easy. There are several ways to approach the project. The easiest is to buy a 12v buzzer at Radio Shack ($6.00 or so) and splice the "+" wire into one of the runing light wires at the headlight switch and the "-" wire into the ground wire coming off the door switch. The buzzer will sound whenever the door is opened and the lights are on.

There are more elaborate schemes if you have a mind to go beyond the basic.

If you want to do this and need help, post back

Cheers
DD

 

When I posted the procedure in the #3 post, I found it by trial-and-error with the trunk lock. Nice to know there's an "official reference" for the procedure. I looked it up and found it on page 23 of my 1990 driver's handbook

 

I couldn't find any reference in the 1989 handbook. I wonder if the change occurred in 1989.

 

There shouldn't be any changes. My '88 trunk lock works the same way....