When coming to a stop the large red waring light comes on. It goes off when I start going again. No other lights come on. I have checked all fluid levels and they're full. Please help.

 

Are you sure it is not the low fuel light, mine does that when braking when fuel starts getting low. When fuel gets lower it will stay on all the time.

 

When the red light comes on what is your oil pressure reading?

 

Going from slightly foggy memory of my '88 XJS.....and probably others of the era.....

The large red "master" warning light should be accompanied by the glow of one of the smaller, item-specific red warning lights. The large yellow "master" warning light should be accompanied by the glow of one of the smaller, item-specific yellow warning lights....with the yellow warnings being less important in nature than the red ones.

I suspect one of your smaller red warning lights simply isn't working. But which one?

Being by seeing which ones DO work during the bulb-check phase of turning the ignition on and starting the car. That should narrow things down to a workable size and you can go from there.

Cheers
DD

 

Mine will do this in hot gridlock followed by (!) and then anti lock, might be worth looking at the pump if this is an abs fitted car.

 

oil pressure is normal

 

As Doug said, the idea of the larger oblong, one red, one orange, strip atop the individual warning lights is to attract the attention of the driver to the fact that one of the smaller individual warning lights is on. You need to find which one, could be ignition/charging, brake fluid level/faulty level switch, coolant level, etc etc. But it will be one of the lights under or to the left of, the large red strip.

 

Is there a definitive list of what warning lights are triggered by X fault? I can't understand some of it. My brake pump for example doesn't like the heat and it tells me with one then two warning lights but I have no idea WHAT causes this? Where is the sensor or signal that triggers a red [( ! )] and it sounds like OP has a similar issue with a red light occurring when braking.

I've skimmed through some XJS elec diagrams I have but I can't really see the link, atleast not on paper, you'd think somewhere there is a list of faults that trigger which ever light since we're talking pre-OBDii systems here.

 

Not properly disengaging the 'Handbrake' could be one of the reasons why that 'Brake Symbol' light comes on

 

I have no idea what car he has? 4.0? 5.3? 6.0? Something else?

 

We're all just guessing because there's one simple question that needs answering - what is the symbol that is being iluminated with a red light? If the OP answers that we'll know the answer.

And just to add my guess, it's possibly the charge warning light and an alternator that just isn't charging at idle?

Paul

 

My bet is the brake fluid.

I've never looked at my sensor and it is fine 95% of the time but sometimes it'll go off. When you are stopping and going the fluid shifts front to back and can cause the sensor to detect low fluid.. Could also be the sensor itself getting stuck in the housing. If the light is RED its important and its happening from stopping and going, so I'd definitely suspect the brake sensor.

 

That's just it. The large 'master' warning light does not have a symbol. The idea is that the master warning comes on to catch your attention and then you see what other warning light is on. It'll be one of the smaller ones that does have a symbol.

The problem here is that the large master warning comes on all by itself....without a smaller warning light coming on at the same time.


Cheers
DD

 

Are you sure it can Doug, I thought the large ones were just prismatic or relections of the smaller ones without their own bulbs. As usual might be wrong!

 

Heh heh, as I said earlier, a bit of foggy memory.

The OP...who seems to have left us.... states the large red warning light comes on while all others remain unlit. This suggests the large warning light has a bulb.

OTOH, looking at some pics, it appears you are correct----the large red and yellow warning lights are actually 'fed' light by the smaller warning lights below.

Maybe we should wait for more, and clarified, information

Cheers
DD