Hello All. This XJS has been sitting for 6 years in the open on a barrier island in SC and I’ve been asked by the owner to see if I can get it going for her. Right now, almost nothing works, and I am not familiar with these cars, so I apologise in advance for some upcoming dumb questions.That said I have already found some very helpful info on this forum, for which I thank you.
Step one will be to get the door locks working and see if I can get the rear quarter windows down to allow manual lowering of the roof. Cheers

 

Common mechanical knowledge works on. Both the V12 and the six. Spark & fuel the car will run. Stale gas will probably cause it to run poorly.
A shop manual helps a lot worth every penny
there is a free down load able “Bible” that helps tremendously on this web site.

 

1996 is a tough year to work on for a mechanic becasue the documentation is not great. For example the 1996 will have the vacuum servo ABS brakes and there isn't much info on that system. As for the door locks, typically the switches is the door lock actuators that detect lock / unlock movement fail or are intermittent, this confuses the door lock controller to the point where it will work now and then, very frustrating. . If they are bad you will have to find used replacements which also may be defective as this problem is common. Also getting to them in the door is not fun. Hopefully they are working and only the key fob needs a battery.

The rear 1/4 windows will only go down in P/N with the hand brake on. When you press the top down button it will lower the and raise the windows prior to moving the top.

 

Thank you Mguar. I beleive that I have found and downloaded the"Bible". Will invest some time in it.

 

Thank you ICSAmerica! Is it possible to rely solely on manual locking and unlocking if the switches have failed?

Thanks for the tip regarding the handbrake. I will give that a try.

 

I don't think the BIBLE covers the newer model years.
Too many changes from 1990-96 will lead you astray.
Please correct me if wrong.

 

The Bible is not useful on the 96.

First off, check the inertia switch on the passengers side door.

Then check for fuel and spark, as mentioned before.

An OBD2 reader will be valuable as well.

Door lock relay is a pain to get to in the passenger side footwell...should not be required since manally opening the doors using the keys is unaffected.

Make sure Parking Brake is off (handle drops to the floor whether brake is active or not) and convertible pump is set to automatic.

 

yes, just remove or disconnect the controller. It's located in the front passenger (RH) kick panel.

 

Thanks. I'll give that a try

 

Thank you Vee. I will follow up. I may have misunderstood, but Icsamerica seemed to indicate that I needed to have the handbrake on/engaged in order to lower the rear quarter windows? In my case the handbrake does not stay up at all.

 

jcorbs,

2 points:

The handbrake is a "semi fly-off type". When it is engaged, the lever can then fall to the ground, which can confuse some people that it is actually off. However, the handbrake light should be on at the dashboard. To disengage the handbrake, lift the handle up until you feel tension, then press the button and release the lever. The brake should disengage and the light extinguish.

To activate the hood and the rear windows lowering (or raising), the handbrake must be engaged (just enough for the light to illuminate) and the gearlever in Neutral or Park. Then the button can be activated. When you press the button to lower the hood, the windows will retract immediately. But when you press the button to raise the windows, there is an 8-second delay before the windows will activate.

Hope that helps,

Paul

 

Thank you Paul. This is helpful.

 

Hmmm. I do not see it in the Vehicle Care manual. What does the Controller look like? Thank you.

 

I managed to get the striker off of the passenger door and was able to access and lubricate all the the moving parts, as well as get a better idea as to how things work.

I now have the door handle easily activating the latch, so I can at least close and open the door from the outside as intended.

The internal "controls" do not appear to have the range of movement required to activate the latch.

Now back to trying to get the driver door open

 

I have some more progress to report FWIW:

I now have the internal passenger door handle releasing the striker. However I locked the door using the internal "flipper" and was unable to unlock the door with a key or pushing the flipper forward. Unlocking required pulling the sriker plate off again and release the lock. Obviously something is still jamming everything up in the locking mechanism, but very hard to actually see what is happening. The rods for both internal handles appear to be fine, and the locking solenoid action appears to be loose and thus not interfering with things.

I also got the top to activate using the switch and pump! Lots of lube on all the joints in the roof structure and I can now raise and lower manually as well. The rear window mechanisms are not functioning properly, but I can confirm that they do not have to move down in order to allow the top to lift in manual mode, which is a big win in the short term.

Having the top down gave me much better access to the driver door panel, which is completely shot (as is the passenger side). In this case the rods are in bad shape, with the release rod disconnected just behind the return spring. I have lubed everything up, but have not been able to get the release rod to activate the latch, nor to release the locking mechanism by working the rod. The door handle does nothing. ANY TRICKS GENTS?

I've just removed the cam/valve cover to replace the gaskets, especially those around the plug holes. I will hopefully get this done today.

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions?

John C

 

This is a Rube Goldberg design of epic proportions.

I would strongly recommend going to JDHT and checking out the blow up of the door locking assembly. There are a bunch of plastic parts that connect various metal rods together. Many become brittle over time and break. These parts were made to be refabricated using a 3D printer.

Part 6 & 7 are plastic here
https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.../brand/jaguar/

Part#18 might need to be replaced here.
Parts 4, 13, 14 & 16 are all plastic parts that could snap
https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.../brand/jaguar/

 

Thank you Vee. This is very helpful. I guess that I will need to pull the mechanism out to see what's broken.

 

No can do. The assembly in the second picture is inside the door. You'll need to start taking photos and see if you can compare them to the attached links to see what's there and what isn't.

Then, with the door card still pulled off, try to actuate the handles, locks, etc. You should get a good idea on where the disconnect is, and what will be needed to fix it.

 

I have the driver door card off and have attempted to move the levers and rods as per the now working passenger side to no avail as yet. I am hoping that the WD40 will loosen things up to allow enough movement to unlatch the door assuming that the locking mechanism is not jammed as it continues to be on the passenger side.

 

Have you been able to actuate the actuator itself? BEC4798? It's located by the door strike and is protected with rubber boots, so lubricating it won't be simple.