Wife and I took XJS to movies, dinner and Vons. Loaded groceries and started engine, but THE GEARSHIFT WOULD NOT COME OUT OF PARK. Side-note: the dash lights would not come on, neither the rear lights, but all others OK. Strange. I followed the Handbook's instructions to manually shift out of park, and drove home. In the garage I put it into park and turned off the motor. Started it again and (damn) would not come out of park. Still no dash and rear lights. Tomorrow I'll do the manual thing again and try to find someone who can solve the mystery. Any ideas, mates?

 

Gary,

My guess would initially be the inhibitor switch on the side of the gearbox but your description of no rear lights makes me think that it could also be linked to that. The gearbox expects you to have your foot on the brake which it registers by contact through the brake light switch. If you've got a rear light problem, this could be the cause.

Start by checking te fuses on your rear light circuits and replace if blown. Get to the point where you know the brake lights work when you put your foot on the pedal before you start looking elsewhere for the selector problem.

Good luck

Paul

 

Thank-you Paul for your rapid response to my "Stuck in Park" issue. The fuse aspect turns out to have been spot on: Someone had wired in the lower-brightness headlights to come on when driving, and that must have over-loaded the 7amp fuse that also controls the dash lights, rear lights and the sensor (?) that allows the gearshift out of park when the brake pedal is pressed. The mechanic who located the problem then fixed it with a 25amp fuse. We'll see what happens, but for now ... all good-to-go.