I pulled the transmission park-lock lever! I don't know if many of us have ever had to do this, and if not, it might be helpful to you to know I did it first and lived to tell about it.

So, if you find that you've backed the car into the garage where you can't get to the battery terminals, and you decide, "I've got a brand new AGM battery. I don't need no stinkin' battery maintainer," and then you leave your locked car, alone without supervision, for two weeks... you, too, may come back to empty beer cans, pizza boxes, and an X150 passed out cold on the garage floor. There's no telling what these cars get up to when you're not looking. The battery blew 10 volts but quickly dropped to 8 after even a brief load.

I tried hooking the maintainer back up and I just succeeded in setting the car alarm off. Which ran whatever trickle charge it received down again. And then it charged a little more, and then the alarm went off, and then it ran down again. I thought, "I'll leave it hooked up for a couple of days and see what happens." Well the parking lights flashed for two days and the maintainer did nada.

So then I bought a 750 Amp jump starter but that just wasn't enough juice. It was enough to fire up the electronics but not much else. Don't waste your money.

So I pulled the lever! Luckily I never leave home without my T-20 Torx bit and ratchet set, because God knows how many times I've been stuck in the wilderness with freezing toes thinking, "If only I had a T-20 Torx bit and ratchet set with me." Jaguar thoughtfully picked just such a screw to secure the panel under the cupholder--yes, the one you're only going to need in an emergency. My advice: take that screw out and throw it away--unless you really do carry around a T-20 Torx bit and ratchet set. Beyond that, the big orange strap was hard to miss and the lever came up easily and gently. It secured itself in an upright position and the car was free to roll. After I pushed it out of the garage, the lever was easy to push back into place, firmly and securely.

OK, so I pulled a strange and mysterious lever that had never been pulled before, and it doesn't seem like such a big deal to you, you mechanics and engineers, but this is the type of thing that usually gets me in way over my head really quickly. Oh, I was supposed to do that other thing first? Too late, now I've really screwed it up. But in this case it worked out, and I'm pretty damn proud of myself.

Jump start successful!

Old thread for reference: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...arting-136957/

 

Thanks for the smiles!

 

Nothing boring about that read! Thanks

 

 

Congrats!

 

With all the hype about the T-20, I surely thought I'd see a picture of where it is, at least.

 

HA! You're either very kind or your sarcasm is right on the money!

CeeJay, My first thought was to photojournal the whole, overdramatized story, but I spared you the pain! Here's a shameless pic of the beloved T-20.

 

"So I pulled the lever! Luckily I never leave home without my T-20 Torx bit and ratchet set, because God knows how many times I've been stuck in the wilderness with freezing toes thinking, "If only I had a T-20 Torx bit and ratchet set with me." "

Now that's funny right there.

 

Amen to that. It's going to happen to nearly all of us sooner or later so go ahead and take that bolt out now, or replace it with a phillips head. These cars will not allow you to electronically shift the transmission into neutral without the engine running so even with a healthy battery, a roadside emergency can still require you to pull the cord to allow the car to be moved. Ask me how I know!

 

 

I shall use the 'swap to Phillips drive' technique.

 

I threw away the torx screw a long time ago, on the first occasion I had to pull the magic orange strap. And I keep a small golf pencil to prop up the lever since it no longer wants to stand up by itself. Maybe Viagra will work.

 

Or maybe it just needs to get excited!

 

Now that's really funny, coming from peterv8 ...