The battery not charging light and message was coming up frequently and the mechanic traced it to a slowly failing alternator which has been changed.

But the light still appears sometimes and it has been suggested that the instrument cluster (the 3 big dials behind the steering wheel) are at fault.

I have found a secondhand cluster for not much money - can i just take the old one out (as shown here)
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ght=instrument
and put the repalement one in?

or is it much more complicated than that - do the clusters have to be programmed to the car....will the car have an electrical melt down if it doesnt have its original cluster?

mine is a 1997 - i've seen another '97 cluster from an XK8 and a slightly cheaper '99 from an XKR.

Is this feasable?

 

Straight swap no programming needed and if you are lucky you might wipe a few 000s/miles off the trip meter

 

Thanks for that. I'll get the cheaper one and see how I get on.