Did you reset the windows after battery replacement? Each time it is disconnected you must sit in the car with both doors closed and press each window down button until about a second after it bottoms out and you hear a click inside the door. Then you press the up buttons until you hear a click. Typically the sign this has not been performed is when each time you open the door and the window drops a bit. Usually it doesn't go all the way down as in your case, but it is worth a try.

 

Welcome to the forum deovolente,

If you don't use the car regularly, keep it on a battery tender. A partially discharged battery causes all kinds of weird electrical gremlins.

Please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum and post some info about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see. In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I did reset the windows after I replaced the battery and everything was fine for a few weeks until yesterday. I also tried several times to do the reset yesterday afterwards with no success.

 

Thanks! I figured out the battery issue but would it cause a problem like this only after 2 weeks? I did run the car a few times during that period.

 

It's the first possible cause you want to eliminate. When you wrote the new battery fixed the issue but now it's started again, this immediately made me think partial discharged battery. It can happen in as little as a couple of weeks.

Next comes limit switches - you should hear a soft click at the fully down and also fully up positions.

Modules don't often fail but it's a Jaguar - anything can happen.

Graham

 

Thanks, I'll double check the battery and connections and make sure that's not the problem. I hope it's that simple!

 

I finally got around to replacing the "Door Closed" micro switch. I was so tired of staring at the perpetual red dashboard light and not being able to lock the car. The combination of Reverend Sam's video and Gus' repair instructions are essential to tackling this job. Here I provide additional instructions to both that fill in some gaps.


NOTE: Do not start this project until you acquire the tiny nuts & bolts to attach your new switch to the latch. (See my comments 3 & 4 to Gus' instructions below)


Watch Reverend Sam's video on how to get the door latch out & back into the car and THEN read my notes.




1. Before disconnecting the battery, lower the window about an inch to make getting the window rail out much easier. Then raise the window all the way up (to give you the clearance you'll need to get the latch mechanism out. "Now" disconnect the battery. Remember to do this in reverse during re-installation.


2. The window rail rides in a slot through the square aluminum block you'll see at the bottom of the window. To get the rail out, once you've removed the 3 screws, just rotate it away from the aluminum block and out of its slot. Don't worry about window re-alignment. The rail goes right back into place. Just don't touch the Allen Adjusting Screw at the bottom of the rail.


3. The window rail does not need to actually come out of the door. Just lay it down inside the door.


4. If you just yank on the actuating rod end to try and get it to pop off of its ball, as Sam said, it will feel like a lot of force, but if you lever it off with a screw driver it pops free with very little drama.


5. When re-installing the latch make sure the actuating arm(s) that hang down are clear of the latch and on the outside of the latch (they will want to hang "inside" of the latch when free).


6. Make sure you reconnect the actuating rod end(s) BEFORE re-installing the window rail. I did a Passenger Door, so I didn't get to address the clip that Reverend Sam broke on the door lock actuating rod.


************************************************** *********


Here are some extra comments to Gus' excellent piece on replacing the "Door Closed" micro switch. Once again, go over his piece really wel BEFORE reading my notes.



http://www.jagrepair.com/DoorLatchRepair2000xk8.htm


1. The "Stays" that Gus accidentally drilled out are actually nubs on the switch itself (see pic). They keep the switch located on its mount. The switch is held in place only by a springy plate above it that keeps the switch pressed in place on its mount.


2. To remove the switch just pry it up from its mount a bit and slide it out from under the springy plate.


3. Replacement switches do not include these nubs, so you must be prepared to affix the new switch with 1/16" (or smaller?) little screws and nuts, as you can see in one of Gus' photos.


4. I was caught unaware of this and after going through the entire removal processes I wasn't too keen on the idea of putting it all back together just to get those screws, so I looked for an alternative solution. It turns out that my Weed-Eater cord, with its ribbed cross section was perfect. I was able to tightly wedge the cord into through the holes in the mount and the switch, and I left enough cord sticking out of the springy plate to facilitate future removal if necessary. They're not going anywhere and the switch is actually much more secure than the original (see pic).


5. After buying your replacement switch, root around for what will go through its little holes and that you will use to attach it BEFORE attempting this job.


6. Before installing your new switch put it next to the OEM switch and bend the thin metal actuating lever to match that of the original. If you do not do this, it is possible that the latch mechanism will not move the switch's lever enough to actuate the switch.


7. Your replacement switch will come with three wires. Note Gus' multimeter photos. The switch is "Closed" when the door is unlatched. If your replacement switch comes with wires attached (like mine), identify which wire is correct and cut the other one off.


BTW: Many folks recommend spraying WD40 up and around the latch to clear this problem (Door stuck open annunciation). Once you take the latch out of your car and play with it a bit to see how the latch's mechanisms and the switch work, you'll realize that the WD40 won't do a thing. "If" perchance, some time after spraying the WD around, the problem goes away, it's only because the switch is working intermittently and just coincidentally started working again. Mine did this for a few years until the switch failed completely. I haven't cut it open yet to access the actual failure mode, but essentially it is mechanically jammed in the "Door Open" position - the little button will not move at all.


Ahhhh, .... no more red light, no more managing the interior lights, and so nice to be able to lock my car again!

 

My last question on this topic. (I hope)

I have received an OMRON D2 SW- 3L3MS that I have read is the match for the no longer available Jaguar C2N 1908 window microswitch. Can anyone verify this before I rip the door panel off of the door for no reason other than to ruin my day(s)?

Thanks again; sorry for droning on and on.

Dudley

 

Yes, that microswitch indeed works in the door latch assembly....

 

Thank you, thank you! Don't want to risk severing my arm for no reason.

Dudley

 

Really appreciate all the help in this thread.

My vert window was going down when you pull up on the door handle, then up when you let go. So, ordered the microswitch. Took everything apart (actually a fairly easy job), pulled the latch. Tested the latch, did not appear to work correctly. Then pulled the switch, tested it, it worked. In fact, I could see absolutely nothing wrong with it.

So, after testing it again on and off the latch multiple times, I concluded it would be silly to replace a perfectly good switch. So, put it all back together, and it works great.

Perhaps the switch was not seated properly on the tang in the beginning. Perhaps the mechanism or door control module was just "having a bad series of days". New car, so I don't know what happened before I dropped by.

I assume I just put in enough effort that the Jag Gods allowed it to work again. There was inexplicable bleeding involved (must have nicked the back of my hand on the door), so maybe the blood sacrifice helped.

 

As we know Dale, donating blood during these projects always helps. Sitting Bull demonstrably proved that theory before beginning his nonstop two-day-long sundance prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn when his warriors stripped 50 pieces of flesh from each of his arms as part of the ceremony. Losing a little blood during these XK8 jobs is nothing compared to that, and I have been known to do a little preparatory dancing in the driveway myself before tackling some of the more difficult XK8 jobs over the years....

Sometimes fiddling with these flimsy factory microswitches by realigning the metal arm indeed fixes the issue . . . . for a while. My conclusion back in 2017 was that the aftermarket microswitches from sites such as mouser.com are significantly more robust. My wife and I replaced the entire brake pedal switch in her car with a new Jaguar one in September 2012. She was the person working upside-down in the footwell (I removed the drivers seat to give her more room) while I utilized the fishing line technique from the engine bay to guide the new switch into position and secure its two 8mm nuts on the studs. That damned new switch failed in November 2017 so we had to repeat this miserable job, this time using two new Mouser-sourced microswitches replacing the original flimsy microswitches in the faulty factory switch I kept from our 2012 job. No issues since, and that's a good thing because Jan swears she will never go upside-down in that floorboard again. My shoulders are far too broad to allow me to fit down there so I have no chance of getting my hands anywhere close to the required working area....

When the infamous window-drop issues began showing up on her car in March 2019, Wayne and I replaced the factory door latch microswitches with more robust ones from mouser.com. Wayne was crucial because I could not get my monster hands down inside the door cavity far enough to release the locking rod. No window-drop issues since....

I hope your microswitch-fiddling effort holds up for a long time. But keep the new ones because sooner or later, I believe you will need them. Especially now with 4, count 'em -- 4! XK8s....

 

I'd like to think Sitting Bull would appreciate the XK8 but would almost certainly understand the need to continue propitiating the gods.

 

My guess is that if Sitting Bull had any sundance visions regarding what we all must go through to keep these cars in operating condition, any XK8s he might have encountered on that southeastern Montana battlefield on June 25th, 1876 would immediately be stripped of their sheet metal, pounded into unrecognizable chunks with war clubs, and shot full of arrows in order to ensure a miserable afterlife in the spirit world....