no detailing.. but it did happen after a trip to the car wash...

 

Interesting... might also check the engine bay fuse boxes for water then.

 

This may sound a little strange but what I would like for you to do is to swap out each relay with another like relay that are under the hood. Use the attached oneline to guide you along

Link http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Auto.../jagxk1997.pdf Page 24

When you do this you will be re-striking all of the contacts for all the relays in fact I would use a contact cleaner when you do this. Then try starting it again.
Before pulling the relays I would lift the “-“ cable from the battery and when you are done do another hard reset then do your test.

As suggested the your key cylinder could be the problem along with a host of other things like the ECU and you could move to them after this test. I have heard of the instrument cluster doing strange things and I am not sure if this could be added. I am going to ask another person to look at this post to provide a more accurate assessment.

 

I would bet my bottom dollar that this is an ignition switch problem, most likely a very worn cylinder. Do you have a lot of keys hanging on your chain? This is also a common source of problems. Have the ignition checked, you'll find your problem there as no matter what the "brains" of the car are "saying," it needs power passing through the ignition.

Good luck.

 

Okay well last night I left the neg- cable off of the battery for about 8 hours...I This morning I re- connected the neg- cable and the only thing that booted up was the odometer ...no fan or any other lights .I did the reset as described above by touching the negative - side to the positive+ side for 30 seconds. when I started the car it started right up and to my delight it shut off properly.....I re programmed the windows and all is well for now.... thank you everyone for your assistance .....

 

to tberg... thanks I will have the ignition checked.....

 

I did not see the post on the car wash. I think I would think twice before taking the car to the car wash again.

 

Well I did a hard reset and the engine turned off once... i though it was ok... but it is still not turning off... the key in the tumbler seems ok. I sprayed some wd-40 in the key mechanism and no difference......since this happened just after i went to the csr wash could it be the ignition switch that stopped working...although it stars perfectly...any ideas?.. thank you....

 

After reading through this, I'm gonna come down on the idea the ignition switch or some wiring to it is the culprit. The ignition switch is a grounding switch, meaning it grounds the circuits it controls for each position. If this were a relay sticking on, I don't think it would be completely global as this appears to be for you. When this happens, it seems to be as though you never turned off the key. If a relay stuck, something might stay on, but usually not EVERYTHING.

Have you tried moving the steering column around to several positions, to see if things might turn off then. A wire chafed to ground, if it happened to be one of those to the ignition switch, could easily be the trouble.

The ignition key barrel would not be the problem, the ignition switch on the other end of the barrel housing is what you should be concerned with. Remove the column shroud and find the electrical switch, then follow the wires down to the base of the fascia and the row of connectors. See if you find any wire damage, then while its running, disconnect that connector. If it shuts down, concentrate on the switch, if it stays running, we'll have to look elsewhere.

Good luck!

 

hi XJR guy... I just went out , reconnected the battery and a few ignition lights came on this time.....I did a hard reset, placed the key in the ignition.... this this time I turned the key and it got stuck and the car would not strt... i gigled it a little and it finally started. When I went o turn the car off again the key turned back and I felt the two slight clicks....i raised and lowered the steering when and jiggled it , but the car would not turn off... I puled the key out and the car was still running....maybe the tumbler as stated earlier?

 

well, i have tried everything suggested ( and they were great suggestions) and I am starting to belive the tberg might have hit it.. the ignition tumbler is hanging up in either direction and when you turn it towards the operator the radio and accessories shut down ...the car just will not turn off. We i guess i am going to bring it in to the shop tomorrow .. again thank you all for your friendly and knowledgeable assistance... this is a great forum and resource for sure!

 

I'd go with xjrguy's suggestions. (You're going to be taking the shroud off anyway.)

 

I am with you on this.

 

+1 tberg pointed in the right direction. Now, if the cylinder is ok, look at the electrical contacts.

 

I got to tell you I am still concerned over the car wash thing.

 

+1 on that as it suggests the water is getting somewhere it shouldn't and also that something that should be water sealed isn't.

 

Years ago I worked as a British car tech I have seen the same problem on MGBs that turned out to be a diode in the alternator back feeding though the system. Reading this post my first thought would be the ignition switch or Maybe the car wash has caused some trouble with the alternator good luck with problem.

Happy Motoring great forum

 

First of all thanks to all who contributed the many great ideas for this challenge... I wound up taking the Xk-8 to a local guy who specializes in Jags..... he temporarily fixed the problem but time will tell. He did a hard reset except he did the reset for 20 minutes which fully discharged all of the capacitors and reset the computers... I did a reset nut only for 30 seconds...... the lock tumbler was ok, but he indicated that there is/was some stray voltage coming from one of the computers that was causing the engine not to shut down.. the radio , wipers , windows etc shut down but not the engine.... so before he drilled deeper he suggested i see if this might do the trick....which saved me big bucks so we shall see......he mentioned to me it could fix it , it could happen again tomorrow...... or ??? we shall see!