After purchasing 1999 XK8 convertible with 82K miles, with Harmon Cardin Stereo I noticed rear speakers sounded blown out. before I had time to look at the speakers, the stereo went completely dead. It seemed that at just about the same time, or shortly afterwards the cruise control stopped working, (Orange, "safe mode" message with no cruise switch red light). Also steering wheel key in/out memory, tilt, telescope etc. stopped working most of the time. Intake Air Temp. sensor code came up after driving short distance. Trunk lights not working. Mirror switches, only 2 of the 4, up, down, in, out, positions working. Then the windows started screwing up. every time you went near the drivers door handle, the window would go down another 1/2 inch, but not come up. the amount of times I got out of the car to lock it, and saw window was 1 - 2 inches open, and had to unlock the door put key in ign. and turn on, close window with switch, turn ign. of pull key out, close door, hoping the window does not break, because it did not go down. Now while I am lowering soft top, the passenger window goes down 1 inch at a time until it is nearly fully open.
I came to the US. from the UK. in 1981 as an all around British Car Mechanic especially Jaguar, and specializing in electrical problems, as I had done an Electrical Apprenticeship. It was when I arrived and started work in the US. that I first heard the term, "Lucas Father of Darkness", and all of the other jokes. All I can say, is Nothing from Lucas, CAV. Smiths, Delco, or any of the other manufacturers, even Italian come anywhere close to being as bad as this era Jaguar. I have repaired some of the above items on my car, I will post repairs as I get to them. I have already posted "Easy brake cruise switch replacement 1999 XK8.
Now back to repairing No Audio on Harmon Cardin Stereo. While driving one day, stereo went silent, although display showed every thing it should, and antenna worked. At $1000 there was no way I was going to buy one, I also saw in Forums that owners that had purchased good used ones, with correct numbers, still did not work when fitted to different car. As I suspected the amp. nothing ventured nothing gained, it had power to it, other plugs were connected,could not see any thing wrong with wiring, so I removed Amp. took it apart, and looked over components, and board with a very powerful magnifying glass looking for black/brown components and board, melted solder etc. could not see anything, but of course that does not mean anything, except that it may be OK. I refitted it and tried it, just in case. I noticed that there was a repair label on it from an electronics repair shop dated 2001, I thought maybe I would take it to them to test. In the mean time I read every piece of information I could find. I noticed that there were a lot of owners having the same trouble, but not many/any, getting fixed.
In my research I found a page that I thought may help, in
JAGUAR Service Training, Introduction To XJ/XK
Selecting Radio Features. - To access the selectable features. simultaneously press the AM/FM button and the tape eject button. The radio will display SET UP MODE. The following set up modes can then be selected in any order, as long as no more than 15 seconds elapses between presets. After 15 seconds the display will clear. If additional mode changes are needed, re-enter the set up mode. To select a feature, press the applicable preset button.
Preset 1 Press preset 1 to select the market mode to suite the users country and Radio Data System (RDS) ON/OFF
2 Toggles the tape head cleaning service reminder off and on. (should be on)
3 Toggles the clean ariel service reminder off and on (Should be on)
4 Toggles the cellular telephone function on and off. If a Jag. phone is installed, turn the telephone function on by pressing the reset 4 button until TEL ON shows on the display. should be ON
NOTE if a hands free phone is installed, mute function must be switched ON.
5 TAPE EJE ON/OFF - sets the cassette tape to automatically eject when the Ign. key is turned off.
6 Not Used.
7 DIVERSITY ON/OFF - Used when a Diversity Antenna System is connected to the radio. (Should be OFF because the system is not used by Jaguar).
8 AF ON/OFF - (Alternate Frequency) Used when reception problems occur with RDS stations. Toggling AF ON/OFF will eliminate program drop out on RDS channels.
9 Not Used.
__________________________________________________
I quickly read this and thought I would check it out when I had time. A few days later a friend asked me to give him a ride somewhere. While I was waiting for him, I thought about the above page, and tried to remember what it said. I remember something about pressing 2 buttons, so I turned the radio on and started pressing any 2 buttons, all of a sudden while pressing the "Seek up" button and the "CD" button together the Audio started blasting out. I found if I let go of 1 or the other buttons, it still worked, but let go of both, it stopped working, if I pressed AM/FM Button and seek together, I could select stations with another finger, It was working perfectly until I let go of 2 buttons. then silence. Now at least I knew that there was nothing wrong with the Amp. CD Changer, Tuner, Tape or Radio Head. Every thing was getting power, as every thing was working. After a dew days of messing with it, it did not matter which or how many buttons I pressed I now got no Audio at all. Time to dig in, I found some very helpful U Tube videos on how to remove the gear selector panel, arm rest, and Radio and Climate Control Panel. I found that this had all been taken apart before, as some of the plastic surround, and clips were broken. I am wondering if the radio head was removed at the same time the Amp. was looked at? Because right in front of my eyes was the problem, I could see that the big fat white plug which sends info from the radio head to the Amp. and CD. changer, was hanging out of the back of the radio. I pushed it back in and every thing was good.
When I was pressing the 2 buttons that got the Audio working, I obviously pushed the radio back a little, just enough to made a connection with the plug, but eventually I pushed the plug back enough to not make a connection anymore. I must have gone over a pot hole while driving that completely disconnected the plug that had not been fully pushed in after previous repair.
Prior to, and after the repair, when I went through the modes on the steering wheel, or radio, I got CD. FM. Telephone, (which there is not one), and AM. not available, and did not work. I used the SET UP MODE, to get rid of the phone, and did something that got AM. working.
I replaced all 4 rear speakers, fairly painlessly, and for not too much money. the material between the frame and the cone was none existent, on both of the 6x9's Some one had tried to repair one of them with silicone, a waste of time.


White plug and Cable hanging out of socket



Removing Radio Head