I recently saw an XK8 with a chrome piece just above the license plate area.

I also saw that, at least some years, some of these also have a button for opening the trunk.

Does anyone know if such a chrome piece is compatible with the 1997 piece? (No trunk release button)

 

Is this what you mean 👍

 

If it is indeed the part shown in graham11's pic, then it will fit, with some caveats:

i) Two of the four mounting bolts are located in a slightly different position, so you will either need to drill two new holes in the trunk lid, or (as I did) just leave them out. The trim will hold just fine with two bolts.

ii)The holes where the number plate lamps recess into need to be enlarged. IIRC I just filed them square and painted the exposed metal.

iii) If you want the release button to work, you have to run a wire all the way to the existing release switch on the lower dash.

iv) It was a fairly expensive part (C2N1737) when I did this back in 2004.

 

Do they all have the release button? I thought I saw, on a 2000, just the chrome piece w/o the button. It also had and the little chrome rings on the tail light lens like graham11's 2001.

Are you sure there isn't a source of power available in the trunk area that is only hot when the car is unlocked? If so that might work the solenoid.

If the switch is supplying a ground to the activate solenoid and the BCM is only supplying power in the appropriate condition (car unlocked etc) then just supplying a gnd at the trunk switch might work. Did you run the wire to make it work?

 

hat's what it looked like, only I didn't remember the button.

 

I'm fairly sure that all the chrome parts (Jaguar just calls it a 'finisher') introduced for 2001MY onwards did. The later rear lamp units can also be retrofitted - and IMO they do look better - but the fittings are different and need some metal surgery on the bodywork.

In all cars, the trunk release button on the dash connects to the BPM, which sends a SCP message to the SLM to fire the solenoid. From 2001 on, there is a dedicated input direct to the SLM which the trunk button uses to do the same thing. That input appears to be missing on early cars.

I hadn't owned the car for very long when I swopped in the chrome trim and knew little about its internal workings (other than the Nikasil issue!) so I didn't run the extra wiring.

 

Michaelh, I know you have WAAAAY more experience with these cars than I do, but I have a couple of questions.

You mentioned needing to go all the way up to the dash to wire in the trunk release switch on the trunk finisher piece.

In my documentation for the '97, Fig 13.1 "Central Locking" shows the trunk release solenoid getting its signal (presumably 12v) from the Security and Locking Control Module, connector BT40-1 (an Orange wire with Red tracer). The Trunk release request looks like a ground supplied to BT41-5 (Red wire with Yellow tracer) from the switch, as you mentioned, on the dash.

The Control Module Identification and Location diagram (Pg 19) shows the location of the Security and Locking Control Module for both LHD and RHD as being in the trunk just below the right tail lights (most likely under the trunk floor).

Here's my question:
Since the Security and locking control Module is in the trunk, why not run a wire from the push button on the trunk trim panel to ground and BT41-5 (RY wire)?

The module wouldn't know (or care) if the Ground was coming from the dash or the trunk and the trunk button wouldn't function in any condition that the module doesn't like.

It would seem much easier than going all the way back to the dash to pick up the switch. Is possibly the 97 just different enough to have things wired radically different?

 

Many thanks for the approbation, although much of my knowledge has come from the good folks here

Agreed - and it's the same for my 98.

That 'trunk switch' will be the one that informs the SLM of the trunk's open/closed state: think trunk lights illuminating, and 'trunk open' dash message

That won't work - see above. Agreed that the logical place for all this is in the trunk areas, and where Jaguar eventually put it.

The main problem with trying to bypass the SLM is that we don't want the external button to work if the car is locked - as you noted earlier.

I've never revisited this since I did the job, and the 'wire to the front' is what I read as the solution so gave up at that point. It may well be that the 'missing' input is actually present in the SLM circuitry. It is a Ford-branded part and may not be unique to the X100?

It's a while since I've been inside the SLM, but I do recall there seemed to be some redundant inputs so perhaps worthy of further investigation.

 

XKracer has a quite complete writeup of the install on this and it is what I used when I did this on my '97 coupe. I couldn't find another solution that didn't require the cable running through the cabin either. Note the link below:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-button-63222/

 

Cool! Looks pretty thorough..

 

Cool! Looks pretty thorough. I've saved it for later reference.