Hi all,
I bought recently an XK8 coupe of 1997 - VIN 07XXX.

I am considering to try to find the parts to upgrade my base system to the premium one. Do anyone knows if the car has already all the cables for it?

Do anyone has indications about what to be done for making this?

It seems that there are two possible premium systems to be installed: Alpine or Harman Kardon is this true?

Thank you a lot for any information you could provide

Cheers

Max

 

Check jagrepair.com

All the electrical diagrams are listed, so you should be able to figure out what you are up against.

It is probably a lot of work, and involves sourcing parts not necessarily available in Belgium (so higher shipping cots). In the end, you will have a system that still does not do hands-free phone calls, or accepts an external music source. On the other hand, it will have the factory look.

If it was me, I would look at adding a phone/music device to the existing stock system, or upgrade the entire head unit to something you can live with. This entire subject of entertainment electronics in an aging car is a source of frustration. Just my thoughts.

On a separate subject, have you confirmed your secondary chain tensioners have been replaced? These older engines have plastic parts that break and cause major engine damage. Frankly, don't start it until you know...

Bonne chance, d'un belge a l'autre!

 

Thank you!
I am an Italian living in Belgium since 2006.

The car I bought has 115000 Km and in the mainteinance book the changing of the chain tensioners is reported, so everything should be ok on this side.

Regarding my willingnes to find an original system, the idea is to keep the car to its original characteristics.... I have completely restored all the illumination of the central console as well found a repairer for the radio illumination so now everything works perfectly...
I also bought in the Uk from a fantastic used parts dealer the 6 CD charger which I also installed covering it with the original carpet and works perfectly.

So, after having seen that the wiring wasa there, I was wondering if the car has also the correct wiring for the premium system so to make the upgrade work myself (I am an advanced hobbyist...).

Thanks a lot for your prompt feedback anyway and greetings from Brussels!

 

Do you have the model # of the head unit ? Is it a AJ9500A ? I believe there was a changeover in 98 . I have the wiring guide for the 97 XK8 and mine is a 96 X300 we can work from there and get you better . The AJ9500A and later versions head units has the built in option to go standard of premium setup .

See figure 16.1 through 16.3 below :

http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Auto.../jagxk1997.pdf

 

Hi Lady P,
my head unit is an AJ9600R but looks exactly the same a AJ9500A.

 

Well, folks on this forum will tell you to pull the valve covers and check for yourself. There were 3 designs over time. The original plastic, a later hybrid and the final all-metal design of the 4.2L. You have to have the later all-metal design for peace of mind. Problem is that if the tensioner fails, the chain can skip teeth and lead to the piston bending the valves. With the cost of parts involved, folks usually just swap the entire engine when that happens. This is typically several thousand dollars. You might want to check the paperwork to see if the tensioner part# is listed at least.

 

I will ask my repairer to check then..... the work has been done in 2012 by a jaguar dealer, but this is all I know.

 

Beside the one large socket that has the standard setup speaker wire outputs in it does it have the 2 multi wire round connector sockets on the right side other then the antenna plug on the right?

 

yes it has the CD charger connector (which I already used) and another one

 

Do you have the 2 round cables laying in the area . One goes to the external power amplifier that drives the speakers from the amplifier vs. on the standard which is driven by the final amplifiers inside the head unit coming out of the square white connector .

 

The car is equipped with a standard system. So no external power amplifier installed in the car.

My idea was to buy and install it together with all the premium speakers from a second hand parts dealer, provided that there is all the wiring already present in the car.

 

Let's see if it would be possible to go with the original part configuration or a off the shelf amplifier as the connectors are industry alike . Without the amplifier and premium system sub woofer installed there is a cheap DIY repair of the rotted speakers that give lousy sound and you can put in a external hardwired jack to play any device .

The biggest difference is where the speaker driver wires come from either the head unit or the amplifier being 2 different locations . Adding wires is not a problem . see the pic in the earlier edited post .

The parts cost for 4 speakers is about $ 40 US and see the video :

SpeakerWorks.com: speaker repair, speaker parts, speakers

 

Thanks,
by looking to the wiring schemas it seems that the cables are there but unused.

In particular, the cables for the front tweeters look unconnected in my car and connected to the amplifier in the car with the premium system... I am wondering if there is any connector hidden in the radio hole that I can try to locate... I have seen in the twitter holes that the cables seem to be there.

Then, if I am able to find the right amplifier it seems that is just a matter of plug it into the radio and probably find an adapter to decouple the speakers from the power in the wires currently going into the plug behind the radio of which you sent me the picture.

What do you think?

 

I don't think you will find a already made adapter that just has the 8 wires involved and would have to cut and soldier in , wire polarity is important .

As to the amplifier round cable you would have to look if it is laying in the area along with the tweeter output wires .

Sub woofer speaker , would have to see how hard it is to install as mine is different on the X300 . I put in a removable woofer box on my back seat that can be plugged back in in the trunk . You would have to have a crossover network on the sourced power amplifier . Or you can skip on the sub - woofer aspect of the premium system for now and look at it later .

Or you can just repair the original speakers and go cheap for now as they most likely need repaired anyway . Tweeters should be fine .

 

The original speakers work fine, mine was just an idea for improvement.

The subwoofer should not be a major problem as there is an easy to access hole behind the passengers seat. I will check if there are cables arriving there and if they have the right colour code accordingly to the schemas you kindly sent me.

I will also try to find the rest of the spares cables from the tweeters.

So it seem that I have just to find the cables for the tweeters and the subwoofer and check if there is the cable for the amplifier somewhere. I am wondering where the amplifier is supposed to be placed in the XK8 coupe' as I have heard that the place could be even in the trunk,,,

 

The early cars have a Harmon Kardon system (up to around 1999 I think) after which is went over to Alpine kit. The two systems are very different. On the HK unit (which is what we have here I think) - the CD player is wired back to the head unit and both head unit, CD player and amplifier use "standard" 8 pin DIN audio connectors which are easily available.
The amplifier is in the boot / trunk next to the CD changer. The only cable that may not be there is the multi-way cable between the head unit and the amplifier. I would guess that all the others - additional speakers in the rear quarter panels and door tweeters - were installed in all the cars.

Pull out the head unit and have a dig around at the back - there should be the white 20 way multi-connector, the thick ground cable, the aerial (antenna) cable and two 'DIN' type plugs - one black and one white. These are the connectors to the CD changer and amplifier. If they are there, it's a very straightforward job. If they are not, it's still achievable with a couple of metres of screened multicore audio cable and a couple of plugs. You can also use the opportunity to install an "aux in" for phone or Bluetooth or whatever - just a simple switch or relay in the CD cable and an additional jack socket.

 

Hi David,
thank you for this great indications.

I have already installed the 6 CD charger and can confirm that the head unit has both the light grey input as well as the black one for the CD charger. together with the 20 white multi-connector, the thick ground cable.

I haven't seen the DIN cable for the amplifier when installing the CD charger, but can have a further look in the trunk before dismantling again the central console to see if there is one there.

What is not clear to me is how the speakers are connected to the amplifier in the trunk if the 20 way multiconnector with the signals for the door speakers and the passengers speakers is behind the main head unit.
There is another connector in the trunk for this? Do I have to cut them from the 20 white plug in the front in case I find another plug in the trunk which I assume should have the door speakers, their tweeters, the passenger speakers and the sub woofer signals?

Thanks a lot for this appreciated help!

 

You need to get both wiring diagrams (available here JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource) and compare the two different schematics.

On the 'standard' system - the speakers connect directly to the head unit (which also contains an amplifier) via IC1 - a yellow connector behind the centre "glove box"

On the premium stem, the power amplifier in the head unit isn't used. The multicore cable takes a low-level stereo audio output to the amplifier in the boot/trunk, which then sends output to the speakers back to IC1.

So ............ that yellow connector (IC1) in the centre console - is the sort-of hub of the speaker connections. The white connector on the back of the head unit has a lot of what are essentially redundant wires on the "premium system".

My point is really that I would guess that all the wiring for either system is in all cars EXCEPT for maybe that stereo + power-switching multicore from head unit to amplifier.

But - you may need to reconfigure some of the connections to achieve what you want. From what you have said, you are pretty practical, so - with both schematics in front of you - it **should** be a fairly straightforward process, albeit requiring a certain amount of patience and a methodical approach.

 

Thank you David,
I think I am almost there.

Recapitualting:
if I dismantle the central glove compartment I should find the yellow IC1 connector
stereo + power-switching multicore from head unit to amplifier. (here you mean the light grey DIN cable correct?)


one final question.
you say:
On the premium system, the power amplifier in the head unit isn't used. The multicore cable (here you mean the one connecting to the 20 pin white plug in the Head unit or the light gray 6 pins DIN?) takes a low-level stereo audio output to the amplifier in the boot/trunk, which then sends output to the speakers back to IC1.

My question is: is the head unit automatically stopping sending the amplified signal to the speakers when a light grey DIN cable is connected or the speaker cables need to be disconnected somewhere else to avoid conflicts between new amplifier and head unit amplifier? Or maybe there is any switch in the head unit that needs to be activated in case of presence of the amplifier?

My clue is that the 6 pins DIn light grey cable sends the L and R low level stereo plus the power activation to the amplifier which calls for the need to detach somehow (by reconfiguring the IC1?) the current speakers from the main unit... but good to know that the cables pass under the central glove compartment as it definitely simplifies my life (even if I still have to understand if there arrive also the tweeter and subwoofer cables....).


BTW, just made an investigation inside the Trunk, no trace for a light grey DIN cable there near to where I found the one for the CD charger.....

Cheers

 

That's pretty much the case - Yes.

On the 'standard' system - pins 6,7,8,9,17,18,19 & 20 of the white connector on the back of the head unit go direct to the various speakers via that yellow connector IC1 in the centre console. You can see it if you remove the small 'pull-off cover' just behind the hinged lid of the centre console.

On the premium system, those wires are not used by the head unit.

The light grey 'DIN' cable supplies low-level audio plus a "wake-up" signal to the amplifier which then sends amplified output back to IC1 and from there to all the speakers including the additional tweeters and mid-range units.

I don't know, but would assume that a bit of rewiring at that centre (IC1) connector will be required, but my point is that all the necessary wires **should** be there.

The connector at the amplifier end is a DIN connector - it may not be there if you have a standard system. If I get a chance, I will take a photograph of mine (I have the premium system) but if you can't find it behind the radio head-unit, it probably isn't there !!

There's no difference between the head units on the different systems, nor is there a switch which there IS on the later Alpine head units. It's just that the power-amplifier part of the head unit is basically redundant on the premium system.