I wonder if anyone can help?

Both doors on my xk8 will not close, they are effectively "locked" but in the open position so won't close. The fob won't do anything remotely (but it will switch on lights and open boot), inserting the key into the drivers side and twisting it one way or the other doesn't help. I tried a hard reset of the battery, that didn't help. So basically I can't use it, can't close the doors and can't drive it to someone to maybe fix it.
Any advice much appreciated. I have this afternoon read a lot on the forums, but this problem doesn't seem to have arisen for others

I think lights were left on as this morning the battery was dead so I couldn't open door. I opened the boot, jump started the car using my wife's car, it ran, the battery charged no problem

 

You need to properly charge the battery before doing anything else. These cars are super-sensitive to battery charge - a jump-start and run won't get you to where you need to be.

Will the doors not actually close into the body? If so, have you tried puling the handles to open the latch?

 

Hi Bladerunner,
Thanks for your help. I ran it for 30 minutes to charge the battery but I can't drive anywhere with the doors open. Should I run it for a couple of hours maybe? The inner door handle seems to operate some sort of mechanism within the door (on each side) but the actual metal which locks the door to the body refuses to move.
No the doors will not close into the body.
It's a 97 xk8, bought a couple of months ago. I had an XKR 10 years ago so am familiar with some issues on these cars but this is baffling me.
Do you think the battery charge is not strong enough?

 

Have you tried to manually move the metal “ear” in the door which engages the striker plate on the door frame.

You absolutely can not charge the battery to where it needs to be by just running the car.

You must put the battery on a quality battery charger that won’t overcharge it.


subsequently, using a reliable battery tender is what many of us do to keep the battery and electrical system free of gremlins.

The charging system is not capable of maintaining the battery to the level required to deal with the aging wiring circuits and the innumerable connections which are increasingly have resistance to the current flow

It’s possible that the battery has been damaged by being totally drained. Putting it on a load tester will help to gauge its effectiveness

Z

 

Hi Zray,
Thanks for your thoughts. I've never had to use a charger before as I usually drive every day and in 40 years never left lights on to drain the battery which is what I assume happened.
I ran the car for 2 hours and no change. I guess I should buy a charger. Any suggestions?
Both doors "ear" "lug" thing is solidly locked in the closed position, even when I "open or close using the key fob" Should it be possible to move it manually?

 

How did the car get into the current state? Were the doors left open overnight, or did you open them as normal and they latched themselves?

Try a hard reset of the car - you need to remove the battery terminals and hold them together for a minute or so.

 

I think the lights were left on overnight. Once the jump leads were attached with other car running, the door opened with the key, I started the engine no problem. Switched it off, closed doors, fob wouldn't work so opened with key again, pressed lock on the fob and they locked in the open position. I tried a hard reset but to no effect sadly.
On each door, if I use the internal handles, the window moves down, not the usual half inch, but another half inch and another half inch each time the handle is used. They wind back up in the normal way

 

The windows are doing that because after a flat battery they need to be reset - put all the way down and hold the button until you hear a click, then all the way up and hold for a click.

Do the doors close fully but not latch, or can they not be shut at all? If it's the latter, I don't really understand how they could have latched shut, as that's a mechanical function of the lock, where the latch closes around the striker. Very odd.

 

Quality battery tenders are the NOCO genius line, CTEK, and the Delran Battery Tender Plus, I’m currently using the NOCO Genius 5 which I really like. Have used the Delran for years no problems . Many here use the CTEK line.

all of these are battery “tenders” that you can leave on the car whenever it’s not being driven. And I suggest doing just that.

Z

 

PS: these cars have a timeless exterior design.

under the metal skin it’s not so timeless. Primarily in the electrical dept.

electronic modules have leaky capacitors. ABS modules have solder joints that crack and fail. Taillight grounds are too delicate and fail, numerous connections have increased resistance to current flow.

The list goes on. Suffice it to say that the cars were designed to last past the warranty period, and up to about 10+ years.

We are past double that. The mechanicals are pretty sturdy once the known issues have been fixed. By this time most of the know mechanical issues have likely been resolved, barring a suspension issue here and there.

I’ve had very good experiences with reliability of my 2002 XKR, better than most 20+ year old cars. It came to
me with 116,000 miles on it. Seven years later it has 193,200 and still sounds very strong

But the electrical system bears close watching and a little help with a battery tender helps keep the electrical gremlins away. At least my electrical anomalies have vanished once I started using a battery tender when the car would be sitting overnight or longer.

Z

 

Hi guys,
Thank so much for your advice and help. It's fixed!

Fyi, first I reset the windows, then put a screwdriver in the lock which latches onto the striker plate and as I either opened the external door handle or flicked the fob (different for each door), it flipped open and it seems to be operating fine now It was such a concern as in the next fews days it needs to go in for some suspension work etc.

Although it's 96/97 with 55k on the clock, it is a Japanese import with zero rust on the body or underneath, the plastics are definitely breaking up, side indicators, heating vents and various other things, so electrical problems will loom no doubt. Will get a battery charger even though it is a daily driver as I have very little history and don't know the battery age.

 

Took it for a run to check all ok. Only had it a couple of months. I know the odometer cannot be changed on the binnacle and just worked out it has only done 35,000 miles in 28 years, the odometer is showing km as it was made for the Japanese market. Now I know I got a bargain for £5000. Just got to sort the plastics and suspension..... Was looking for a 2005 XKR / XKRS in Seafrost or suchlike. After two years of fruitless looking, as this XK8 was local, I thought that will have to do as an interim. But as we know, like a good woman, one appreciates them more and more. I think I'll keep it.

 

+1 for trickle charger/maintainer as an essential accessory for early XJ and XK cars. Don't understand why they are so vulnerable to voltage drop but even slight fluctuations due to parasitic drain can cause chaos. I've had good luck with a NOCO Genius 2 for the last 5 years, with QD pigtail permanently wired to battery.