QuestionHoward,
The Jaguar has been running so well for a while, I have not had to seek your help, until today. This one has got me - bad. Drove the car to work this morning, kept noticing when using left turn indicator, the hazard light icon flashed as well. Got to work and found the left front fender marker was not flashing with the turn indicators. So, at lunch, I thought I would go out and when I turned the key, the engine barely turned, as if a nearly dead battery. Turned off, then tried again and got a rapidly clicking solenoid, and a LOT of smoke from the gear shift. I keep an extinguisher in the car, and that snuffed out the fire. I noticed even with the key off, the radio and gauges came back on after a moment. Had the car towed home and cleaned up the extinguisher mess and dug in. Found a burned wire under the console, but it appears to be a ground, looped from one side of the shifter base, to the other. I removed this, and found the cruise control cable melted in half at the accelerator pedal and that after charging the battery and hooking it back up (I had removed ground after the fire) I still get a rapid solenoid click when I attempt starting, and the throttle cable gets red hot and smokes. I still have no front left fender blinker, even though the bulb tested ok. All accessories and other lights work, but there seems to be a dead short somewhere. I disconnected the throttle cable from the engine, and went through trying to start again, this time no solenoid click, but I hear relays clicking behind the dash. The throttle cable did not get hot, but brushing it across the fuel rail did produce a spark (!). I cannot see any obvious wire grounding to the steering column, or gas pedal, and wonder if you have any ideas as to what next? I would also like to isolate the ignition switch, as it may be a cause, by perhaps hot-wiring the starter - to make sure this month-old starter is not the cause. Which wires should I jump to try this, or do you advise against such a test?
Baffled.
Michael
AnswerHi Michael,
Diagnosis of an electrical problem by symptoms is usually a waste of time except you do have one symptom that explains your problem 100%.
When you try to start the engine and the throttle cable gets hot, it for sure shows that you have lost the main ground from the engine to the battery. When you try to use the starter which draws a lot of current and you loose the main ground (engine to body and on to the battery) That large amount of current tries to seek any other path it can. In your case the throttle cable and other small grounds (like in the console)
The trouble now is that some of these smaller ground wires that tried to conduct the massive amount of current that the starter tries to use has melted some of these small ground wires which usually melts other wires near them and then causes shorts in other circuits that were had nothing to do with the original problem.
It is now necessary to test almost all circuits (after you repair the main ground from the engine to the frame) This is easy to prove by just connecting a jumper cable from the engine block to the negative post of the battery and try to start it. But, don't start the engine, just spin it over to confirm that the ground cable is at fault.
Then you need to repair the burned wires in the console and then remove either battery cable and put a inline fuse (35 amp) between the battery post and battery cable. Now you can not try to start the engine but you can turn the ignition on and start checking ALL electrical items to see what works and what don't work. BE SURE TO ONLY TEST ONE ITEM AT A TIME AS TURNING MORE THEN ONE ON AT A TIME MAY BLOW YOUR 35 AMP FUSE!!!
This is necessary because of the melted wires in the console. Be sure to examine all small black wires every where you can see them as it may have melted others too.
You have a lot of work ahead. I bought a Series III XJ-6 with a problem like yours and I had to replace a lot of wires in the console and behind the whole dash. It does not mean that yours is as bad as the one I bought but you do need to do a lot of testing.
Once you have tested every item with the 35 amp in-line fuse for power and repaired the engine to frame ground you can then connect the battery cable back up and try the starter.
Howard
