No lights on dash/inertia switch tripped

[timedwards]

Can anyone tell me what I've done wrong? I disconnected the EMU in the drivers footwell on my x300 along with the alternator for the welder. Now I can't turn the ignition on to put in drive to get the ski-slope back on (don't ask why I felt it necessary to take all this out as my visions of Mount Vesuvius inside the car by welding were unfounded!!). Anyway, I have electric windows and horn but no lights on the dash. I am pretty sure I reconnected everything so do I need to re-set the EMU or something? Any ideas would be gratefully appreciated as I was making good progress until now

Thanks Tim

[timedwards]

I could really do with some help here if somebody has an idea what is wrong. I have Googled this problem and it looks like a security issue. The car is up on axle stands and has had the battery removed for quite a while as the front suspension is off due to refurbing and welding where it bolts on. So I have no lights on the dash but everything else works. I can lock the doors with the key but the fob is out of battery. Everything inside the car is wired back up so has the key lost it's programming? The front axle is still off along with stering rack etc but I don't think that can affect anything.

Thanks Tim

[Popsjag]

Hi Tim,

This is not a problem I have come across myself.
You say the fob isn't working so when you put the key into the ignition barrel and turn it as if to start you get nothing (presumably).

Try it again, from unlocking the door with the key, turn the key in the ignition barrel as if to start (presuming again that nothing happens), turn the key anticlockwise all the way (but do not remove), then turn it clockwise to start - do you get all lights up and engine goes to start?

This is the process if the fob does not work.

Hope that helps and let me know if successful or not!

Steve.

[robv12]

with out the car here its quite difficult to see what you have and what you do not have

but do I understand it like this??, you have power, as the windows and horn work, yes?? windows will only work with the ignition ON, but you are saying you cannot turn the ignition key , yes?? if I am correct something is amiss

You do not need the fob to activate the c/locking, the drivers lock mech will activate this with the key, however the alarm will then sound, you need to insert the key in the ignition and turn it three time on/off to deactivate the alarm

Bear in mind not all 300 had transponder keys either, so early 300 has one less thing to worry about

Now checks to do, , firstly ensure the battery is 100%, check the inertia switch is set correctly, left hand footwell, press the button down to set, IF you can turn the ignition key, listen for a click when you press the brake pedal, this is the interlock solenoid working to allow the car out of P, if no click, check the brake lights, no breake lights equals brake light switch u/s, so replace, if you have brake lights but no click, interlock solenoid is duff, SO, remove the star drive from the J gate, insert a suitable thin tool, press the interlock out of the way, move the lever to N and try a start

So now moving onto to "no lights on the dash", none at all???, or do you get the left and right bank coming on and then going out, they should all extinguish EXCEPT the check engine light, which is the tell tale that the ECU is alive and ready to go

have a go at these checks and report back, if not call me when you are with the car and we can work through it 07747 1310139

Rob Jenner

[timedwards]

Thanks to both of you for the help again. I managed to get the cover off today as the sun came out and it was indeed the inertia switch. I re-set it and all the lights come on and then went out as appropriate. I have not started the engine yet though as it's still suspended from the cross beam mounting bracket. I would love to know what triggered it? I have the front of the car raised very high so I could drag the crossbeam out or do you think it would have been disconnecting the ecu for welding?

Thanks a million though I was beginning to panic there

Nice weather this week according to the forecast so back to the project for me.

Cheers Tim

[robv12]

excellent news

[PeterDavisX300]

I just like to say that this is a very useful thread. I've got a bit of welding coming-up, what with a replacement front wing and I'm cutting-out a rear wheel arch. I'll be also replacing the rear A frame at some stage so the car will be unevenly jacked high at the rear. Is there a facility on this site to 'lock' threads with titles so that they can be trawled for information? Maybe it's already in place and I'm blind! But if we had a 'How-to-do' section for common problems, including members input and pics, might that be a help? I've just had to change the water-rail on my X300, bitch of a job, I have pics, and info I could impart. Just an example.

Peter

[timedwards]

Hi Peter

I quite agree about the need for pics and info on how to do jobs on these cars. I really struggle to find anything on the web for X300's. There seems to be more for the XJ40's and they set up XJ40.com for the very purpose of sharing ideas on maintenance. I am not suggesting the same for the X300 though and think the forum here serves well and I bet the amount of work is considerable too. As a newbie to this with no mechanical experience I only realised I was crawling under the car with it on axle stands in the wrong place by stumbling across a thread somewhere else where Rob Jenner advised using the chassis rails due to possible rot around the jacking points which is definitely right as mine has just been welded. It's a heavy car to land on you!! I think people are a bit wary of offering advice in case they get blamed if something goes wrong. I personally think it's not a problem and if I get differing opinions on how to go about something then it gives me a choice which is all the better. I accept that I take advice at my own risk. Everyone is really helpful when I post a problem up though but I think if there was more up I would not have to keep asking so often as I am sure people are busy. I am not very tech savy and have struggled to upload pics to the forum since the website upgrade as it asks for them to be uploaded from a webpage rather than my computer. Perhaps I am being a bit thick. I wanted to post a pic of my re-bushed front suspension on a thread I started which asked for advice on presses. Some of the others have put some great pics up ('Poprivet' of some resto work his company carried out on an old railway-so not cars but amazing though). I agree that pics are a real help as I found it really hard to orientate myself having not crawled under a car before. Some is the same as the XJ40, of which there are more pics on the web, but the car differs I believe in a lot of ways. I bought the Jaguar world X300/X308 'A complete Practical Guide' book which helped me with the back suspension and A-frame. I still don't know what triggered the inertia switch as it was o.k. when I jacked the back up but there again that was not nearly as high as I have got the front up. That has a lot of pics and step by step instructions. However, it's hardly a complete guide and with your background I think probably a bit too rudimentary. Enjoyed reading your article in the mag by the way and last month's by Roy but not managed to open this month's yet. I too love the curves on the X300/308, such lovely looking cars it's a shame they do not yet enjoy the same 'cult' status of the XJ40. I think it will come though as numbers inevitably diminish. I am probably not the best person to ask for advice, but am happy to give an opinion and don't mind being corrected as necessary and there are some real specialists on here but I have loads of pics on the few jobs I have managed to do just so I could remember how it all went back so I can email some to you if it helps for anything you are doing.

I would be interested to see if anyone else has an opinion on this and if some sharing of ideas around what you have said takes place with a view to promoting mutual support in the simplest and easiest way and which does not place extra workload on the already busy forum coordinators who seem to be the ones who mainly answer my questions.

One totally unrelated tip is when using seam sealer go for Tigerseal. The other brush-on brand I used previously was hopeless and I have had to get it all off! This stuff is amazing though, or at least I think so.

Cheers Tim

[J44EAG]

Hello Tim.

As you might know, I`ve been firstly the original S-type Co-ordinator and laterly the X350 Co-ordinator over a ten year period. Rob and Mike H were already in similar positions for other models when I entered the scene. I joined the JEC having aquired a six year old exmple of an early S-type around 2007. The reason for me joining was to hopefully gain knowledge about my car given that there appeared little at the time on the internet. Curiously, or so I perceived at the time, there was very little common knowledge available on the model within the Club. Having met up with the then X-type Co-ordinator who lived locally to me, I soon found myself S-type Co-ordinator. I couldn`t spell Co-ordinator then.....all of a sudden I were one!

Gradually a few of us managed to crank things up and used my own slender knowledge and that of others to begin to build an information base for the model via this web site. Mike H, Rob, Paul Sinnott, Allan Jones, Norman Hicks, Tony Sproson and others were also busy doing the same elsewhere. The Forum scene was beginning to build. Several of us began to write regular articles in the magazine in the various Forum pages. The required material began to come from regular readers of the magazine as well. As the scene grew, other Co-rdinators were appointed with the aime being that all Jaguar models would have a champion appointed within the Club and that members would have a reference man to go to if they needed information or other advice about their chosen model.

It wasnt long after I became a Co-ordinator that I began writing technical "How to do it" articles in the magazine. My mail box began to indicate these articles were well received by members so I`ve continued to photograph, document and send off material to our Editor on a regular basis even since. To date, I guestimate that I`ve had around one hundred of my own articles appear in our magazine which have been spread across the magazine generally and more specifically on the S-type and X350 magazine pages. In addition, much of the material I constructed for the magazine, started life here on these Forum thread locations. So what you see in my magazine writings, will often have appeared here months earlier before being reworked to suite magazine editorial needs. If you go back thought the past magazine section on this site you will find much of my work and also that of my brother Co-ordinators and members who have taken the trouble to construct material for the magazine pages. Looking at my Forum profile here on the site, to my astonishment, I also see I`ve passed some 4,219 post comments within this Forum section!

Being a Co-orinator is not a particuarly aduous activity. One has to be willing and happy to take emails and phone calls from members in relation to their owned Jaguar models. Most queeries in relation to S-type and X350 I can answer reasonably well. Where my knowledge runs out, I try to provide a contact to another Club member who has the knowledge to help further. Co-ordinators will often attend Club shows and events as well as writing copy for our magazine Editor. I`m fortunate to be near retired so I have the necessary time available to do a conciderable amount of writing. I realise other people might not be as forunate as I am in that respect but writing aand knowledge distribution can be spread across a number of people to provide the necessary amount of magazine copy and input on this site. Hopefully, and I know it is the case, we all help to beild a second to none knowledge pool and quick response set up to help people DIY maintain there individual cars. In my opinion that original aime has been well covered and continues to this day on an ever increasing basis.

Modern cars can be hugely complicated to the extent that they are so complex that their inclussion in a Haynes type workshop manual is all but impossible. Dave Marks once said at a Diagnostic Seminar that if all the information on one particular car model were to be printed off from the Jaguar Topix site, the stack of paper required for printing just one manual, would probably use twenty reams of A4 paper, two buckets of printing ink and three new replacement ink jet printers! Fortunately, the information now available to us when compared to the first years of our Forum scene is much improved and the IT base which we now all enjoy is a head and shoulders better than we first set up shop. What we have all worked to achieve over the years is still available to everyone. The big issue though is perhaps keeping all that info in order and easily accessible. By and large, I think that has been achieved and members only have to go to a particular model section and then to a sub section to see a mass of member posts applicable to that chosen subject. If you want info on S-type suspension, then we have probably the biggest on-line data base in existance. All a member has to do to get that information is to access the relivant section and begin to open and view the threads on that particular subject. I give that S-type suspension as an example that has been well covered....on one particular thread I detailed a complete suspension overhaul complete with a huge number of "work in progress photographs" showing every stage of the rebuild. Similar material has seen light of day in countless copies of our magazine.

At the end of the day, we have contructed and provided, I believe, an unequalled and far rangeing reference base for the majority of models ever built by Jaguar. I`d say the thrust is perhaps better covered IT wise for the more modern cars with the older classic cars being more easily maintained due to their lack of electronic sophistication and basic nuts and bolts construction by the old style workshop manuals which cover their needs sufficiently well. As a consiquence we don`t see so much Forum traffic here when compared to that of the more modern cars.

I hope that gives a bit of gen on where we are now with the forum scene. I`ll finish by encouraging all those who visit this site to contribute to these threads and add images of any work that you do to your cars. In addition, Nigel will always welcome text and images for the magazine. All that is needed is text on an A4 .doc Word document and SEPARATE individually loaded images of around 1.5Mb upwards each, to be sent to him on an email. Eventually, your article is likely to find its way onto the magazine pages.

Mike K

[timedwards]

Hi Mike

Yes I totally agree and have been helped many times by the excellent forum coordinators, including yourself. I do sometimes feel like a pain in the neck though and I am sure I sometimes ask ridiculously stupid questions. One that comes to mind was 'do I need to raise my car on axle stands or ramps to remove the rear axle'! A justifiable answer could have been if you don't know that then should you be under the car anyway? Fortunately I am still alive and kicking and benefiting from the club and forum. I think with the electrics I will just need to take it to a garage but am trying to do as much of the nuts and bolts stuff as possible.

I thought Peter's post asked a very good and interesting question and I think I then rambled on a bit as It was in the early hours of the morning so thank you for your full and detailed response it is much appreciated. I certainly hope my post does not cause any unintentional offence to anybody.

Cheers Tim

[timedwards]

front up forum reduced.jpg (63.72KiB)Viewed 5525 times

This thread seems to have died a bit of a death which is a shame. I have taken on board the suggestion that members should feel encouraged to post up pics of work doing on cars and so I am posting this to see if it uploads. I was struggling to get pics up but I think it must have been my total lack of IT skills. I think I need to challenge myself to post up more rather than just asking for help when I get stuck. I must say though that I still feel that there is lots of work in being a forum coordinator and I sometimes feel guilty keep asking questions and I am sure their wives and partners want some of their time too.

So here is my car raised up very high with the bonnet off and engine suspended from above and subframe removed for re-bushing. N.B. my car is unfortunately outside. I had to remove the subframe due to rot where the subframe bolts to the car.

If this pic is uploaded then I can upload more if anyone is interested. I think sometimes pictures say a thousand words. Please can people feel free to say where I may have gone wrong on anything I might post. Sometimes there may have been an easier/better way and we can all learn from sharing our thoughts and experiences. Then if we are unsure we can check with the forum coordinators for best advice and can private message them also. Forum coordinators please feel free to correct anything I may put up which might be wrong or unhelpful to others as this is helpful to me also.

Steve, Naki and Rob have all been brilliant in supporting me with the ever ongoing work and Steve and his wife even popped in when driving home from a rally to offer advice, what more can I say! I can't thank you all enough so your thoughts are most welcome and I hope that if I post a bit more (as inexperienced as I am) and that is the right thing to do then I am playing my small part in this excellent club. I wish I could come to the rally's but arriving in a Scenic just does not do it and this is the only Jag my wife will allow on the drive

All thoughts very welcome

Cheers Tim

[timedwards]

It seems it has worked then so it was 'attachments' then 'add files' rather than 'PIC='
I got a bit confused before when I went onto the FAQ regarding a line saying adding pics from a private computer is not allowed unless it is a server open to public access or something like that. It seems to have been far simpler than I had talked myself into believing!

[Popsjag]

Hi Tim,

You will probably find that most Forum Co-Ordinators are 'hands-on' and have 'cut their teeth' on the vehicle concerned with 'their forum'.
I learnt all about the X300 doing exactly what you are doing. You either fix it or break it (hopefully not the latter!) and enjoy the experience along the way.
I am now part of that group again, as I'm learning all about fettling (or should that be wrestling) with an 2005 S-Type!

With regards to your inertia switch, it is possible that if your welder chap was hammering/shaping a repair patch in that vicinity, it would be enough to trigger it - just a thought.

Oh, and remember - the only stupid question is the one you don't ask!

Steve.

[J44EAG]

Yip, I agree with my pal, Steve.

Just keep the questions coming. We can all learn from each other.

Adding images is the same as for doing an email. Remember the 900H x1300W pixel limit for each attached image. Sometimes you may need to resize the image to get the site to accept it. Practice makes perfect and eventually it all becomes fairly straight forward.

Keep up the good work and let us see more of your car.

Mike K

[timedwards]

Thanks both of you and I think you may be right Steve as there was a lot of hammering in that corner. I watched him work to pick up on some tips. He plated it, which works for me. I want to have a go at a hole in the back end of the driver's side sill but he advised I convert my welder to gas first. The wheel was in the way as it was on a ramps at the back. Here are the before, mid and after pics of that side. I cut it out myself to save money and treated and painted up afterwards. The underside is now painted up but I am going to put Gravitex or something similar over the top to keep the moisture out.

The other side was the same but it was the rust where the subframe bolts on that was worrying and why I removed it.

The work continues

Thanks Tim