My S-Type is driving me mad

[tonye]

My 99 3.0 se has decided to lock its passenger door and refuses to budge, I dont want to try and rip the door card off with the door locked shut as I'm sure something will get damaged!
Can anyone help as it looks like I'm driving Miss Daisy with the wife in the back seat.
I have one other concern, there is a rattle from the engine sometimes when I start up which clears after revving the engine, could this be worn variators & should I be worried (milage is approacing 117000)

Regards
Tony

[J44EAG]

Door locks on the earlier cars, of which I have just such an example,became well known for door lock gremlins.

Solenoid units can prove a little unreliable and I suspect your issue may be down to a sticking lock solenoid actuator rod where it exits the unit and also perhaps dry lever pivot points. Some exercise having lubricated with WD40 often gets things going again.

You may be able to prize off the internal door handle escutcheon surround, then go fishing towards the lock and solenoid with a straightened coat hanger. If you can tweak the lock and open the door, then I`m sure you will be well pleased. After that you can remove the door card with the door open for further repairs.

VVT units can get a bit noisy with advancing mileage. Wear and tear obviously. New items would certainly quieten things down a bit. I think most people would live with the noise unless intolerable or sounding as if the engine were about to destroy itself. One has to set the cost of rectification against the value of the car before deciding how much one wishes to spend to correct the issue.

Mike

[tonye]

Thanks Mike I will give it a try.

[tonye]

I have another question, does anyone know where you can get a dash trim kit for the early s-type, mine has black trim and I would like to add wood trim to the radio/ac console area to lighten things up a bit, I would also like to know what is the wood used on these cars as my previous Jaguars had burr walnut.
Tony

[J44EAG]

Standard wood trim for all the usual areas is probably best sourced from a breaker such as Eurojag. They advertise in our magazine.

As far as non standard item around the console area, Arden in Germany marketed a very poshed up trim kit. The one I have seen was of a mahogany look. Suggest you take a look at their site and go from there. Expect to pay a substantial price for such bespoke items.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... G4&cad=rja

Hope that helps.

Mike

[Martec]

Hi Tonye and Mike,

Up until 6 weeks ago I was working on a repair to the early door locks (a local builder returned from his holiday an we have replaced the drive approx. 80 tons out and 80 tons in) the rear door lock I have here is from a 1999 /2000 car and is operated by a small motor and 3 micro switches, one tells the ECU's (many of them) that the door is shut or open, the other two control the motor.

The front door locks have the same two control switches and more auxiliary switches for other purposes.

The number of switches is irrelevant as the two micro switches controlling the motor are the important ones and seem to be more fragile. I have been trying to work out how it operates and have worked out a wiring diagram of the control switches but to no avail, also trying to source the switches at a sensible price to rebuild a lock (can be up to £200 for a new lock).

I have also tried to work out how to open it when it locks and stays locked (in my case open and does not lock). As Mike says you need to remove the door card and I thought removing the seat would make it easier, but that can be a problem, 4 bolts hold it down and a friend (Roger) with a spares car is struggling. Then you have poor access to the door lock, but it is possible to unlock the door .

As it is a motor operated lock, there is a gear drive and part of this is uncovered, it is on the inboard side of the lock, below the terminal block and closer to the door slam part of the lock. for the rear lock then a hole would need to be drilled in the inner door skin, don't know where it is in the front door, then a screw driver or a bent bit of steel would need to be used to turn the gear one tooth at a time (more difficult to write than do).

This is all theory as I can see the gear in the lock in my hand and turn it with a screwdriver, but getting good access in the car is the problem, also the lock would need to be electrically disconnected as it would fight you.

I have said it before, I no longer double lock any of our cars as this is the situation that can occur, single locking allows unlocking from inside, not much use to you Tonye.

In short,

Remove the seat,
remove the door card,
unplug the terminal from the lock,
Unless the gear can be seen or accessed, then drill a large hole (6mm) in the door in line with the gear wheel,
Using a screw driver turn the gear, wrong way and it will just become stiff, the other way and the door can be unlocked from inside using the pull rods.

I know this seems excessive, but the best of luck.

Brian

[tonye]

Had a look at what you said Brian but it looks like the front is slightly different, however I could see a curved housing on the lock mechanism and decided to try & cut a small slot in it with a stanley knife. A few skinned knuckles later I managed to cut a small a small opening in the housing and found I could release the dead lock
On the down side, I have cracked the door card(at the bottom where its can't be seen) and snapped off a couple of clips. From now on I will not be deadlocking the car!
Thanks for the guidance Brian and any one else who suffers this problem you can get in there but be prepared to cause a little damage as a result of opening the doors. Just one other thing why did Jaguar decide to use the worst of the parts from Ford, my old Scorpio used to do the lock unlock thing, still never mind I still love my Jag

[Martec]

Just to add a little information I got from 'Bob Bates' at the S type seminar the other month. He said that due to complaints from owners that their neighbours complained of a loud 'Thunk' as they unlocked their doors early in the mornings, Jaguar changed over to motor driven locks.

So far I have found only the micro switches fail, but to be fair they are designed for so many thousand actuations, which can come up at about 10 years or so. Again everything now is sub-assemblies and not designed for repair, but I'm still going to try.

Glad you were successful Tonye, so access is possible to unlock them.

Brian