I’m new to the forum but I’ve referenced it many times. You all have a ton of knowledge so I’m hoping someone can help me solve my situation. I have a 97 XK8 convertible .. I’ve had it for 20 years. It’s only used in spring summer & generally needs jumped each spring after a long winter in the garage. I lost the main key/fob a few years ago so i only have the valet key/fob. I had a friend who would jump something under the hood which would give it enough juice to pop the trunk lever without using a key. Then we could gain access to the battery.
Does anyone have an idea what to attach the jumper cables to under the hood to do this? I appreciate your feedback & time. Thank you

 

Well Bethany, firstly you need to get a new fob. They are freely available for about 40 quid or 50 USD and any mechanic can programme that for you . You can even do it yourself as every XK8/R will have a learning memory chip. It is a simple process that you can Google.

If you are going to leave your car in the garage over the winter then I would recommend disconnecting the battery, just disconnect the black negative terminal, you dont need to disconnect the red live one, it will not run down. Also I recommend that you go to your local petrol station and pump all of the tyres up to about 50 PSI if you do not have ramps in your storage facility. This will stop your tyres from flat spotting in your garage. If you have good petrol like premium unleaded in the tank then it should not degrade if left for 6 months. Also be aware that certain components like rubber hoses will degrade much more quickly if left over a period of months.

To be honest with you I really would not recommend that you should garage an old XK8 for 6 months over the winter. Much better to run it for a good few miles once in a while over the Winter when the weather is good and the roads are dry.

The car needs to be run, otherwise a lot of the perishable stuff, rubber hoses etc can deteriate very quickly if left to dry up and rot.

The battery is located on the right hand side under the cover in the boot (trunk). You should follow the instructions given on the jump cables instructions for the correct order to connect them. I think... red from the donor car, then red to your battery, then an earth metal piece on your car then the black to the donor battery, then turn on the donor car engine. After 2 minutes turn on your engine, turn off the donor car engine. Then switch off both engines and disconnect the leads in reverse order.

Just my humble opinion 😀

Hope this helps

Stephen 👍