Folks,

I had a weird electrical experience this afternoon that goes as follows:

Turned on passenger seater, it smoked at the switch: some gray and
colored pinkish smoke. Car was running. Turned off car.
Smoking dissipated.

A couple of other lights on that panel blinked. Noticed the door lock light blink.
The heated seat switch would not disengage.

Started car to drive home a couple of miles away. After a minute or so,
noticed some more gray smoke briefly. Red lights on switch but the
white light illuminating the seat image not lit.

Got home. Put the car in park. Had turned on headlights on way home.

When car was put in park, parking brake fault came on. ABS light came on.
When I turned ignition key off, car kept running.

After a few attempts of putting car back in gear, and then in park, eventually
the car turned off. At that point I disconnected battery.

Also perhaps relevant. Had just gotten car back from repairs. Left front door
replaced. Lady had driven into my left front door in a parking lot.

Noticed rattle in door earlier this afternoon. Shaking door confirmed there
is something loose and causing the rattle. Had planned to take car back to
body shop.

Lastly, my front left headlight had been out. I'd purchased bulbs but had not
replaced. Noticed front left headlight now working.

So, is there an easy way to pull out the panel to access the heated seat switch?
Passenger heated seat worked earlier this afternoon. But I'm not sure the
switch was working cleanly. Can I easily disconnect that switch? Is there a
fuse I can pull to turn off that switch without affecting other circuit?

Cheers,

Rob

84 xj-s 3.6 5 speed
05 S-Type 4.2
03 STR
67 XKE roadster (sold)
00 XJ8 (sold)

 

Rob,

You did the best possible thing by disconnecting the battery.

Smoking wiring is never good news and there could be some expensive damage.

I'd notify the repairers a.s.a.p. and have the vehicle returned to them on a recovery vehicle for investigation and repair.

If you start to troubleshoot this yourself they can claim it's something you've done.

Graham

 

Thanks,

I don't know what occurred at the body shop when the driver side door was replaced. It is beyond me whether work related to replacing the driver door
could cause a passenger heater switch to burn up.

My immediate concern is getting to the switch, and, if possible, disabling it
so it can then be replaced. If someone were to suggest the body shop's work
could be related to the passenger heater seat switch, I'd consider towing the
car etc to see if their work may have contributed to the problem.

Otherwise, I need to think the switch broke and deal with it, and hopefully no other electronics were damaged.

I'd be interested to hearing thoughts on what was occurring to cause my ignition to apparently not work correctly, the parking brake fault, etc.

I'm at a total loss for why my left headlight began to work after all this time,
unless, perhaps, there'd been a bad fuse and someone at the body shop replaced it.

The heater seat switch seemed to stick and not work well when we tried to use it earlier in the afternoon. Then, when the switch malfunctioned, it seemed to stick so that we couldn't turn it off.

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

I agree with GGG, who knows what they may have connected or disconnected during the course of repairs. The symptoms you describe are highly unusual to say the least. I wouldn't touch it at all - have it taken back to the repair shop and demand an investigation. There could be loose/exposed wiring in the door that is shorting out your electrical system and causing all types of havoc. I'd definitely recommend you return it to the repair shop and then take it from there.

 

The smoking switch might just be a symptom but probably not the cause of a serious electrical problem. I wouldn't risk screwing with it and possibly awakening the ghost of Joseph Lucas.

Take it back to the garage that serviced it.

 

I pulled the fuse from the heater switch and I'm left with the parking brake fault and an abs light. Disconnect and reconnect of the battery temporarily cleared the fault. When I put her in park the parking brake doesn't look like
its automatically engaging. But it engages and disengages manually.

So, Monday she's going to the dealer to run the black box and then she'll
go back to the body shop.

Parking brake fuses I checked in the luggage compartment looked ok.

Pretty sure the switch is toasted. I'll find out tomorrow if the switch can be
changed out by itself, and I'll be on the phone to Coventry West.

Had 1606 and 1758 codes, so more will be revealed when I get her to the dealer.

Car starts and turns off and operates normally.

 

Electricity depends upon proper circuit functioning, the transmission of negative ions by retention of the visible spectral manifestation known as "smoke". Smoke is the thing that makes electrical circuits work; we know this to be true because every time one lets the smoke out of the electrical system, it stops working. This can be verified repeatedly through empirical testing.
When, for example, the smoke escapes from an electrical component (i.e., say, a Lucas voltage regulator), it will be observed that the component stops working. The function of the wire harness is to carry the smoke from one device to another; when the wire harness "springs a leak", and lets all the smoke out of the system, nothing works afterwards. Starter motors were frowned upon in British Automobiles for some time, largely because they consume large quantities of smoke, requiring very large wires. It has been noted that Lucas components are possibly more prone to electrical leakage than Bosch or generic Japanese electrics. Experts point out that this is because Lucas is British and all things British leak. British engines leak oil, shock absorbers, hydraulic forks and disk brakes leak fluid, British tyres leak air and the British defense establishment leaks secrets...so, naturally, British electrics leak smoke.

 

LOL- thankfully, there's always replacement smoke available



Lucas Replacement Smoke Kit

Although intended for a Triumph, I have it on good authority that it is interchangeable with that used on Jags.

 

Rofl!!!!!

 

Since my 15 yr old step-child, Nicholas, is infatuated with smoke, or perhaps
better put, smoking, I wonder if he might get turned on to british cars if he
took a toke of Lucas. That way, he'd stay broke, broke down, or become obsessed with DIY and use his sockets on the car instead of swiping mine to use as bowls to smoke pot with.