Hi all...well, I finally made the worst mistake of my life. I tried to jump the dead battery on my 02 Jag X-Type, but got the polarity reversed on the dead jag battery. It was hooked up for 8 seconds. I did not turn the key on the Jag, but my Camry was running with the cables correctly attached. Immediately pulled the bad battery and had it tested, and it was fried. Replaced it with a new Interstate battery.
But even with the new battery, the Jag won’t start. Starter clicks and it cranks, but it won’t turn over. Tried 3 short cranks with the key and gave up. I tired a few searches but didn’t find a post related. Good to know I’m the only X type owner to do something so stupid. Might be snowed in shortly, so a good time to redeem myself, with a little help.
Thanks everyone, M.M.

 

JagRt129, lets first start with the simple stuff and then we will go from there. Sounds like you got a new battery, but did you put that new battery on a charger? I only ask as it is a simple thing that most people go "it is a new battery, it must be at 100%". That is not a true statement. Batteries can self discharge just sitting there. So, I would say to first put the battery on a charger and give it overnight to ensure the battery is at 100%. I think you will find that the motor will then turn over and start for you.

Now, assuming that you did the battery charger and the motor is still not turning and you can hear the starter engage. This is telling me that odds are, you have 1 of 2 things going on. Worst case, you have somehow siezed the motor. Highly unlikely, so, put your heart back in your chest and take a deep swallow. The more likely problem is that you have a high resistance connection on a battery cable (not an uncommon thing with the X-Type). What I am going to say is to get a second person to help you out. What is going to happen now is you are going to open the hood of the car and remove the cover off of the battery. One person is going to hold their hands on the battery terminals (one hand on each terminal, making sure to remove any metal (ie, rings, watches, etc)) from the hands as the other person is going to turn the key to the START position and hold it there for around 5-10 seconds. What the person at the battery is looking for is one of the terminals to start to get warm. They should feel one terminal start to get warm as the other remains cold. The terminal that gets warm is your bad battery cable. You will need to replace that cable.

What I would guess happened is as you replaced the battery, you exercised the cable a little too much and you broke some of the strands inside the cable, leading to a high resistance point. Like I said, this is a common problem and this would have occurred eventually. The battery replacement just sped it up a little bit. Now, the good thing is, it would appear that you didn't fry any electronics from the sounds of things. So, smile about that.