I eventually got it in, after removing a torx screw which I had to use a mirror to see so that I could bend the plastic covering a little bit. There was no way to simply align the studs and bolts first; the left lower bracket had to go entirely behind the covering, and because of the things on the side of the glovebox, it was impossible to get the right lower in place after putting the left lower in place. It's hard to explain, but the only order that worked for me was: Left lower bracket, top, right lower bracket.

I should've taken the time to cover everything that the brackets could scrape with tough plastic before taking the glovebox out. Now I've got a lot of scraping down there, and I'm unhappy about it. I guess I got off easy, though. There were plenty of opportunities to do serious damage to other parts of the finish, which I avoided.

I wish I'd paid for a shop to do it. Between reading all about what to do online, going shopping 3 times to buy tools (20mm drill bit, torx wrenches, longer torx wrenches), and the install itself, it took me maybe 20 hours, and I'm not finished yet (tho what remains is trivial, except for reconnecting the glovebox lanyard).

The worst parts were:

- Trying to figure out what all the pictures were showing in Jaguar's abominable "we'll make it simple by not using any words!" instruction manual. I never figured out this one:

- Numerous mystery connectors that each took a long time to figure out how to disconnect

- Disconnecting the glovebox lanyard

- Disconnecting the freaking glovebox shelf cigarette lighter, which was put in at the one rotation which placed the tab, which you must press on very hard to remove it, between the connector and the wall so that it was very difficult to press, or even to know the tab was there.

- Figuring out that I had to unscrew the stick shift to remove the head unit

- Figuring out that I had to remove the air duct under the glovebox

- Wasting time trying to figure which fuses to pull to avoid disconnecting the battery; I pulled four fuses and the display console still had power; disconnected the battery anyway in the end

- Figuring out where to drill the hole in the glovebox in order to have the ACM attached under the shelf. With the glovebox shelf, if you drill the hole below the shelf, the box will bang against the wires and not close. If you drill above the shelf, the wires will project straight down and curve gradually back up, and so will again block the glovebox from closing. I drilled right on the "corner" of the curve, so the hole is angled, and the wires project down at an angle just under the shefl.

- Trying to get that 3-holed ACM plastic thingy to fit in the 20mm hole and stay in place without crimping the ACM wires. Gave up; did not use it.

- Taping down the glovebox-open sensor to the back of the glovebox. It's just hanging free behind the glovebox with nothing to hold it in place, so that it fell out when I moved the glovebox. It's hard to attach in any way because it has no mounting bracket, and in its center is a sliding part that will be obstructed if you simply tape it down. Would have been much easier if I'd taped it down before putting the glovebox back in.

- Getting those fiber optic cables to pass through behind the dash without bending them. In retrospect, should have passed the ACM end through from behind head unit to behind glovebox, instead of passing the head unit and CD-changer ends together from behind glovebox up to head unit.

- Once the ACM was on the back of the glovebox, I obviously had to connect the fiber optics cables to it first before re-installing the glovebox. There was a wire from the head unit that I obviously had to connect to the head unit first, and the ACM second. So which was I supposed to put back first, the glovebox or the head unit? I put the glovebox back first, and was able to connect that wire from the head unit to the ACM, but it wasn't easy. I recommend not taking the glovebox out, and NOT putting the ACM where Jaguar says to (on the backside of the glovebox, between the weird metal whatever-it-is sheet glued to the plastic and behind the insulation), or else putting it there, but cutting the insulation behind the glovebox away, and taping it back together afterwards.

- The fiber optic cable slipped out of the ACM; luckily I noticed before I'd gotten the glovebox back in. Jaguar has only 2 types of connectors: Ones that are almost impossible to disconnect, and ones with nothing at all to hold them in place.

- Getting the head unit re-attached without yanking on the fiber optics cables, and without the head unit scratching the wood finish over the ashtray, or the stickshift (with wooden knob removed) from scratching the display console

- Putting the glovebox back in without tearing all the insulation on the back away (what is that for, anyway?) or scratching the plastic whatever-you-call-it below the wooden dash; I should have protected everything that could be scratched

- Figuring out that there was a torx screw holding the lower-left plastic covering in place near the glovebox lower-left mounting bracket; removing it without being able to see the screw

- while lying on my back in the dark in a snowstorm.

 

I have an 04 with CDC and Nav screen. I would like to use the audio system to hear and make phone calls with my win 8 phone. Does that mean pulling out the radio unit and swapping it for a bluetooth unit?

 

POSTSCRIPT

Today I went out shopping & tried the ACM on the way before putting everything back together. I put some MP3 files on an 8G stick & went out to the car. I turned on the display, & it said JAGUAR (TM). Good. Switched to climate controls and they worked. Good. Switched to audio.

Despair. I felt pretty bad all thru my shopping trip. When I got back in the car, I thought, "I wonder if I plugged the radio head unit fuse back in?" Nope.

Turned the car off, plugged that fuse back in. There was loud, bright blue spark when I did so. Argh.

Turned on the audio. It worked! Switched to CDC. It started playing... but no sound. Despair.

Then I thought, maybe I should plug the USB stick in, instead of leaving it in my pocket.

Success! I did not have to enter any codes or have any apparent problems due to having disconnected the battery, apart from some warning about the parking brake ("PARKING BRAKE FAULT", I think), which went away after I put the brake on "manually".

Kind of. The console doesn't display folder names, and it isn't apparent how to move between folders. Most of the time, pressing "CD 1" on the display skips ahead to the next folder. Pressing any other CD number seems to play the first MP3 from a random folder. I thought it would be a simple "CD2 moves forward 2 folders, CD4 moves forward 4 folders", but it isn't.

 

Remember, you only get 5 folders, CD1-5. CD6 is Play All, or rather, the first 99 tracks. With that said, I have sometimes had mine not want to play the correct folder. Denison has released a firmware upgrade, but I haven't tried it yet.

 

Also check that your car can handle that big of a USB stick. I had similar odd problems on my 2005 STR until I read that Jaguar recommends 4GB maximum USB size.
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Was this install on your '04 XJ? If so, not sure why you had so much trouble. Mine was pretty straightforward with the instructions provided earlier in this thread.

 

Get the firmware upgrade. It's worth it.


For me, I installed a mount for my iPhone 4s and use it's screen to control what is sent to the stereo system. Can't make phone calls, which is the only drawback so far. I think adding Bluetooth would solve that, but isn't important enough for me to spend the money on it.

 

Found this, hope it helps explain

-mag

 

Just all the little "gotchas" that I listed in the long message, places where I couldn't figure out what to do from instructions. That, and the fear of ruining everything.

 

Start reading from Post 10 of this thread for how to control the ACM AFTER the latest firmware update.


I would recommend the firmware update, and everyone who has done it seems to have had success and likes it.

 

That firmware seems to add a bunch of useful features, considering a flash now...

thanks-
mag

 

Yesterday, my ACM worked. Today, it doesn't. The car just plays the CDs that are in the CD changer, no matter what position I put the ACM switch in, or whether I turn the ignition off and on again after switching it.

The blue light was previously "on" in ACM position (white dot) and "off" in CDC position (black dot). Documentation says it should flash in CDC position.

ADDED: Now it works again. I think either
A. I have to wait a while after the car starts before pushing the "CDC" button, or
B. the CD changer needs to have a CD in all 6 positions for the ACM to work, or
C. the radio must not be in CDC mode when it's turned on.

 

Xeno, check the power to the ACM unit

 

When I have the switch to ACM position (white dot) I get a solid blue light. When I put it to CD changer, it blinks as if it is accessing a drive, however I have no actual CD changer fitted in the trunk so not sure what it would do if you had one.


I suspect you have no power to the ACM, and the unit defaults to the CD changer in the boot, which probably still works because it derives its power independently.


Note to others:
BY CDC we are referring to the CD changer in the trunk, and not the CDC button on the dash. The CDC button on the dash now selects the ACM instead of the CD changer in the trunk. To access the CD changer in the trunk, the switch on the ACM needs to be set to CDC, so that when you press the CDC button, the ACM just acts as a pass through to the CD changer in the trunk.

 

Before I installed the latest upgrade, I could advance to the next music folder on my USB stick by pressing one of the CD slots. I think it was CD 1. I couldn't use the iPod interface to see track names or select tracks.

After the upgrade, I can use the ipod's interface to control it, but if I use a USB stick instead, there's no way to skip to the next folder. None of the CD 1-6 do anything anymore, except one of them restarts at the beginning of the current folder, which is pretty useless. I now have to advance track by track, which is awkward since I've got hundreds of tracks on the stick.

 

Sorry. I always use my iPhone and have never used a USB for music, so can't speak to that.

 

If the ACM stops working you can reset it. There is a small pin hole in the body of the ACM where the blue light is. It's not easy to see but I use a needle and I only have to do it once in a great while.
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How do you know that they system needs to be rebooted? How does "stops working" manifest itself?

 

Xeno, read Post 10 of this thread. The way the ACM is controlled after this update is different. Functionality may depend upon how the USB folders are set up. Give it a try and let us know if this works!

 

Hear is the original manual from Jim Rothe, but be careful not to trust it entirely. As seamagineer said above, after the firmware update, it changes a bit. I still had my original file, so I uploaded it here for others if they want it.

if you want to change folders, hit Disc 1, then you have 5-6 seconds to use the << or >> buttons to go forward or backward. That's about all I use since I have my music in folders. And you can always put more than 99 tracks in a folder, the numbering system just gets looped, so don't restrict yourself with that little obstacle when setting up folders.