A couple of weeks ago weirdness started happening in my 95 VdP. It happened more often when I was starting or stopping or hit a bump. But it also happened just sitting there running.

All the lights on the dash console turn on, all the gauges go to zero, and a few seconds later the gauges return, the lights turn off, except the airbag light remains on and the odometer display reads "Airbag" and won't display anything else.

Now it's happening much more; about 10-12 times in my 15 mile drive to work this morning.

My mechanic thinks the console is junk. I think it's a frayed wire making intermittent contact (but I sure hope it isn't that).

Anybody seen anything like this?

 

Either your battery is dying (buff batteries do lots of weird things) , you have a short somewhere (which could be interesting to find) or the cluster is failing.

Has happened twice to mine, one time was a short in the headlight wireing, easy enough to diagnose as it only "rebooted" when I switched on the headlights.
2nd time was happening randomly, swapped out the cluster and that fixed it.

 

Shouldn't be the battery, it's less than a year old from the dealer. I hate to think of what the cluster would cost...

 

About £20 on ebay! You just need to swap over the ODO at the bottom to keep the mileage. Only held in with 2 screws and two cable connectors at the back.

 

Push the button labeled "ODO" right of the steering column to clear "Airbag" and restore your info display.


Pull the coil cover and run the car in the dark, looking for a lightning show from your coils before you buy a cluster (you may need the cluster-money for coils)


Ahhh! Just now noticed you have the 6.0L and have strayed over from the X305 forum... might not be so easy.... but could well still be a bad coil, or three, or... eleven....

 

My trusted parts source says $400, and he needs the numbers off the back to get the correct one. I do see them on eBay for much much less. Humm....

 

Better not be a bad ignition coil. I replaced all of them last Spring with OEM parts. GOt them for $80 per (usually $99) from jagbits.com.

I have a 4.0 liter 6. looks like I should edit my profile.

 

Is it suggested that the dash circuit board is kaput? Or does the whole dash console component have to be swapped out?

Years ago I had a car exhibit similar behaviour and I simply replaced the circuit board.

 

Don't know,. I haven't gotten into that level of detail. I kinda hope that it would be both for that price.

 

https://www.britishparts.co.uk/produ...coil-LHE1510AB

I and many other have had the same problem with the dash. Bizarre as it may seem, it is likely your ignition coils. If you search around about X300 ignition coils on this forum, you will see that the original parts are either not available or very expensive, and a lot of folks have their doubts about aftermarket bits. I had some cheap unknown manufacturer coils which failed within a few months. However I fitted new "Lucas" coils from British Parts about 18 months ago. They were reasonably cheap and they are OK up to now. The reason I put "Lucas" in inverted commas is that they are indeed supplied by Lucas but not the same menufacturer as the originals. I have pasted in a link. Hope that's not against the rules. My story was more complicated. The car ran terribly and was virtually undrivable. It was two problems at the same time which is when it gets properly confusing. Ended up changing many parts which probably didn't need changing, but in the end it was the coils and the ECU which were at fault. You can look at my previous posts to find the chain if it interests you.

 

The British Parts coil is £23.99 plus VAT.

 

Well, I did replace all six of my coils last spring. At US$80 each. I sure hope it's not them.

I'm going to take it into the dealer, where he can read the codes.

I replaced the dash console. Didn't help.

 

One thing which occurred to me when I was agonising about coils was maybe to buy a stack of second hand but original pieces off ebay (hopefully just a few dollars each; I see you talk dollars, so are in the US? There should be plenty on sale in the US I would hope, so no tax or importation issues) in the hope that at least some would still be good. Obviously I haven't seen your replacement coils. I believe you wrote that they were original parts - did they look exactly like the ones you removed?

 

and sorry to hear about the dash console.

 

There are a number of threads with folks reporting new "OEM" ignition coils failed in a few months. Did your OEM coils say "Lucas" on them?

 

I didn't install them myself, but they were definitely OEM. Jaguar IGNITION COIL, COIL-ON-PLUG TYPE, DOES NOT INCLUDE GASKET - LHE1510AB-OE.

 

Nothing there to prove they are actual OEM coils. Even the ones presently being sold by Lucas are not true OEM coils.

here's some info. You don't have to read every post but browse thru and you see some pics which identify the actual OEM coils. Anything other than true OEM ranges from "iffy" to "junky"

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...0-coils-93966/

Cheers
DD

 

Yow! That's really scary. I don't have a clue how I might buy the correct type. But I still have to check if that's the problem.

 

The attached is a pic of an original. Not very good definition unfortunately, but the label is distinctive. My new non-OEM Lucas coils do not have the same label.

 

Well, I wound up getting "made in Japan" coils from SNG Barrat on eBay:
Jaguar XJ6 XJR XJS Ignition Coil LHE1510AB Made In Japan!! True OEM. I've driven about 100 miles with no problems, and I before couldn't drive five miles without the problem showing up.