My 2003 XJ8 has a broken 54 way connector. It's the male connector that attaches near the gas tank, on the right side, in the trunk. The problem first reared it's head about 3 years ago and we were able to make a solid connection with a heavy duty zip tie holding it in place. Recently that has failed and the car will not start. Other issues include: no power to radio, fuel gauge will not work, right rear directional is out, running lights also off. The electric door locks do not work as well. When it first happened, the connectors locking mechanism was broken but we were able to find the sweet spot and get all of the above issues working. At this point, we've had no luck getting all things to function at once. The connection has degraded further and the plastic is cracked in more than one place. It's shot now. The car only has 84K on it and looks perfect. I'd hate to scrap it over this. Any thoughts or experience with this would be great!

 

Any photos of the damage?

 

No, the car is not here right now. It's at my mechanics garage. We pretty much would need a new harness or we'd have to re-build the connector by acquiring one and do one wire at a time.

I'm thinking that we could bypass the multi pin connectors and just attach the wires directly. Have to remove the back seat and parcel shelf. Quite a chore, but I think it would be the most reliable way. 54 connections with some solder and heat shrink may be the trick.

I'll see if I can post some pics tomorrow but this connector is toast! Thanks for the reply!

 

Hi,
I had a similar problem on my RHD year 2000 XJ8 only the multi plug giving me problems was the one in the passenger footwell, it is a through panel plug. On mine the two halves were a very loose fit and had been giving me all sorts of electrical problems for ages. I decided to cut out and solder every wire, this was a one way trip as once started there was no going back. I used heat shrink on all the joints and only cut one at a time, it was a scary job but it worked and I have had no more gremlins, well not from that plug!

 

Thanks for sharing your story. Yeah, I think the method will work and I'm looking forward to having secure connections back there. The loom has too many vital connectors that can cause a dangerous situation while driving. I'm throwing in the towel searching for a 10 or 15 year old replacement loom which is only going to fail eventually. These are gorgeous old cars but you really have to love them to keep dealing with the ongoing electrical rabbit holes!
I'll post results when I complete.

 

Maybe you don't have to solder all 54. Is it possible to fasten the connector together where some pins connect and solder in jumpers around the connector only for the ones not making contact

 

So far everything is working flawlessly and after frequent use, there seems to be no issues. See photo of finished modification.

 

That's exactly what I did, I'm glad it's worked for you as well, you should not have any more trouble in that area!

As you say they are very nice cars, I have had mine for nearly four years and have nearly or even have, been driven mad by all the different problems. As just one example, out of many, we were on holiday and happened to drive over a cobbled road, the car just cut out! I mean where do you start looking for that problem? After 5-10 minutes car restarted and we got back home, I then discovered the car had an inertia switch hidden in the footwell, on pressing the top down the switch clicked into place. The shaking on the rough road had partially triggered it causing it to cut out and that is just one problem out of many. Just part of the joys of Jaguar ownership I suppose.