So I'm in an interesting one this week.

Full disclaimer: I have yet to get the battery tested, as the latest didn't creep up until yesterday. Now, onto the story:

A couple weeks ago, I replaced the climate control bulbs in the dash. Afterwards, I would get random Gearbox Fault errors, which got more plentiful as days went by, almost every time I would stop the car. Sometimes it would through a P0705, other times not. But I could move the car out of park, clear the code, and drive fine. My assumption was that in my dis-assembly of the console to get to my bulbs, I jarred the J-gate switches enough to upset the balance in the force. Haven't had a chance to re-open it, but I assumed that was the problem. I will admit that I did the procedure without disconnecting the battery.

Yesterday, took the car out to dinner, and noticed that suddenly, my locks aren't working correctly. Central lock on the dash doesn't work correctly, though you can hear the door actuators clicking (I assume that's the click I hear from each) but no operation. The driver's lock will not function in any way, shape, or form. It stays unlocked no matter what. When stopping, I cannot unlock the other doors in my usual manner of pulling the driver's handle. I assume since the driver's door is already unlocked, it won't trigger? The passenger door WILL unlock the rest when it's pulled. I just noticed that today. Sometimes I can use the key fob to lock/unlock and it will unlock the rest, though I do risk starting the alarm chirping in the interim. Also if I just start the car, and leave it in park, the central dash button will LOCK all the doors, but not unlock them at all. The key also will not turn in the door lock to LOCK the door. Unlocking clockwise works fine, but can't turn counter at all.

So then I decide that you know, maybe it's time to check the battery. It's an AC Delco that looks relatively new but of course that means little, but I haven't had a chance to check it anywhere yet. Voltage when running is fine, car starts fine, but again, we all know that means little in the grand scheme.

I went out on my break at work, and attempted to perform a hard reset, even resigned that if I had to call for a radio code after, so be it. I went to the trunk, pulled the panel. Pulled the negative from the battery post, and touched it to the positive. Held it for a count of ten or so, reattached and went back to the car. As I had read, usually the car will have to "relearn" a few things, so I start the car. Starts with a high idle for about 3 seconds, settles right down to normal. Weird, I think, as most people had said they had a little more roughness to start than that. Then I turn the radio on. All presets are still there. Door locks still funky. Now I think maybe I didn't get the reset properly.

I return to the trunk, remove BOTH cables, hold them together for almost a minute. Reattach. Back to the car. Same thing. No relearning from the car's point, all presets are still in place.

Is it possible that on an '03 XJR, a hard reset just simply doesn't reflash presets, and maybe it DID reset the rest of everything and the stock radio has longer memory retention? Since I haven't had to leave anywhere, I can't verify if anything else acts up yet. But since the doors are still acting the same, I can just surmise that maybe my hard reset didn't work. So I'm open to other suggestions for that.

The only other thing I have yet to try is to revert my trailer wiring I added Saturday, which is drawing power from the main post on the fuse box in the trunk (was a very easily accessible power point that is only on with the switch, so it seemed logical). It's the standard curt wiring adapter, so I can't imagine it would be causing all those issues, though I imagine that if the battery is weak, that maybe? Or maybe that's all coincidence. I'll remove that on lunch and then try another hard reset with the cables hooked together for 20 minutes and see if THAT does anything).

So I'm thinking that at this point, it could be any or all of the following:

- Weak battery - will have tested in the next day or two
- Hard Reset might solve something (if it even works?)
- J-Gate adjustments/switches, etc
- Door lock actuator in the driver's door that somehow is causing the other doors to act funky (EDIT: This seems to certainly be the case in my door issue. Just coincidence I guess?

I am still combing through every post that seems even closely relevant to any of my issues, but if anyone wants to give any other advice in the meantime (aside from "replace the battery" - I already know that one. Just looking towards other things i might not have thought of, or in case that doesn't fix things). And, if anyone knows if my hard reset does work but just doesn't reset presets? Or should I fully expect presets to disappear once I've successfully "reset" it?

EDIT: Went around the block, came back to work, Gearbox Fault. Put it in drive, moved forward 6 inches, park, turned car off and on, cleared again. Starting to think that all the modules in this thing are deciding to team up and go on strike all at once.

 

When troubleshooting, start by undoing whatever you recently changed. Remove the trailer wiring, and check.

 

yeah, that's on the agenda in about ten minutes. I'm probably one of the very few people upset that I didn't lose my presets when trying a reset tho lol. (Will try again after the wiring reversal).

Side note: if anyone has any current links to any sub-$400 actuator replacements, or any compatible units that can be retrofitted into the existing assembly, just in case that's what gave up on me, that'd be awesome. Coming up awful short on the availability list, though I think I found one on jagbits for $125? still ouch. Price to play, I guess.

UPDATE: Went out and disconnected the trailer wiring from the power. Then pulled both cables from the battery, and left them hooked together (the cables by themselves) for ten minutes. Reconnected and the car went to slightly higher-than-normal idle for about 8 seconds, then dropped to purring like normal. And then turned on the radio, yep, still all programmed. So I can only assume the factory '03 CD/NAV system has longer memory retention. Either that, or there's some other battery backup hidden in the car that I have no idea about. The higher idle makes me wonder if the reset took and it's just the presets stay. But I can't be sure, there's no green light or DING! when the reset is done, so I'm just guessing now.

On the lookout for a replacement actuator. Someone had mentioned a generic replacement that they found for 5-7 bucks or something, but no mention of what, or part numbers or anything. Have a feeling I'll be taking my vaca with funky doors until I get back.

 

The slightly higher-than-normal idle on first start is what my car has done every time after a successful hard reset. Also, all radio presets have been preserved. I'm thinking the radio must have some sort of flash memory to save its settings. Even if I leave the battery cables hooked together overnight, the radio presets are still preserved.

 

I do agree with you there, as I realized on the drive home tonight that my trip odometer and stats had reset to zero. So something certainly happened. It still didn't solve my other issues, but I'm sure it couldn't hurt to do it. Going to try to get the battery load tested tomorrow, but I'm thinking now that it's likely fine.

Pretty sure that my Gearbox fault stemmed from when I had it apart to do the bulbs in the console and probably bumped something, so I'll have to take that apart again and see what's up. And then the door is probably the actuator, which will have to wait until after my trip, or whenever I can find a good deal on one. Unless anyone knows of an alternative that I can swap into place via surgery.

 

So far, after the hard reset, my gearbox fault message came back on once (twice?) the night I did it, but hasn't shown up in the few days since. I assume it just took a cycle or two to sort itself out, but it's certainly a relief to not see that pop up every time.

 

Would suggest that a good lube of the door lock. This uses some over center mechanics, to trigger the actuator. While you, might be able to lube it from outside, I had to remove it to really clean and free it up.
Also check the cable from door handle to lock. It does fray and the end breaks off.

 

I actually did as much as I could without being able to get the latch out. Obviously I do need to get it out completely either way, but it does open smoother, as far as the latch goes. Just wasn't enough to free the actuator up. And the cable end is starting to get worn, so both the actuator and cable are on the to-do list when I get back from my road trip. I'm almost scared to pull the other door and check it, but I probably should just to be safe.