OK. You should only see B+ on the white/orange wire with the ignition switched off or accessory position i AND the brake pedal pressed. WO is grounded by the ignition switch at position ii.

Do you have B+ on the blue/slate wire on the connector to the brake switch? If not, I suggest working your way back along its route toward the trunk. Do you have the 97 electrical guide?

 

I didn't look at it today. I will check voltages tomorrow. Thanks for the guidance. Happy Easter.

 

Hi Michael,
Hope all is well with you. I finally gave up on my banging my head on my Jag and took it to my Jag dealer. They found a wire in my harness from the Brake switch to the passenger side kick plate broken. They needed to pull up carpet and parts of the dash to run a jumper. $710.50 jumper!!. I may have found the problem, but I needed a place to dump some of my stimulus windfall. Thank you for all the help you gave me. Especially the moral support. They also found a left wheel bearing that is in need of replacement. Quoted me another $750.00 repair I think I can handle that one myself. I thought when you retire you left work behind! Thanks again. Bob

 

Hey Bob,
Glad you got there - although $750 is a pretty expensive piece of wire

You don't say whether it's a front or a rear bearing, but search the forum as others here have gone before you. You will need a press to get the bearings out and in.

Good luck! and keep safe.

 

Bob, I am new here so if this is not allowed, or is inappropriate just ignore this message. I have a 2000 XKR, 130,000 miles, with perhaps a similar problem as the one you had. The similarity is that my car starts and runs but I am also locked in park. I have to occasionally remove the panel with the tail and brake lights to wiggle things to get them to work properly, which is also similar to your symptoms. I have an additional symptom that causes both turn signal indicators and the bright headlight indicator to stay on any time the battery is connected, The lights themselves are not on while these indicators are on. Did you have any other symptoms, and what did you do to get your car out of park before you had the shop repair it? The thread seems to focus on the brake lights.
Glad you got yours repaired, that was an expensive diagnosis though.
Thanks, Jim 2000XKR

 

Hi Yankee Papa, You have more problems than I did. My fix was replacing the brake switch (may not have been bad) and having Jag dealer replace a wire from the brake switch to the wire harness. Symptoms were - blocked in Park and no brake lights (Both 2 side/rear and 1 under the rear window). For 2 days, when I replaced my brake switch, everything was working correctly. I must have stressed the harness at the brake switch connector, which broke the wire. Laying under the dash with the driver's seat out was almost impossible! I had no other problems. They say that we shouldn't give out our phone #, but here you go...651-278-6468 good luck, Bob

 

This must be a common problem with older XK8s. When I got mine several years ago, the transmission lock was inoperative and service records indicated unsuccessful efforts to fix it. Also, there was a new wire for the rear lights - inoperative along with the blue/slate OEM wire.

I fixed it with a new lighting wire from front to back, as described above, and wired the transmission interlock directly from the brake switch. (You can hear it click every time I brake.

I couldn't tell you exactly how I ran the wire from front to back, but have had additional problems with the lamp control module (which had been removed and soldered into one junction) and rear lights. Pretty sure most of the problems have been caused by short circuits/improperly wired tail lamps...Some of which may have been my fault in the repair process. Others from the previous owner.

Seems to me we have two choices. Either fix it ourselves, getting handy with the volt ohm meter and test light. Or pay a technician for several hours of work...Though I should think someone who specializes on XK8s would simply replace the lighting wires, lamp modules, etc. without messing around. Expensive either way.

As for the transmission interlock, I'm not sure hot wiring it to the brake switch could be called a professional repair. On the other hand, there are several/many threads on the forum that were both long and unsuccessful. I'm curious to know if my past work on the brake lights has miraculously cured the orange/black wire to the interlock solenoid, but am not sufficiently motivated to find out.

 

Thanks for the reply Bob. I have not taken time to troubleshoot the Jag in a while, it is not a car I drive very often. I'm glad you got yours sorted out, although a bit costly. Some other threads on here seem to point to the instrument cluster. It's not difficult to pull so that will be my next step when I get time. Again, I appreciate the response. Jim