My new (to me) '98 XK8 has two warning lights on the lower front face of the speedo; one left and one right of center.
PLEASE tell me what they are for. The one on the right lights up on & off.

Any help appreciated

 

Picture please? Are these the ones that are just above the small message screen, one red and one amber?

 

Hi, we Forum folk are helpful but.....

We’ll need a bit more info. Are you referring to the central instrument cluster of the 3 dials? The left one is the oil pressure, clock middle, and battery voltage on the RHS. The oil pressure gauge starts with red light which goes off when you start the car.

If it’s the main dashboard instrument cluster behind the steering wheel, then there’s a lot of warning lights and we’ll need a lot more info to help. What’s the lights, where, and are there any messages? May be serious and also may be minor? Bulbs are known to blow due to the age of our cars. Don’t leave it as the car may be trying to tell you something is wrong.

As as an example the car has different control modules which talk to each other. If the ABS system isn’t getting correct info from the sensors, it won’t give the automatic transmission the right info to change gears properly. That’ll eventually blow the transmission, even though that may take years.

 

14 warning lights are arranged within the dials of the two instrument clusters.
"RED" warning lights are for primary warnings. "AMBER" warning lights are for secondary warnings.
A bulb check cycle is initiated when the ignition is switched ON and lasts 3-4 seconds. If any warning light remains on after this period, investigate the cause before driving.
When activated, some warning lights have associated messages displayed on the message center.

 

Have a look at the top of this Forum and the manuals are in a PDF I think and it will tel you what each light indicates.
The blinking one is more than likely the Seat belt light and if you count the blinks you will get 5 and something else. That is a seat belt code telling you what the exact problem is in the system. We do have a list of the codes in the above area, listing all kinds of fixes and problems.

 

This is with key on b4 start.

This is running, both lights out. You'll notice the odometer is trashed and should I buy a used cluster er wot?
New here and just learning the ropes. Had to leave early last pm; Dr. appts this am & all day!! ( Gonna live; 4 a while anyway!&#128512

Just got this black XK8 convert and am learning all the "buttons & lamps." (108k on the clock.)
Have had about a dozen LBC's over the years so am not exactly DENSE w/ Brit, but close to it on Jaguars.
I have all the orig manuals ( rarity in my experience), but can't figure out what the 2 lights on the speedo are for. They are located on the speedo face just below and R/L of the "mph" print.
Both light up on start and the left one goes out upon run, but SOMETIMES the right one stays on. Sure enuff, when I took the pic it went out, but the three starts b4, it stayed on!

Now, I have a red/green color impairment in my eyes so am not sure of red or amber or whatever. The even funnier part is that to me in real time, they look BOTH the same color, but in the pic, they look different, I think.
I am afraid to drive the car until I figure out that danged warning light.

I hope the pic helps.
You guys sure sound AWESOME in your Jag knowledge; I'll try to catch up and become of value.

 

Does the display below the two lights ( yellow / red ) ever display a message? If your key is on and one of the door is open, the red light will light and the display will say "Driver door open" or Passenger door open.

Several things will cause the red light on the right to light. Each one will prompt a text display in green Led letters describing the issue. No offense but can you read green on green?

This could be a simple as: something unlatched causing the red light; perhaps the words are unreadable or the display is broken. Can you see the cars milage displayed on it when you turn ignition on? Does the button at the end of the turn signal/headlightsettings stalk cycle different displays each time its pushed?[mileage, trip odometer, gallons used, gas milage , instant gas milage, miles left before your down to a bout a gallon or so (it indicates terminal mileage but as we've all found there's still a gallon or so in there)]

Yellow, the other light is intermittent as I recall. For example, It'll light when a tire starts to lose traction, the display will say ASC, for one example. You'll just barely see a flash in some cases like that.

There is a comprehensive list of all of the conditions that each cause either the amber (I called it yellow above)or red lights. Do you have access to that page in the manual?

Itd be something if you were driving around with something like a slightly unlatched roof (red light) but the display isn't telling you.

A little worse case: one of the cars microswitches is swinging faulty and maybe the car thinks the door or trunk or hood is open from an I intermittent switch. All of those conditions cause red lights but each always displays a message.

I read you question twice. Just double check- you do sometimes see red light after the ignition on light check cycle right?
John

 

Those two lights, and many others, come on in my car when I first put in the key. Basically they are saying "look at me I work". As I said my cars lights ALL come on in my spedo area initially. Then quickly go off one by one. Its when you get an accompanying message you have to take notice. As stated above when your in the car and the lights have gone out try opening your car door. You should get a "Drivers Door Open" message with a red light.

 

Thanx Frank; much appreciated.

I'll try all the combinations & try to come up with the cause since my message panel is unreadable; clouded like my rearview mirror which is another problem, but got a handle on that.
Is there a way to replace that message window w/o switching the whole gauge cluster? The latter is quite available, but I imagine some dealer programming would be required either way?
I sent a long reply also thanking John for his lengthy and informative reply, but used my mail program to respond and it was a non delivery. I have learned!😕

I'm short on time right now, but will answer him again later today.
Meanwhile THX AGAIN 2 U both!!!

L8r,
Pepper

 

Pepper,

Sounds like you are new to this car. Just checking - do you have dashboard illumination turned up all the way? It's the small knob, left side of LHD steering wheel below the turn signal.

Turn it to the click for 100% illumination/ 0 dimming. Ttytt I should check to verify the message can be dimmed - just brainstorming mate.

**edit: checked mine last night. Dimmer rotated to most dim = words are dimmed to be illegible. Hope that is part of the key for you!

John

 

I don't think anyone has mentioned this; the red warning light will also light if you have an engine fault. If you connect a code reader to the OBD port you can then read the fault code. It would be worth doing this to see if your warning light is in fact something important, rather than just "drivers door open" for example.

 

If I were you I would contact a chap called Jagslags, I think his proper name is Trevor. He is a member of another forum and he breaks Jags in particular XK8/R's for a living. Ask him how much for a new spedo or the whole unit. It may be a case of unplug one unit plug in another but it could also mean reprogramming it. There could be an anti tampering thing to stop people 'lowering' their current mileage from say 200,000 miles down to 30K and make a lot of money by just replacing the speedo. If anyone knows he will.

He could also probably source you a new rear view mirror.

Here is his ebay link https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jaguar-20...oAAOSwcDdcEkh~ Tell him I, FrankC, pointed you in his direction for the parts.
Just looked up his telephone number for you. Penge Jags. 020 8778 0948 His website............. http://www.jagspares.net/ Have a chat I am sure he will do his best to help.

I have changed a couple of speedo's in the past, on other cars, if its like those it should not be difficult.

Terrible picture but may give you an idea or two.

 

Hi pepper,

This is an interesting one. Wanted to see how its going.

John

 

John & everybody,

Am sitting in repair shop for an oil change and inspection. Have a couple minutes.

First, I want to thank all of you peeps for helping out with your thoughts and info.

So far, I have not figured those lights out and in fact THEY BOTH came on during my drive down here (about 9 miles), but have sourced a used cluster with a readable message center.

When I leave here, I'm supposed to travel to a point about 25 mi away and am nervous not knowing what those lights warn of. After all, one of them is RED!

After I get the cluster I know I'll have to pay for miles correction and possibly some cloning/reprogramming, but it's WORTH IT to know exactly what the problems are.

Mechanic just came in from the road test and said the R/H of the two lights came on red while he was driving it.

Gotta pray I make it home.

That's the news from here for today. Stay tuned!

 

Don't know what went wrong unless the moderator didn't like the message I wrote, but it was a lengthy one describing progress and thanking all the peeps that responded with their thoughts and info.

I think I hit all the right steps in responding, but maybe not.
I was having my oil changed at the time & also had a full inspect and diagnostic scan.
Lotsa codes I will be soon addressing.

Let's see if this gets through

 

Your previous post #14 was automatically locked for moderation. I can't see any issues with the content so I've unlocked it.

I'll be interested to hear how your Instrument Pack swap goes. I did this on a 2001 using one from the same Model Year and specification but it DIDN'T work. Other members have done it and found it DID work so seems to be something of a lottery.

Graham

 

GGG seems to think that swapping out the IC is a bit of a lottery but it sounds as if you found a good knowledgeable garage mechanic to help.

Let us know how you get on. Start different threads on different problems. Well worth sourcing an OBD2 reader as they are relatively inexpensive. Some better Smart Phone Apps are available too, using a simple Bluetooth plug in OBD reader . Use the Search Function in the top right and there's plenty of Forum Members who have tried all sorts available on the market.

 

Hi Pepper,

Lots of issues and lots of suggestions. Not sure I've seen too many findings. Maybe you could summarize / prioritize outstanding issues, what you've found WRT our suggestions by issue and we could build off that together?

John

 

Found it Pepper (finally).



pepper, here you go. These are the faults that will set off the light(s) as described.

Hey I don't think you answered a question earlier: does changing the Dimmer setting make it easier to read the messages?

John