Hello everyone. I am new to the community. I bought this vehicle a year ago, its in excellent condition for its age.
So I had to put a new battery in it because it sat a lot, the other day I started it up with no issue drove 5 miles to my clinic and shut it off. When I got back outside within 6 minutes or so it wasnt starting, I tried jumping it to no avail. Had it towed home, I found out if I wiggle the negative battery cable it will start everytime now. Sometimes I have to wiggle it but only once a day.
Anyways the car is an AZ car and the cable appears to have corroded internally? Or expanded it looks like. I called my Jag dealership down the road and the part # DBC2900 is discontinued. I found one on ebay motors that says it fits. It looks like it will but I cannot seem to find out what the factory cable gauging is? The cable I got is 4 gauge, will this be okay or can someone send me to the right place to buy the right cable if this is insufficient?
Joe,
As mentioned, you are on the wrong list. Your car is a newer model than the Series I, II, and III XJ6s and XJ12s discussed here and it has very few parts or systems in common. You need to be on the XJ40 list.
Sorry my fault! I understand the Lucas electronics were put in and Ford own Jag as of late 89 early 90 for several years. If anyone on this xj40 section can help I will appreciate it
Not much help on the cable except sourcing one from a wrecker or trying removing the terminal and fitting an aftermarket one, however very little if any of the electric components on an XJ40 were made by Lucas, mostly Hella stuff AFAIK
I have a new aftermarket cable the terminal matches up and so does the end that goes to the chasis grounds. I just dont want to install the 4gauge cable and ruin electrics if I need a 1gauge cable or something.
Well i cant tell the one on the car now looks like it might have swollen internally from the arizona heat over time. My new aftermarket cable is 4ga. I don’t see any where on the old cable what the gauge is of the wire. The new one looks pretty close but again with the old cable swollen up possibly internally its difficult to tell. The part dealer on ebay motors says its the correct one for my car but you know how that can go…
And no I intended to change the cable and clean the chassis grounds at that time just want to make sure ai have the correct cable.
I’d say you’ll be fine. That difference is pretty trivial. Even if its slightly smaller than the stock cable, it still works much better than the heavily corroded one you have, and that one worked fine for you until recently.
Plus, I’ve seen instances where a car may use different suppliers for battery cables with each supplier using a slightly different gauge, or in some cases where different years of the same car have different gauges. Based off that, I’d say stock cables are probably over-engineered by a decent amount.
Thanks Brett - Thats what I read that a lot of manufacturers use larger cable than needed a lot of times. Time to change out that cable today and clean those grounds hopefully my electronics start functioning better now!
We meet again my friend! First Youtube and now here. I hope you follow up with my advice on having your car documented by the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust(JDHT.com) to find out the truth about your rare 1989 Majestic. To answer your question in the post, if I was you going forward, I would find 1 or 2 Jaguar specific recyclers near your area so if you ever need quality replacement parts that have been discontinued from the dealer, you can buy from them. I don’t mess around with shady aftermarket parts period. Ebay or not. I would rather have a quality used Jaguar OEM part that I know will fit and not cause any electrical issues. The early cars, such as yours from 1988-1990 are the most susceptible to electronic issues so I would never trust those year cars to anything aftermarket. Especially the MAIN GROUND from the battery. Hope your problem is fixed and you can report back to me when you find out more about the history of your car.
Hey nice chatting with you! I am getting it documented by them. Also I didn’t replace the cable I tightened down the grounds and cleaned them up (the bolt was loose!) Everything works much better now. Just my oil pressure display acts up when im stopped or slowing down but then it will go back to normal when accelerating and normal driving.
