XJ8, 3.2 Petrol, 1999. Lighting & central locking info required please **FIXED**

[Will H]

Hi
I’ve just had a phone call from Mr Magoo’s shorter sighted brother and I’ve arranged for the car to come in tomorrow.

His Jag is his pride and joy and he never goes out in it if there is any hint of rain, or uses it at night because of his poor night time vision.
That is until tonight, when he was delayed somewhere and had to drive home in the dark. A bit of a shock to the system.

A short way into his journey home down a rural road, he met a car and dipped his lights. To his disbelief his dip beam lights went out. (doing nothing for his confidence in night time driving)
He assures me that he didn’t switch the lights off. The inner mainbeam lights work, but not the two outer lamps. Working the light switch stalk apparently doesn’t coax them into life.

Planning for the arrival tomorrow, I’ve just had a look on AutoData, but it doesn’t list any data of the fuse boards or relays.
Does anyone have any info on location of lighting relays/fuses etc., for the dipbeam circuit??

Also, completely separate from above fault, the N/S rear door central locking is inoperable. All the others work fine. Any usual suspect known issues?? Solenoid motor??

Thanks.
Will H

[Will H]

Hi
All sorted
The headlight problem was a failed bulb and a poor contact to a bulb.

The inoperative central locking on the N/S rear door took a bit more investigating.
When attempting to remove the door card, I thought that it would be easier with the window lowered, but that didn't work either. Nor did the red light at the base of the door. - There had to be a common link.

The wires from the 'B' post to the door were in perfect order and it has had no bodywork done, everything being original and immaculate??

In the centre of the door is an ECU control unit (Ford) with double, large multiplugs. Some of the terminals were corroded.
I cleaned the corrosion as best I could, but there was still no joy.
It was purely by chance that I thought I detected some movement in a large supply wire going into a multiplug. A quick tug and it was free. The end of the cable was blunt, having rotted from the terminal.

Thankfully, I was able to make it good with spare bits from out of a big box of wiring harness spares, I've amassed for such occasions.
Will H