No Gagues

[sogood]

I have posted this on Jagforums but without any joy, so just casting the net a little wider. Basically, I have lost all warning/startup lights and instruments on my dash. No speedo, rev counter, fuel, oil, battery, nothing. The first sign of trouble was my radio wouldn't turn off (playing a cd), nor would it respond to any adjustment, volume, track select etc. I turned off the ignition and removed the key, but it stayed on, so I pulled the battery negative cable and it switched itself off when I reconnected it, antenna lowered and all was well. Car was parked up then

Next day I went to drive the car and noticed the above problem. So far I have pulled and checked, with a meter, every fuse in the car, swapped out relays with known good ones, checked a multitude of earths, behind and beneath ski slope, behind instrument cluster, which I removed to check connections etc.

What am I missing? Could the ignition switch be suspect given the issue with the radio, which is also dead. Is there a way to check this out and if I swap it for a known good one, will there be issues attached? ( I have a donor car, keys etc.)I do have lights on my dash when I switch on my driving lights.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

[chrisw75]

I could guess and say that you have a short somewhere..

What model/year of car are you talking about?

[sogood]

Apologies, it's a 1996 xj6 x300 4.0 litre Sovereign.

[sogood]

Just an update to pass on the good news. All gagues, radio etc. up and running again. The problem was a dodgy relay, as I originally suspected. But I complicated matters by removing the dodgy (Auxilliary Positive Relay) from its socket and replacing it with a known good one. But, I placed the good one into the empty (unused)socket for the High Mounted Stop Lights! So, from then on, regardless of what I did I was fighting an uphill battle with no Auxilliary relay fitted! This wasnt apparent to me as I knew there had been an empty socket present! Major senior moment!

The matter wasn't helped by the inconsistencies in wiring diagram colours and relay colours and types shown in the workshop manual, despite what was actually in the car. My car is a 96 model, but doesn't match the diagram. It does however more closely match the 97 model.

Anyway, I popped the proper relay into the proper socket (the single one beside the bank of fuses next to the large positive terminal) in the boot and all is well again!

So, thanks to those who respondd and offered suggestions. Tip here is to take a picture of whatever you are about to work on it, before you touch anything!

Thanks again.