Jaguar X-Type Touch Screen Not Working, 50 51 Flashing
The screen is almost never the fault. It's a remote control for the navigation computer in the boot and stays black whenever that computer doesn't answer. I'd start with software — a new map disc with the engine running — then the drive's power, then the drive itself.
How bad is it · Safe to drive
Safe to drive — the heating controls are the nuisance
The climate control runs through this screen, so the blower may stay on a default setting until it's sorted. The radio and CD often keep playing blind.
Which one applies to yours depends on your symptoms, your model year and what has already been done to it.
Likely causes, most common first
Read the check cost before the odds: a free check that rules a cause out beats a likely guess that costs money.
The navigation computer waiting for software
A newer map disc starts an automatic upgrade. Switch off during it — it can sit at 95 % for six or seven minutes — or press the software-load key in the hidden menu without a disc, and the computer waits for a program. The screen stays black until it gets one.
Right after a new map disc, or a look round the hidden diagnostic menu. 51, a clock symbol and EXT 50 alternate on the small display.
Don't start with the battery — the radio may ask for its code with no screen to type it on. Start the engine, put the new disc in the boot drive and leave it running about 15 minutes. If it may only be a disc-read fault, eject the disc with the engine running, switch off and on, look for a no-disc message, then refit it and leave it running.
Give it software: let the new disc finish its upgrade with the engine running, use an update disc carrying the loading file, or burn LOADING.KWI to a disc in place of the map. The screen returns within minutes; refitting the old disc doesn't help.
The DVD navigation drive in the boot has failed
The drive is also the computer. When it dies it stops talking to the screen and the network, sometimes while still spinning the disc.
Software reloads done and 50/51 still flashing; the disc may spin but nothing reaches the screen.
Swap-test with a known-good drive before touching the screen. It sits in the boot above the CD changer — a quarter-hour job.
Replace the drive; a used one does. It costs a fraction of the dealer price — for example about $400 used against a dealer quote near $2,500; in the UK a new unit is over £1,000.
No power at the boot drive: a trapped wire or a blown fuse
Without power the drive never wakes, so neither does the screen. A drive that will neither take nor eject a disc has no supply at all.
It started after other work in the car, such as a gear-selector repair or any electrical work that could have unplugged a connector. 75, 50, 51 and C1 on the small display; the drive won't load or eject.
Navigation fuse first, then the supply at the drive's connector. Only then suspect the drive.
A new navigation fuse, or free and repair a wire trapped during earlier work — a new drive and screen won't help until you do.
Our product · Jagaux
Jagaux Android conversion kit
Keeps the factory screen and puts Android — maps, music, apps — on the NAV button. Climate, menus and audio stay as they were, nothing is cut, and the car can go back to stock at any time. Built to order.
cars with the factory touchscreen: XJ (X350/X358), S-Type, X-Type 2002–2009
The order to check them in
The point of the order is money: each step either rules a cause out or makes the next one worth doing. Green is free, amber costs a little, red is the one to arrive at last.
Ask what happened just before
A new map disc, a visit to the hidden menu, a repair near the console or any electrical work. Each points at a different version, and all are cheaper than a screen.
freeCheck the navigation fuse
Later cars have a 15 A position in the passenger-side box for navigation, CD and head unit. Earlier cars number differently — use the diagram for your build year.
freeDoes the boot drive take and eject a disc?
If it does, it has power — go to software. If it does neither, go to its supply.
freeGive it software, engine running
A newer map disc left about 15 minutes with the engine running, or a disc with the loading file. Have the radio code ready: the screen may ask for it. EJECT and PTY together show the radio serial number the code is found by.
a discSwap-test the drive, not the screen
A breaker's drive costs a fraction of the dealer price. Replace the screen last, if ever.
used driveThe fuses named above — where they sit
The highlighted position is the one the procedure talks about. Pulling a fuse is a stop-gap, never a repair: check what the circuit feeds before you pull it.
Circuit descriptions from the Jaguar handbook, 2006 edition, p. 161, 162. Drawing by jagaux.com from the factory electrical guide. Fuse layouts change between model years — read the legend on the lid of your own box before pulling anything.
What it usually isn't
Don't spend money here first:
If none of this finds it:
On jagaux.com
- X-Type (X400) fuse box diagramsBoth positions above, drawn on the box they sit in. Pre-2004 cars number them differently.
- Jaguar radio code generatorFree. For the X-Type factory radio, when it asks for its code after the battery has been off.
- X-Type radio pinout and wire colours
- Jaguar VIN decoderConfirm your exact model year, engine and factory options before ordering parts — free.
Ratings, fuse numbers and torque figures vary by model year and market. Read the legend on your own car before pulling anything, and use the figures in the manual for your car, not the ones in a video.
Check your VIN: exactly which car you have and which bulletins apply to it.