Jaguar XJ6 (X300) Steering Column and Memory Seat Problems
On the X300 the steering column, the mirrors and the driver's memory seat share memory modules, and a dead seat function is most often a blown 20 A heelboard fuse that looks fine. A dead tilt is usually the tilt motor, and a reach motor that spins without moving the column is the drive cable. I'd meter the fuses, then see which motor stays still before buying a module.
How bad is it · Safe to drive
Safe to drive if the wheel and seat are left where you can drive
The faults are in the adjustment, not the steering itself. Before working near the column, disconnect the battery and let the airbag discharge.
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.
A blown 20 A seat fuse in the heelboard
The seat motors are fed through 20 A fuses in the heelboard fuse boxes under the front edge of the rear seat. A fuse can look fine and still be open.
Some seat functions dead while others work, often after the seat stalled at the end of travel. The relay in the seat module still clicks.
Test each heelboard fuse for continuity with a meter, not by eye. The right-hand rear box feeds the front left seat and vice versa.
Replace the blown fuse. If it blew after a memory recall, also find out why the seat stalled.
A seized or burnt-out tilt motor
The tilt motor is a small geared unit with no ball bearings, and the early control lets it drive hard into the end of travel. It binds at the top or bottom and then burns out.
Tilt dead while reach still works. You may hear a relay click from under the dash and nothing moves.
Take off the lower dash panel and the column shroud, then work the column switch and see which motor stays still. Tapping the tilt motor can wake it for a while. The tilt motor is the one nearer the wheel, under the column, held by two screws; the reach motor sits on top and is the harder job. Four screws hold the lower dash panel and two deep ones the column trim. The airbag and wheel needn't come off.
Replace the tilt motor. Bulletin 10-12 (superseding 10-10) fits an improved motor with an upgraded column/mirror movement control module, kit JLM 20607; for example about USD 343 at a dealer, motor JLM 20194 alone about USD 204. A good used motor is the cheap fix. Cleaning and greasing tends to bind again under load. The motors aren't repairable; a new dealer motor comes with its screws, potentiometer and wiring, and a used one goes in within an hour.
Worn seat position potentiometers
Each memory axis has a small potentiometer with a friction clutch in its gearbox. When the clutch wears, the module never gets the stop signal and drives the seat to the end of travel, or to the wrong place.
Memory positions don't hold, the seat runs fully back or forward on recall, or the module refuses to move one way as if it's already at its limit.
Press a memory button with the door open and the ignition on: a red light means the module is awake. Then pull the seat and inspect the pots; bulletins 15-21, 15-23 and 15-50 cover the diagnosis.
Open the pot gearbox and restore the clutch friction; for example two O-rings AS568B-006 in place of the worn spacer, or a small spring. A pot with a stripped shaft has to be replaced. The pots aren't adjustable.
Seat dead with the key out: it needs the ignition
The front seats get power only with the key in the ignition, so a seat that won't move with the key out isn't faulty.
The seat is stuck — often fully forward — and nothing moves with the car just unlocked and the key in your pocket.
Put the key in and turn it to the first position, then try every direction of the switch.
With the key at the first position the seat moves in every direction; no repair needed.
The column and mirror memory module
The column motors and the door mirrors run from one column/mirror memory module behind the dash, on the column side near the body processor. Column and mirrors dead together point at this module, not the column.
No tilt, no reach, no motor noise, and the mirrors don't move either, while the seat and windows work.
Check there is power at the module before buying anything. If the seat side switches work but memory recall doesn't, the memory module is the suspect; if they don't, look at the seat module or its supply.
Replace the module; the upgraded version from bulletin 10-12 also limits motor travel, so a new tilt motor lasts.
The auto switch and memory logic on the column
The rotary knob on the column side switches the automatic entry/exit movement. With it in the wrong position, or with the memory confused, the column or seat stops short or wanders.
Column won't go one way but goes the other, or the seat drifts to odd positions when you get in and out.
Make sure the knob is in the auto position when you test. Try the column control while pressing the seat memory buttons.
Work the column control together with the memory buttons to free it, then set the knob to off if you don't need entry/exit. Running to the stops on every exit is what wears the motors. Don't leave the wheel at the extremes of travel either: jamming at the end stops is part of what kills the motors and cables.
A dirty or faulty seat switch pack
The switch pack on the side of the seat carries the current for the motors. Worn contacts drop one direction while the others still work.
All buttons work except one direction, or a switch that works if you lift or wiggle it.
Plug the other front seat's switch pack into this seat's loom. If the seat moves, the switch is proven bad.
Open the pack and clean the board contacts with a pencil eraser, or fit a new switch. To get a stuck seat back first, the motor can be fed directly.
A fault on the seat control module board
The seat module under the seat carries the relays for every seat motor. A hairline crack in a board track cuts one function and is easy to miss.
One or more seat functions, or all memory movement, dead with good fuses.
Take the module out, ease the case tabs apart without levering on the board, and look along the tracks with a lamp and a glass.
Bridge the cracked track. A second-hand module with the same part number, apart from the last letter, also cures it.
The seat drive slipped or a drive cable out
The seat motors turn the slides through short square-ended cables and worm gears. If a cable pops out or the drive slips off the worm, the motor runs and the seat doesn't move.
The motor ticks or whirrs when you press the button, but the seat stays stuck at one end.
Press on the back of the seat while someone works the button. Undo the four T50 seat bolts and tip the seat to feel the cable ends; don't pull them.
Pushing on the seat while driving the motor often frees it. Refit the cable into the motor housing; it's held only by compression.
A stripped nut on the reach rod
Reach works by a coarse threaded rod running in a plastic nut. If the nut strips or falls off the rod, the wheel slides in and out by hand.
Tilt fine, the reach motor runs, and you can push and pull the wheel in and out freely.
Extend the column and pull on the wheel. If it moves freely, the reach nut or its gear has gone, not the motor.
Refit or replace the nut on the reach rod; it's fiddly. Otherwise a good used column: X100, X300 and X308 columns are similar but the brackets differ.
The seat moves by itself on remote unlock
The first two remotes are linked to memory positions, and unlocking with one recalls its seat position. A third remote isn't linked, so it unlocks without moving anything.
The driver's seat moves every time you unlock with the fob. Disconnecting the battery doesn't change it.
Note which fob you use. If the seat runs fully back whatever fob you use and never stops, suspect a position potentiometer instead.
Program a third remote and use only that one; pulling the seat fuse also stops it but kills the driver's window. A workaround, not a repair.
A broken reach drive cable
The reach motor turns the column through a short flexible cable, about three inches long with square ends. It's the sacrificial link: it snaps when the column jams, and the motor then spins freely.
The reach motor runs, or grinds briefly, and the column doesn't move, often stuck fully retracted. Tilt may still be fine.
Drop the lower column cover and work the reach: if the motor end turns and the other end doesn't, the cable's gone. Dropping the column is far easier than removing the instrument panel: the star bolts are reached through the cloth above the column, with the yellow airbag plug and the other plugs unclipped first, and the driver's seat can take the column's weight. Disconnect the battery and wait five minutes for the airbag system to discharge before you start.
A new or a used cable; the dealer sells it only with the motor, but specialists make them. Don't use a solid shaft: when the column stalls it breaks the motor or its gearbox. A speedometer-cable maker can make one cheaply; a cable that is too thin fails again. If you leave it, set the wheel to a usable reach and live with it.
Modules confused after a flat battery or door work
The memory, door and seat units talk to each other. Disconnect one with the battery still connected and they can stop answering.
Column, seats and a window dead at once after a flat battery, a jump start or a door panel off.
Recheck every heelboard fuse and make sure the door connectors went back on properly.
Worth trying a hard reset: battery off for about ten minutes, then reconnect. Afterwards re-program all memory positions.
Play in the column: the tilt plate screws
Two large screws hold a metal plate under the lower dash that carries the tilt and reach movement. Loose, the wheel has play up and down; too tight, the electric adjustment stalls.
A quarter to half an inch of play at the rim, or tilt and reach that stopped after someone tightened things under the dash.
Take off the lower dash cover and watch the column while someone rocks the wheel. Tighten the two screws a little at a time, running the tilt and reach between turns; back off if the motor note changes.
Worth trying: find the middle setting; if it binds, take the plate off, regrease the moving parts and refit. Play that stays is the upper column bearing, and a new column cures it.
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.
Set the column knob to auto
The rotary knob on the side of the column must be in the auto position, not off, while you test the column.
freeTest the heelboard fuses with a meter
Lift the front edge of the rear seat; there's a hidden screw on the cover. Check every fuse for continuity, because a blown 20 A fuse can look fine.
freeNote what's dead together
Column and mirrors together point at the column/mirror module; seat only points at the seat fuses, switch, module or pots.
freeRe-program the memory
After any battery work, disconnect for ten minutes, reconnect, and set all three memory positions again.
freeSwap the seat switch pack
Plug the other front seat's switch pack into the loom. If the seat moves, clean or replace the original switch.
freeLook and listen at the column
Disconnect the battery and wait a few minutes for the airbag to discharge. Take off the lower dash panel and the column shroud, work the switch, and see which motor stays still or spins without moving the column.
freePull the seat and check the pots
Four T50 bolts hold the seat. Look for torn wires and slipping pot clutches, then for a cracked track on the seat module board.
freeReplace the failed part
A reach cable or a used motor first; the bulletin 10-12 kit when the tilt motor and module go together.
a cable, a motor or a moduleThe 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 fuse tables, 1997 edition. 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
- Jaguar XJ6 (X300) Power Steering ProblemsIf the steering itself groans or goes heavy, rather than the column adjustment.
- Jaguar XJ6 (X300) Immobiliser Problems, Won't StartRemote fobs and their programming, which also drive the seat memory.
- XJ6 (X300) fuse boxes and relaysHeelboard fuse boxes for the seats; 1996 and 1997 from the same page.
- Jaguar XJ6 (X300) Rear View Mirror Leaking, Auto-DimIf the interior auto-dim mirror leaks or won't dim, rather than the mirrors not moving.
- 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.