Jaguar XJ8 (X308) Bluetooth and Phone
Most of these cars already have phone wiring behind the armrest, and a Bluetooth kit plugged into it mutes the radio and plays calls through the speakers. I'd start there; outside North America, wire at the radio connector instead. The factory Motorola only works with its Jaguar software on a GSM 900 network.
How bad is it · Safe to drive
Safe to drive — this is an upgrade, not a fault
Nothing else depends on the phone. With Premium sound, take care with mute leads: the system can come back loud.
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 Bluetooth kit on the factory phone plug under the armrest
Most cars carry phone pre-wiring to a white 10-pin plug under the armrest cubby (RT2 on North American cars). Ground its mute line and the radio hands the speakers to the phone.
Lift the cubby liner: the white plug is there, unused or feeding the old handset.
RT2, pin 1 top left: 1 purple/red phone audio –, 2 purple/pink phone audio +, 3 purple/orange mute, 4 yellow mic +, 5 braid mic –, 6 black ground, 7 and 9 network, 8 brown/purple permanent 12 V, 10 white/green ignition.
Plug the kit on through a ready-made adapter lead or a mating AMP 174932, so nothing gets cut. The radio mutes, calls play through the speakers, and the job takes about half an hour.
A car outside North America — the phone wiring goes to the boot
On rest-of-world cars the phone loom runs from the radio to a boot connector (IC25) and back. A guide written for US cars doesn't match it, so mute and call audio never arrive.
Wired by a US guide, the kit pairs and rings, but the radio neither mutes nor plays the call.
At the boot, grounding IC25 pin 4 should mute the stereo and show Phone; pins 31 and 32 are phone audio + and –.
Wire at the radio's own connector, where pin numbers stay the same across years even when colours change: pin 4 (blue) audio +, pin 17 (green/orange) audio –, pin 5 (blue/yellow) mute. Power and ignition can still come from the 10-way plug. The radio then keeps separate volumes for music and calls.
The radio's hands-free mode is switched off
The radio has a hidden setup menu with a Tel switch. With Tel off, it ignores the phone's mute line, so an incoming call doesn't ring through the speakers.
The phone works in the hand, but calls are silent in the car and the dash buttons do nothing.
Ignition to position 1, radio on, press FM/AM and EJT together to enter setup, then preset 4 toggles Tel on or off.
Switch Tel on. The XJ8 phone handbook (JHM 1190) covers the setup; the radio can be set to run with or without a phone.
Factory handset without Jaguar software, or on a dead network
The car wants the Jaguar version of the Motorola: StarTAC 130 on later cars, MR8700 on early ones, GSM 900 only. A standard handset may charge and take calls, but loses hands-free, wheel and radio control, or won't follow the ignition.
No leaper logo when the handset switches on; it stays off with the ignition; a SIM is refused, or it keeps hunting for its first carrier. From around 2000–2001 the handset is fixed under the armrest, and its wiring may differ.
Look for the leaper at power-up. Try a different SIM on a network still running GSM 900 — one carrier's SIM can work where another's won't.
Worth trying: a Jaguar-software handset, used or reconditioned, a working SIM, and a specialist repair if it has failed. To add contacts, save them to the SIM in another phone and put it back.
No wiring at all — a visor speaker or a satnav
A clip-on speakerphone or a satnav with Bluetooth pairs with your phone and does hands-free on its own, with no link to the radio.
You want calls now and aren't ready to take the console apart.
Pair the phone; the unit can reconnect by itself each time you get in.
Worth trying as a stopgap: one button to answer, contacts from the phone, and it moves between cars. The radio won't mute.
Our product · Jagaux
Jagaux Bluetooth adapter for the XJ8 / XJR (X308)
The working answer to 'there is no AUX socket': it plugs into the changer port and the radio takes it for its own changer. Bluetooth music and calls, AUX and USB, track changes from the radio buttons.
X308, 1998–2003
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.
Choose: factory phone or Bluetooth
The factory kit needs the Jaguar handset, microphone, rear-screen aerial, interface module, cradle and cubby liner; an aerial lead is often already looped under the armrest bin. A Bluetooth kit uses your own phone and the car's speakers, and usually costs less.
freeFind the phone plug under the armrest
Take out the armrest cubby liner and look for the white 10-pin plug. No plug and no mic in the headlining means the car was built without the phone.
freeCheck the radio's Tel mode
Ignition to 1, radio on, FM/AM and EJT together, then preset 4. Without Tel the radio won't mute for calls.
freeWire mute and audio
North American cars: the console plug. Elsewhere: the radio connector, pins 4, 17 and 5. On a Motorola T605 the mute output is the orange wire, whatever the guide shows. With Premium sound, try the first call at low volume — the system can come back loud after mute.
cheapFit the kit's own microphone
The factory mic sits next to the driver's sun visor, and its cable already runs from the console to the roof. Use the kit's own mic, grafted onto that run — the factory one may not work with the kit.
cheapWhat it usually isn't
Don't spend money here first:
If none of this finds it:
On jagaux.com
- Jaguar XJ8 (X308) AUX InputMusic through the factory radio rather than calls.
- XJ8 1998–1999 radio pinout and wire colours
- XJ8 2000–2003 radio pinout and wire colours
- XJ8 (X308) fuse box
- 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.