Jaguar XJS Radio Code
When a known code is refused, the radio has usually locked itself out, or the digits went in too fast. I'd leave it switched on for an hour, then key the code in slowly, one firm press at a time. A lost code is usually written somewhere in the car; failing that, a dealer can find it from the VIN or the radio's serial.
How bad is it · Safe to drive
Safe to drive — only the radio is locked
Keep guessing and the lockout grows longer, and a unit can end up never unlocking again. Stop after three tries.
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.
Locked out — leave it on and wait
After two or three wrong entries it refuses everything, even the right code, until it has been powered for a set time. Some show WAIT meanwhile; others keep showing CODE, which looks like a wrong code.
A code that always worked is refused, often straight after a battery change or a jump start. Preset presses while it asks for the code count as digits.
Key at the accessory position, radio on, a full hour; the engine needn't run. Time with the power off doesn't count, and the clock starts again if the key comes out. Then enter the code once, slowly.
Wait it out with the radio on. An hour usually does it; longer spells, for example 90 minutes, two and a half hours, or a night with the ignition on and a trickle charger connected, are sometimes needed. Disconnecting both battery terminals can clear it at once; if it doesn't, go back to the wait.
Digits too fast — a beep means start again
There's no Enter key: it plays as soon as the last digit is right. A beep part-way through means that press was rejected — carrying on can't work.
It beeps at the same point every time, or the code goes in without a pause between presses.
Press each preset fully and firmly, about a second apart. On some units, start keying only after the beep that opens a new entry. On a beep before the last digit, start again from the first. A beep that always follows one button points to a worn contact on that button.
Slow, deliberate entry with a positive press on every button, often after an hour's wait.
The code is written in the car
Radios came with a plastic code card in the document wallet, and dealers or earlier keepers often wrote the number somewhere in the car.
No paperwork, but nobody has ever needed a dealer.
Bonnet underside first: a paper tag or label near the rear left corner or by the bulkhead, where the code is usually the last four digits. Then the brake reservoir, inside the handbrake handle (pull it up), under the ashtrays, inside the boot lid, glovebox and handbooks, the aerial motor, the radio casing. On a 1994 convertible, for example, it can be a barcode label in the boot above the battery.
Enter the code you find. Look closely — it may be scratched small into the bonnet paint or written in marker. Old service invoices can carry it too.
Four digits or five, only 1 to 6
Earlier security radios (roughly 1989 to 1991, the AJ8700) take five digits; 1992-on facelift radios take four. Digits go in on the six presets, so a real code uses only 1 to 6.
A number of the wrong length for your radio, or with digits above 6.
Count the digits and check them against the presets; a number that fails is something else.
Use the number that fits the radio — four digits on a facelift car, even if you expected five.
No code anywhere — the dealer
The code is tied to the radio's serial number. A dealer can find it from the car's VIN if the radio is original, or from the serial on the casing if it isn't.
Nothing in the car or paperwork; the radio may not be original.
Ask a dealer's parts or service manager, with the VIN and proof of ownership. The serial may be on a factory sticker in the original document envelope; if not, take the radio out (about a quarter of an hour) and read it off the casing.
A dealer lookup, sometimes free, sometimes for a fee — for example an hour's labour to pull the radio. Jaguar's heritage archive holds code books for the older radios. Once the code comes back, the lockout wait may still be needed.
It asks every time — the memory feed is dead
Code and presets are kept by a permanent low-current feed on the red wire, with its own small in-line fuse, separate from the main radio fuse on the switched side. When that feed fails, the radio forgets everything at switch-off.
The code is accepted, then asked again after every switch-off. A factory CD changer may stop too.
Find the small in-line fuse on the red wire, low in the centre console, via the driver's-side ashtray opening, and test it with a test lamp. If it's good, look behind the radio for a twisted, taped splice left by an old stereo swap, and for A/C condensate dripping onto the unit.
A new fuse: the code stays, and the changer comes back. A loose splice needs soldering and heat-shrink; a shield over the radio keeps condensate off it.
Face-off radios have no code
The late face-off unit uses its removable front instead of a code; the 1994 unit before it does use one. The removable-front radio of 1984–85 had no code either, and factory radios before 1987 predate coding.
A 1995–96 car whose radio front detaches, or an early car still on its first radio.
If it's dead after a battery change, it's power, not code — see the dead-radio page.
Nothing to enter; a battery disconnect doesn't lock it.
A swapped radio has its own code
The code belongs to the radio, not the car. A VIN lookup gives the code of the radio the car was built with, and the paperwork may belong to a unit long gone.
A replacement or remanufactured radio, or a handbook code refused from the very first try.
Read the serial on the radio casing and compare it with the paperwork before you spend tries.
Worth trying: the code from whoever supplied the radio, the donor car's VIN, or a dealer lookup by the radio's own serial.
Last resort — the code is set inside the radio
On some of these radios the code is set by six pairs of solder pads under a label on the underside, so only 64 codes exist. Copy the pad pattern of a radio whose code you know, and that code works.
No paperwork, no dealer record, and the radio is out of the car anyway.
Peel back the label on the underside and note which pads are bridged.
Worth trying if you're handy: for example, with only link 6 bridged the code is 4132. Only a few patterns are documented.
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.
Stop pressing buttons
After three wrong tries every press is wasted, and it can lengthen the lockout.
freeMake sure it says CODE
A blank display is power, not the code — see the dead-radio page.
freeSearch the car for the code
Bonnet underside, handbrake handle, ashtrays, boot lid, brake reservoir, glovebox, aerial motor, radio casing.
freeCheck the number itself
Five digits on the earlier radios, four on 1992-on, digits 1 to 6 only. A code for a different radio won't work.
freeKey on, radio on, one hour
Accessory position is enough; put a charger on a weak battery. Only time with the radio on counts.
freeEnter it slowly
One firm press a second. A beep before the last digit means start again from the first.
freeIf it forgets the code at every switch-off
Test the in-line memory fuse in the centre console, then the wiring behind the radio.
a fuseOnly then the dealer
The VIN, or the serial from the casing, with proof of ownership. To keep the code next time, plug a memory saver into the cigar lighter while the battery is off.
free to an hour's labourWhat it usually isn't
Don't spend money here first:
If none of this finds it:
On jagaux.com
- Jaguar XJS Radio Not Working, Radio FuseWhen nothing lights at all, it is power, not the code.
- XJS 1994 radio pinout and wire coloursDrawn for the 1994 car; earlier XJS wiring differs.
- XJS fuse boxes
- 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.