Experience in a Book
Stereo Modifications

There are those who spend more on the sound system than the car, and they tend to know what they're looking for; such systems will not be addressed here. However, for those of us who merely want acceptable sound quality in their Jaguar, there are some basic improvements that can be made easily enough.

SPEAKERS: The '83 XJ-S comes with a decent sound system, except that it lacks tweeters. It is highly recommended that if your car doesn't have tweeters, go to Radio Shack and buy four Piezo tweeters, Cat. No. 40-1383, and install one in each corner of the car near the existing speakers. Just wire them in parallel with the existing speakers. If there are any induction coils in the line to the existing speakers (they are sometimes installed in a fuse holder), wire the tweeters in before these, so the coils serve the existing speakers only.

MAKING THE AFTERMARKET RADIO FIT: Greg Meboe provided some guidance on how to get a fancy new stereo to fit in my old Jaguar. "Your car is on 83, so it would have originally been fitted with a two-knob cassette player with manual pushbuttons for play, ff, rr, and eject. This radio was fitted from '82 to '84, inclusive. The metal facia panel (fibre-optic panel) which was fitted with this radio has a cutout which resembles a side view of a foot-long hot dog stuffed into a normal-size bun. Starting in model year 1985, Jaguar began to fit the more modern, rectangular faced radios which use a large, rectangular facia cutout. The fibre-optic panel fitted to 1985 and newer sedans and S's will therefore accommodate any modern DIN radio without modification. The radio mounting scheme for the Jaguar was the same throughout the years, so a person could install a 1985-on Jaguar radio in their pre-'85 car just by fitting the later style fibre optic panel.

"Installing a modern generic DIN radio into a 1985-on Jaguar (or an earlier car with the 1985-on fibre optic panel fitted) is straightforward, involving only 2 hurdles -- Wiring and Structural Mounting.

"For the structural mounting of the radio, modern aftermarket units seem to have a series of standard 8mm mounting holes on the side. I made up a set of steel brackets to fit these standard holes, and mount the radio in the fashion that Jaguar intended -- with the nylon push fasteners in the front."

BLOWING FUSES: Apparently, the first time you crank up the volume on your high-powered aftermarket stereo system, it'll go silent on you. Sean Straw says, "There are three fuses associated with your stereo -- the fuse in the passenger side fusebox (RADIO/CIG LIGHTER), the fuse on the stereo itself (well, any self-respecting stereo will have one), and one on the line between the two, which as the manual describes, should be in the console (actually, the Jaguar service manuals claim it is "behind the stereo").

"I'd installed a new stereo, and I had it turned up a bit, then switched to the cassette, and it just blinked out. After some probing around, I determined that it was the fuse between the stereo and fusebox, and located it roughly forward of the cruise control switch on the console (underneath the driver-side console ashtray). It will require that you remove the console veneer entirely.

"I found the fuse wiretied closely to a bundle, as well as electric taped over the fuse housing to another line (dunno why -- I eliminated the tape when I was in there). I found a 2A fuse in there, but the manual calls for a 1A -- both of which are odd, given that the stock Jaguar stereo had a 10A fuse on it -- fused to that same power input as the inline fuse is on (as versus the ignition/accessory input which tells the stereo to wake up). I checked with the local Jaguar dealership and he said there shouldn't be a problem for that line to carry 10A, so I switched the inline fuse to a 10A and the stereo works fine."

CD CHANGER ADDITION: David Brown sends this info on installation of a CD changer in the boot: "I believe all post-'88 cars are pre-wired. Depending on what year you have, a 7-pin DIN socket (that's what we call it in the UK anyhow) will be found in different places in the boot (trunk).

"... a Clarion changer unit will plug straight in and you're all set.

"For a Philips or Alpine unit, you have to disassemble the plug on your CD changer and rewire a couple of pins around. Basically you can control the unit as it is currently wired, but you would hear nothing. The head unit expects the sound signals to be traveling down some otherwise unused pins. Simple experimentation shows what they are.

"On my Philips unit, I had a DIN plug which carried the instructional/power signals and had separate phono/tulip plugs which carried the sound. I patched those sound signals back into the DIN plug at the 11 and 1 o'clock positions. You could find out which pins should carry the signal by half connecting the CD changer to the cars socket, such that the changer works but you can still see the pins. Then dab each pin with a phono cable until you hear the music come through. Then you'll know which DIN pins are expected to carry the sound signal."

If you have this connector, the stock Jaguar stereo includes controls to operate these CD changers remotely.

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