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.
On to
Cold
Weather Modifications
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