1998 Jaguar XJ
Key Replacement - Save vs Dealer in Ventura County

1998 Jaguar XJ Transponder Key Replacement - Fast, Affordable & Professional

I got a call from a guy near Hobson Park on a Sunday afternoon. His 1998 XJ had been sitting for about three weeks while he dealt with some family stuff, and when he came back to it the car would not start. Turned the key, got nothing meaningful from the engine. He assumed the battery had just drained from sitting.

The 12V battery was low, which made sense. But after a jump, the car still would not fire. He had already called a tow company before he called me. The tow company told him it was a dealer job and quoted him a two-day wait just to get it looked at.

I pulled up and the first thing I checked was whether the immobilizer was actually seeing the key. On a car this age, the antenna ring around the ignition cylinder can develop a fault, which means even a perfectly good programmed key gets ignored. The ring on his car had a wiring issue at the connector - not the key at all.

Once that was sorted, the existing key programmed to the car worked fine. He did not need a new key. He needed someone willing to actually diagnose the thing in his driveway instead of loading it on a flatbed.

He mentioned the dealer had already told him over the phone to expect a new key module as a likely outcome. That module was not touched. Total time on site was under an hour.

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