eddyjag wrote on 28.02.2012 at 14:38:48:


There is a means of triggering the boot latch mechanism by drilling a hole in the rear face of the boot behind the number plate but I don't know what the X and Y coordinates of that hole would be on an XJ8.

If the key is a Tibbe key as on earlier cars, you can convert a valet key in to a standard key quite simply as this guy on the J-L site describes :-

http://forums.jag-lovers.org/avsn.php?919471j63

Hi Covkid and other users. It seems like it has taken me an age to get this sorted. Thanks for the help. I eventually tracked down a key cutter that could produce a key for the right year of the car (apparently they differ year to year - nice one), as the first three did not have the right key or 'dont touch those type, they are a nightmare'. A key cutter should be able to read the number code from the 'valet' key and produce a master. The attachment on covkids message is helpful to understand the difference, but beware if ordering by mail etc, because there are actually 4 cutting positions for this type of key, the cutter made 2 attempts to get the right one. Very long story short, I have successfully got into my boot to get the master key, without having to drill or pay for new coded keys. I would say to anyone who goes through this, dont give up and persevere. Thanks for the help.