Electrical/ground issue

Hey guys,

My 2001 XJ has been exhibiting some strange behavior as of late... On some bumps (more and more each time I drive it), my head unit power cycles, as does my radar detector (which is powered off the switched 12v outlet).

Earlier today, after accelerating into traffic, my gauge cluster started dimming erratically (as did the CEL) but never technically lost signal. Within a few seconds of that, I started to smell an electrical fire... A few seconds later, the gauge cluster returned to normal and the smell went away.

Needless to say, I parked it and disconnected the battery the moment I got home and am leaving it be til I can find the root cause.

Has anyone chased a similar issue in their XJ? I'm starting to review the electrical schematics in the FSM for the 00/01 XJ but hope someone can give me a shortcut.

Thanks in advance.

Further review of the FSM has revealed that these components use G107 (cigar lighter) and G108 (radio)... And the instrument cluster uses G106, G107, and G108. Looks like this is going to get fun. Hope I don't have to rip the damn dash out.

I'm not a smart man, but if you put your nose really close to the dash, can you still smell burnt components anywhere?

Nope. Smell was only present for a couple minutes. Couldn't sniff around due to traffic.