I bought this car with a number of faults. but it was cheap and i had a good idea how much it was going to cost to put the car right. So i was driving it home with silent radio (lost code) and the intermittent missfire was kicking in occasionally and the abs light shining bright with a message saying that the traction control was broken and thinking to myself i hope i am right about this.
Well it is now 3 weeks later and with much surprise it hasnt missfired since the radio code cost a fiver online and the abs light has gone out and the traction control has started working.
I am now thinking do i attempt to fix things that dont appear to be broke or do i leave well alone.
The guy i bought it off did say he had only just replaced the battery on the car. Could this be significant?
Regards Ian

 

Ian, I would not try to fix a fault that is not there you could pull the codes to check, but the car has a learning cycle which may have now learnt since battery change, the abs fault could be one of the wheel sensors being dirty. I would drive it and wait till you have either the same fault or a new one then fix that

 

Sounds like the battery was or had been flat (which in modern cars means it would likely start the car but would upset the computers).

I would get an OBD tool (make sure it does live data), read and note the codes. Then clear them and see what happens. A cheap tool will only read the PCM (aka ECM) which does not include the ABS/TC or indeed about a dozen others so you'll only have partial data, but better that than none.

Get JTIS as you'll need it sooner or later.

You need to worry about the misfire. If it's happening (and it may be) fairly quietly it'll be damaging the cat(s) and they're expensive.

With the OBD tool, look at the (long term) fuel trims at idle and 2500rpm to see if you have an air leak - the usual and very common cause of misfires but not the only common cause. Pretty cheap to fix.

Oh, and read the FAQs here!

 

cheers for the advice lads, i am looking for code reader, dont know which one to get at the moment, looking at the specs of the ones i have seen online and reading the forums to see what other people are using. I thought of looking at the missfire first as i would normally change oil, filters, plugs etc. when i get a new car anyway. Just because the seller says it has been looked after doesnt tend to mean a thing to me and i would treat it as not been serviced at all. I tend to do routine maintenance and electrical myself and get more industrial type work done by my local garage but only when i know exactly whats wrong and how much it is going to cost me. paying garages to do diagnosis is like giving them an open chequebook i find. So nothing is going to get done until i get a code reader so looking hard for one at the moment. already got jtis

 

Any standard code reader, will only read Engine codes, if you want something that will read all the codes from parking sensors to ABS etc, then you will need something that is Jaguar specific Like autoenginuity £400 in english pounds

 

You'll get gearbox as well with any OBD tool on his car.

AE is what I have.