Hi everyone,

If all goes well, I will be picking up a 2000 S-type in Arizona tomorrow, and driving it home to San Francisco. The car has about 85K on the clock and has had a top end rebuild as the result of either broken timing chain or tensioner -- not sure which. Also, the transmission has been recently rebuilt. I consider both of these repairs to be good things, since it seems these parts were bound to break anyhow...

I'm doing this with a bit of trepidation, based on some things I've read about these cars, especially the earlier ones. However, my daily driver for the last 10 years has been a 1987 Maserati Biturbo, so I think I'm well equipped to deal with problems as they come -- this one will be my "practical" car!

Looking forward to swapping stories and repair tips with you all,

Zach

 

Welcome abroad!

 

Hello Zach, welcome to the forums.....You might want to do an introduction at the new members section as well. There are alot of reources and tips around here.

 

Hi, I am new to this site as well. I purchased my 02 S-Type Sport from a friend in Reno and drove it home to Buffalo NY last September. It has 70,000 on it now. The first problem has arrisin yesterday. Warning lights for ABS, break and stabitity control. I believe they must be all inter-related. I do not know why they went on. I have posted a question and am waiting for an answer.

 

Thanks for the Welcome -- I will post in the new member's forum as well. As to the beast, I drove her back from AZ to CA and can see that, at least in the short term, she will be a bit of a money pit. Having the brakes done today (all 4 rotors too worn down to resurface), and the front lower ball joints, which I guess requires replacement of the steering knuckles

Other than that, there's some misfiring after warm-up, accompanied by problems hunting the right gear (no misfires or hunting problems when cold), which I'm thinking might be caused by a bad coil pack. Ah, well -- what's life without a few mechanical problems to sort out?

 

Fill in the engine size at least in your profile or signature, please. The causes of problems are often specific to the engine so to help you we need to know. This car is full of computers but especially the whole engine and tranny are run by it/them so don't just think swapping parts is the only way as you can often get good hints from the PCM e.g. as to which cylinder is misfiring. You also have cats and they can be damaged or destroyed by misfires, for example. Cars have moved on since your 1987 I suspect

 

Welcome to the forum. Interesting your last DD was a Biturbo...my last daily driver was a 1990 "Chrysler's TC by Maserati", which came with a Mitsubishi engine stock (go figure). Despite this car's seriously bad reputation, I actually maintain that this was the best winter car (by far) I've ever owned. I could drive 70mph down a snow-streaked highway and never once feel nervous...with the Jag, not so much.

Before I settled on the Jag, I actually seriously considered a 4-5 year old Maserati Spyder Cambiocorsa. In the end, the maintenance would have been too ridiculous (regular $4K repairs needed for the F1 transmission)...but I do sometimes regret not going with the paddle shifters.

 

Good point! I have the 4.0 litre V-8, with the 5 speed transmission. The transmission was rebuilt in July, but I have no way of knowing whether it was competently done -- however when the engine is cold, and there is no misfire, it shifts smoothly and correctly.

Things have definitely moved on since my '87 Maser!

 

Hunt for any air leaks. They really really matter on modern engines.

And such engines all have OBD (OBD-II aka OBD2) so you can get DTCs (codes) about what the car "thinks" is wrong (i.e. its best guess). Often will guide you to the right cylinder(s) with misfire(s). AutoZone are barely enough (arguably not enough) or a cheap OBD tool such as an elm327 (rather better).

Get JTIS - look for workshop manual on evilbay. $10 well spent.

 

Thanks, Jagv8 -- I have ordered the JTIS already, and should be receiving it today or tomorrow. I just checked out elm327, and it seems like quite a good machine for the price. Not driving the car much with the misfiring going on, but I may have already done damage to the cats on the drive back from Arizona. I guess there's no particular warning light for that?

05chi-str: The "Chryslerati" was indeed an odd hybrid! I think certain performance components of the Mitsubishi engine were designed by Maserati (intake manifolds, and that sort of thing). There's no way I could ever afford a newer Maserati, so I might hold on to my old one just because it still turns heads -- especially now that the "trident" symbol has become more known, pedestrians keep doing a double take when they see it on the grill of my little ol' Biturbo...

 

Did it go into "Limp Mode" i.e. shut itself down?

BTW Hi Zach and Blackie, welcome!

 

Lots of lights in cold weather - #1 suspect battery.

 

zachster - yes, you may have caused damage but not necessarily terminal. Best is probably to diagnose & fix things fast. When the misfires etc are gone the PCM will move on to look at whether other problems are there, including cat efficiency codes such as P0420, P0430 (pardon me if my memory told me the wrong example codes). Anyway... drive little and get fixing, then you can properly enjoy a great car

 

Hi, thanks for the reply. It did not go into limp mode, I just get the Traction control fault and ABS and break warning lights.

 

I bit the bullet and took it into a local independent Jag shop, figuring it would take me too long to (1) purchase the diagnostic device and (2) learn how to use it! They ran a scan and found that the No. 2 cylinder is misfiring, so they will swap coil packs and let me know if that is the culprit. They also think that a problem with hard starting when the engine is warm is not related to the misfiring cylinder, but rather may be a fuel delivery problem -- they will check pressure if the hard starting continues after the misfire is solved. Once both problems are fixed, I can get on with the dreadful task of trying to pass CA's emissions test. On the plus side, the technician did not seem too worried about the condition of the cats, so I'm hoping for the best! I have the elm327 on order so I can do my own diagnoses going forward.... When you mentioned searching for air leaks, did you mean vacuum leaks? I'm thinking something along those lines may really be the problem with the hard starting, since fuel delivery seems just fine when the car is under way.

 

Yes, vacuum leaks. Do they know the S-Type fully? Certainly with the newer cars (and I suspect yours, too) you must NOT jumper the fuel pump to run flat out, for example. And fuel pressure varies dramatically all the time (it's pulsed). They should be able to fix a misfire, regardless.

The elm's easy to use but may fail to respond at all if you forget to switch to ignition II (or run engine). Careful not to flatten battery in pos II.

 

Consider having your fuel injection/induction system cleaned. Faulty coils are the number one culprit of misfires in the early-model S-Types. After that problem is addressed, a good fuel injection/induction cleaning is usually the next step. Perhaps some of the Jag techs on the site will jump in here and be more convincing, especially if your vehicle has never had a fuel injection/induction cleaning before....

 

Jagv8: The shop's been around a long time, is dedicated to Jaguar only, and works on old as well as new models, so I'm pretty sure they know the S-Type. When we talked about testing the pump, he wanted to specifically test the pressure during a hard starting incident, not outright. He did tell me today that he has not had a hard- starting incident since replacing the No. 2 coil, or a misfire while driving, but that it is still idling a bit too rough. He wants to swap out other coils now, as the only one that threw a code was No. 2. I guess its a good thing that he hasn't outright told me (yet) that I should replace all 8! If it comes to that, I'll take the car back and do it myself, as that is within my capabilities...

Jon89: I'll ask the tech about cleaning out the EFI -- it does seem like the logical first step before suspecting the pump or the injectors. I did run a can of EFI cleaner with a fresh tank of gas on the long drive from AZ to CA, but I'm guessing that's nothing compared with a real cleaning.

 

The good thing about shops who know old jags is they can do mechanical stuff. But some can't do in-depth OBD, such as watching the misfires as they occur. That's BEFORE they become errors, and in fact it's common to have high counts which don't quite reach the threshold for a MIL. That's OK, then? Noooooo, as every misfire dumps fuel and O2 into the cats

Ask what the fuel trims are (more OBD - easy to DIY with a tool). More than about +5% at idle and an air (vacuum) leak is likely. If the trims go lower at 2500rpm (not driving), it's a leak.

 

changed all my coils and plugs saved on labour costs btw my miss didn't show up as a fault at all yet I had 2 coils gone (tested them the old way, I know it was risky to cats but I was a little fortunate it was missing on tick over) more parts less labour costs makes sense as you can bet the others are near the end of there time.