Yesterday I got my 2002 S-type back from the mechanic. I had to threaten legal action because he kept stalling, saying it would be ready in a day or two every time I spoke to him for the past 15 months. I cannot tell if he did any work on it at all. I drove it home, about 25 miles, but:
1) it's noisy, apparently has a loose connection or weld on the driver's side exhaust.
2) It has no pickup, but when I drove it from Garland to Midland (abt 350 miles) in June of 2022, I was able to get it up to highway speeds, except uphill.
3) it will go 42 mph smoothly, but will start bucking if I try to go faster. There is a message that says performance is "restricted".

I was told that the car needed new catalytic converters and new oxygen sensors. The mechanic claimed that he had some made for me, but took them off when I came to get the car. He said that he had returned them to the vendor when I offered to buy them from him. This makes me think they never existed.

So there are my main symptoms. I am having to find another mechanic in West Texas willing to work on a Jaguar. Used to be able to fix things myself, but nowadays getting my body under a car doesn't work well.

Advice? Diagnoses?

Thanks!

 

Sounds like this mechanic was giving you the runaround. If you can find a Jaguar specialist, that's great but not mandatory. Any competent mechanic can successfully diagnose and repair these cars. Don't forget the little secret of how Ford was the parent company at the time. Except for some very specific items, most stuff isn't any more complicated than a garden variety Ford.

Do you have a scanner or code reader? If not, please beg, borrow, or steal one and retrieve any OBD fault codes and post them here. Some parts stores will even retrieve codes for free. Should be a five digit code, such as P0306, etc. This will provide major clues as to what is happening. Make sure to post the actual code, as sometimes the generic definitions are not accurate.

IF (big IF) the cats are bad, aftermarket versions are readily available. I replaced them on my '02 V6 as detailed here:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...cement-260272/