It was a joke Dave. If I hurt your feelings I apologize. I sometimes have a cutting wit but It is rarely personal. It is a nice car but the wheels look like they came from a pimp ride. Thinking of swapping my Vanden Plas for an "R".

I will help you anytime I can.

Don't let stuff in Cyberspace get you down. Most of them pick their noses in their underwear and eat the boogers.When someone puts you down, just picture them that way. Fill out your profile and tell us somethig about you.

Eddie 04 VDP

 

I still hunt the country for "R's", and I saw your car on ebay!

I believe someone has already revealed what is likely your issue: the traction control is stepping on your shenanigans when it detects wheel slippage. It's all over in an instant, and I know it pretty well now. 1. floor it. 2. slight hesitation. 3. sudden burst of power. 4. slight wheel spin/hop. 5. traction control and DSC steps in and puts on the reins.

Switching off traction control should allow you to avoid this process.

I come from the world of 5 liter mustangs with 3.73 gears, no traction control, big horsepower, etc. Feathering in throttle and working on clutch release to get a good launch. The XJR always has a delay when you floor it. This brings me to be somewhat disappointed with launches from a standing start. To avoid this, I have grown fond of gradually adding power from around 20mph and letting the thrust build, like applying thrust to a jet must be. It also seems more in keeping with the car itself.

 

Well......I had time this weekend to spin around in the jag.The traction control was the problem. No hesitation at all now.I did get the chrome strip put on the trunk.I think it's much better than the painted one.Thanks for all the help.I did notice an air suspension error popping up this weekend.I'm not sure what that is.Take care and Merry Christmas, Dave

 

Hi everyone, I just bought my very first Jaguar. It's an XJR from 2004. It has 38000 miles on the clock, and generally in a fantastic condition. I didn't do a full throttle test when I bought and now very sorry that I haven't. It behaves exactly as described in this thread. I took it to service at the local garage (belgravia garage), ask them to check the problem. They said there was a misfire showing up when they drove the car and had the computer connected. But the error disappeared almost straight away and was not logged. I asked them to check the coils also and they said they were fine. Their solution was to drive until the error would stay in the log, because they couldn't say for sure whether it was the coils, or spark plugs. They said they didn't want to change those things and the problem wouldn't be solved. So I have done the big service, new brakes and a track rods. Car has a brand new gearbox fitted. Just before I bought the car. The dealer changed it, and before I bought the car he told me that after gearbox change, it had this problem, and we were supposed to check it with the dealer before I bought the car, I was impatient, read this thread and told the dealer to go and try it with anti spin off and sport mode, he said he did, and that there was no problem anymore. Naive me believed him and bought the car. Anyway the problem is there, and I tried everything I could possible find here. But unfortunately it does it. It happens when I floor it, it kinda stops reacting to the pedal, and then just flies off and stops again. If I drive around and accelerate slowly the there is no problem at all. It drives so nice, and I love the car already. Never drove such a smooth car, I have had M5s, panamera, 7 series, X6 5.0i. This has just the perfect suspension for London.

I don't believe that they actually checked the coils. Guys, what can this be? It's driving me nuts. Thanks very much in advance. Any advise greatly appreciated

 

There are COP testers you can buy and check them yourself

I think they could have watched misfire counts using special OE-OBD tool.

It's not forced to be coils, but seems to me a good bet. (Cats are another.)

 

Hi, thanks very much for reply. To be honest, I don't even know how to get to the coils. I had the big plastic cover removed, and I couldn't see them.

Its weird. because when I drive around, it feels like a car without any super charger. Very smooth, good torque, but not 400 HP. When I floored it yesterday, after the hesitation, it really took off for a split second. There I could feel the power of the car.

Anyway, by CATS you mean the cats in the exhaust? You think they might be blocked? I also though about it, that is why I did a terra clean 2 days ago, thought it might help. But it didn't. I haven't cleaned the MAF sensor either, will try and do that later today. Also I remember, that the dealer told me, that they have replaced the coolant tank, it had a crack on it, and there was signs of coolant liquid on the left side of the engine bay. I am thinking, that it might have gone into the coil

cheers

 

Also wanted to add some more info, the head lighs flicker , and one of them even blinks a bit. I am not sure if that has any relation to the main problem. The garage told me they did a drain test and tested the battery, and it was fine. Also, I am not sure if the change of the gearbox, has anything to do with this problem either, maybe it needs a software update in the ecu?

 

I suppose it depends if the flicker is independent or a clue to an electrical fault that maybe also affects the PCM.

No cleaning will help if a cat is damaged, not that you know if any is.

I think your engine is like mine, in which case the coils are under the sloping covers and fairly accessible if you're handy with tools. There are threads about it and I think at least one video on youtube (about changing spark plugs but hey you need to get the coils off to do that!).

JTIS shows some of it I think but also gives torque figure - basically not very tight or you'll cause damage.

 

How do you find out if the cats are damaged? I guess the only thing to do here, is take it to the dealer. I have ordered a new xenon bulb, will change it and see if the flickering stops. I am very handy with tools, but I think the dealer is the only option here

Thank you so much for your help. I will post the results here when/if I solve the problem. Can this be a dirty MAF? I haven't cleaned that yet, I just got the spray for it

 

Can't hurt to clean the MAF (that's not meant as a challenge!).

cats - sometimes they rattle, oftentimes you can detect different temps using an IR gun, or try removing an O2 sensor and look in e.g. with borescope. Maybe an exhaust shop would do these?

 

I just cleaned the MAF, and got so upset after I opened up the air filter compartment. They didn't change my filter, I paid a small fortune to the garage. Also I managed to take two coils out, and found a bit of oil in both tunnels, just at the very bottom next to spark plug.

Is that normal? I can see that the garage hasn't been anywhere near the plugs nor the coils. What a rip off

 

Check the picture.

 

And the new filter

 

Sorry this pic is better

 

You've obviously been defrauded. I don't know what the law is in London, but if you have a receipt for what you paid the shop, you might visit a police station to see if you can file a complaint there. Under no circumstances should you allow the garage to touch your car again, as they may remove all the evidence of their fraud. I would suggest that you take photographs of what you've found and confront the garage owner and demand a full refund. If he refuses, you may need to seek relief through the equivalent of our "small claims court." I don't know if you have local news programs as we do in the U.S., but here some stations have "investigative reporters" who love to expose fraudulent businesses...

Obviously, you won't know where you stand with the performance of the car until it's had a real tuneup. The mileage is very low for an '04, so unless the car has been abused, you should be able to sort out the hesitation (however, given that the car has already received a new gearbox, abuse must be suspected). Please keep us informed!

Don

 

Er... was it the same place that fitted a new gearbox? Did they actually do it???

 

Hi guys, no the gera box was fitted by all gears, it is a respectable company, only doing the gearboxes. It was done by the dealer. The car has not been abused, it is an ex embassy car , and it has been standing for a long time, not being driven, I can see signs of moisture on many metal parts. The problem with this car, it has not been driven enough. I went to the garage this morning, and freaked out, It is with them now. He told me that the filter is not included in the service, but I told him that it bullsh***t, I can see in fact that they did remove the filter cover, and have not clicked it back on properly, as you need to remove the hose first, otherwise it can't close. I asked him how could they possibly leave a dirty filter like that. They advertise about how good they take of the car, and that it is in the best hands etc. Let us see, what they come up with today, I told them to take out the coils and test them as they haven't done that. The thing is, in Belgravia, most of the poeple living there , are rich, and don't actually take their cars apart in their parking garages like I do So I told that to the guy, that I will not tolerate this crap, and I actually know a bit about the cars.

 

Don, I actually did take picture of everything, when I came home from the service, I have paid 250 Pounds ( around 400 USD) for the gold valet, which included steam cleaning of the engine bay. I took a brand new cloth and sprayed dashboard cleaner, just to check if they acutally cleaned it, and guess what, I will post the picture with the cloth in a second. You will how golden the 250 pound valet is .

 

this is the cloth after the golden valet

 

And of course , it was not the dirt from the engine bay, it was from my dashboard and door panel , I couldn't believe my eyes. What a rip off . I paid in total 2300 POUNDS that day