Hello,

First of all, thanks a bunch for the forum. This is my 1st post.

My wife had the dreaded "A" drum transmission failure a couple of months ago. I bought the remanufactured drum from Oliver and have the transmission back in the car.

Tried to start it last night and today. Engine just cranks, but does not start. It ran fine before.

I've checked the inertia switch, it's fine.

The engine is in Failsafe mode.

When I turn the ignition on, I hear a clunk coming from the air cleaner assembly area. Maybe the MAF sensor? Also, the throttle motor does open the throttle just a bit, which I think is correct. However, when I push the petal all the way to the floor, the throttle plates only open up a bit more. Seems that the throttle motor keeps the butterfly from opening all the way. Also, there's a loud hum that I didn't notice before, which appears to be the throttle motor.

I smell a slight gas smell at the exhaust, so I guess it is getting fuel. I've tried the cylinder wash techinique by holding the petal to the floor for 10-15 seconds. Never fires.

What do you guys think? I've checked the electrical connections and all appear in place. I've also reseated the connectors on the throttle body. The looked fine.

I'm heading out of town soon and my wife is looking forward to driving. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks. Rick - 540-521-5211 - Roanoke, Va.

 

If it ran fine before its vacation still the best guess is the cylinder wash. While I have never experienced the problem all report that it can take a lot of cranking and a hot battery to get it to fire. Fifteen second cranks multiple times. Plan 'B' is to do the oil in the cylinders trick.

MAFS don't make noise. The throttle pedal is not connected to the throttle body butterfly valve, it is connected to a throttle position sensor which advises the ECM of your wishes. The ECM decides if you wish is granted.

If you are smelling gas at the rear of the car perhaps you are just flooding it more. Try taking the fuel pump relay out and do it that way.

. . . and welcome to the forum! We certainly welcome folks that take a transmission out and apart before even checking in!

 

Thanks for the reply. Need to find out what the clunk noise is in the vicinity of the air cleaner. I didn't think the MAF would make a noise either. I'll need someone to turn the key so I can find the noise, as it clears a couple of seconds after the ignition goes hot.

Interesting comment on the throttle butterfly. When the engine is off, when you floor it the butterflys completely open. I don't remember the loud hum the throttle motor makes now.

I keep thinking I have missed something. One thing interesting when I removed the transmission and tilted the motor back was that radiator fluid came out in the right front part of the engine, close to the air cleaner. A pretty significant amount. I didn't bother to actually find it. I've added some fluid now and no leak - very strange. Hoses look great. Also, thermostat housing, water pump, and thermostat have just been recently replaced a few months ago.

Like I mentioned, the car is in Failsafe mode. I'm getting some tranmission codes, but I think this is normal until I get all of the fluid in.

Keep the thoughts coming! Thanks to all.

 

Rick,

The humming noise from the throttle servo motor is normal as soon as you turn on the ignition.
With ignition on, the throttle motor should open the butterfly completely as you push the pedal to the floor.
If that is not the case on your car I would re-check all electrical connectors at the throttle body.
Especially the one of the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) which is prone to develop a bad contact over the Years.

The klicking sound near the air filter could be some relais.
I wouldn't worry too much about that right now.

If you ran your Jag for a very short period (just a few minutes) prior to your transmission "operation" than your engine is very likely just flooded.
Remove all sparks, give it FULL throttle when cranking (that will disable the fuel pump, no need to pull a relais) and crank it for a few turns. Put some oil in each cylinder, dry the sparks and put everything back together. Now just start it as usual (be aware that there will be a LOT of smoke exiting your exhaust!).

HTH!


Cheers,

David

P.S.
Transmission codes/failsafe mode is probably due to not starting after cranking.
I wouldn't worry about that right now either.

 

OK - just did a few checks

1. Fuel pump relay is not energized when ignition is on. I can put a ground in the coil input and the pump comes on. This may be normal - I guess it doesn't stay on unless the engine needs fuel. I tried to start with the pump jumpered on - still no luck]

2. Pulled the back plug on the right. Appears dry. Did a quick compression - over 100lbs.

3. Ground the outside of the spark plug to check for spark. Did not see it in dark room. Maybe onto something? Perhaps the ignition relay hot is not getting to the coils?

4. The clunk I'm hearing is the throttle body moving the butterflys open just a bit.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!!

 

'Over 100' . . . ' will not start the engine. It should be in the 150 psi range.

Still think you have cylinder wash.

The fuel pump runs for 1-2 seconds when the ignition switch is turned on and continuously when running. Anything less is a problem.

Swap the ignition relay for one of the others and see what happens. Nice of Jaguar to make most of the relays common since there are so many of them.

 

You need fuel, spark and compression to get that car started. First put a pressure gauge on the fuel rail at the Schrader valve and see what you have. This will help Jaguar fuel pressure testing If you do not have fuel check the fuse, relay and pump. This will help Fuel pump power 99 XK8 If you have fuel you need to check for spark. This can be done by pulling the coil and spark plug and grounding the spark plug and see what you have. No spark check the fuses, this should help http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Auto.../jagxk1998.pdf If you have fuel and spark then you need to work on getting it started and this should help Nikasil No Start Cylinder Washing

If you are unable to check the links you can go to my page that is listed below and look it up there. Also check your PM.

 

Ok guys. Thanks for the info. Gus, thanks especially for the time on the phone.

During testing, I notice that I was not getting spark. Since the battery was old, I went ahead and replaced. This did not fix the problem. Also, I checked compression on 4 cylinders - 2 each side. All at 150lbs - so no problem there. I was getting various transmission errors, and the engine was in failsafe mode. I had to jumper out the ignition coil relay to get the car going.

Anyway, during my checks, I went over the transmission. It appears that I put the shift selector switch on backwards. I thought the metal was facing out. I rechecked the book and the plastic faces out. Swapped this around and the alarms mostly cleared. I adjusted the switch slightly and all gears worked including reverse.

I rechecked this am, and reverse does not work - It goes into first gear. Not sure whats up. I'll open another thread on this.

Anyway, thanks a bunch for the help. No one could have guessed that I installed the shift selector switch backwards. Apparently it thought that it was starting in gear, and the brain prevented that from happening. Rick

 

Rick,
This is a first, who would have thought the selector switch could have been installed backwards? I am unable to help on the trans problem but will follow to see what you find.

 

I got this today and think it might help in your shifter adjustment http://www.jagrepair.com/images/TSB/307-01-1.pdf I hope it helps!

 

Gus - it will absolutely help!! Thanks a bunch. Unfortunately I have to go out of town for a couple of weeks - so it will have to wait. I'm hoping it may be an adjustment or something electrical on the outside of the transmission. I don't have it in me right now to pull it again. I guess it's possible that it could be something with the valve body. I did send it to Oliver to check over. He installed a new pressure regulator. Thanks again for the info and phone call yesterday!

 

Two quick points- on my 98 the throttle cable is connected to the throttle body, i.e. with the car off and someone holding the gas pedal down, the throttle is wide open. Also, my cylinder wash experiences showed compression of 25- 40 psi across the board. A 100 psi ought to be ok, IMHO.

 

When I had the car off, pushing the petal opened the butterflys all the way. With the ignition on, it would only partly open regardless of how much petal was used. Perhaps this was because the shift switch was on wrong, which gave it errors. I think it was trying to prevent the car from starting in gear (which it wasn't)

I didn't have cylinder wash. When I moved the car into the garage a couple of months ago, it only ran for a minute or 2. Like I mentioned, I had 150psi on the 4 cylinders I checked. Maybe I was lucky, because we've never experience cylinder wash symptoms. Perhaps this engine in not nicosil??? It is the original engine I think. We bought it in 2003 with 20k. Now has 113k. Also, we've had the tensioners changed.

I'llcheck the throttle opening now that all codes are cleared. I'm curious if it will fully open with the key on. Thanks

 

If the car was running prior to working on the trans and now you have it running but reverse is now a problem I would stay focused on the reverse thing for now. If you get that working then you can work on the other if you have an issue. Stay focused on the problem at hand.

 

I noticed that this adjustment is for an XK not an XJ. I am not sure it will apply to yours I will keep checking.

 

All of this sounds very familiar.
I also have a '98 XJ, my story is this; It was purchased with a bad trans. and before the trans was done it intermittantly refused to start. I have no history and the seller expressed this was recent phenomena since the trans. failure and subsequent disuse. It appeared to be a flooded condition to me when it occured.
Fast forward; When the trans was done my rebuilder called after the test drive to tell me how awful the car ran. It certainly did, WAY down on power, bucking violently on throttle application and "restricted performance" indicated. On full throttle if the revs could be coaxed over ~3k with a downshift the engine will come screaming to life, full power for sure.
Diagnostics so far finds running fuel pressure @ ~40 psi which seems low but fuel is obviously adequate for full power, I suspect poor atomization at that pressure. It has a code for rich running bank one. Entire right bank seems inop., all injectors are firing as can be heard with a stethescope but disconnecting the entire bank of them makes zero difference to running state which leads me to believe no or little spark on right bank. Plugs are sooty and some wet, some oil in spark plug wells which was cleaned. Reinstalling dried plugs in dry holes with clean boots makes no difference.
Upon clearing code the car once again refuses to start, no fuel pressure, no power at fuel pump fuse.
This where I stand as of this writing.
I'll be at it today examining throttle and TPS as mentioned in some of the above replies.
More to come as I figure things out and any input is very welcome.
Thanks,
Ross

 

Ok - everything ok now. The rotary switch was installed backwards (actually metal side out - should be plastic on my model. The problem with reverse and no 2nd gear was that the shifter was not meshed with the shift changer in the transmission. Pulled the pan - it was just floating. Move the shifter and changer so they meshed. Now OK. Reverse fine - 2nd gear fine. Just a little detail that I missed when I installed the valve body. Luckily, all I had to do was drain the fluid an pull the pan. Did not have to remove the valve body. Hope this helps someone.