Full write up will be posted tonite!!!!! Very excited right now!

 

Well done!

We look forward to the write up, as we've all been scratching our heads & thinking of the causes of the fault

 

Ok where to begin??? Well lets start with the car itself. My car is a 1998 jaguar xj8l vanden plas with 69k miles that i scored from an autcion for 500.00 car was very clean but had no keys, books, records, key fobs, nothing.

This car was a nightmare from day one! Had i known then what i know now i would have walked away! I must say, these car's are NOT a car to buy if you have no idea about car's or a lot of money. These cars are a computer network on wheels. That being said even myself whom used to ba a master mechanic and currently a diesel electrical specialist still had to turn to this site and several others to figure out my problems. What i have learned is that most people point the finger at the BPM when in fact it had nothing to do with the BPM at all. Below im gonna list each item i had problem's with and the solutions. I hope someone will find this helpful in the future.

1 abs traction control lights on. Scanned with a bluepoint ( snap on ) scanner and came up with left rear speed sensor. After getting the ohm values off this site i removed the sensor and sure enough it was bad. Went to a local u pull yard and they sold me a good one for 20.00. Installed and did hard reboot and still had the lights on. Drove car for 20 miles to relearn the sensor and shut it off and guess what, NO LIGHT problem solved and verified by michigan snow all abs and traction control works properly now.

2 windshield wiper motor was acting crazy after several post here and several testing everyone recommended that the BPM was shot. I decided to try to replace the wiper. Motor from a local u pull for a cost of 25.00 and bam wiper works perfectly! Also found 2 more ground wires under the wiper motor that i cleaned and re installed

3 when trouble shooting these cars check EVERY fuse, relay, and light bulb for proper operation first. If you have sone bulbs that are not working this needs to be addressed first. Next check all fuses and relays to insure that the correct relays and fuses are in the correct locations. In my situation someone had installed fuses and relays in every sopt in every fuse panel which was confusing the BPM by trying to operate features that the car did not have.

4 security and locking module, first check to make sure that all puddle lamps work, all power windows work, moonroof works, power mirrors work, memory seats and wteering wheel work. If you see as in my situation one door not locking start there and figure out why, fix this issue first! The sclm monitors all kinds of odd features. Also check to make sure the trunk lights and trunk button opens the trunk. This could be a sign of some broken wires in the rear trunk hinge area. After doing a HARD REBOOT you MUST reprogram the windows, this is done by rolling down the window one at a time and holding the switch foe approx. 3 seconds after you here the click in the door. Do each door in both down position and up position. This reprograms the ddm to the window parameters. In my case my ddm was bad causing the security issues. This was the biggest pain to figure out!

5 engine noise... Go to youtube and verify the difference in sound for tensioner rattle and vvt rattle. They sound completely different. My car had vvt knock, and i choose to try a diesel oil to clean the engine and after 1000 miles the car has minimal noise and runs much smoother. Another thing after 1000 miles the clean oil is already black, a sighn that its working properly.

6 listen to ALL suggestions from this board, save every drop box and pdf file yu can and read them carefully, this information is invaluable to fixing these cars and keeping them on the road for years to come. I would like to thank ALL forum members with a special thanks to mr. Jim lombardi for phone conversation's and all his drop box post! Sean b for putting in his recomendations and red october for keeping up with my post, you guys are awsome!

This is the best website to join if you are thinking of buying one of these cars and have little knowledge of them. I thought i was gonna run the show when i got mine and my car ran me! Lol
I hope that these solutions can help someone down the road, i will always be a member here and look forward to helping other members the best i can!

Thank you jaguar forums for this wonderful sight, and all members who live to keep these cats on the road! Happy motoring!

 

thanks for the informative post and also glad that you managed to resolve your car issues with help from Jaguarforums.com

thanks for sharing

 

please explain diesel oil to clean engine?

 

I can chime in on this one if you don't mind (while the OP is busy!). Diesel oil has detergents and additives that are not present in the oils used for cars (EPA at work here!). So,....many people use diesel oil in the cars, in order to keep them cleaner. Rotella is one of them. One can also add a quart of Dextron ATF in the oil (basically substitute one quart at the oil change), and this will clean partially clogged VVT oil passages, and minimize, or completely eliminate the noise.

As the OP says,.....the oil is already getting dark, wich proves that it's working (it is removing deposits from the places "normal" oil can not reach).

I am running 5-30 Castrol Sync Blend in my Cat. The next oil change will be Rotella, and back to Castrol for the following one. I am stuck with Castrol since the early seventies. Had a "pleasure" to tear down a motorcycle engines (mine and my friend's), and his had Castrol from new, but mine didn't. The engine that was running Castrol looked like it was "gold plated" inside. Castrol was leaving some gold looking deposits on the metal, and the tolerances on that engine were MUCH tighter than on mine! (we were reboring them, and squeezing more HP from them) At that time I started using Castrol (organic or syntec) in all of my vehicles.

 

Also, shell rotella t6 is a certified gas or diesel oil. It has great reviews and is 5w40 full synthetic. I called shell and was told with the oils ratings it can be ran in e everything requiring that weight oil ; )

 

It's great that you finally got everything sorted & that it's only cost time, rather than lots of money-especially as your purchase price for the car was a steal & a hell of a bargain

To help maintain these cars it's necessary to take the time out to learn how everything works & how the complex systems interact with each other. With all these information busses carrying data to & fro, you never know which module is 'talking' & which one is 'listening', so it can be tricky to pin down faults.

As you say, get hold of every single nugget of information about these cars, as someday it will be useful-no matter how obscure it may seem. For instance, when I revved my XJR in 'Park' or 'Neutral', it would get to 3000rpm & then 'hunt' around that engine speed. I thought it was a fault-until I read parts of a technical description I found that said it was actually a 'static rev limiter', so you couldn't rev above 3000rpm at idle...

All of these little 'operational quirks' are not mentioned in the driver's handbook, so that's where this forum is invaluable as there's a pretty good chance that someone on here knows something about it

Anyway, excellent job & very useful information there too-now you can enjoy the big cat without getting 'clawed' for the moment-tub of Carnauba wax & you'll have her polished up like new

 

Yep, Rotella T6 is my favorite…whether it was in my Ford Powerstroke, Land Rovers or the Jag.

It was also my favorite when we went thru our Mercedes and BMW phase…gas and diesels.

Really works well and keeps the interior nice and clean. ;-)

 

My heart is pounding...... My local jag dealer offered me 5k trade in on a 2008 xj8l slate grey with black leather, 33k miles, warranty, id be financing 19k and for 278 a month!!!! OMG what to do!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Congratulations, that's quite the return on your investment.

 

That's tempting....

 

Hi Jamie
Look at this forum thread on another member purchase of 2008 XJ:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...roblems-74222/

Him and his father appears to really likes it.

Have the Jaguar dealership show you the 5 years of maint/repair history on that car.

That price seems to be very good. I found 2 forsale locally - one for $34000 with 42000 miles and the other for $40000 with 33000 miles.

Jim Lombardi

 

If you like the car, and don't mind payments.....do it. They could offer me a brick of gold for mine, to trade on anything newer than 2003, and I would pass. I simply don't like anything newer than X308. Besides that, I like paying cash, and to have no payments.

I visit dealerships on a regular basis (I used to own few, and my current possition takes me there), and few came up to me and asked if I want to trade my car in. I never ask "for what", "how much" etc. I simply reply "not interested, thank you" and they leave me alone, write ME a check, and off I go.

I don't like borrowing money for anything. Everything I have is paid for, and nobody can come and take it. It wasn't always like that though. After I sold my last business, I paid off everything I had (and bought some more properties). Now I don't even use credit cards, only debit. I don't pay any interest to anyone.

 

I've been driving mine all day today... I may just keep her for a bit longer ; )

 

They get to you, don't they these X308's

 

Sure do!

 

Just touching base... Since its been fixed i have had NO problems and everything is working correctly and as it should! Happy motoring ; )

 

So - to sell or not to sell?

 

NOT selling!! Love this car now, way better then even my 2012 cts coupe 2 door!!