Ditto. The suggestion for a *real* look was made days ago.

The problem may be the girdle and structural sump scares the shops off. It doesn't look like you can really see anything by just dropping the pan You have to at least remove that cast sump. Once that is off, the con rod should be visible.

edit: so how the shops could say "definitely con rod" after only "dropping the pan" is a mystery only known to them.

 

Hey guys.

Just an update:

I still have not been able to get the car back. I'm stuck in a really difficult situation.

My wallet is completely empty because all of my money went into the initial purchase of the car and the transmission ($8k + $5200 for a new tranny), and now I dont have any money what so ever to try and salvage the car at the moment. I did not expect either of these things to go in under 4 months of owning the car so I am at the mercy of my mother's wallet and her decision making.

She has a "bad taste" about this car because of what happened and on that feeling alone she doesn't want to spend any of her money in trying to fix the car because she feels it is a lost cause.

RIght now she's forcing me to sell the car as is just to "cut my losses," and I see where she's coming from but whenever I try to convince her otherwise it's been ending up in a nasty verbal fight.

I told her if we fix the car, especially with that long block reconditioned engine I found on ebay with the warranty, that it solves the two major problems with the car but of course, she's my mother and my efforts lead to no avail.

Even if I try and fix the car myself, I don't have the money for replacement parts. And even if I pulled the engine and found metal shavings in the pan, that would still require an entire engine teardown because who knows where else there might be metal shavings, regardless if it was the timing chain or it really was a spun rod bearing.

So while I appreciate all of the advice given, I'm having trouble executing it because of my situation. I've been pulling my hair out over this for the last two weeks. I'm trying my best.

I also posted my problem on the UK forums and received some information from the guys overseas. Take a look:

http://www.jaguarforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=41535

 

I REALLY want to do this but again, I'm stuck in the situation with my mom which I just described. She doesn't even want to pay for a tow to my uncle's house, which is where I'd be able to store the car and work on it if I chose this path.

I am jsut as skeptical about a spun rod bearing but the only way we're going to find out in my current position is if we pay the guy to remove the sump.

There are just so many conflicting ideas here that it's making my head explode. I'm being told by my jaguar shop that he's "seen this before" and he has had four or five other XJ V8s come in with the same issue, and of course that information travels to my mom and she says "well, if you have two mechanics tell you the same story then it must be true." If I tell her otherwise, things blow up.

I also have the sound advice from everyone in here but again, my mom refuses to believe anything I say because all she sees is the amount of money spent on this car and gets immediately turned off and rebuttals by saying "With that amount of money spent you could've leased a car with a warranty yada yada yada." She's one of those people who doesn't understand the value of a car to an enthusiast despite how much it costs to keep it running.

I'm stuck in this hole that I feel like I'm being buried alive in with no way out. Please, hang in there guys. I know that my case can significantly affect the ownerships of other AJ27 owners, I just can't do anything right now.

 

Does your mom know how little you would get if you sold the car as-is? B/c when you think about it, if you were to sell, what car can you get for the price of the engine replacement? I'm pretty sure that car would also require a whole lot of $ in potential repairs. Even if its a Honda/Toyota.

Man just reading your story is making me scared to drive my car! I just spent an unexpected $700 on a cooling problem today. I also had my transmission rebuilt TWICE in the 7 years I have had my car. Two rebuilds had me in the same situation as you. I had to depend on my parents for a 'bail out' and they were trying to get me to dump the car. Thank God I didn't. The rebuilds were in '07 & '08. The first tranny was from a company on ebay that looked legit, and charged $1300 for the rebuilt trans, but they "went" out of business within months of purchasing and it became a battle with American Express for a refund. That was a messsss.

Fast forward 3 years and I'm still loving the car. Other than this cooling issue, which looked like it was on its way out for a while, things have been ok. It hasn't been as reliable as the Grand Cherokee I had before her or my dad's BMW, but my brother's expedition spun a rod last summer and that was another "get rid of this car and lease something!" situation. An American truck is supposed to be reliable right? They wanted him to lease something boring like a Camry! Wtf! His expedition is a '03. Older cars def have problems my man.

Lease deals are tempting, but not so much for car enthusiats who like to keep their cars for a long time. If I leased a nice car for 7 years, it would have cost alot more than my car has.

 

With the amount of money spent, $13k+, you could be in a brand new fully paid Toyota Corolla with a warranty. That ought to carry you right past graduation.

They look pretty nice this year with the new back end styling.

It's not what you want to hear, but spending money on cars as an enthusiast means spending what you can afford. Right now is not that time.

From reading these boards, even some well established owners cringe at the cost of maintenance.

 

As stated before. You need a more accurate diagnosis. Get under the damned thing and find out what went wrong. You can sit there and convince your mom that it needs a new engine when it may not actually need one. The mechanic could be playing you with a "we had many other XJ8s come in with this issue" ploy that might not be true. You won't know till you rip into it, its as simple as that. Try to convince your mom that all hope is not lost and its worth it to at least take a look. If the engine is blown, then you and her can decide what to do from there. Tell her that you do not feel comfortable selling the car until you know EXACTLY what went wrong with it, because if it is something simple like the timing tensioners, then you'll have sold a perfectly good car for nothing. Tell her you don't trust the mechanics because they are only speculating and haven't actually looked into the issue very far. You gotta love moms though... Mine is a Jag fanatic thankfully!

Yeah... but its a corolla... Once you've had a Jag, you'll do anything from having to go back to something like that.

 

For what my two cents and a cup of coffee is worth....WHENEVER......you have an older vehicle......YOU.....had best be mechanically able to maintain THAT vehicle or be a dr. lawyer or indian chief with deep pockets. Older vehicles are like older people,...you have to drive and maintain them with a bit of grace and diligence. That said,...We all love what we love,...I personally would be hard pressed to drive anything else,..and mine is in the garage on stands right now "under the knife". Like others have posted,..this may NOT be the time in your life to try a keep this kind of vehicle. But as another said, the car in this condition is going to bring little at sale. Don't stress yourself out,....but put a little time and thought in to "creative options" Meanwhile I'm sure the financial clock is running...storage and such. This site is the MOST valuable part of keeping a cat....as you can see by their peculiar and persnickety ways.....they can never truly be owned!.....Best wishes with your situation....

 

A corolla for $13k? Nope, stripped down with the only option being automatic costs $17k. You really cant buy anything new that is decent for $13k unless you can find some end of the year super dealer discounts that actually exist and aren't those teaser newspaper ads that are always "sold out".

IMO the only car with a bit of prestige and style that is somewhat cheap is a VW Jetta. Those with only a few options like sunroof and automatic and etc. easily gets into the $20ks and its still a feminine car.

 

It sounds like at your point in life you should just listen to your mom. Its not worth getting her upset.
There will be a time later when you can have an enthusiast's car, and now is not the time.

Try to store it at your uncles and when you are in a position to, get a precise diagnosis.
Even if you have that diagnosis now you still won't be able to get any funds to fix it, from your mom, and I don't blame her either.
Get a cheap reliable car, nothing fancy and continue your schooling or get a decent bicycle and use it for transportation.

 

Honestly I had no problem maintaining a 14 year old Mercedes for 4 years and 76k miles. I wasn't expecting a tranny replacement and an engine failure to prop up on my doorstep with this car. I was also told that I wouldn't be spending any more than my Mercedes to keep this car running. I did everything by the book and I just ended up with really bad luck. then again also my mercedes was a far more durable and reliable car.

But after having my mom read this whole thing through she is going to reconsider me working on the car. I might store it at my uncle's place until I can work on it. Anyone have a guide on how to remove the oil pan and sump so I can visually inspect the crank?

 

Sometimes moms just need time to simmer..... Even though its unlikely, I am still hoping its only the tensioners or something simple.

 

Spending large sums of money on a 10 year old car that is worth little and will still be worth little even after spending the money is definitely not wise. I was all sentimental once about a 1980 Series 3 4.2. It beguiled me into keeping it for 14 years and I spent a fortune on it. Never again !

Cars like this tend to be expensive to fix if major problems arise. That is the gamble we all take when buying them. If you cannot do the job yourself, better to let go.

Incidentally, have you been through deep water in it recently at a fairly fast speed ? You might have got water into a cylinder and stressed-out the conrod bearing. In most cases of this, the rod gets bent as well and eventually snaps and comes out through the side of the block. Whne that happens, nobody worries about the rod bearing !

 

I went through a large puddle, no deeper than say and inch or two but that was because snow was melting. But if I had gotten water into the cylinder, wouldn't that have happened instantly and the engine would've sputtered?

Because the noises didnt begin to arise until several hours later, and there were no noises when I started my journey up north.

 

If the above happened, you would hear a very large boom. Followed by clanking and thrashing sounds. Once again, only digging into it will reveal the truth.

 

Over the 30+ years I have owned several Jaguars (I have 3 right now), I have done most of my own maintenance and repair work. My most recent DIY projects have included head gasket replacement, complete chain tensioners, guides and chains replacement, wheel bearing replacement and fuel pump replacement on my XJR, and I have found this forum to be an invaluable source of advice and information.

I've read through this entire post and you have been given a lot of advice; some good, some not so good, but all well-meaning. However, you still have not taken the simple steps necessary for anyone, myself included, to actually help you. While I'm not sure that any of the "evidence" you have presented so far supports the conclusion of a failed connecting rod bearing, I don't believe that you know enough about the condition of your engine to be able to determine what is wrong. All you have is what someone else has told you, and that can oftentimes lead to incorrect, expensive decisions. Until you find out for sure what happened, there is no way anyone can give you any valid advice on how to fix the problem, or if it indeed can be fixed, short of completely replacing the engine.

Before you either abandon the car or spend a lot of money you say you don't have, I would encourage you to either do the necessary work yourself, or hire someone to do the work to check two things: (1) visually inspect the timing chain tensioners, upper and lower, and if you find no problem there, then (2), visually inspect the crankshaft journals for evidence of rod bearing failure. If no problems are found in either, then get back on this forum with the information you have learned. I'm sure that your problem can be solved; you just need more information to determine the best way to solve it. Good Luck.

 

Update. Ok. So I got the car back in my possession...sort of. It's sitting at my friends house not too far away. The engine ran according to the mechanic, so I made a video of it starting up cold so you guys can hear what it sounds like.

I wont be able to start taking it apart until later this week. So, have a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUAQ77hS3yQ

 

Yep, heartbreaking noise. It sickens me when I hear it.

 

So it is a rod knock...

 

Chinney mate it's very difficult to tell, it is major, I'm thinking it's either a piston knocking on valves, or rod knock. The piston would do this if the timing chain tensioner let go. It could also be a timing chain. As before, the only way to tell is to take it to bits.........you've got work, simple. But I'll try and help as best I can.

 

another thought, if you hire or buy the timing tools, get the crank pulley puller tool, my first suggestion would be to take the timing cover off and get a look at the timing. This is the first thing to do, forget about the crank/bearing. I've listened to it a few times anf my gut tells me its timing. I've heard a similar noise with a V12 Jaguar engine with a b bank tensioner fail, and the chain was flopping all over the inside of its timing cover, and it was SIMILAR.
All may not be lost Son!