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Reporting back on the tires, replacing the front 2 tires seems to have cured 95% of the pull. Still getting a pretty nasty front/steering wheel vibration at 55-65, which is really weird, since both the rims and tires have been changed out since that was noticed. Maybe an issue with a spindle? Or rotor unbalanced?
Icing on the cake, the new fronts ride massively better over bumps, much less of a "crashing" feeling when going over seams in the road vs the old tires. Also, the weird hum I was getting at 30/57mph, which I couldn't trace down, is now gone. Weird, but I'll take it.
Rotated the tires today, I try to remember to do them every 3 or 4 thousand miles. I check the tire pressures, clean inside the rims with Simple Green, and thoroughly check the tires for even wear and any foreign objects.
Today I removed the left (driver side) ignition coil cover, removed the front (cylinder 5) coil and took off its rubber boot. I then removed the contact spring from the coil body and stretched it a bit, adding about one cm. to total length. Then I replaced it onto the coil body, replaced the rubber boot, carefully re-inserted the coil / boot assembly into the spark plug tunnel. I then secured the coil assembly using the original bolts, tidied up the wiring and started the car. For the first time in a week there were no check engine lights, error messages or other falderal. I then drove the car about ten miles, found superb performance, smooth acceleration, easy starting and fun-to-own again emotions. (I will re-install the coil cover as soon as the engine cools.)
Original problem:
- Stuttering upon start
- Restricted Performance message on message screen plus yellow Check Engine light
- Error P0305: Misfire Cylinder five
- Error P03146: Misfire exceeds emissions
(- There had also been an error code indicating bad fuel pump relay. I replaced that yesterday. Easy and cheap. )
Had the above spring maneuver not worked I would have been highly miffed, but figured it had to be something simple. Okay, I prayed it was something simple.
Been getting a weird intermittent engine power loss/surging at moderate speeds and gentle acceleration for a while now. Over the last week or so I started to get a inconsistent rough stumbling idle when warm and in drive. Finally it threw a code today and gave a hint to the problem, p0308 cyl8 misfire and the associated p1316. Now that I've got a direction to look, it's time to investigate.
Hopefully it's something simple like a dying coil pack, and that the first problem is related to the idle issue. Really glad I finally got a code, and it wasn't something open ended like p0300 or both banks rich/lean.
After many months of work to get my 2001 XJ-8 running like-new, 31December 2019 and about 3k code free high performing happy miles proved to be the end of my labors.
While traveling at speed at the 175 mile marker of Utah's I-80, we crashed through a cable guard rail, spun 270 rotational degrees ccw and barrel rolled three times east down in the snow covered median coming to rest on the passenger side. Note in the photo of the driver A pillar is collapsed 3" but did not break, 3 doors and boot lid are still operational open/close stayed closed during rollover,, sunroof blew out - my escape route.
This noble Lady gave her life in saving mine and my wife's. We literally walked away from that crash, albeit very bruised, superficial cuts, jostled, and a couple of severed tendons on my left ring finger probably from the airbag. But fully alive!
We bid farewell to this noble Lady with deep admiration and appreciation of her sacrifice. Raging mad of the loss of a perfectly pristine ride, happy to walk away alive.
I'm sure she will be available thru the insurance company for salvage, lots of good parts including a full top end rebuild engine, 4 brand new W rated Cooper tires, warranted ECM . Currently located at Moore's Towing and Chevron in Coalville, UT until recovery disposition is made.
I don't think I'll push to get her to Colorado to feed my 2000 XJ8 needs, but who knows?
Maybe I'll discuss the why later, but I learned never to drive with a raging untreated bronchitis lung infection again.
Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year all!
Cheers! 2001 XJ8 lh 2001 XJ8 rr 2001 XJ8 engine 3k miles top end 2001 XJ8 we survived - walked away 2001 XJ8 front
After many months of work to get my 2001 XJ-8 running like-new, 31December 2019 and about 3k code free high performing happy miles proved to be the end of my labors.
While traveling at speed at the 175 mile marker of Utah's I-80, we crashed through a cable guard rail, spun 270 rotational degrees ccw and barrel rolled three times east down in the snow covered median coming to rest on the passenger side. Note in the photo of the driver A pillar is collapsed 3" but did not break, 3 doors and boot lid are still operational open/close stayed closed during rollover,, sunroof blew out - my escape route.
This noble Lady gave her life in saving mine and my wife's. We literally walked away from that crash, albeit very bruised, superficial cuts, jostled, and a couple of severed tendons on my left ring finger probably from the airbag. But fully alive!
We bid farewell to this noble Lady with deep admiration and appreciation of her sacrifice. Raging mad of the loss of a perfectly pristine ride, happy to walk away alive.
I'm sure she will be available thru the insurance company for salvage, lots of good parts including a full top end rebuild engine, 4 brand new W rated Cooper tires, warranted ECM . Currently located at Moore's Towing and Chevron in Coalville, UT until recovery disposition is made.
I don't think I'll push to get her to Colorado to feed my 2000 XJ8 needs, but who knows?
Maybe I'll discuss the why later, but I learned never to drive with a raging untreated bronchitis lung infection again.
Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year all!
Cheers!
Wow, what a great time to be surrounded by all that steel huh ?! Godspeed to full recovery.
Fresh back from a 14 hour 800 mile round trip trek through snowy mountainous West Va. for a snowboard excursion, the ole girl performed flawlessly. Back home for a well deserved spa-day lol wash.
Last edited by King Charles; 01-09-2020 at 06:30 PM.
Reporting back on the tires, replacing the front 2 tires seems to have cured 95% of the pull. Still getting a pretty nasty front/steering wheel vibration at 55-65, which is really weird, since both the rims and tires have been changed out since that was noticed. Maybe an issue with a spindle? Or rotor unbalanced?
Icing on the cake, the new fronts ride massively better over bumps, much less of a "crashing" feeling when going over seams in the road vs the old tires. Also, the weird hum I was getting at 30/57mph, which I couldn't trace down, is now gone. Weird, but I'll take it.
Just an FYI for you :
I recently discovered my Caster setting was set to minimum ,that's despite me visiting a few alignment shops over a year or two and asking them to set it up per jaguar specs. I think brutal or plums contributed to some posts about it, setting me off in the right direction.
So recently I set maximum caster & camber on the nearside (new springs last year so now I've realised I had 1 degree positive camber ever since) & a touch less on the offside, so I've got a little cross camber and caster. 0.25 to 0.5 degrees is what I was aiming for
Point is that this has cured the pull to the left that I've had for a long time. It's also cured much of the crashing sensation I've had,so worth checking.
FYI, the rearmost camber bolt has two degrees of effect from minimum to maximum, and the caster bolt at the front barely has any effect on camber, maybe 0.1 degrees.
I still need to get the toe in just right. I think 6mm difference front of tyre versus rear of tyre will be right. Digital measurement for camber
1595 rear vs 1600 front, so toe out at the moment. Needs to be the opposite to that.
[QUOTE=StagByTriumph;2176449]
This noble Lady gave her life in saving mine and my wife's. We literally walked away from that crash, albeit very bruised, superficial cuts, jostled, and a couple of severed tendons on my left ring finger probably from the airbag. But fully alive!
We bid farewell to this noble Lady with deep admiration and appreciation of her sacrifice. Raging mad of the loss of a perfectly pristine ride, happy to walk away alive.
/QUOTE]
Glad you both got out of that relatively unscathed!
Had a P0456 code (slight evap system leak) found the problem with a smoke test which revealed a deteriorated rubber hose on the fuel tank. Fixed that and now I have to drive the car through the test procedure to clear the P0456, and complete the P1000, so that I can get it smogged.
Finally managed to get a moment to adjust my front tracking via the tape method. I'm not kidding myself that it's as accurate as those laser jobbies but it is far better than the past few alignment shops.
5mm difference between the front of the tyres and the back (toed in) gives a nice and stable drive now. Front tracking with the tape measure. (Use some sticky tape to hold the other end in the groove)
Finally managed to get a moment to adjust my front tracking via the tape method
A tight rope around all 4 wheels, at center cap height, will give you an other (and probably more accurate) reference for your measurements.
I did this after I changed all 4 shocks, before driving to the alignment shop, and was really pretty close on the toe settings, all in the green.
Just camber and caster are much harder to do with a ruler, but those seem to stay pretty good once set professionally.
I was on the money, coil pack failure was causing my misfire. Moved the coil from the misfiring cylinder to the one next to it and the misfire followed. Though apparently P030x codes don't always trigger the CEL. I drove around a day or so wondering why a misfire I could obviously feel wasn't popping the light, then checked with my scanner and saw the new code.
Replaced the bad coil, and spark plugs on both of the cylinders that were tested. Pulling spark plugs showed arcing burns on the outside of the ceramic insulator, so probably getting some arcs to the engine block. Ordered a set of boots for the rest of the good coil packs to help prevent others from having the same fate.
Still getting a bit high LTFT, +8 to +9 at idle, so I'm thinking there's a slight air leak somewhere. Still getting the mid-throttle surge occasionally, but overall the engine feels much better. Back to feeling effortless rolling along at highway speeds, as it should be.
A tight rope around all 4 wheels, at center cap height, will give you an other (and probably more accurate) reference for your measurements.
I did this after I changed all 4 shocks, before driving to the alignment shop, and was really pretty close on the toe settings, all in the green.
Just camber and caster are much harder to do with a ruler, but those seem to stay pretty good once set professionally.
Thanks Eric I might just try that at the weekend as the rear wheels have slight toe out. Need to at least change it to slight toe in.
The number of alignment places that say, "oh that's good enough for me ". But it's not that good unfortunately.
After doing a smoke test to locate and fix the P0456 code (small leak detected in the evaporative emissions (EVAP) system) I took the car to be smogged this morning. Passed with flying colors. (or is that colours!)
2003 XJR now with a bunch of miles the little annoying things start happening.
- Battery in key Fob died. Annoying :-)
- Door latch cable fraying on drivers side at the door latch.
to much slacking the cable. Pull the handle....nothing. Had to roll down the window and use the outside handle.
A silly fix until the new cable arrives.
I put two cotter pins around the cable to take up the slack. Silly but it works. For now.
- Those small hard antifreeze lines are giving me a fit. Cracking or just breaking.
Simply slide a hose over the crack and breaks in the line. Silly but works.
- The Super Charger hose assemblies were also giving me a fit. And for sure I wasn't going to buy and install a complete assembly for one small section going bad.
Cut out the bad and use some engine hose I use on my Perkins diesel that powers my boat.
Just annoying stuff....but she's still on the road.
Last edited by XJRfan; 01-30-2020 at 02:05 PM.
Reason: Adding more pics
12-31-2019, 12:14 PM
Ending 2019 with 2 bangs of airbags
