Last weekend I saw an offer, of course unintentional, if my girl-friend will ask, for a really cheap XKR MY2000 Coupe in a price-range that comes near to cars sold without even an engine. The Jag was offered 'with damaged engine'. I coudn't resist, gave the seller a call and finally we inspected the car in the dust - normally not a really good idea, i know

I awaited a rusty, damaged bunch of crap - but the car looked nearly good, was good driveable, only the engine running in "restricted performance", so max 3000 RPM.

We also found some minor issues like small rust-spots at the lower rear-end, a broken 1milehigh-antenna and a defektive microswitch in the left mirror-powerfold mechanism. The owner stated that the fuel pump was exchanged some month ago, also tensioners and chains, hoses below the sc, head gaskets and one head complete were changed. But he sweared the car was running a few thousand km after the overhaul...

But while inspecting the car we could see, that the relay for pump #2 in the trunk has been removed and the socket contacts shortened. What kind of repair is this???

The owner told me, that he even has not opened the rear fusebox ever. He invested nearly 5000 € into the now again broken car and, maybe, wants only to get rid of this 'Jaguar-rubbish' - a free car workshop was not able to repair.

So we did the 'crazy thing' and bought the car without a possibility to find out the cause for the engine problem - it seemed like something got wrong with the control-signals from ECM to fuel pumps. But who knows... Maybe the ECM burned or something like that.

OK, then 'Limping' home 80 km was not so much of fun, but we arrived without further problems.

After some fiddling with the circuits in the trunk fusebox we got the car running faultless on the 2nd pump with the control signal for the first one. Although we were confused by some kind of a backup mechanism for driving the two pumps by the ECM, that i can't really understand. Maybe it depends on, if the relay fails/is disconnected while running or before poweron?

I know, that the ECM has no possibilty of monitoring a pump failure, but i think it recognizes a relay-fault by resistance, goes into 'restricted mode' and switches the control-signal for this relay off.

So long story-short end: one Fuel Pump dead, a missing relay, a dead fuse and that's it. I can't even imagine, that a workshop was not able to diagnose this - and i really hope that they were not the man, that did the engine repair! We will see, ATM the engine runs smooth...

Maybe somebody here has a deeper understanding of the ECM's control logic, when it comes to the fuel pumps?

Last but not least, when i bought my XKR 4.2 a year ago, i was convinced, that silver looks best. But the dark-blue of the new arrival... hmm

Cheers Wolfgang

 

Great news mate, its nice to see an old cat brought back to life, well done on the repair side, mine is the same colour but only an XK8. Hope you have many happy miles in her.
Regards,
ArtyH

 

+1, the guy that sold it would be as sick as a dog to find out it is now running smoothly once again.

Great buy, enjoy it.

 

The ECM will switch to running on pump #2 all of the time (I believe in restricted performance mode) after several attempts to start with the relay coil for pump number one either open or removed.

In normal opertaion pump #2 only operates on startup to prime the fuel and under heavy throttle and pump number #1 runs full time.

 

Yes, the seller got a 'little bit' angry, after i told him the cause of the fail.

And as you said: The more car of this type will kept 'staying alive', the better. This model is not so wide spread, nevertheless it's an XK8 or XKR. Compared to other models, the build no are low (~9500 XKR Coupe IIRC) and ,maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, the prices for X100 are rising. Not to wonder about, these car's type design is one of the best, at least of this era.

Another interesting aspect, I've seen on this car: It seems like workshop's doesn't have enough experience with these cars, so repairs are eventualy done in an unreliable or crude way - and voila, the rumor is validatet: Jaguar are unreliable... (Sorry, i'm not a native speaker - I hope, you can understand my intention)

@artyH: May I ask, how many miles (or KM) you have on the tach of yours?

@whiteXKR: If i understand you correct, the ECM needs several start-attempts to accept a failed relay-coil and to switch to pump#2. That must be the cause for our confusing results while testing the engine. Thanks for the info!

Maybe a Hint for XKR-Driver (4.0l): If your Fuel-Pump #1 fails on the road, just pull the corresponding relay in the trunk fusebox and you should be able to drive home in 'Limp Mode' after a few start-attempts!

Cheers Wolfgang

 

Hello Wolfgang, my XK8 has 63600 miles on the clock, it has only covered about 750 miles in the last 3.5 years, and I put 300 miles on getting it home. Was owned by an elderly guy who did not look after it very well and it came with a few problems which I am working through. Usual stuff gearbox, tensioners general maintenance, I'm hoping to get her up to the standard of my XJS over the next few years, project ongoing....LOL's.
I hope you are enjoying your Jaguar experience.
Regards,
ArtyH

 

Hello ArtyH!

Ok, my 'first' XKR MY2004 has just now 89.000 Km on the clock, so wear should be comparable to yours, i think. My car was also driven only a few thousand km during the last 4 years -until i got it Did you exchange some of the suspension parts until now?

I'm a little bit irritated, because when it comes to driveability, the 4.2l 'feels' more worn, than the newly aquired 4.0l with ~180,000 km. Maybe its because of the 20"-Detroit Wheels on the 4.2l? Definitively the inner tie-rod-ends are worn out and the differential-mountframe-bushes have some slackness.

That's my problem: I'm rather good at diagnosing electronics, because I work with circuits, since I'm 13. When it comes to suspension items, I'm a little bit lost.

Ok, ATM I 've no Clue, wich parts on the older car has been exchanged until now and this car has only the 18" wheels.

Wich problems do you have with the gearbox?

Cheers Wolfgang

 

Hi Wolfgang, my car is standard as far as I know, but it does have c.a.t.s suspension ( which I believe only operates when in sport mode ). When I bought the car I was told it needed a gearbox service ie the oil changed. When driving it home ( 300 miles ) about half way it went into limp home mode showing gearbox fault and reduced performance. An auto box shop states the box needs overhauled and new A & B drums, but did not give me the fault codes. My local Indy has changed the oil and filter, and gave me the fault code for a range sensor and reset the computer, but it still bumps/clunks a bit when shifting from P to R. The Indy is convinced this will clear and normal service will be resumed, however with the history of these gearbox's I fear for the worst, just hope I am wrong.
Its good you have had the tensioners and chains replaced, I need mine done as soon as possible.
Good luck

 

Hi Arty
Yes, the chain-tensioners seem to be the 'archillesferse' of this engines, at least until MY2001 IIRC, when they changed the tensioners. On a former BMW, some years ago, I had a failure of the camshaft-drive on the motorway with more or less catastrophic results. I had to rebuild half of the engine...

I read your thread about the gearbox-failure and I understand your fear of a serious tranny-fail. I'm thinking about changing the tranny-oil on my 4.2l, too - don't know yet, if I will go Jaguar or directly to a ZF-Service in the near. At the 4.0l the mercedes-gearbox switches really smooth through the gears, so I will lay the focus first on other things.

An Essential while driving these older cars is, IMHO, to get your hands on a ODBC2 code-reader - ok, best would be a jaguar IDS/WDS . As a starting point I bought a cheap ELM327 generic one. So you can check some basics on yourself and maybe, don't get fooled by a workshop.

Good luck also & cheers Wolfgang