My wife and I don't drive much annually probably 5K-7K miles per year split between our 2002 XK8(now has just 31K miles) and the 2006 XJR(52K miles). For distance the XJR goes out but for short jogs to the beach (about 3 miles each way) we take the XK8.. We live in South Florida and a few weeks ago I was out in California on a business trip. That Saturday I got a call from my wife. She took the XK8 down to Miami and it ran fine. She discovered she had the wrong address for the place she was meeting friends and went to pull out on the road and the car shut off and would not start. After about a dozen phone calls with her and few facetime sessions I determined maybe the fuel pump shut down.

She had it towed back to the house (about 35 miles)and it sat until I got back the following Wednesday. That evening I went over the usual things like battery, fuses and a few other things to no avail. So I decided to have it towed the next day to my Jaguar repair shop and left it with them. So now it's Friday and the shop calls and asked if I had anyone else work on it recently. I said no, so he told me I should come over he wanted to show me something. My wife came along and we went over and he showed me how when someone tried to change the fuel pump they cut a bunch of wires in the harness and let's just say the did't believe in solder, electrical tape, shrink wrap or any other acceptable method of electrical repair. He mentioned he had seen this before when people who did not know what they were doing tried to change the fuel pump(just most places actually repaired the damage they caused). So he told me it would be a day or so until he got around to rebuilding and testing the wiring harness.

About Wednesday the following week I called for status and he said he had one wire that had the wrong signal on it so it may be the fuel pump so he ordered one. This took a day to come in and it looked like I would have it Friday night for the weekend, but the call never came. Monday when I called he told me he saw a small fuel leak from the lines from the tank under the car. This took a whole lot of work (rear end removed, heat shields, exhaust...) to discover the same great level of repair was afforded the fuel lines from the tank. Evidently when they replaced the fuel pump they evidently cut the fuel lines to join them back they had various pieces of tubing being put in service to join this sort of together. One of the pieces looked like something they unscrewed from a fuel pressure gauge.
He wound up rebuilding all the lines which took some time and when done they looked as good as the factory. I had him go through and look at everything else and three of us did not find any other evidence of jury rigging of anything else(in the interior he would have saw it when he changed the roof lines . So one bad repair by the previous owner who probably tried to do it on the cheap, by someone not even remotely qualified to own a screwdriver.

This now has my wife freaked out about the car which my mechanic and I believe is in in fantastic shape. This is my baby, but I will not have a car we both will not drive. I need to help build back her confidence in the car. I hope I can do that.

 

Michael, That is just awful, not to mention the cost in monies and your confidence in the car.
Give it a good run to Disney Land on the Turnpike, enjoy the day.


Wayne

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I just had my fuel pump replaced, but it was a simple R&R with none of your issues.

Glad that you have it all sorted out now. Hope the wife believes that and starts to trust the car again. Be a shame to lose her. The car of course.

 

A sobering story indeed and good information for all of us. Definitely pays to get underneath your car and familiarise yourself with anything and everything about the car and any previous work. You'll never be able to catch it all but each additional bit of familiarity is definitely on the plus side.

 

Samanator,

Take your car to Prestigious Jaguar Service and ask to speak with Bob.

(954) 779-1000