I was making a wide right turn into a gas station today in my 97 VDP and my car died. I was close enough to the pump that I just rolled in and put gas in it. I wasn't that concerned, it did it to me one day making a left off the freeway, I put it in neutral and it started right up. So, I start it after I put the gas in and my transmission light is on. My check engine light has been on for a couple weeks. It says it wants new cats and O2 sensors. It seemed to shift and run fine as I took it home in a panic. The fastest I drove was 30 so I can't tell you if it has full range. Any ideas?

 

Hi Heather,

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. From your symptoms, you may have more than one issue.

Low transmission fluid has been associated with engine stalling, especially when slowing down to make a turn. I am attaching the instructions for checking the transmission fluid from the 1996 Jaguar Service Training Manual.

There are known causes for the transmission Limp Home Mode, but it will be helpful if you can post all the codes that were stored exactly as they appeared, including the initial letter (P) and all numbers.

Cheers,

Don

 

Thanks Don! The transmission fluid level is good. It looks normal bordering on a light brown. The engine codes are a P300 and we replaced the last 2 original coils tonight after the problem occurred. Or at least we think they were original, Lucas coils with the date in 1997. They had been on order and came in today, we were going to replace them this weekend anyway. We're not sure of the age of the others since we have only had the car since April. When I went to move her into the garage, the transmission light went out. The other two codes are the P0420 Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1) and the P0430 Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 2). I know this comes up when the O2 sensors upstream and downstream have readings that are similar or the cats are failing. I know this may sound weird but the smell of the exhaust has not changed. (Yes, I do sniff car exhaust on occasion, lol) But, could any of this cause the stall and transmission light to come on? It hasn't had any problems shifting, no idle problems at lights. Engine does not run rough. It does have a power steering leak. I have had it blow a few cooling hoses and had to replace those. I was told it sat for a couple months before I bought it but it was 2 years out of emissions and I still get little pieces of trees blowing out of my AC vents even with all the use the AC gets in AZ! I think it sat longer than what they said. It's my daily driver and I have a 44 mile round trip commute so we spend quite a bit of time together and I am a bit fond of her.

Thanks,

Heather

 

Heather,

Did you check the transmission fluid level both cold and hot, per the instructions? The hot reading is the one that matters most, and the fluid level should be right at the hot line, neither above nor below. If that's the case, then is it possible you simply ran out of gas as you were turning into the gas station? Fuel level senders are known to give false readings with age....

Regarding the P0420 and P0430 codes, I'm wondering if you referred to the DTC Summaries for the 1997 (U.K.) V8 AJ26 engine? For your U.S. spec 1997 X300, you want to reference the 1996/1997 6-cylinder AJ16 engine DTC Summaries manual, which you can download here:

http://www.jag.co.jp/test_tool/jaguar_dtc/AJ169679.pdf

The possible causes for P0420 (A Bank, cylinders 1-3) and P0430 (B Bank, cylinders 4-6) include:

Exhaust leak
Upstream HO2S slow response
Upstream HO2S sense wire open or short circuit
Intake air leak
MAFS fault

Since it is unlikely that both heated O2 sensors would simultaneously develop either slow response, a broken wire or short circuit, my first suspects would be an exhaust leak, intake air plumbing leak (very common), or MAFS fault (not unknown, but often it just needs to be cleaned).

Regarding the P0300 code, one possible cause is low fuel pressure, which could be associated with your stalling. But if you also had individual cylinder codes, such as P0301 or P0306, you would be right to suspect the coils for those cylinders.

Regarding original coils, they were made for Lucas by Diamond Electric Mfg. Co. Ltd. and are marked Made in Japan. In case you haven't already seen it, the thread at the link below contains lots of info on the coils, including photos of original coils:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...0-coils-93966/

Have you cleared all the fault codes, and if so, which ones have reappeared?

Cheers,

Don

 

The transmission light almost certainly came on because the engine died. The code is probably engine / transmission rpm mismatch or similar. My advice is, figure out why the engine died and don't sweat the tranny. Or I am wrong!

 

Don,

I am absolutely positive I didn't run out of gas. I fill before I hit the quarter tank mark and I know I should get about 450 miles out of a tank, I was at about 330 miles on that tank. We didn't get a chance to check it truly cold yesterday and it is at a slight angle in my driveway this morning so the reading wouldn't be accurate. We also thought it would be really odd for all the O2 sensors to go at once or all the cats to fail at the same time. Could the misfire code cause the the other codes?

Sparkenzap,

We're hoping part of it was the misfire codes and replacing the coils will take care of that. My husband and I both took the day off work and he plans on going through the car for any vacuum leaks. I'm really hoping the light came on just because of the stall, the transmission is the one part of a car my husband refuses to touch! It doesn't give any indication of having issues. It doesn't shift as smooth as the Mercedes, but it isn't jerky, clunky, slow, revs aren't excessive before shift or anything like that

I really appreciate all the advice and will keep updating with what we find!

 

The transmission light went off the next day and I have had no further stalling issues with her.

 

Glad you got it sorted!