Hey there,

New to the forum and had a few questions about the car.

1. I seem to have a little bit of a lifter tick (especially when cold). Is this a known issue? How do I remedy this?

2. Through searching the forum, I have seen people have 6'.5 in speakers in the doors but have seen the size is supposed to be 5 in. Is there some modification that I can do?

3. Water seems to leak somewhere in the drivers footwell. Anyone ever heard of this?

4. What should be the idle on this car? Mine is at 500 rpms which seems low for this engine making it hesitate when cold and the car shake.

5. The light bulb out light turns on when I press the brakes but I had someone pump the brakes while I looked and there doesnt seem to be any lights out. Any way to confirm what light is out?

Any other tips/ticks on the car?

 

Might be a valve out of adjustment. Might be an injector noise. Hard to say. Some noise is normal. Would you say it's just one cylidner?






Several possibilities. Windshield leaks are common. Also, make sure the a/c drains are clear. If they're not, water overflows the evaporater case and spills onto the carpet





Heh heh. Usually you can't get 'em down that low. About 700rpm in "P" is close enough. The adjustment is on the AAV--Aux Air valve--which is at the rear of the left cylinder head. It has a couple 1" vacuum hoses and a bolt for the idle speed adjust. You'll see it.

I doubt the low idle is causing the other problems but you can bump it up and see what happens.




Either the handbrake is on or the system "thinks" the handbrake is on. If the later, the switch might be broken/sticky/out of adjustment. The switch is at the bottom of the handbrake lever behind a plastic cover. Tricky access...you'll need an offset screwdriver.





Hundreds of 'em. Very quirky cars, but fabulous once you've fixed everything that the previous owner neglected.

Cheers
DD

 

Wow. Really appreciate the response on that. Ill adjust the idle tonight and see.

1. I think its just one cylinder. Sounds like a ticking so it may just be a valve adustment. Any idea where I can find a technical manual online?

2. Any ideas?

3. Its not coming from the windshield or any of the window rubber. It seems to just have random drops that go right on my left foot...

4. Im gonna adjust it.

5. The handbrake actually doesnt function. And the light only turns on when I apply the brakes. If its the switch, I can very easily ground the wire and bypas it.

 

On Item 1, the V12 is the same as the old XK straight 6, with what are called "bucket" tappets, adjusted using shims underneath each tappet between valve head and tappet. Using the long screwdriver trick, you should be able to determine which are the likely tappets. Place screwdriver point on cam cover opposite a tappet whilst engine is idling, and listen to the other end of the screwdriver. It's a bit like a doctor's stethoscope, really. The shims look like little round steel "pucks" about 1/16"thick by 1/2" across.

I have had many a "happy" hour adjusting them on a 6, but not a V12. You first have to remove the cam cover, check the gaps to identify those out of range, then write down the gap in 000". A feeler gauge is used for this, then, having got the cam off, take off the errant tappet, remove the shim and using a micrometer, measure its thickness, then calculate the shim thickness you need to bring it back into spec. You then used to trot off to a Jaguar agent to buy the shims you need. Assemble everything and away you go ! I still have a tobacco tim with old shims in, you never know when they might come in useful.

A useful trick to know is to turn the shim round to the other side. This is because after many miles, the valve head wears a circle out of the shim, and the gap widens so you can, by turning it round use the shim again.

All quite easy once you have done a couple of engines !

The modern Jaguar V8 and V6 engines have hydraulic tappets which pump up under oil pressure, so no adjusting is needed. I am not sure what the AJ6 and AJ16 have.

 

Hehe.... I had the same trouble with the brake light out light... First, I would change BOTH of the brake lights. If there are two different brands the difference in resistance of the bulbs could possibly throw off the brake light out relay... If that doesn't work and you are sure the handbrake is not the problem I'd look at the relay. It is located under the black "ski slope" mounted to the front of the centre console compartment. The relay broke on mine and had to be replaced. There is a wire you can cut to end this problem permanently... Although there are five going to the relay so i'd have have to investigate to remember which one.. I didn't want to kill this feature so I replaced the relay and it was fixed.. *Carefull* Removing the relay completely means you don't have brake lights! I have a spare brake light out relay and/or pictures if you are interested..

 

I'd love to see those pictures of the relay, I dont know what you are talking about with the "ski slope" so I would like to know where it is. If any of the suggestions dont work, I can certainly try to repair the relay.

 

Is the console panel with the window switches, ash trays, etc

Cheers
DD

 

Here are the pics attached as you can see, there is one single wire for each light that goes into the relay and then a 3-wire connecter as well... It works through two reed switches- if one light goes out the reed switch closes, completing the circuit to the "bulb out light"

 

Water seems to leak somewhere in the drivers footwell. Anyone ever heard of this?

If the water is dripping on your foot in the middle of the footwell I would definitely suspect the windshield. Water puddles in the lower corner and seeps through the seal, especially if it is old and the sealant has dried out. My windshield leaks everywhere, even from the top when driving (soon to be fixed)

What should be the idle on this car? Mine is at 500 rpms which seems low for this engine making it hesitate when cold and the car shake.

700rpm is what the book says, I would check the idle with a meter dont trust the taco it might be reading low. My car hesitates sometimes with light throttle. I found plug lead 1A is intermittent and sometimes drops number 1 cylinder (running on 11 cylinders). She did do 1000kms on 11 cylinders good old girl she is.

Anyway it is sometimes hard to tell if it is running on 11 or 12 cylinders only a very slight rough idle. Just put your hand near the each of the exhaust outlets (not too close) just close enough so you can hear the exhaust pulse on your hand. If it is running on all cylinders the sound will be smooth (almost purring) if 1 is not working you will head it PPP you will also feel the exhaust pulse it will not be smooth either.

I suspected 1A as I could see the spark jump, I swapped the lead to 1B both ends and the problem moved to the other bank. A new set of leads another thing on my list to fix.

If this seems to be your problem and you do not know which cylinder you can diagnose by removing the injector pug to kill that cylinder.

 

What Ive found to be a bit of a problem with my fuel pump so I have a Bosch one on its way.

I want to do a complete tune up on it and what im looking to find is a distributor cap wiring diagram. Basically what wire corresponds to what plug.

 

hope this helps

A bank RH
B bank LH

Firing order 1A,6B,5A,2B,3A,4B,6A,1B,2A,5B,4A,3B the cylinders are number from the front of the engine

If you have stock Jaguar components your distributor cap will be marked as will the plug leads to make things easier. If not mark 1A before you remove the leads from the dissy then they will run in firing order around the dissy.

 

Ok, well after looking to do a complete tune up (Pump, fuel filter, wires, plugs, cap, rotor, coils). I cant find a rotor or cap. Any places you know?

I've read in that gigantic book for XJS owners that the 4500 rpm problem could be a problem with the secondary coil. Where is that located?

 

Any of the Jag specialists can get a rotor and cap: Motorcars Limited, Coventry West, etc or probably even Rock Auto and Parts Geek, etc

The secondary coil is in front of the radiator. If it goes bad, most replace the dual coil set up with a single DAC6093 coil

Cheers
DD

 

No marking on the dizzy cap and now I have a bit of a misfire so im afraid I may have messed up the order. Anyone have a picture identifying which cable goes to which hole in the cap? Or which cylinder is 6a, 2b etc....

 

Jesus thank you for the firing order! turns out mine was off by quite a few. THe second I switched them to the proper way, she ran better than I've ever seen.

I've since replaced 8 of 12 spark plugs. I cant get to the two by the throttle body (tried getting it off, but I couldnt get enough room in there to move the wrench). I also cant get to the two hidden under the AC compressor so I'll have to manage to get the tools to take that thing off. The plugs that were in there were NGKs and they were not gapped properly at all. I had been told the gap was supposed to be .25 and these were all at least .45. I also replaced what wires I could get to with a Bosch set.

Because of all this, I can say shes running better than she ever has. Unfortunatley I still think I am missing a cylinder but I brought it to a shop offering free diagnostics and he said the car is so old he cant pull codes off of it. I dont know if he thinks im retarded but at the same time I dont know how pull the codes. Can anyone tell me that?

Also, (Doug you can probably relate) I was drving home in western Washington last night with it pouring down rain and my leg was getting soaked. If I pull the dash panel down a little, it really pours out. Previous services had said that the PO had brought it in for the same problem and they had said some cowell was filling due to clogged drains. Where do I clean these out and how? Its starting to reallt get into raining terribly here and I really dont wanna deal with this through the rest of the season.

Thanks in advance.
Brian

 

Wet legs:

1) Windshied leaks. Pretty common on these cars as they age. Routine matter for a glass guy to remove the glass and install a new seal

2) Clogged evaporator drains. Condensation from the evaporator builds up and overflows the casing...spilling on your feet. Especially on turns ! Clear the two evaporator drain hoses.

3) Clogged air intake plenum drains under the windshield wiper grill. Remove the grille (the motor comes out with it) and clear the drains and the drain pipes which run along the sides of the engine bay.

In most cases addressing the above items fixes the wet foot problems

Cheers
DD

 

Well the windshield has been chcked for leaks and there arent any. The belt has actually been removed from the AC compressor so no condensation should be builing up as the system isnt functioning. So I would guess the last one you mentioned.

I tried this before shoving a coat hanger down those two holes but I dont know if I just didnt do it right or it didnt work.

I just pulled the lower dash panel off (the one with the fuse panel cover) and the foam is soaked. Dont know if that helps.

 

Yep that is exactly what I have and the water is coming in through windshield in the corner. I would still suspect the windshield have it removed and re-fitted. The sealant dries out and cracks.

If you suspect it is still missing a cylinder it is easy to tell if your exhaust is stock (ie with no X over in the exhaust). With the car running put your hand near the exhaust outlet the pulsing should be smoooth (almost puuurrring) if you are missing a cylinder there will be a miss, check both exhausts you will feel it.

Here is a cylinder location diagram I could not find the dissy I'll take a pic of mine when the weather fines up and post it for you. Although mine is a Marelli the numbering should be the same.

 

As far as codes go, I am afraid that they are telling you the truth. You cannot pull codes. How many miles to you have on it? I have a 88, which sat long enough to have a varnish issue. Since it was time to replace the fuel lines (I had a small engine fire, which fortunately caused no damage), I pulled and cleaned the injectors while I replaced the lines. Several of the injector filters looked horrible, and when I tested the injectors I found two that were clogged, and one that was sticking. Unless you have a well equiped tool box, you may just want to consider sending your injectors out for a clean.

 

Well thats how I know that its not on all cylinders. The passenger bank is smooth as silk. The drivers is not. The problem is figuring out which one it is and why.

I can hear water sloshing around as I drive...It sounds like its in the center of the dash almost. I checked under the wiper screen and even put a coat hanger down each of the drains but to no avail. Where could that water be sloshing around in?

Also, I accidently backed into a lawnmower so my drivers tail light is busted. I'll be posting this in a seperate thread but I cant find any junkyard that carries any Jags at all. Anyone have a spare?

How do I check the filters on the injectors? I can smell unburnt fuel so I think there is just no combustion. It may be one of the cylinders in which I havent replaced the spark plugs/wires.