Valerie - you reminded me of a nagging problem I had with my e-Type some years ago. At some point the fuel pump gave out. As I'm sure you know, it's an external pump mounted in the trunk. Easily swapped out and all was fine - until one day it just cut off going down the highway. I got out, checked under the hood, jiggle a few things (there's only so much you can do on the side of the highway), got back and it fired right back up. All was good - until it happened again a few weeks later. Same story, same routine, same ending. The pattern continued, but the intervals became increasingly shorter. I checked everything I could think of, but in a car that age, it could be about anything. The only thing I knew for sure was that it had a shiny new fuel pump. I finally gave up and took it to a shop. After a couple of days, they told me to come get it because they ran it for hours and couldn't recreate the problem. On the way home, it cut off. After I got home, I got inspired to pull the electrical connectors off the fuel pump. The car kept running. Obviously, in a steady state, the car got enough draw that it didn't need the pump. So, I then decided to bench test the new pump. It ran/pumped fine - until I jiggled one of the terminals a bit. There was a bad connection in the shiny new pump. With a replacement from the parts store, all was good again -- for a couple of months. Deja Vu. This time the process went quicker because I went straight to the bench test. My guess was that the second replacement probably came from the same batch as the first one. Bingo. This time around, I got a refund and found another source. Never had the problem again.

 

Quick update, as suspected, replacing the battery monitoring sensor led to nothing. Shot in the dark. Packed it up and sent it to Jaguar Darien (CT) yesterday. Going to deliver the background story to the tech in the morning - hopefully their fancy diagnostics can help figure out what the heck is going on.

 

Let me know what you think of them. I am looking for a good jaguar dealer. Thanks.

 

Problem solved! Stupid thing - ground from starter was perfect, but there's a ground I missed from the transmission bellhousing to the frame. Apparently it was corroded and loose - they cleaned it up, tightened it down, and she roared to life! Glorious drive home.

So advice for anyone who has any starting issues - make sure you identify and check ALL grounds on the car.

I feel kind of dumb, but happy and dumb

BTW the folks at Jaguar Darien were terrific - a couple bits of history/info were lost in translation initially, but got on the phone with them and they were more than willing to chat through things. I'll be working with them again.

 

 

Great news! Glad it was something that simple. Enjoy the ride now.