New Member Intro - 2005 XJ8 L - USA , Arizona
 

Greetings, friends. Quick note of introduction, after one week of cruising this site daily for extremely useful information concerning my recent purchase; 2005 XJ8 L 4.2 L petrol, with 69,557 miles at delivery. I believe the color is called Topaz, however my cheeky 13-year old shotgun warmer calls it “Old Man Tan”.

I’m the third owner of my Jag, the second being a short term owner via auction who purchased for a quick flip. Consequently, I’ve been driving the car gently during the six days I’ve owned her, as she had been sitting for quite awhile (note mileage) and I wanted to get a tactile, cerebral feel for the engine & handling while the juices got flowin’ again.

So far the ride has been spectacular and overall performance has been impressive. However, on day one I got a major scare (she is a Jaguar, after all) on the interstate when, at 80mph, I received a code red trifecta of Engine System Fault / DSC Not Available / Park Break Fault, immediately throwing the engine in to “crawl home” mode while I negotiated a decelerating 4-lane change to exit the highway safely. Ugh.

Safely parked, I contacted AAA and began calculations of regret in my mind while, coincidentally, a Morrissey song began playing - er, mocking me - on my radio, punctuating my despair & sadness.

Whilst I was waiting for the tow to come, I found Jag Forums and I began reading some posts. I noticed an extremely passionate, informed & helpful community; not a troll to be found in the entire lot of you. I also noticed that more often than not the OP’s issue was resolved. Bravo.

Just as received a text telling me that my tow was 10-min away, I found a discussion on Jag Forums regarding the specific problem I was facing (these three error codes at once) & my worries, sadness & regret turned to a hopeful optimism (dangerous, I know) that this might be a brief hiccup in the beginning of a beautiful relationship. The car hadn’t been driven for a long time, I thought, so perhaps this may just be an issue of cleaning the Throttle Body (TB)?

I turned the key & held my breath. Engine idled fine. A few minutes passed and no error codes appeared. I cancelled my tow and began driving again. The final five minutes of the drive home was uneventful and i went to sleep that first day of ownership with a feeling of gratitude & hope that I dodged a bullet.

I’ve driven her daily since then and the same issue has occurred three more times. Each time I shut the engine down and restarted it after about 30-seconds.

I’m taking my Jag to the mechanic tomorrow for an oil change and a throttle body cleaning. I do have a known & trusted Jaguar/Mini Cooper technician (Jerry) who owns his own shop. Many years ago I owned a Mini Cooper S and I was introduced to him by a mutual friend. So I’m quite confident that if the pending issue is more serious than TB corrosion, I’ll get the straight scoop from Jerry. I’ll be sure to follow-up he’s to let you know.

Question: what is the best diagnostic code reader for an end user like me to own, in order to realize the error codes before a call for service/repair? Two options is appreciated.

Thank you for your time & consideration. Regrets for the long post. I’m a writer & prone to verbosity at times. I’ll do my best to land the plane sooner in future posts.

-Stratton


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StrattCat XJ8 L 2005

Welcome to the forums Stratton,

Good to have you with us. I appreciate thoughtful Intro's.

With the low recent use and odd codes occuring, it's a good plan to have the battery condition checked. To answer your code reader question, you'll find lots of advice on code readers/scantools in General Tech Help - https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/g...-%2A%2A-33347/

I can see you've already found your way to the X350 forum so there's no need for a link to it from me. The 'HOW TO' thread at the top is a good place to start for information on regular issues. You can also use the US Southwest Region forum by following this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/us-southwest-37/ to find other members in your region.

Please add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User CP button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.

Enjoy the forums.

Graham

Welcome to the Forums.

Methodical thinking, saves Jaguars and the Wallet, every time.

Good luck.

Welcome aboard Stratton.

Welcome to the forums.

Outstanding, sage direction, Graham. Very helpful and much appreciated.

Stratton

Welcome to Jaguar Forums Stratton,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help

welcome Stratton,
I think that as these cars are travelling down the assembly line, Jaguar actually has a station where they install various gremlins for the users to try to deal with. I just bought a Foxwell nt 510 code reader for a recurring air suspension fault. It worked for that and can also do a lot of other things. It was also Inexpensive. There is a long-ish thread on code readers in the general tech section. Have a look there.

Hello, Stratton,
Congratulations on your new Jaguar! Pretty car.
Welcome to the forums from ElinorB.
(';')

welcome to the forum - enjoy!!!