Good evening,

My 2004 4.2L has a problem I'm not sure about.

I will drive the car until its fully warmed up and at operating temperature then stop some place. If I stop long enough for the engine to cool just a little, but not all the way (i.e. 30 to 45 minutes, like a grocery store trip or a haircut), when I come back to start the car, it sputters, shakes and bogs down as I put it in drive. Today, after having a haircut, it wouldn't start until I cranked the starter and put my foot in the gas as it started to die out. It sputtered, then caught and the engine roared and ran smooth.

If I stop to run in someplace for 5 or 10 minutes, its okay after. If I stop and let it fully cool, its okay. Its only these inbetweenish, half hour, 45 minute stops it does it.

 

Check for codes, and then pending codes (should at least have P1111).

Do not clear them!

Next check fuel trims with hot engine, parked. At idle then rev to about 2500.

Also check these
IAT (intake air temperature)
ECT (engine coolant temperature)
fuel pressure

Worth doing when it's happy and again when not, hoping for some clues.

If nothing turns up in those then it will rule out a ton of stuff. Left would be things like a leaky injector but it's not very likely, whereas a bad temp sensor causes bad fuelling and what you see.

 

Hi, Arelem:

We danced this dance with your evaporative system leak a while back. You need to make sure your battery is up to snuff and get the car read for diagnostic trouble codes. I think last time you went to PepBoys, or Autozone. It would be well worth your while (if you intend to keep your Jaguar for a while) to get a code reader that can read and interpret Jaguar DTCs, e.g., an iCarsoft i930.

JagV8 has given you some excellent advice above. Please heed it...

 

When is the last time the fuel filter was changed?
.
.
.

 

I wasn't aware I was "dancing any dances". I asked for simple advice and provided more info than most who post problems on here and get dozens of posts in reply trying to help them. I have tried to be polite and informative when I posted. Maybe i should just go back to lurking.

 

Thanks. I'll see what I can do. I did buy the iCarsoft OBD reader but I'm still learning how to use it.

 

The icarsoft has a dtc feature where you type in the code and it gives possible causes and remedies....check that out when you get a chance...if you want to get the obd2 codes quickly, use the obd2 diagnosis feature instead of the jaguar specific function

 

Underhood temperatures are going to be the highest about 30-45 minutes after shutdown. You've still got all that radiant heat from the engine, but no cooling action.

My hunch is some sensor is acting up and giving an inaccurate reading due to this heat. For example, I've had temperature sensors give an accurate reading for most of their range, but then climb far too high near the top of the band. If this false value isn't excessively high, it won't set a code for being out of range, and the computer responds accordingly as if accurate.

As suggested in post #2, pay close attention to IAT and ECT, both when the engine behaves and acts up. I bet you will see a big split with one of these values.

Keep us posted.

 

The sputtering happened over the weekend, twice, but this time I got a couple of clues.

I used the OBD reader soon as I got home and got codes about misfires in cylinders 1,3 and 5. These 3 cylinders according to my manual are the front 3 on the passenger side of the engine. That's when I realized something.

Every time the sputtering has happened, the car was parked on an incline, leaning towards the passenger side. Three were grocery store parking lots that sloped away towards the road. The other was at the curb of a highly crowned street, the car tilted to the passenger side about 10 degrees.

When I get more time, I will dig further into the OBD messages and just make sure I park in an even spot or tilted to the driver's side..

 

Might be oil leaking on to the coils...the slope could be enough to move the oil...check for an oil leak around the passenger engine side

 

Wow, that's a great observation. Any rain at the time? Sometimes rainwater runs off the cowl and collects in the spark plug wells. However, I'd also think this would get the aft cylinder, too, so who knows. I'm not familiar with the valve covers on the V8, so don't know if a leaky gasket could let oil easily collect in the plug wells on a particular side.

Also, be careful when discussing the passenger and driver sides of the vehicle. The forum has members from all over the world, including places like the UK and Australia where they still insist on driving on the wrong side of the road. So if I need to specify a side, I'll usually throw in US driver's or passenger's side to help avoid confusion.