Jaguar Association of New England (JANE) Home Page sent you a reply to your message--look these folks up and ask for help! Phone numbers are listed with e mail--try traveler contact first!

 

The 2000 engine has nikasil liners and bore wash is common if the engine has failed to start after several attempts. He can smell fuel which confirms that. Do a search for bore wash for more details.

The procedure from the owners manual calls for holding the pedal all the way to the floor and giving several 10-20 second bursts of the starter, then release the pedal to part throttle and attempt to start. Holding the pedal to the floor disables the fuel injection.

If that fails it can almost always start if the spark plugs are removed from one bank (passenger side easiest) and about a half teaspoon oil added to each cylinder. Tuning it over a couple of seconds with the plugs still out and a rag over the head to stop spray will lube the cylinders. Then put it back together and it should start with a lot of blue smoke.

 

If there is cranking and the smell of fuel, with this much messing around, you probably have bore wash (the excess fuel washes of the oil by the piston rings and makes it hard to build pressure). The tell tale sign is that the engine cranks fast and easy as there is no real compression being built. The remedy is to pull off the plugs (at least a few) and pour a bit of engine oil in the combustion chamber (to restore the sealing effect). Then crank, hope for the best, and deal with the rough start and smoke. Unfortunately, with the coil-on-plug design, it is probably more involved than your son has time for.

I agree that the best is probably to look for plan B...

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

Thank you-- i agree too hard in a parking lot. so, i'm going to call AAA, get a new battery, try it again, and if it doesn't work get it towed to a repair place. looking for one now

 

Hi I live in NH and travel to CT a lot and have visited this shop. I wanted to know what repir shops were available to me should I need any assistance while visiting relatives. They gave me a private tour and I was impresed with them. They are only a couple of hours from Newport and may be a hands on resource for you, as the forum members seem to have it covered from a troubleshooting perspective.

Repair shop is in Plainville, CT Motorcars Inc. 860.793.1055
Congrats to your son on his commission.

AMHC USN Retired

 

Thank you so much. Unfortunately, i think if it won't start it's going to have to be towed-- and it's in Newport RI

 

Here is a relay diagram from a '97. A 2000 is similar. If I had to try to get a XK8 started and I smelled fuel, I would start by switching the three or so relays I circled with other relays. (There are other ignition relays as well, but these are easy to find.)

If no start, I would go to the fusebox next. Fuses are diagrammed in the owners manual, and on my '97, on the top of the relay box in the trunk. Be warned, figuring out which fuse is on the right or left side of the many boxes is frustrating. The only reliable way to figure this is the use a flashlight and go by the microscopic numbers on the side of each

fusebox.

 

Here are some more relays related to ignition...

 

Thank you so very much. I really, really appreciate the response. He gets a shot at it Friday, so we'll see what happens.

 

Thank you all for your help. In the end, we replaced the battery through AAA and went through the floored pedal sequence 10 times before it finally started. Drove it most of the day once it started, and it has seemed to settle out. One thing seems clear, it's not the car for someone who expects to be on long deployments. We're going to sell it next week.

 

Good news.
Are you going to get one of those cars with no faults?

 

If I were going to leave mine sit for an extended period I would disconnect the negative battery cable.

 

No, but i've been driving Jags non-stop for 35 years. Just about every flavor. They are wonderful, but as a second car only. Everyone I've ever owned from E's, S's, J's and K's has difficult engineering issues that necessitate either personal mechanical attention or wealth to provide it. I've bought my last one. Anytime you have to have dedicated fora to figure out repairs, the case is self-evident. And quality has declined so far down that plastic tensioners are the least of the problems. All done.

 

I feel your pain. If i couldn't work on this car myself I'm not sure I would have much of an appetite for a repair facility of any sort. Thank God for this forum. It has kept me going, but I do have another car for most drives. When you have these working properly they are the berrys to drive.
If I had to have it for my main transportation? Probably no. Are they worth the upkeep? Yes!

 

Horses for courses but my S Type has been a daily driver for 10 years, not to say it hasn't spit the dummy out once or twice but so has my SIL's Hyundai.
To be fair you had the answer in post #4 about 1 1/2 hrs after your first post.

 

I had to get rid of two now in the past two years-- I had a great XJS coupe that I poured money into, but i just don't drive it enough-- great electro-pneumatic-mechanical machine, like flying an F-4, but constantly chasing fumes, endless grounds. The XK8 I bought new and replaced all the stuff that needs replacing on it, but it's the perfect wheels for a new naval officer except that anything that goes wrong is $750 minimum. Breaks my heart but gonna get about $3.5 on a trade in and that's all i can do-- gotta get him across the country in wheels that work.

 

This I have always done, but when they drive through the gate at basic they pull them out of the car in 2 minutes-- so it's all been a logistics problem.

 

I understand and empathize with your frustration with this situation. I know that at times when out of ideas with a repair I would have at that moment given away the whole thing in exchange for a case of beer. But then it gets solved.

This sounds like a potential case of regret for "the one that got away". If you have had it from new and kept up with it, it is a marvellous heirloom for your son that could never be replaced. So while the situation you described was logistically challenging, the solution as Norri pointed out was fairly simple and will pale to insignificance in comparison to the challenges your son is guaranteed to face as a naval officer. So maybe in the short term if this is not the correct ca

 

R for him right now, maybe he should get a Kia and you could store the Jag for a year or two until the time is right for him to maintain it.

It would be sad to let it go out of frustration

 

WRT Post 35 I certainly was not attempting to be fair or unfair-- just stating a fact i have learned in 35 years and 5 Jags. And certainly appreciative. When I bought my first one, which was new, the service manager told me he advised taking it to the shop after i signed the papers and they "disconnect" a few troublesome items. These cars have a history of new engineering approaches that are necessarily challenging and costly to the owner, which is part of the terrain. As a Navy Commander I've driven or been in just about everything that goes really fast and costs a lot; all those things break a lot, so do Jags. I've considered storing it, having done that once before. I don't recommend it. In theory it works, in practice getting them back in running condition is a real pain in the neck-- every seal will hate you, the mice and the storage facility will love you. And driving it any distance-- this is s 2000 with 105K, otherwise in great shape with all the major repairs completed-- risks a third of its value in any major repair minimum. 35 years have taught me one thing about Jags-- most thrilling and beautiful cars in the reasonable world, but you have to be wealthy or willing and able to work on them yourself to own them. Thanks again for all your help in this very difficult moment. MSL