tarheel, the car is NOT DEAD. This is very simple to fix. If you are not feeling "mechanically inclined" to do this work, I am sure you know someone that for the price of a 12 or 24 pack of beer, they will take care of you.

If you are looking to see if you can narrow things down, I would say to go to your local auto parts store and get a can of starter fluid. From here, you simply start the car and let it idle. Now, anywhere that you see 2 parts join on the intake, give that joint a little squirt of starter fluid. If it is a longer joint (like where the two halves of the intake joint together), squirt along the joint. If as you squirt you hear the engine RPMs pick up, tada, there is a leaking point. Note it and tell us where on the engine it is occurring. We can narrow things down from there. Worst case, a picture or two with an arrow added saying "here" works too. The areas that you are likely to see the leak is the line coming off the top of the motor to the brake booster, the football on the brake booster line, and the IMT valves (the 2 black disks on the left side of the engine (faces the passenger tire for you).

Just for giggles, you can try one other thing. If you look at your air filter, just to the right of it you should see where something bolts to it and has a 4 wire connector attached to it. This is your mass air flow (MAF) sensor. It has 2 screws holding it in place as I recall. Undo the electrical connector, using a T-10 (?) bit, you can remove the 2 screws. It will then just pull straight out. Using some MAF sensor cleaner, spray down the long channels on the end opposite the electrical connector (you can't hurt anything in there). Squirt some fluid in there, dump it out. Squirt some more in there, let it sit for a minute or so before dumping out. Give it one final squirt and dump it out. Reinstall. See if that may help. If you want to make sure it is clean, if you look down the tubes, you will see where some silver wires are sticking into one of the tubes and will have small little bulbs on the wires. You should not see any brown build up there now. If you do, squirt some more cleaner on the MAF. Reinstall and see if things seem better.

 

Right now I am trying to get the newer version of the PVC hose to reinstall that. I have plenty of carb cleaner, etc. I have done plugs, brake jobs, replaced cracked reservoirs, installed audio systems, etc before. I have plenty of tools and I am not at all afraid of taking a stab at this and feel pretty confident. Whether or not I can find the issue and correct it is another matter. The problem I am having is getting parts. Many of the suppliers are either closed because they are in states that have shut down all non essential workers, or I am looking at extended shipping times. I am going to try to call the company in NJ on Monday to see if they answer the phone. My next option is to call the Jag dealer but who knows if they will be open in the 3 or 4 days they said they needed to get the part from a warehouse, if they even get it. So in short I don't know when I will get the replacement hose. I can reinstall the old one and do plenty of tests but if I am not able to go to the parts store, jag dealer, online order, etc to get the part it is a waste of time.

For now I am going to let it sit until I can confirm I have access to the parts I might need. Until then its basically dead, as I cannot drive it like it is. Last thing I want to do is get stranded somewhere or destroy the catalytic converter.

 

tarheel, then it sounds lke your best bet at the moment is to either get yourself a can of starter fluid and start spraying all the joints (one at a time) and see where the motor picks up RPM at. That will tell you where your problem lies. Or, option 2 (the one that I think you may enjoy if you like a good cuban) is to get yourself a nice cigar, light it up and gently blow the smoke in the engine bay. Need to do this with the A/C off and the motor cold, but will give you a reason to smoke a cigar. Just need to watch the smoke as it drifts through the engine bay. Where the smoke makes a sudden turn, that is pointing to your vacuum leak. if you don't spot a leak, then odds are you are looking at oil in the plug well.

 

I've got a can of Carb Cleaner and a can of MAF Sensor cleaner. I imagine either would work for my purposes. Along with a cigar if needed as a backup. I intend to reinstall the PVC hose and fire it up and see what I see. Not much else to do at this point. If it is the plugs then I may be able to obtain them at the parts store. If it is something else that needs to be replaced, then that is another story. Thanks

 

Reinstalled the PVC hose and used starter fluid. It didn't seem to have good pressure in the can, was too much of a stream. So I also retested with the MAF sensor cleaner which was fully charged. Neither produced any change in RPM. I tried to test all connections and as much of the manifold seals as I could get to, as well as the length of the PVC and other hoses in case there was a crack somewhere. So I guess the best option is to change the plugs, since they are over 60k miles and nearly 15 years old now. Can't get out to buy them until Wednesday though, first time I will have access to a car. What will I need and are they available at a normal parts store or is this a dealer trip? Any special tools? Thanks

FYI, found a very small amount of oil in both ends of the PVC hose when it was removed, but nothing in the hose as far as I could tell. Is this normal?

 

tarheel, this is where I would tell you to give them 2 cars. Tell them that you need the plugs for the X-Type, but you need the upper and lower gaskets, and valve cover gasket for a Lincoln LS. That should allow you to get all the parts without having to suffer through the "we don't carry those parts for this vehicle" routine. Probably should get a set of upper and lower o-rings for the fuel injectors. Those you should be able to tell htem that you have a jag and they will have them on the shelf.

That should be about it for parts you will need. May be a good idea since you have the intake off to do the IMT valve o-rings. This is something that is an extra and if they don't have the parts, I would wait a little bit on.

 

Oh, one last thing. If you know the store that you are going to, then I would get online tonight, put in the order for the parts and they should have all of it sitting at the store when you get there Wednesday night. May save you a bit of frustration of having to come back a second time.

 

I watched some YouTube videos and it looks like the gasket for the upper is an oval and the lower is oval with a small bump out. Both are shown on the auto parts website and labeled as such, so I should be OK.

 

Got parts delivered yesterday and it looks like I need to replace the O rings at the coils. They are completely dried out and crumbled when I removed the first set of coils (see picture). Any reason I cannot replace them with a regular set or are/were they a special shape? Although I will probably just pick up an O ring kit, do you happen to know the size off hand?

 

tarheel, I never played with those o-rings. So, I would say that you will have to get a gasket kit for the valve covers (unless you can get those by themselves). I was under the impression that those o-ring s are part of the seal between the valve cover and the head itself. I might be wrong.

 

Sorry but I am confused now. This is where I removed the coils to access the plugs. There are no gaskets there, just where the coils are seated. This is not visible when the coils are in place. It looks like they either come with the coils and are are located in the rubber boot of the coil (my guess?)or they are put in place and the coils are pushed onto the spark plug. All I removed was the intake manifold to access the plugs/coils. I have not removed any valve covers at all.

 

tarheel, please keep in mind that I am running off of 5+ year old experience here (sold my x-type back a few years ago). If you look on the coil, there should be a rubber boot that connects the coil to the plug. This is removeable. It would appear from what I can see of it in the one pic that the boot is still on the coil. There is a second seal that remains on the valve cover that is a weather seal. This is what prevents the plug well from filling up with water. Maybe I am remembering things wrong and that this second seal is actually part of the boot for the coil. But, looking at pics, it would appear that they are 2 separate pieces. But, this bad gasket could have explained the conditions that you were seeing in that some water got into the plug well, caused the spark to get shunted away from the cylinder, resulting in the CEL that changed conditions.

 

In the screen capture below from a youtube video you can see that when they pull the coils this o ring/gasket remains on the valve cover. This is what I need to replace. I have found reference to it as both a valve cover o ring and as a spark plug tube seal. And I have found it for some Jaguar models but not for the x type. The ones that I have found say it will not fit my model. I am beginning to think I may have to order it from the dealer. I am still searching but if you or anyone else on here has an idea as to where I might locate this, or a part number, please let me know. Thanks

 

This is very confusing. Every time I do a search for this part, either stand alone or as part of a valve cover gasket kit, it shows up as a completely different seal for the x-type. You can see it in the images below. I even found reference to this in another forum post: "Replace the valve covers gaskets and spark plug boss seals. You will need a LH and RH valve cover gasket and 2 spark plug boss seals. The X-type just uses two spark plug boss seals (one per side) unlike the V8 cars that each plug gets its own seal." This part is referred to variously as valve cover o rings, spark plug tube seals and spark plug boss seals. The stand alone ones like I have all say they do not fit the x type when I go to the web page. The only ones that come up for an x-type are the ones below. Even this ebay listing says this is style is for the x type and has the actual jaguar part shown

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Jag...-/333476166250

All of the round o ring ones say they do not fit the x type but clearly the 2005 uses them. Gonna call the dealer when they open and see what they say.

UPDATE: First Jag dealer had no answer for me and said it was not shown in the parts inventory. Referred me to another dealer who had someone there in parts who had 20 years with Jag. Got him on the phone and after research he told me that it appears to be attached to the valve cover and was not a replaceable part. He said I would either have to buy a new valve cover ($600 each) or try to find one salvage somewhere. He said even if a dealer changed plugs they would have called me and told me I needed new valve covers. I asked about using the ones for the S Type and he said he had not idea but it might not be enough clearance even if the diameter was OK. I also asked about using some sort of a liquid gasket and he said he could not recommend that as a dealer and that he really had no experience with them. Does anyone know if I might be able to use the S Type o rings?

 

tarheel, not sure what to tell you at this point. I thought that this seal was part of the coil. not part of the valve cover. I would say since you have that one part number, see if you can order it via your local auto parts store and see if it will fit your car. May want to pick up a coil too and see if what you are after comes on the new coil. I would hate to have you be forced to buy a complete set of coils, but this is one of those things that if that seal is not good, then it will lead to problems almost any time that water gets sprayed under the hood.

 

Cheapest I can find online is mid $300 each for the valve covers. I am going to work within my Facebook group which has tons of UK members and there are lots of salvaged cars over there. Try to see if I can pick up a set that way. Also going to investigate the liquid seal option. Not wiling to invest too much more into this car. I may have damaged the catalytic converter to the point it would not pass emission tests, which our metro area still requires.

 

tarheel, you should be able to pull those out of the plug well (may take a little bit of work as they may be stuck to the sides due to heat and age). From there, check out what your local auto parts store can do for you. Unless someone did something goofey to your car, I can't imagine you have a one off problem that normal parts can't fix. Let me look in my garage, I think I Have a coil or two still left from the X-Type. I have a feeling what you are seeing is a part of the seal from the coil that is stuck on the valve cover.

 

It may indeed be stuck to the valve cover but it is not a part you can buy. I'm almost 100% positive that it is not a part of the coil. Since I have no problem finding this exact part for other Jags and indeed other cars. This was just not the way they did it on the X Type. I would love to see one so I could try to duplicate it somehow. As for pulling one of these out I have a feeling it would crumble in my hands if what I have seen so far is any indication. ha ha

 

Someone from my FaceBook Jag group has suggest this part: AJ82577 Camshaft Solenoid Seal. You can find it on Amazon. It certainly looks like it might work but I do not know the size for sure. I am trying to determine if they got this from some source that actually used this for my purposes before I order six of them.

 

Tarheel, before you start ordering stuff, I am gettting a message from a fellow member here. He may have a kit for you to order that would have the seals that you are looking for. Don't order anything quite yet. Once I get the details from him, I will pass them on.