Hi Folks.
Just joined this site and looking for some help from the informed few.I have purchased my first 2004 Jag x type as an ongoing project. The car did not start when I got it and found a can of easy start in the boot which caused me to worry slightly. I have spent a few hours cleaning out empty fuel lines and fitted a priming bulb midway between filter and pump and primed up the system. I also replaced 4 dead glow plugs but yet it will not start on its own without a tiny and I mean tiny squirt of easy start. I put a Snap on solus ultra on it and checked for fault codes and I have the following.

P1544 Engine coolant heater B control circuit
P2291 Injector control pressure too low.

I looked at the common rail pressure when cranking and running and here are the result.

Cranking = 218 inhg which equals 8.34bar
Idle = 530 - 770 inhg which equals 17-26 bar
2000rpm = 2191 inhg which equals 74 bar

There is no difference on cranking pressure with the IMV connected or disconnected.
I am good with cars and tools but not 100% on diesels but managed to do all the tests I can think of apart from a compression test as don't have a tool to remove the injectors.

I also clamped all the leak off pipes to see if that was possibly an issue but still she no start
I was looking at how easy it is to change pump as they are chain driven and seemingly I need a special kit to lock sprocket or else I have to remove the whole timing cover which also needs special tool to realign it all. It also said that this model of car does not need the pump coded to ECU if it is changed.

Any help given will be welcomed with open arms and gratefully applied Thanks

I think I put this originally in the wrong forum. DOH

 

twinstacks, based on the P1544 code, I am thinking that you may have a glow plug issue going on. You need to get a little bit of heat into the engine as you are cranking it before the process of burning diesel fuel will occur. The reason why it will start with a little bit of starter fluid is that this gives the engine just enough kick (the starter fluid burns easier) that the engine rolls fast enough to start building up sufficient cylinder pressure, which then also adds heat at that point. Keep in mind that as you compress air, this causes the temperature of the air to rise. The faster you can make the pressure rise, the more heat that is created. In your case, simple cranking of the engine makes minimal heat. Toss the starter fluid in there, you have the fluid burning in addition to the more rapid pressure rise making additional heat.

 

Thanks Thermo. I had replaced the 4 dead glow plugs with 4 nice new NGK ones. I checked each plug across a battery to make sure they all glowed before they were put in. I also checked that there was a good 12V supply going to the plugs on start up. What I did see is that the plugs stay live until the engine is actually running and not on a time delay as I thought they would be. My thoughts for it not starting is that the fuel pump is not supplying enough pressure on the starter alone and when it gets a whiff of easy start it then fires causing the engine to turn that little bit quicker giving it more pressure at the common rail allowing the injectors to do their thing.
The pressures that I see most people talking about at cranking are around 250-300 bar and was wondering if this is indeed correct because if it is then my pressure at cranking is a fraction of what it should be at a mere 7 bar.

Thanks mate

 

Got the kit to replace the fuel pump as I thought it was that. Anyway took out the old fuel pump and replaced it with a known good one and still she only fires up first time with a wee puff of easy start. It is now either the injectors or low compression. I have ordered some clear fuel line and non return valves to see if there is air being drawn into the system some how.
Anybody got any other ideas what might be the issue?

Thanks

 

A little update and help required. I replaced the fuel pump and bled the system up only to have the same low fuel rail pressure problem. Initially when I first started to look into the problem I clamped off the leak off pipes to see if that was causing the low pressure and got no change so thinking it was not that. I have since checked and found out that the rubber leak of pipes have a reinforced plastic in pipe inside it so the pipe was never being clamped and allowed pressure to pass. I removed the pipe from bottom of leak of to the pump and replace it with a clampable rubber hose and the results were as follows. When cranking number one injector started to throw out diesel from the leak off connection on the injector. I re secured the connector and did it again this time number 2 injector started spraying diesel badly out the leak connection until it finally blew the pipe clean off so I did the following. I removed the leak off pipe and clamped it. I fitted another hose to the leak off from injectors and put other end in a half litre jar a wee squirt of easy start and she burst into life. Within about 30 seconds of the engine on tick over the half litre jar was full and I had to turn engine off. I now believe that one or more of the injectors is knacked and allowing the diesel to go straight back to the tank causing the low common rail pressure and non starting. My next test is to remove all 4 leak off pipes and fit 4 hoses onto 4 measuring bottles and see what injectors are leaking back the most. When cranking alone the fuel still runs back to the jar at a very fast rate. Does anybody know how much fuel should actually leak off?

I hope someone can help as not many folks replying so I hope what I am saying is helping others.
Many Thanks folks

 

This is the test we do on Volvo Penta marine diesel engines with a set of calibrated containers. The important thing is that there isn't more than say 10% difference in the leak off captured in the measuring containers, IIRC the amount we got from a 5.5ltr 6 cyl diesel was between 100 and 150 ml in 2 minutes at idle, the longer the time frame the more accurate the reading. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Norcat. I have ordered a set of measuring bottles to do individual leak off tesst. When I did a combined leak of test of all four injectors together I got about half a litre in around 30 seconds on idle which seams very high. I will post results when I do the test.

 

SORTED.
The fault was with one of the injectors leaking back a massive amount on start up causing low pressure in the common rail. I replace the 4 injectors with the upgraded type from a 2007 and it started right off the button. I have now recoded the replacement ones to the ecu and the engine sounds sweet and starts without any problem. I just wish I could sort out the issue of the glow plugs staying on with the ignition and only going off when engine running. Replaced both relays but still the same so I have removed the 60amp fuse until I sort the fault out.

Many thanks

 

Good news you finally sorted it, I am not familiar with Jag diesels but on the marine diesels I work on the glow plug circuit is controlled by a temp sensor so the plugs only work below a certain temp as once the engine is warm they are not needed for a restart, does Jaguar use a similar setup I wonder.

 

Hi. yes possibly they do. According to auto data they are only supposed to stay on for 8 seconds but mine stay on until engine is running so can't leave ignition on as they will burn out. Further work to do me thinks.


Thanks