Hi everyone! I'd like to start off by saying I've tried searching the forum and I can't figure out what's going on with this car ('04 X-type, 2.5). Also, I'm not mechanically inclined... at all, so please bear with me and my not-so-technical words. I'm going to describe exactly what's been going on and I hope someone can give me some insight.

About a month ago, the car was overheating and it had close to 100,000 miles on it, so I took it to the only mechanic in the area who works on jags. I asked them to change the spark plugs because I had codes P0302, P0304, P0306, and some other random misfire code I can't remember.

They changed the water pump, thermostat, expansion tank hose, alternator drive belt, spark plugs and intake manifold gaskets (upper). $1375, gross!

Since I got the car back, it's been acting pretty wonky. The first day, I got it back it seemed alright, except the windows didn't go up with one click anymore (they slowly, one by one, over the past couple weeks have gone back to going up with one click). The second day, the check engine light came on but seemed to drive alright.

After 2 weeks on vacation, I came back and the first day driving it the check engine light went off (yay!). Over the next couple weeks every once in a while, and not at the same time, the following symptoms have presented:

1.) When I shift, if the car goes below 2000 rpm, it kind of "pops" a little. i don't want to call it a lurch, but it will pop forward once or twice if I don't accelerate fast enough. It's definitely not normal.

2.) The tachometer needle went crazy a couple times. At first, after a few minutes of driving, I'll notice the needle isn't moving smoothly up and down, it kind of jerks instead. Then, about 30 minutes into the drive, the needle went really shuddery, then dropped to zero. The check engine light still wasn't on. When I accelerated, it would kind of flutter like it was trying to move, but stayed at zero, or was like, 1000 rpms behind where it should have been. This doesn't generally happen when I have the lights on.

3.) Today, I started the car and it was a bit shaky, running rough, and the check engine light was blinking. I remembered reading that was a super bad sign here on the forum, so I shut the car off for a little while. I turned it back on, check engine light was steady on, and car seemed to run ok.

I had a friend read the codes yesterday and this is what I've got:

P0300
P0302
P0304
P0306
P1314
P1316

So after reading the forums, I'm assuming coils (which are expensive and I'm not rolling in the dough), or the hose-y thing (I could point to it if it was in front of me but I don't know what it's called). The hose has it's little clamp on it.

My main questions are: Is the car going to blow up? Can I drive it for a few days until my second vehicle is up and running? Is this happening because of something the mechanic did, and should I expect him to fix it (for free, hopefully)?


I'm not a complete moron, if I had step by step instructions and solid pictures, I could probably do some basic maintenance. Is this probable?


I super duper appreciate any help from everyone here, and I apologize for sounding like a complete idiot. Thanks awesome jag-forumers!

 

Here is a link to some step by step for some of the codes:

jaghelp.com: X-Type

Check out this list in particular:

jaghelp.com: That pesky rough idle

Also, the rule for confusing problems in the x-type is check and change the battery first!

 

Oh and x-types don't blow up they just burn money

 

Jarkai, try opening the hood and finding the wire bundle going to the cylinders in question. This cable will be in the area behind the battery box. What you are looking for is any exposed copper wiring. If you see some, let me know and I will assist however I can. Otherwise, you will most likely need to access the coils and see if you can spot any problems that way. At least these coils are under the air box and easy to get to.

 

Thanks for the info. I looked under the hood and didn't see any exposed copper wiring. The past couple of days it's been in the 60 degree range, and the tach was acting crazy again. Thinking back, it was quite warm the few other times it happened, but when it's in the 30s or 40s it acts fine. All the other gauges work perfectly. That's weird, right? I'm going to scrounge up some cash to get a new battery, it has been 4 or 5 years since its been changed. I'll have to look up a good how-to on getting at these coils, with pictures and arrows and everything. Is this a reasonably easy job to do?
Again, I appreciate all the help!

 

Getting at the coils is pretty easy. Not a fast process, but fairly easy if you have even a fair amount of mechanical ability. take your time, mark where you pull stuff from and go from there. The big trick that I will tell you (and there are two of them) is: 1) there are two 10mm bolts on the back side of the intake, you need to remove them to get the intake off, and 2) you don't need to disconnect the coolant lines to the throttle body, simply undo the 2 plugs on the throttlebody and then roll the intake to the driver's side, keeping the throttle body near where it normally sits.

If you look here, there are a few posts on doing the plugs/coils on the car already. That may help you get some more confidence.

 

I might also suggest checking the gap on the plugs they installed, if not also double checking you had them install proper plugs. I found, at least with my Jag, it was super sensitive to the plug gap, or at least consistency in each being gaped the same, and I encountered a similar issues with it lurching and misfiring. Tach was all over while at idle and eventually it got bad enough that just trying to drive a few miles was challenging. I ended up digging into it myself and replacing the plugs (NGK Iridiums) and coils. Haven't had that issue since until the budget coils I bought, might be the poorest decision I made, seem to be starting to give me codes. So much for thinking I'd save a few dollars.

 

My bet is on the battery - modern cars require full voltage all the time, When they do not get it, odd things, very odd and random things happen (this is most definitely the case with the modern XJ and XK - and every other premium make). The shop probably disconnected your battery. You might first want to verify the security of the connections but if the battery is approaching 5 years old, I would change it.