Hi gents -

The X type has 72k miles right now and today is the really first cold day in Houston- yesterday it was raining and I could not help but to go thru some water.

today the MIL starts flashing and a P0303 shows stored. I will get home tonight and not drive it again like this as I know this is a severe misfire.

could water have gotten into a connector? The cold weather? It’s strange this happened today.

also does anyone know if cylinder 3 is in the front or back?

thanks for your help

 

Good plan. I'm doubtful it would be water but can't help to try drying things.

 

thanks for your reply.

I made it home with no repeat incident. I deliberately took congested roads to nurse the car, but the light and accompanying misfire did not manifest again, even when I was forced to gun the car to pass to another lane.

I am kind of an expert at this point on XJS aj16 and E type V12 misfires, and those always manifest and get worse as the cars warm up. My previous flooded out X type made it on it original coils past 100k. I would imagine that an actual failed coil would show more aggravated symptoms as it gets hotter, but I have no experience with misfires on this engine.

If anyone has any advise and also tips on where cylinder 3 is located, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

 

With a suspect coil, it can be worth swapping with another one to see if the code moves, but I'd also get a top quality one ready as you'll need it sooner or later.

 

Spike, you can get the code and be "fine". The big thing you want to be looking for is the CEL flashing. If the CEL is flashing, then you have a major misfire and you can be causing damage. As you are suspecting (and I am too), you got a little bit of water either on the coil or into the plug well and that caused the misfire. Normally 2 things can cause this. You either have a bad seal at the coil of the plug (where it meets the engine block) or you have a crack in the clear acrylic top of the coil (will see a white "hair" in the top, normally run around the edge of the coil). Normally this sort of issue will correct itself due to the water evaporating away from the heat of the engine.

Like was said, you can try moving the coil to a different location and then seeing if your problem moves. I would say to move it to position #2 as you can change that coil without major removal of stuff later on. But, just getting to #3 is going to require removing the intake to access. So, not sure if you want to do some preventative steps and get a new coil for in there. The coils are relatively cheap and will ensure you don't have a future problem.

 

He does say his MIL was flashing.

 

Well the light and misfire have not returned. I have driven the car on the highway, fast, slow, and nothing.

I would still like to buy a coil or two and it looks from the archives that Motorcraft coils work perfectly well on this engine. Does anyone have any coil recommendations?

 

Beck Arnly

Delphi

C2S42673