Hi
I have a 3.5 XJ8 2004 which I have just purchased and after driving it for a week the check engine light (Yellow) has come on with the Restricted performance message (so far so good) I Drove the car for about 30Kms and all gauges were normal, car runs well but after turning off the car and restarting and driving away a cloud of blue smoke pours out of the exhaust for about a minute and goes away, no strange engine noises and I am pretty sure the engine has not been cooked any body got any ideas?
could it be a faulty EGR?

 

Blue smoke sounds like excessive oil from somewhere. What miles on the car ?

Suggest you get the fault codes read so the fault can be assessed for cause.

 

Thanks Fraser for your response sorry to take so long to bet back to you


we checked to faulty and it reads lean mixture on both banks reading 22
After plenty of checking and testing it seems (unbelievably) that we are getting a massive air leak through the RH cam cover, we isolated all the pipes and the PCV valve and took out the PCV Valve (looks like a pancake)
If we block off all pipes into the inlet manifold the car runs smooth as silk
when we re connect the new pipe and replace the NEW pcv valve you can hear air roaring through the valve .
we cannot understand where it can be coming from, is it possible a gasket has come loose in the rocker covers or is there a baffle that might have broken?
There is so much being sucked through the pcv its filling the inlet tunnel which then dumps amazing amount of smoke when it gets to an inlet track
I will take off the cam covers this week end and let you know but any thoughts would be welcome

 

From what I understand, there is a large leak of atmosphere into the inlet manifold that is bypassing the air flow meter, thus giving lean mixture, (obviously !!). I am not up-to-speed on the PCV, but clearly you have to track down where this leak is occurring. It would be better to block off each potential leak one at a time, so you can eliminate the non-leaking connections. For instance, one connection to the inlet manifold is normally the brake servo vacuum line, and if this splits a large leak is the result. Are your brakes working OK (normal pedal pressures etc ?)

 

I have had the clouds of smoke symptom a couple of times but no amber

light etc.

When you drive the Jag sedately oil builds up in the PCV pipework and if you

think about it those corrugated pipes are ideal for trapping oil.

On start up or kickdown this oil is flushed into the engine with consequent

smoke.

Now and again I kick it down a couple of times on a safe road to keep the

pipework clear.

BtW I am in Mount Martha where are you BigNev?

 

Thank you all for your assistance it is much appreciated, its nice to know you are not alone.
After a lot of head scratching and the use of a local disco purchased smoke machine we seem to have found the culprit.


the noise through the PCV valve lead us to figure the leak must be in the actual engine some where


we blocked off all the usual suspects like brake hoses, vapour return pipes and the like and they all checked out,
I must say the emission stuff on these later cars it much simpler than the early V12`s but I digress.
with the help of my son Alex and good friend Ian we smoked up the engine through the breather pipe with the smoke machine and pressurised the engine to about 2-3 PSI you could immediately see a puff of smoke and hear the hiss of air coming from the Cam cover gasket just below the throttle body, half way between the front and second bolt
after taking the cam cover off it was obvious that the gasket had little or no pressure in that area, it was just south of the join line for the timing cover and head. many people in the automotive business know that the plastic cam covers have a tendency to creep ( relax its strength) and in a hot climate like Australia maybe this happens faster.
I will be putting it back together as soon as I get a new gasket and let you know how I get on
Again thanks for all your help
FYI Meirion1 I am in Chelsea Heights 0400976515

 

The only time I had blue smoke from oil was from driving the car at high sustained speeds 90mph+ with heavy throttle for extended period of time with no cool down and then let the car sit. It started in a huge cloud of smoke the next day.

 

has anyone ever installed an oil catch can on an XJ?

 

I had this happen to me when I left oil filler cap off...