I bought a 2004 XJR for my wife (and me)..I found a one owner with service records with 109k...on the test drive an engine light came on saying 02 sensor and within a couple days the dreaded ABS DTC not available lights. None of this affected the driving, she drives 8 mi each way to work. I figured I could collect info while searching for parts. (The ABS Control Module at the local Jag dealer is 5462.00)

Yesterday at work, I get a call. She is stuck at a local drive through with a rough Idle and white smoke billowing out the exhaust. I instantly think head gasket....except no temp increases, nothing showing in the oil. The smoke did have a burnt rubber smell, leading me to also think serpentine belt.

I put Bars Leak for head gaskets in the system, let it idle for 20 minutes. The smoking stopped almost immediately and the car drove normal. I went to the dealer to get the price for the ABS module and coming out I started it for the first time since the Bars Leak. It POURED white smoke through the parking lot and down to the street. After less than a mile, no smoke at all for the ride home. I stopped in the driveway, killed the engine and checked fluids. All normal except the coolant level seemed a little low.

I am obviously losing coolant into the exhaust somehow..Head gasket again most likely? but not having a supercharged system before...could it be?

I also noticed my heater is not working...blows cold as ice.

 

BARS LEAK, YEEK!!!!! Would never think of using that stuff.

 

Bars leak will not stop a head gasket leak, pressure is to high get a garage to do a sniff test in the cooling system.
Did the abs and dtc light up on cold start up

 

new battery??

 

I'm not an expert on the XJR but wouldn't it have an intercooler that could leak and cause coolant ingestion? That would be my first thought. You might as well buy a new radiator and heater core since you dumped bars leak into it, I've never seen a radiator survive bars leak.

 

Yikes! I guess Bars Leak was bad advice....the car being stuck at a drive thru likely contributed to bad decision making. I feel the intercooler suggestion may be the issue. Either way, I found an indie guy with stellar references. Problem was he couldn't see me for 3 weeks. Sigh...ten days left.

pkoko I did install a new Bosch Battery, no change to cruise or DTC warnings. I jacked it up, pulled all four wheels and did an inspection of the speed sensors and reluctor rings. They looked brand new, like that road had been travelled by previous owner or mechanic.

I love this car, I just wasn't prepared for this big an issue so early in my ownership. All inspections, all service records, on a 110k car wouldn't seem to be one to worry about.
Well this will just make me upside down, which means I have to keep it longer! But for the money, I like that result.

Thanks to all for input

 

If you plan on having the cooling system flushed, be certain that the heater core is REVERSE flushed to remove any debris from the engine and to rid it of as much of the leak sealer as possible.

Modern radiators often get easily blocked by any type of 'sealer' as the passageways are much smaller in cross-flow radiators than the older brass ones.

 

White smoke can also be brake fluid getting into the inlet manifold due to a seal failure in the brake servo, although I haven't seen a post about this on this forum (yet !!). A brake application could force fluid past a defective seal into the inlet manifold. Once the fluid is burnt up the smoke will clear until the next brake application

This is only a theory, mind you. Check the brake fluid reservoir to confirm.

 

I just got back to my car after watching the new star wars last night, after starting the engine I noticed a loud whirring noise coming from the engine bay. On start up the noise is a lot louder, but then reduces a little once the engine is running. The noise increases as the revs increase, the car seems to be driving fine. However, I did nurse it to a Firestone service center, then back home. The Firestone center looked at it just quickly and thought it could be pulley, belt or S/C bearing, they tried listening with ears, but the sounds was traveling the the entire engine.

I did notice a small droplet leak coming from the transmission cooler lines, nothing pooling though. My indie checked the transmission fluid a few months back and it was full.

I did have a Mina Gallery s/c pulley and new pulley installed a few months ago and the s/c oil changed with the GM/acdelco supercharger oil.

I have 103k miles on her now.

Videos of the engine running with whirring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMFK...ature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiAv...ature=youtu.be

 

Never heard anything like that before.

Is it possible to "disconnect" the SC belt by loosening the idler pulley tension to see whether you still get the noise?

If you do not then obviously its the SC.

 

I don't have the tools to start playing with the pulley, also it's freezing in the garage. So, I'll most likely leave to Jaguar or my indie, which is further than Jaguar.

I do see some damage on the s/c pulley from my indie's installation, the pulley lip is bent and the belt is being squeezed up. Maybe the cause. However, this has been like this since October last year without any noise.

I did find something similar on youtube, a guy had a mini making a similar racket.

 

Maybe the bent pulley lip squeezing the belt up has damaged bearings in the SC nose over time because of unequal pressure as the pulley rotates.

Either way a bent lip affecting the positioning of the belt is not great to say the least.

 

Ok, just checked and I can see the s/c belt has been damaged on the side where the lip is bent in. Also, the pulley is not flush with the end of the shaft, the shaft is protruding a few millimeters out from the pulley.

 

Sounds like you found the problem, always better to figure it out yourself, makes you a better wrench jockey.

 

Nope, something more sinister than I thought. Just started her up this morning and all the lights on the dash came on, the console screen went black, the radiator fans were running after shutting the engine down & a metallic electrical burning smell was coming from the front right/passenger side of the engine bay. Possibly alternator??

 

Does not sound or smell very good to me. Sorry to hear about your problem, electrical issues can get out of hand real fast. Smelling anything smoldering or worse, when starting ones car, has a way of ruining the moment, or worse. Could be at your starter, there's a lot of voltage there, all the time.Maybe a nest of mice, those little buggers will make a nest, with young, amazingly fast, in the darnedest places.

 

Maybe some sort of problem with the fuse box. Its in that general location.

 

Alternator replacement time.
My indie is putting a re-man alternator in.

 

They are not often a big a deal to do them yourself. If you have a reputable place around that rebuilds them, that's your next best choice. Have heard all kinds of not so nice things about re-mans, as well as not good luck with them in the past myself. Hope your re-man is a good one.

 

Make sure you address that warped pulley on the SC as well.