I recently inherited my grandfather's 1996 XJ6. He bought the car new in '96 and it has ~130k miles on it.

When I picked the car up, it had a check engine light on and the accelerator was not working properly. By that, I mean that I would begin to push the accelerator pedal and nothing would happen. If I jabbed it or pushed down on it hard, the engine would rev up and go.

After reading some of the forum posts, I decided that the throttle body may need to be cleaned and was confident my grandfather had never done that. I was right, and the throttle body needed the cleaning. I took it apart and used carb cleaner to remove the build up.

I do not have the delay with the accelerator anymore, but the car is now idling very high in Park and Neutral (i.e. 2500 rpm). If I give it some throttle it will climb and stay around 3000 rpm.

Could this all be related to the throttle cable or spring?

Also, the check engine light that is on is P1138 (Lack of HO2s12-sensor indicates rich). The car seems to have a slight exhaust leak, but I am not sure if that would relate to this at all.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, as I do not know these cars very well. It has always been very reliable for him, so I am hoping there may be a simple fix here. Thanks.

 

Has the throttle spring been replaced by the updated unit?? (has the Service Action (RECALL) R493 been performed??

The TPS may have been damaged by solvent leaking into the plastic housing.

Here is an excerpt from the TSB 05.1-26am5.
12. Using the WDS, perform the oxygen sensors orientation test. (Select set-up
and configuration, engine and transmission, oxygen sensor orientation.)

13. Using the WDS, perform the throttle potentiometer adaptation test.

Note: During the throttle pot adaptation test portion of the engine
set-up procedure, the WDS will ask if a new throttle position
sensor has been installed. Answer this question with YES even
though the existing sensor is being reused. This action will allow
the WDS to reset a larger set of parameters.

You might need to perform another TPS 'adaptation' or replace the TPS if faulty.

bob

 

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the reply and I think you're going in the right direction. I played with the throttle today and it does seem like the high idle is tied to the return spring. It actually started perfect with the idle at 700-800 RPMs and was staying around 1600-1800 RPMs unless I manually returned it back to idle.

Does this sound like typical behavior for the R493 issue? Also, how can I verify whether that recall was performed or not? I tried entering the VIN in the link below and it says that there are no recalls.

https://www.jaguarusa.com/owners/vin-recall.html

Should I just call a dealer? My grandfather was not great with keeping documentation so I don't have any way of verifying whether this work was done.

Thanks!

Curt

 

You can contact a Jaguar dealer and inquire if the recall has been performed. They may or may not have records from 15 or 20 years ago.

You can always just follow the instructions for spring replacement but just straighten the end with pliers and wind the spring one more turn, cut off the extra little piece and put it back together.

That is what I did if the throttle 'hung' a little at idle.

You can also find AJ6 throttle 'helper' spring assy and adapt it to the AJ16.

bob

 

I contacted a local Jaguar dealer today and they were unable to provide me with the information. I then reached out to Jaguar Customer Service and they are requiring some additional documentation proving that I have inherited the car from my grandfather, so it must be a privacy issue. I should hear back on the status of the recall history.

It seems like the throttle return spring is causing the high idle. I was able to review some of the documentation that my grandfather left and it looks like he's had this "sticky throttle" issue for awhile. You have to really stab the accelerator for it to rev up. That made me think it was the throttle body but I've cleaned that and it's gotten better but is still sticking. When I move the throttle with my hand at the engine itself, it does not seem to stick at all. Do you think the throttle body is shot or is it more likely that the throttle cable itself is either stretched or worn? What is a good way to lube up the throttle cable?

Thanks,

Curt

 

Welcome to the forum Curt,

I have had to remove your For Sale post in Marketplace. As stated there in my Announcement about the rules:

1. Members with less than a 5 Post count AND registered on the forum for less than 10 Days are NOT ALLOWED to post in the Marketplace.

Contravention of the rules will result in deletion of the post and a 7 Day Ban in the first instance. As you are posting about mechanical issues with the car, I have NOT imposed a ban this time.

Graham