Hey Everyone new to this forum but I've checked in occasionally looking for advise or seeing if anyone had a car for sale. I owned a 95 xj6 10 years ago, got divorced sold the car and just got in the position to own another toy and finally found a 97xjr, bought this car 1 month ago. Its a low mileage (124,000km) never winter driven (live in Atlantic Canada) and lots of receipts from service history all at the local dealership, biggest problem seems to be the car hasn't been driven. I'm very happy with the overall shape of the car and I knew or expected some initial issues when I bought it. I know on these forums there are questions that get asked over and over so I tried doing some research before I reached the point to ask some questions, so sorry if these questions have been asked /answered several times.
The issue began on the initial trip home a 3 hour drive. Car seemed to have a slight miss and the check engine light came on and car was/is hard to start, takes 3-4 times turning engine over before it catches and it runs rough initially till it warms and the volts come up. So I started doing some maintenance and trying to solve the miss and starting issue. Pulled the plugs and the front plug was slightly wet (I should mention at this point the previous owner had trouble with water getting in the gas tank last fall, he drained lines and tank and said the issue was cured), so I replaced all the plugs and decided to switch the coil from #2 cylinder to #1 to see if this changed the wet plug issue thinking maybe I had a bad coil. Drove it for a couple of days and rechecked the plugs and they all seemed uniform, they are not great, slight carbon, but none wet and I drove it over very different conditions, some slow speeds and at times up to 200 kmh. I finally got a code reader and it showed a miss fire on #4 cylinder, so I thought great bad coil, cleared the code expecting it to come back and I would change the coil but it's been 4 days and no code has reappeared?? Some times the miss is worse and it appears to be when the gas tank level is low? I've changed the air filter and have a list of other things to check in the next few days so what I'm looking for is all the suggestions I can get from you guys that have run into the hard start and miss troubles, again all suggestions will be appreciated.

 

List of things I'm going to try;
>clean MAF
>clean throttle body
>change fuel filter
>add methyl hydrate to gas tank
>check and clean O2 sensors

But I'm confused over why the car is not throwing a code...if it is missing...

 

1 other thing to add on the hard starts (which also seems worse when gas tank is low) I can smell gas so I think its a fire issue...still hoping for a code to point to a coil...

 

fuel pressure regulator maybe,

on the hard starting issue, check & see if your cam sensor is set correctly.

set crank to TDC, and look in the little window on the cam sensor, and there should be a little dot in the middle of the window. if not, adjust accordingly.

I had hard starting after I rebuilt my cylinder head, because I forgot to set the cam sensor.

 

Thanks I'll definitely try that....anyone else....

 

ok still no luck in solving hard start issue...put scanner on it again no codes showing....took it for a drive and shortly after 3 codes showed up, P302, P139 and P149, #2 cyl misfire and the other 2 were for O2 sensors...took it back to shop, cleared codes, switched coil from #2to #3, disconnected O2 sensors and put some lithium grease on connections, reconnected, checked codes none showing...took it for a long drive with scanner connected and it will not throw another code??? still hard starting....going to check fuel pump pressure and injectors next...any suggestions??? Thanks.

 

Pancho,
I found the crank sensor put can't find the window for the cam sensor?? Must be looking at it incorrectly..

Any one know where to buy some O2 sensors and the price ranges? thanks.

 

Also clean your EGR valve...cured my misfire completely.