Well, I did this to myself, I know, but again, I'm a little worried and I've not been in any kind of decent mood all day (Which is partly why I'm in this mess).

I did a really hard acceleration (I didn't redline), and got the light right afterwards.

No discernable noises from the engine itself but I may have heard a vacuum or bearing acting up.

Thoughts as to what I might've done here?

 

Just drop by the Zone or equivalent and find out what the code is. All will be revealed then. I wouldn't be at all surprised by the P0411 - secondary air sys - I get them under all manner of operating conditions...

 

I uh.... I got bad news

How bad is this?

 

Well, that depends........

How does it run right now?? Is it smooth again or is it misfiring?? Could be it just needs the dog crap run out of it, if you are normally a soft driver. Given it's age, a tank of fuel system cleaner might be in order. It really hinges on how it runs now; if it seems OK and you are averse to cleaners in the tank, just monitor and see how it performs for a while.

If it does still have a consistent misfire, might have to have the injectors looked into.

Good luck!

 

Well, I haven't really been a soft driver to it that much since I got it in January, but it's got 46000 miles on it and the previous owners baby'd it.

It's been smooth. Noone has even sensed anything wrong with from the sound of the engine / etc. So maybe I don't need to worry about a thing here but I'm still not driving it really except to and from a mechanic friend or two. So I guess if everything works out and nothing's -actually- wrong I'll just figure out how to turn the CE light off.

 

I ended up buying a used actron scanner off of craigslist for $30. it is very handy in situations like this. you can clear the code and see how many miles before it occurs again, IF it occurs again... or see if it only occurs under hard acceleration like you mentioned.

 

These cars are meant to be run hard. I suspect you have a dodgy ignition coil and you simply have a high speed miss on number 5. Most serious problems (like burned valves) show up at idle.

 

Well, after a quick 0-60 test, I KNOW that the #5 cylinder is firing perfectly fine. I should not have been able to get it at 8.36 if I was running it on 1 short of 6 cylinders, right? It's an even better time than when I last tried it out.

So at this point, I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna get some lucas fuel additive thrown in and get the CE light switched off & reset (an hour's time with the battery disconnected didn't do the trick for some reason).

 

The "some reason" the battery off did not do the reset is because the codes do not reset by hard boot.
And, as to the codes- they are all consistent with a cylinder misfire including the catalyst code, so I would bet that has happened at some point. The codes do not GENERALLY come from random number generators !

So, i agree with the advice to reset the codes and see what comes back.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Yeah, one way or another, I'm getting the computer reset tomorrow, but I'm having something odd coming up that right now seems related to the fuel lines. Doesn't happen unless it's gotten low on gas, but it'll feel like it's sputtering even after I've put more gas in it (but it stops shortly, and doesn't continue).

I didn't really get this sputtering before, but I wouldn't be that concerned if it was happening only -before- I filled up and not continuing -after- I did so.

 

Some guesses-
fuel filter, fuel inlet screen, dodgy fuel pump
OR
something else!
Checking the fuel pressure on these cars is a MAJOR PITA, so you are faced with a difficult diagnostic

 

Alright, I won't go into details but

Apparently, the guy before the guy I bought this from (He said he never checked them) ran really bad spark plugs. Champions.

Those have been replaced, and an ignition coil as well.

The check engine light hasn't been turned off because
A) the code reader I have (my father, actually) is one of those really cheap made-for-tv gimmick machines that actually does not have a feature to clear the CEL.

B) I was told by someone who used their own code reader that they couldn't clear it because somehow this car is so special since it's european that he'd need to invest thousands to get a reader that would work on european cars. I'm not especially inclined to believe this and I'm left thinking he was full of it. Am I correct on this assumption?

 

any OBDII scanner should work. OBDII has been mandatory for all cars sold in the US since 1996...

 

Hi

I had my engine check light on

I disconnected totally the battery
I toucheg the Plus and Minus ends of the cable (away from the battery)
left the battery disconnected overnight
replaced 1 ignition coil (Nr 6 in my case)
and the light disapeared in th morning

Magic ? ? ? May be but in this cas I love magics

By the way Jags should not be pampered they need to be driven fats, never forget that a jaguar is a race car in disguise

Claude
Durham NC

95 XJ6 VDP
91 Audi 100

 

Funny i just had my CEL come on and i just read the codes at auto zone,well code P0305 #5 missfire came up. So thinking its the coil? Well i dont see how since it has good power and dosent miss at any RPM or speed or no mater how much im getting on it.What is the proper way to turn the CEL light off? On my 86 XJ6 the CEL came on and the guy tried to tell me it was just the O2's,so he showed me a button on the driverside in the trunk and thats how he turned the CEL off on that jag...I looked on this one and cant see it so not really sure how to? I have heard by touching the + and - together to reset the codes is very bad......

 

Hi again BadCat 1

Yes you must replace that coil ASAP. Even if the engine runs well the bad coil will cause several troubles including burning the catalytic converter in the exhaust. So do not wait.

Claude

Durham NC
1995 XJ6 VDP
1991 Audi 100

 

The light on the dash of the Series III is actually the 'OXYGEN SENSOR' light that comes on every 30K miles as a reminder to check/replace the sensor. (no OBD)

bob gauff

 

Most likely, as the coils are a common failure point. Don't buy an el-cheapo.





Join the club. I've had coils fail and, except for a rough idle, the engine ran sweet as can be.





With a scan tool. Lots of inexpensive scan tools out there that are suitable for basic DIY work. I use an Innova 3130 but there are many choices depending on your budget. Might as well buy one now as I can all but promise that you'll be needing one in the future.



As Bob said, your '86 didn't have OBD or a CEL. There was an electro-mechanical device to turn on the Oxygen Sensor light every 30k miles. Very rudimentary.

Cheers
DD

 

Just put a fuel pressure gauge in where the schrader valve is in the fuel rails..

 

Doug i could have been wrong about the CEL light on the 86, but im pretty sure im right? Either way i know there was a light that came on of some sorts that had something to do with the engine,and a guy i bought some parts from showed me the switch in the trunk. I am aware that 96+ cars are OBD II but even the OBD I cars have check engine lights....MAYBE not jags that are 95 and older? But majority of the cars do...All my computer controlled fox bodies do and they even have a diagnose port under the hood. I can run the codes myself of them with a volt meter, but it dosent sound as if the jag is the same. Where did you get your code reader from? I read that the lincoln coils fit these cars? If so i will be useing them,has anyone tried a coil from any other ford product? Or maybe from the mach 1 or 03/04 cobras? I might call summit and get some hi power coils..... Also seen not to use a certian brand so i will make sure of that.Oh yeah and my car idles fine,runs fine at any RPM has great power,and none of the dash lights are going crazy like it sounds like some jags do when a coil is out...