Well, the family and I were driving back from a meeting for our, hopefully soon, new house and since I decided to take the VDP down there to see how it would do on the relatively long drive, a new problem has surfaced. It all started when we got to our destination and we were sitting idling, a little misfire here, a little misfire there. I revved it up to clear it out then shut it off. We have the meeting and all is well. Leaving, it started fine and ran fine. Drove for a little and got stuck at the longest stop light on the planet. Boy did this car not like that! Same misfires as before but this time the instrument cluster lit up like a Christmas tree! That was interesting. They went out and the airbag message and light stayed when all else went back to normal. Thanks to this forum, I believe that one of the coils is sending a wicked feedback through the car and it expresses itself by lighting up the cluster. I pulled into a lot right next to us and shut it off. It restarted fine, so we headed out. Damn, got stuck at the worlds longest stop light again! Well, the old girl didn't like that a whole lot and kept a little misfire action to show she needed to run. Finally, through the light and back moving. Nope, next red light, then the next, hit every red light before reaching the highway. Now, from experience, I needed to get the revs up so we finally get down the highway and i keep it around 70 MPH. Good. I told the wife that we were gonna go 'til it stopped. After a while, we got off the highway and onto local roads, when the christmas tree started lighting up again. Heck, that thing was going up and down, all the while, the misfire is intermittent and she's still running. Finally, made it home. I told the wife that we need to spend some money on it to keep it going, hopefully she believes me now. I was thinking ahead when I had to do a coil last time to get two. That one is at work, though. Tomorrow, the saga will continue.

 

Being a good mechanic, I believe you should be able to sort it out easy and cheaper way . Keeu us updated

 

Mark! You are moving to TX?!? 'cuz sure sounds like you got caught at the light at Pecinct Line and IH820 in Hurst!

Good luck sorting it. Guess I need look around for a spare coil to keep on the shelf, too. Motorcarman renewed my dampers for me last week and noted that it misses a tad on first light-off, but smooths out after a few seconds....thus far ok at the world's longest stop-light, though.

 

As much as I love Texas, i won't be moving there. I have had zero time to really fix it. All I know is that it won't leave a code for which cylinder right now. The last time this happened it took a shorter time to leave a code. Oh well. I don't really want to spend the money on four more coils if I don't have to. Hopefully soon that hot misfire will leave a code.

 

Well, I finally got back to the VDP today. I figured since it was nice and hot with the wife running errands in it, I should be able to find which coil is failing. I started at the back and swapped the coil. The lights were still acting up, worse now that it was hot. Not that one. I swapped the next one (#5) still the same. I swapped #4 which is the coil I replaced a few months ago. Smooth as silk. When I pulled out the coil, the smell of ozone and whited powder on the end of the boot. So I figured I'd swap that into the next one to check myself. Put the offending coil in #3 and still smooth. It may have cooled off enough being out of the hole. I put it in the trunk and realized I have started a spare parts bin for this car. I am a little frustrated since I just bought the coils not long ago and one has failed already. I don't have the money for the Jag ones but damn, these ones are junk! Oh well, it could be worse, I could need all six at once!
Back to normal for now, till next time.

 

Glad to hear you're up and running again. I hope you don't have coil issues anytime soon, or you'll be snakebitten!

Any tips for us on which manufacturer's coil NOT to buy?

 

Good thread, glad to have found it. The following relates to my father's 95 VDP (not my 01 XJ8). Experienced the xmas light dash. Code gave us the cylinder misfiring and replacing new coil did the job. Great. BUT. Still stuck with "general" misfire code P0300. The car idles fine, accelerates fine, but cruises bad (like stuttering). Tried replacing / moving around coils but nada. Have not tried replacing by ALL new coils though (4 out of 6 so far). 6 new sparkplugs installed and still nada. ANY IDEA? There's a slight smell of gasoline everytime car shuts off... wondering if any connection at all.

Thanks a bunch

Brian

 

'Tis the Beck-Arnley coils that have given me so much grief. I dunno who manufactures them. The only identification is a small "PEC" stamping.

Several were replaced under the (now expired) 12 month warranty. The last warranty replacement had black potting material at the top. Not sure if that suggests anything significant.

Cheers
DD

 

In another thread Claude is experiencing a persistant P0300 bugaboo so you might wanna keep an eye on that conversation as well.

Any of the coil wires or connectors look damaged? And I think I heard the #5 and #6 connectors are often accidentally attached to the wrong coils.

Cheers
DD

 

if you swap the #5 and #6 coil wires the car becomes virtually undriveable, much more than just a slight misfire

 

I could not tell you who made the coils I got. I have a friend that buys and sells british car parts and he sent me a couple coils that were inexpensive. The car has been running fine lately but I think I'm gonna let her go. If anyone who reads this thread is interested I can send pics. I hate to do it but life has to keep going.