Hi. I just bought a XJR -96 and on my way home with it the battery light came on, I drove on and 10 min after it was overheating. Can these issues be linked together? Now the battery is all drained. And the car won't start.

 

Yes they could be. One belt drives both the alternator and the water pump. Maybe the belt broke or fell off. It should be easy to check. Hope you shut down soon enough to avoid anything bad. Sorry to hear of trouble first thing after the purchase, that's very unfortunate.

 

The belt is still there but maybe it can be that anyway. The belt made some classic belt noise prior. It did turn but maybe not properly fast?

 

If the belt seems ok and tight, then it could be the crankshaft pulley lamination failing, where the ring that turns the belt slips on the pulley. That usually causes some noise. See the last part of this current thread:

Bad Alternator

Or it could be a bad alternator! If power was lacking, perhaps the cooling fans couldn't run properly.

Was the charge gauge on the dash reading low even while at speed (I think that would trigger the battery light)? That would point more towards a bad alternator.

 

Test the Harmonic balancer by getting a dab of white paint lined up on the two parts of the pulley.

Drive the car and inspect. Did they move relative to one another? If so the pulley is bad.

 

Was this resolved? Curious minds want to know..