crazy question, but, how likely would it be for this engine to make it to 200k after this repair? Its at 115k. I know another issue would likely crop up before 200k but surely it wouldn't be to this extreme.

 

feartheclown:
Some of what I am going to tell you is probably true.
Any actual percentages quoted will be obvioudly be conjecture, and remember we are Jaguar entusiast for the most part and have a better memory of the good than the bad, but your odds are pretty good for making 200,000 miles on the engine without a major failure PROVIDED you deal with the maintenance. Not to poke you in the eye when you are down, BUT you had a car with a known defect and either did not know about the tensioner issue, or did not make it a priority to fix it.
You seem to be inclined to work on it yourself for the most part, so you can drive a great car for reasonable money if you do most of the maintence and repairs yourself. However, you still have risks- Nikasil engine, transmission A drum breaking, front end alignment parts,sunroof track failure, cooling system leaks,security , seat or door module failure, water pump and so on. There ain;t much you can do about the Nikasil failure, except hope, the transmission is scary, but the rest are pretty straightforward and you can save a ton of $ doing them yourself.
All that said, I would NOT feel comfortable with a single 12 year old Jaguar that I had to depend on for day today transportation without budgeting several thousand a year for maintenance. BTW, I presently own an pretty flawless 2002 XJ8 with 165,000 miles, a pretty good 1999 XJR with 170,000 miles, and my beater 1998 XJR with 240,000miles.

 

Gotcha, unfortunately with the tensioner issue I was completely in the dark. All of what you said was fairly accurate, however difficult things I won't be able to do on the car, due to time and lack of knowledge(which is why I'm not doing the chain and valve replacement myself at this point).

I definitely respect the advice of this not being my main means of transportation and am going to remedy that in the next couple of months. Thanks again.

 

Did you have any indications like noise or peculiar starting issues other than no start? How odd is it to not have any other indicators or codes?

 

The car ran a little bit louder on the highway for about 3-4 months before this occurred which I chalked up to just age of the vehicle and a week before it broke down it popped up 'restricted performance' for 5 minutes during a drive but went away midway through the drive which I figured was just the damn electrical system since I had been having issues with my driver's side window and sunroof.

And as someone who 2 weeks ago knew fairly little about engines I never took those 2 things as something that would put the car out of commission.

On a positive note this car breaking down has caused me to learn how to work on them a little and really just made me realize that with the right amount of patience and good instructions(or someone by your side who knows what they're doing) almost everything can be done on the vehicle myself.

 

YES!!!! And even if you do want to have someone elso to work on it, you can still feel in control, knowing how the beast really works! Good luck as you learn to tame the Kitty.

 

How do you break the timing chain, and how do you know if you've done it? I just replaced my fuel pump and link lead on a 99 XJ8 and can't get it to start. Went over everything I did at least 10 times looking for a mistake or something not reconnected. Getting fuel to the fuel rail, seems like the fuel injectors aren't do their job. Maybe there's a fuel cut-off switch somewhere?

 

If you've got 40 psi or so fuel pressure at the rail you are good to that point. Could be injectors fouled, plugs fouled.... does even try to start?

The only way to know for sure is to take the valve covers off and look. Not sure what your model/year is but if it is in the range of "failing tensioners" problem I would do it for sure.

Thanks to this forum I caught my tensioners just in the nick of time.

 

I've got a 99 XJ8. So far my last great idea was to fully charge the battery using the onboard charger on my boat (killed the battery trying to get the car running all week). Once the battery was fully charged I hooked it back up hoping to get a start, instead I momentarily had a new message: Stability Control Failure. Don't know what that means yet, but I just came inside to find out. I've got around 140,000 miles on the car. Bought it with 127,000, so not sure what maintenance was or wasn't done before hand. Ran great til it quit running.

About the tensioners, you said you caught your's just in the nick of time... what do you mean by that? If they are going bad what damage can they cause if not 'caught in time'?

Thanks.

 

Bent valves, that's the biggest issue my timing chain breaking caused. Fix it before it occurs or pay the price.

 

I bought a fuel pressure gauge yesterday, no pressure at the fuel rail. Just get a little dribble thats it.

 

You need to turn the ignition and have someone check it at the same time, you'll likely get pressure then.

 

I thought you just replaced the pump?

 

In the past week I've replaced the pump, the link lead, the evap flange, and now the fuel filter. Still nothing. Unfortunately I don't have time to work on it this week (really didn't last week either but did my best), in the meantime I borrowed a vehicle to tote the kids around while my wife has my truck.

 

Swick quit wasting time and money and check your timing chains, with this being a common issue that should be the first thing anyone checks.

 

Did you check the fuel cutoff switch in the driver kick panel (in cabin up front, recall the driver side)? Also, fuse 7 in the trunk fuse box is for the fuel pump relay, check it to be sure it is good.

 

He doesn't have fuel pressure at the fuel rail so the timing chains aren't a factor just yet.

If it helps, I had a 20 something amp fuse in my trunk fuse block that had a little light on it. So I moved it over to the fuel pump fuse so when current is flowing through the fuse the little light on it would light up.Not sure if this a "standard equipment" item in the XJ8's but I am sure you can buy one.

I would make extra sure that power is making it to the pump.

Also, you really, really need to get the secondary timing chain tensioners replaced, if it isn't too late already.... I wouldn't drive the car another mile before doing it.

 

i can almost guarantee he's not cranking it with the ignition being turned, if the jag isn't started or being cranked then it will show as almost no fuel pressure, as soon as the starter engages his fuel pressure is going to shoot up.

 

Gentleman thier are three basic needs for an engine to run, fuel spark and compression if thease needs are met the engine should run, not nessessaralty run well but it should run. if the timming is the problem he won't have compression and so on. thanks POP

 

He should get fuel pressure when the key is turned to ON - without cranking it. The fuel pump should run for about 5 seconds when the key is turned to ON, that should bring the fuel pressure up in the rail.