Hello everyone, I hope I am in the right group. You probably have heard this numerious times but I need some help.

I have a 2001 v8 4.0 Vanden Plas, currently 108K miles.
Originally the car started to shut down on the highway, it would send out various errors, transmission failure, ABS trac faults on the display. The codes I forget what they were a few months ago.

The shifting was getting harsher, so I brought it in and after 3 weeks the local transmission place said "YES" your trans is bad, They had it for 1 month, installed a replacement Trans but still it would stall at speed.

They swapped out the following:
1. Throttal Body
2. TCM
3. various solinodes
4. valve body
5. checked wiring and fueses and grounds

The trans place was frustrated and sent it to a local Jaguar mechanic who looked at it for 1 month, he suspected throttal body so that was changed again, and finally came back and said that there is still an issue with the transmission. While the mechanic had the car he replaced the thermastat and water pipes in the front of the engine.

The transmission company pulled out the replacment trans and installed another trans, took it out for a test ride and drove it back to the shop with it leaking like a siv (collant) leaking from rear water pipe/tube which is above the trans at the back of the engine. They trucked it back to the Jag mechanic and they replaced the broken plastic connector which probably got broken when they took the trans out or 2nd replacment on back in.

I picked the car back up friday night, drove it home about 30 miles. about 1 mile from my house the car died again while driving on city street. I can always pull it over (no power) put it in park, pull the key out, wait 2 minutes and typically drive off again wthout another problem for a while.

Yesterday (saturday) I was driving to work no problems, but in the late afternoon, it died again (it is acting exactly like it did originally) so I am wondering if I never had a trans problem and paid 3500 plus to get it replaced but I have the very same problem after the 2nd trans replacement.

I have only had the car for about 9 months, but it is costing me way to much money. I love the car and want to make it work so it is safe to drive on the highway.... is it the fuel pump? vacumm issue? it idels smoothly. is something clogged? I would like to figure this out myself, but if someone can give me some pointers to look at, I would greatly appreciate it.

I am at my wits end and dont really want to put more money into it with no fix in sight.....

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.
If I put this int he wrong forum I am sorry, please let me know the correct one.

Thank You
James
2001 VP V8 4.0 108K miles (frustrated in Anaheim)

 

Hi,
My car is RHD so things are probably opposite way round for you. I was having problems with my car which included cutting out while going over a rough road suface, not starting on return from shopping, dieing 50 yds after setting off, restarting ok and then dieing 500 yds further on. Eventually it refused to start at all (Luckily at home at the time) there were various messages on the display including, Engine failsafe mode, gearbox problems, PECUS (programming error control unit security) and so on. Each time it failed there had been numerous error messages.

I eventually traced the problem (Thanks to some help from Sean B) to a through panel multiplug in the passenger footwell. This plug is behind a plastic panel and has about 40 wires going through it, on mine there was absolutely no resistance when pushing the two halves together, it was obvious that it could not be making proper electrical connections. The only remedy that I could see was to do away with the plug altogether, I cut, soldered and shrink wrapped each connection. I made good the hole in the panel, put everything back together and fired it up!! Great, no error messages, no faults. That was a few months ago and it's been going great and still is. I cannot say this is your problem but it sounds very much like it.
Hope this helps.

 

To delve further, we need to pull the codes. It would at least give us a starting point. Has the car logged any CEL/warnings recently?

Swapping parts doesn't fix the problem, if the parts fitted aren't the problem if you see what I mean and that includes gearboxes...

 

Sean B,
I currently do not have a OBD-II reader so I dont know what code it might be throwing. It died 4 times on the way home from work today. Typical trans failure, engine shutoff. coast to the side of the road, put in park, pull key out of column and wait 2-3 minutes and it will restart and typically off I go again. This even was a little worse, since it shifted down into 3rd gear, but did not shut off the engine. It produced a check engine light and also trans failure. so I was able to drive home but any time I would stop it would take it about 40 feet to get up to speed since It apparently is locked into third gear....

This morning of course I took it to work with no problem.... I am thinking it has something to do with heat and or stop and go traffic (yes on the highway with LA traffic).... I am looking for some Jaguar mechanic in the area that can spend sometime figuring this one out.

If I pick up a OBD-II reader, I was thinking about something I can hook my ipad up to, so perhaps I can get statistic's and not just an error code. Does anyone have a recommendation for this?

Thanks
James
2001 4.0 VP

 

Without reading any codes, you are just flying blind. Especially in a car as complicated as Jaguar.