Hey All,
I am stumped here. I drove my 99 XJ8, with 78000 miles, down to my garage a few weeks ago to check the oil and air up a couple of tires that are low. It ended up sitting for a few days due to the weather. I finally got down there, added some oil, aired up the tire, and when I started the car it was making a loud tapping sound. So I shut it off, went and checked and noticed the belt was split in two, meaning that I had two belts now. After some checking around I found that the idler pulley was gone. The bearing had come apart and cut the belt. I ordered a belt kit from Rock Auto which included the idler pulley, tension pulley, and the belt. It got really cold in our area so it sat another week. I finally put the kit on and went to start the car and it turned over, but it seemed kind of sluggish. It seemed to "hit" for lack of better term, every once in a while when turning over. Thinking it might be the battery, I tried to jump it with no luck. Thinking it was a bad battery I removed it from the car and charged it to 100%. I took it to get it tested and it tested good. Its a 770 CCA and it tested at 691 CCA which according to the tester is good. I am stumped on what to check next. I puzzled how it ran so good before the belt was changed and after sitting in cold weather for around 3 weeks it now will not start. Any ideas before I have it towed to a shop, which probably cost an arm and a leg? Thanks.

 

With the cold weather and sitting I venture to think "bore wash".
First make sure the battery is fully charged before starting this.
Press the accelerator to the floor and hold it down.
Crank the engine over for 5 seconds and stop.
Keep the pedal on the floor and crank and stop 2 or 3 more times.
Then crank the engine to start and slowly let the pedal up off of the floored position.
She should fire up and maybe give a little puff of smoke.

Pressing the pedal to the floor shuts off fuel to the injectors and allows the oil to re-coat the cylinder walls.

 

Started from dead cold, then immediately shut down, after which it will crank but not start sure does sound an awful lot like the bore wash issue.

 

Car will start with the belt completely removed and run until the battery is drained down .

A fully charger battery as the lower it gets drained the ECU acts up so keep that in mind in the heat of battle .

May have to remove plugs to get a little bit marvel mystery oil or rislone oil treatment in each cylinder and rotate the engine to get the oil in the area of interest being the walls and piston ring circumferential slides ( this may take a overnight soaking ) so it expands against the walls . This will restore the compression for a light off . Yep it's going to smoke , but it will be the smoke of victory .

Pressing the pedal to the floor shuts off fuel to the injectors and allows the oil to re-coat the cylinder walls / Avern1 . Thanks , that explains that process for me as I never got it but this may need a more direct application , just my opinion .

 

Besides sitting the second most known cause of bore wash is a quick shut down after start up. Jaguar increases the fuel delivery on start up for a quick warm up and the returns to normal after a minute. It is the extra fueling that causes the bore wash. Usually the pedal to the floor will clear it. One fellow had to do it 10 times after he left his parked for 6 months while in navy boot camp.

 

If it started from dead cold and immediately shut down it could be the fuel pump. Check for pressure at the schrader valve on the fuel rail.

 

I believe it was the OP that shut down the car right away, due to the racket caused by the split belt and disintegrated idler pulley.

 

That would revert back to a leaser intrusive try like what Avern 1 mentioned to restore compression . Next try being the plug removal . I could be wrong .

 

+2 Bore wash.

 

Yes, bore wash. It can be confusing when a thread is hijacked.

 

Thanks for the information. It was bore wash. It took a few minutes but after about the 5 try she fired up. It ran terrible for about 2 minutes but it smoothed out and runs great. Thanks for the information as I would have never known about bore wash.

 

Glad to hear that you got it resolved.