I just bought a 99 XJR to replace my 98 XJR which I had an unfortunate accident with. I am asking about the 99. I was driving home, for the first time (about 20 miles) and the car engine cut out on me about 3/4 of the way home. The check coolant light has always been on in this car. I got out checked the coolant which was low. I filled it, and drove the rest of the way home without any problems. I parked at my house and the engine is smoking where the coil covers meet the manifold cover, there is a black film there that is smoking. I let it cool down, and then drive it around the block a couple of times. Next thing I know the restricted performance check engine warning go on, and it lurches when I try to accelerate, which I am assuming is the restriction of the supercharger. What could it be?Does driving the car for an extended amount of time with the coolant light on end up in restricted performance plus engine failure. Does refilling the coolant mess up the engine? Any thing to check to let me know if it is the coolant sensor, coils, or t-stat housing. I am worried. This car only has 69K on it, and has been garaged with no prior problems. Only the coolant light low on. Help me out if you can with any suggestions. Thank you.

 

ianann, if you just bought this car, I would be taking it back to the place that you bought it from and tell them that they need to fix it. Unless they told you about the problem and said that you are on your own, most places offer a 30 day/1,000 mile warrantee, even on a used vehicle. So, before things get too bad, I would take it back and have the dealership/car lot fix the car.

Because you are low on coolant, that indicates that there is a problem somewhere. I would let the motor get cold (ie, ambient temp), get the overflow bottle full, and then start the engine. Then you can use a flashlight and see if you can see where the coolant is leaking out. It could be a hose, could be a bad water pump, could be a leaking gasket, hard to say without doing this look over of the engine. In a lot of cases, you can start the engine, look under the car for where the drips are coming down at. From there, you can get a general area of where the leak is coming from. Then it is a matter of following the leak backwards. Just keep in mind that the coolant will follow the grooves/cracks in the engine. So, what appears in the back of the engine when looking on the ground could actually be a leak on the front side of the engine.

Wish you luck.

 

Just had the thermostat removed, it had clamped shut restricting coolant to one side of the engine. Explains overheating, and smoke from the engine. Any inherent dangers of having the thermostat removed but the tank still in? Also with a coolant sensor broken?

 

You need a new thermostat, coolant reservoir, and the proper procedure to fill the system before you can drive it. Then hope that running the engine over temperature and/ or low on coolant has not resulted in head gasket failure. You will be much better served looking for a good Jaguar mechanic than looking for instruction on self-diagnosis.

 

I took it out for a drive. Everything is functional except for the actual sensors. It ran fine, no problems. It sounds a bit rough and is jumpy on at idle, but that went away a bit after I drove it. I attribute this to bad gas, the previous owner didn't use premium. Is it bad for the engine to drive it without a t-stat or coolant sensor? is there a way I can check the head gasket?

 

If you remove the thermostat, refit the housing, refilled the system and bled it at the intercooler as per the factory procedure, made sure the system was completely full, made sure it wasn't leaking from the thermostat housing when you refit it...

then you can drive the car. Running without the thermostat will not damage the engine: the engine performance will not be ideal, and you may very likely get a check engine warning and a fault code for low temperature, among others, The engine may not run perfectly , as it will not be reaching normal operating temperature.

But will it damage the engine? No.

Put a thermostat in it, clear the code and see if you get a code for the coolant sensor, see how the car is running. You fix what you know is wrong first before you worry about anything else.

 

Thank you for all your guy's help. I appreciate every last bit of it. I am new to Jags and just trying to work with what I know.

 

Hey guys please advise my 2007 xk shut down and restricted performance message , I noticed small amounts of coolant near front passenger side and the top hose was hard could this be a thermostat problem please advise