Hello everyone,

The car:2001 XJR, 90,000 mi

Me:Merchant mariner, gone 10 months out of the year

Background:She sits inside a 20 foot long storage unit. She has 1/3 tank fuel (without additives) and she has been sitting for 3 months or so, battery disconnected. Storage unit down to 30-40°F at night. Yesterday I connected the battery.

Problem:Can't get her to start. Added starting fluid. She sputtered but once the fluid burned off, she died again. Repeated steps, same result.

My thoughts:a.Fuel been sitting too long? Add octane booster or fuel?
b.Fuse blew on battery reconnect? One that controls fuel flow?
c.Faulty fuel pump?
d.She is just real cold, keep trying?

 

There have been several reports of fuel pump failure after storage of SC cars. If you do a search of this and also "car will not start" you should get much useful info.
It would probably be wise to have the battery load tested and then check for fuel pressure at the fuel rail.

 

Could be sticky relays or contacts glazed over with sitting unused over time-same can apply to the fuel pump commutator & brushes. Can sometimes be cured by repeatedly turning the ignition on & off several times.

The battery will have lost some of it's charge-even whilst disconnected-and it will be cold as well, which reduces it's output & cranking voltage.

Charge the battery fully to get it warm & it's voltage as high as possible, then disconnect it from the charger & immediately re-connect the vehicle battery lead. Then turn the ignition on & off several times for around a minute, then try cranking over again.

Sounds like the electrics have got sticky & gummed up somewhere, so the electrical systems may need 'cycling' to restore operation. It's a bit like noisy & crackly volume controls in old radios-they can often be cleaned by rotating the knob quickly several times to wipe the carbon track clean.

Make sure you fully charge the battery each time you try a session of engine cranking to try & start it-by keeping the battery voltage as high as possible, you give the electrical circuits more juice to pull relays in harder & spin sticky motors faster etc.

 

Sounds like fuel delivery to me. Fuel pump failure, gummed up filter, or plugged injectors.

 

Here's a little trick: prime it over and over again.

Flip to position 2 on the ignition and hold for 5s. ("on" position, not "start")
Then turn to position '0'. Then repeat cycle 5 times,
or as many times as you want. If your fuel pumps
are, indeed, on the blink, this should get your car going.

Ian