Hi everybody. I need help with diagnosing a problem - I have a 2003 XJ8 base with 96000. I had the car for three years now, and it's been perfect. About a week ago a whistle appear from the engine compartment - it seems to be at idle, and low rpms. I checked the water pump - no leaks, looks fine, all pulleys seem to be ok. Coolant is fine, temperature is good, so I just drove it until i had time to bring it to a mechanic.

Today I drove it to work, and parked it. When I attempeted to start it later on, it will crank, start and then the rpms will go down, and it just shut itself off. Everything looks ok, no codes. The stangest thing was that when I grabbed the door handle on the drivers side it was really warm - and so was door and the rear door - both driver side. I haven't seen anything like it before.
I left the car unlocked, disconnected the battery, and then reconnected it, and tried again. This time it was cranking, and cranking without starting - no codes, everything looks good. The doors were cooling off, but were still on the warm side. I have no idea, if its related - if anybody knows anything on this, it will be very appreciated!

 

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I doubt that the door problem is related. Could it have been the sun behind a thin cloud layer.

The whistling sound may have been an air leak. Was the idle as smooth as usual? Starting and then dying is often fuel pump failure. Find the Schrader valve on the fuel rail, looks like a tire valve and depress with the ignition on to see if you have a good spurt of fuel. Have a towel under it to catch the fuel.

 

Thank you so much - I thought about the air leak as well - even sprayed it with WD40 to see if idle will change - I guess I have a bad fuel pump as well - in the spur of the moment I thought the two were related. The hot doors are silly I know - I just never seen anything like it - maybe it was the sun, although the car was under a shade!
Oh well -
I'll make some pictures and introduce myself.
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