The mechanic that I took my car to keeps adding repairs. Up until today everything he said makes some sense to me. He has excellent reviews on yelp, so I hope that he isn’t bleeding me.

Back story-

christmas eve she stalled twice at stop signs. It took a good 5 minutes each time to restart. I was getting low fuel mixture errors on both banks. When I popped the hood at home, I immediately saw that the duct tape repair that I had done previously on the part load breather hose had come undone. I retaped the two spots that were broken, the connection into the engine and a couple inches from that point, and used some hose clamps. Was waiting for weather to turn decent until I replaced it.

car ran perfect for almost two weeks, and then it made a weird whirring noise when I tried to start it. It wasn’t engaging. Hard to explain. Wouldn’t start.

now, the starter seemed to have been slipping a bit for a month or so before this. So I thought that it would need to be replaced. So I wasn’t expecting anything other than the starter finally dying.

the weather here was not very good, especially for an old guy without a knee and bad back and nerve damage. I worked on it when I could, but that top bolt was a biotch to get to it. I finally got a flexible extension that didn’t break and was able to remove the starter. I replaced the starter... but it still sounded weird. Just a whir. My nephew was here that day and as he turned the key, I tested the battery. It was 8 volts. So I ran to interstate battery and got a replacement. I fully charged it overnight. Next morning, same symptoms. Just a weird noise.

i removed the starter and reinstalled it a dozen times, thinking that it wasn’t aligned right. I got good at this, down to 20 minutes, averaging around 25. I finally gave up and had it towed in. The teeth were rounded a bit, but nothing was broken. I just thought that the teeth were too rounded, probably under a lot of pressure on the 4.0 engine, shrug.

i sent the part load breather hose, and a new crankshaft sensor with it, for the mechanic to install. The crankshaft sensor was just a great big ball of electrical tape for some reason, and wanted it replaced. I couldn’t get the stupid screw out. To this day, I still don’t know what the screw was, a hex or a torque.

the mechanic discovered that the alternator had seized up, and tore the serpentine belt, not entirely, though from the bottom it looked okay. It never dawned on me that the alternator could seize up, never heard of that. But it would explain the starter slipping originally and the weird noise when trying to start it after it had seized.

so at this point, this is what has been replaced-

starter
battery
part load breather hose
alternator
serpentine belt
spark plugs
crankshaft sensor
a $140 special order crankshaft sensor plug/wire. It had been taped up because the plug was broken and a wire was spliced. Price seemed ridiculous but fml.
Along these lines, I had replaced the coil packs, plug seals, plugs and cam covers and seals about 6 months ago. He said that the plugs were fuel fouled.

Yesterday, mechanic called and said that it wasn’t starting. It has spark and fuel. He asked to do a compression test that I okayed. Tested a cylinder on each side, was 45 pounds? Whatever the unit is.

today, he says that it’s probably a timing chain and a damaged piston.

this is where I get derailed. I don’t follow this logic. Ok. I don’t know anything about compression, admittedly.

I have told him on at least two occasions that the car ran fine until 1/5/20. It had given me no problems since I had retaped the part load breather hose, other than the occasional slip when starting. But it would always start, just made that embarrassing grinding noise.

how does a piston get damaged and a timing chain break while sitting for two months?

would there not have been some kind of signs beforehand?

I never heard any weird engine noises. She purred at 750 rpm idle I think it was, and roared at 5k rpm passing an annoying Mercedes. Never heard anything.

if I remember my timeline from the previous owner, the timing chains and tensioner had been replaced and upgraded less than 3 years ago.

the engine itself was replaced and the one in it has less than 50k miles on it.


now, the real question is- is it plausible that the timing chain and a piston mysteriously broke while sitting for 2 months?

during research, we’ve come across a couple other ideas, about no compression. One is that the bores dried out or got water in them. I had problems before with water in the bores, and stupidly washing the engine, but was fixed with new seals and cam covers and cam gaskets. The old covers were cracked and even missing pieces. But it seems plausible too that it dried out after sitting for 2 months and just needs a bore wash, I think it’s called. Something about adding a couple drops of oil.

the other thing that we saw was an idle air controller. There’s YouTube videos showing exactly what is happening. Turning over, spark, fuel but only 50 pounds of compression. I guess it’s attached to the throttle body... I just know what I saw. They weren’t specifically Jaguars, but seems that most cars have them. Advance auto has one for $50, so I guess this car has one.

are those two ideas plausible, or at least more plausible than a piston and timing chain breaking while sitting for 2 months.

are there any other possibilities?

please help!

thanks so much

joe

 

The most likely problem is bore wash from sitting. The easiest way to restore is Press the accelerator to the floor. (that shuts off fuel) Hold the pedal there and crnk the engine for 10 to 15 seconds and stop, wait for a few seconds for the starter to cool and repeat for 4 or 5 times while keeping the pedal on the floor. Then with the pedal still on the floor crank to start while slowly lifting your foot off of the pedal it should start up smoke a bit then settle out. The other alternative is more involved but you can remove the plugs and put a bit of oil in each cylinder and then crank to start.
The easiest is pedal on the floor. Some have had good luck in one sequence and others have had to repeat the sequence a couple of times.

 

Awesome solution


im heading over there in the morning and I’ll give it a try.

he stated $1600 just for labor... so I sure hope it works.

thanks!