Good morning all! I think I have two separate issues but I'll list both here in case they are connected. For the last couple of weeks, my XJ8 will kind of sputter when idling. It doesn't stall out and it's been shifting and running fine otherwise. I drove to work and back yesterday with no issues except the sputtering here and there. This morning I went to leave for work, backed out of my driveway, put the car in drive. The car didn't move. It reverses fine, but when in drive it will only move forward very slowly, like its in neutral. If you really give it alot of gas, it will go about 5 miles an hour. So I managed to get it back in my driveway, but that's it. Like I said, never had an issue with this. No warning signs like sluggish shifting or anything. Other than the sputtering occasionally this car has run like a dream. Is there a sensor or something that could be the culprit, or does anyone have any ideas? Also, if you can tell me what that sputtering is that would be great. Mainly want to get it going forward first. Thanks.

 

Oh, with the sputtering, I will get a Restricted Performance, ABS/ASC not available, and only occasional the engine light will come on. They all go off on their own and the car stops the sputtering for a while.

 

For a quick and easy first effort try a hard boot of the electronics. Remove the cable from the negative battery post and touch it to the positive post of the battery. That will drain all the little electrons out of the computers just like a hard boot on a PC forcing everything to start over. Reconnect and see what happens.

Any sign of leaking transmission fluid? Hard to check but if anything is wet under the car that has got to be next. You will find lots of helpful information in the FAQ sticky above.

Since the transmission shifting is electrically controlled I would check for a bad connection on the wiring harness between the Transmission Control Module and the rear of the transmission. Even reseat the TCM with the battery disconnected.

Let us know.

. . . and welcome to the forum!