Hi guys, David here

Having recently moved out to the east coast of Canada for school, I am 18 hours away from my mechanic and feeling a little exposed with the Jag ('99 VDP) out here. On the plus side, I haven't seen another XJ308 in months and the car turns a tonne of heads, but on the downside.. You guys are my new troubleshooters.

Here's the recent issue I've been having for the last couple of weeks:

When I go to start the car first thing in the morning after letting it sit all night, I'll turn the key in the ignition and will hear a 'click' from the starter. I can cycle the key back and forth into the 'start' position anywhere from 2-5 minutes (over this period of time, it might half turnover two or three times) before it finally catches long enough to start.

It fires up and away I go. Once the car is HOT (driven for 30 mins or so) and I shut it off, it will start again right away - no issue. If I leave it for a few hours, it might click once or twice before it starts. If I leave it for 24 hours, it will take a few minutes of cycling before it turns over long enough to start.

At first I thought that the battery terminals on the battery itself may have been loose, but I tightened the absolute crap out of them and they're good to go. I'm thinking that there may be another ground somewhere else - perhaps on the starter - getting a poor connection. Also starting to wonder if it could be a flat spot in the starter itself that's started to crop up.

Keep in mind, I'm living in an apartment building in a town of 5000 people with only a portable toolbox at my disposal - At least 40 minutes from any worthwhile mechanic and no Jag specialists for hours.

So, questions/comments/concerns/criticisms? Lay it on me.

Cheers,

David

PS: Hard to truly capture the colour in the light, but here is the new (second time's the charm!) paintjob and wheels (Wheels are 96 VDP wheels, stripped and polished aluminum)

 

My first thought would be to have the battery load tested. Then look into the starter solenoid and starter relay.

 

Battery is brand new. Should be good to go. Will look into solenoid and/or relay. Thanks Ronald.

Any other thoughts?

 

There are three ground straps. One from the battery to the chassis, one from the engine to the chassis and another that I am no exactly clear on the location, but I BELIEVE bonds the front subframe to the chassis. There are two so called "false bulkhead" high current connections near the top edge on each outside of the box in front of the firewall. Check all of those for corrosion and tightness, along with the battery terminals themselves.

 

Mine was just doing the same thing.
Voltage good, power getting to starter so I pulled it out, took it apart except for the brush end of the motor. Cleaned up the solenoid contacts that were a little nasty with some sand paper, wire wheeled the solenoid itself. Greased up the gears and put it back together and back in the car. So far works fine and no where near as noisy as it was.

 

Thanks man. I will definitely try this as well as checking all of the ground connections. Hopefully it's just a matter of cleaning stuff up and putting it back together. Drove it to Moncton and back yesterday and it didn't give me a hassle once (after it was hot). Went to leave for class this morning and it took me another couple of minutes to get it started again. Keep you guys posted.

Best,

 

Worked fine until this morning.
Took a couple try's again before it would crank.
Guess it's just time to replace it.
BTW, the upper bolt is a PITA.
Looks to be better access if the oil filter is off and run a socket/extension from the front.
Also, check this thread- https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-motor-143856/

 

Kid Rock

Try something simple first: using a 10 mm wrench tighten the battery cables. Tighten the ground cables as noted above; try some WD-40 where the cable attaches to the starter.

 

Ah sorry to hear man. I'm going to have a chance to take a look at it on Tuesday so I'll keep you posted.

 

While I had the car up on stands today doing wheel bearings I figured would be a good time to check out the ground strap down by the starter.
Pretty dirty and green at the connectors. While is was out tired to start and nothing.
Cleaned it up, soldered the ends and put it back it started.
Will see how it is in the morning,
But will be replacing anyway before the starter..

 

Okay guys, sorry for the delayed response. Between being swamped with mid-terms all month and becoming quickly frustrated every time I go to deal with the car, here's where I'm at:

Took it into a shop in Moncton, NB, where they decided to go with the cheapest possible solution first: Cleaned up all of the connections, checked existing grounds and put a brand new ground strap on the car. Unfortunately, this has not solved the issue.

Note: At first, the mechanics believed the problem had been solved, because the car continued to start fine when it was hot (or had been run for a while), so they called me to come pick it up. It drove fine for the rest of the evening (granted it was running for quite a while).

After it sat overnight on Monday, I went to start it yesterday morning and back to *click* and nothing. I attempted to start the car so many times that I literally have blisters on two of my fingers from repeatedly turning the key in the ignition..

Out of every 50 or so key turns in the ignition, it might crank 2 or 3 times, but not enough to start. The starter will, however, *click* every time the key is turned to the 'start' position in the ignition cylinder.

Now that we have eliminated possible corrosion/ground issues, what should my next step be? Just about getting ready to order a new starter but should I be thinking possible battery as well? I'm on a limited budget here (student life) and the first shop I took it to raped me pretty good for the work they did...

Additional Note: Leaning away from believing it's a battery issue, as the issue started when I was using another battery in the car. I also attempted to start the car with booster cables connected from another vehicle and these had no effect. Problem has slowly gotten progressively worse over the last 2 months.. Could it be as simple as the starter wearing out?

Let me know your thoughts. Cheers,

David

 

It would seem the next step would be to measure the voltage from the starter power terminal to ground as you turn the key to start. Then voltage test back from there. It REALLY ain't rocket science.

 

Hi, thanks for the reply. As I said at the beginning of the post, I currently don't have the ability to do much work on the car myself due to my living situation. At this point we basically need to assume that the next step is going to be to take it back to another garage and troubleshooting again from scratch. If possible I'd like to have everything I might need in hand BEFORE doing that. Hence my line of questioning.

 

Rather than guessing what the problem is, you could do some real diagnosis.

Firstly, check the voltage at the starter solenoid supply. This should be 0V with respect to ground when not turning the key to crank, and 12V (ish) when you do.

If the starter is cranking, it's normal for that voltage to drop to, say, 10V, but not much lower.

If you have 12V at the solenoid, but the starter does not crank, it is time to replace the starter, after one more check : the voltage at the starter + terminal. This should be 10-12V.

 

Hopefully your portable tool box has a multimeter . . . otherwise, your tech needs to see Ross' and Mark's suggestion. Also there is an electrical troubleshooting guide up in the stickies, done by one of the members out near Vancouver.

 

Sorry guys, SOL on the multimeter. I was miraculously able to get it to start today and drove it over to a local shop. He had an S-type parked out front so I figured it was worth a shot. I'm really starting to lean towards a flat spot on the armature of the starter so I've gone ahead and preemptively ordered one. Really can't afford to be without the car for very long out here. Thanks again for your help and I'll post back when we get it figured out!

 

It's been a month without trouble.
I think the car knows there's a new ground strap on the bench