My 88 XJS is acting weird.....when I accelerate the stereo gets louder and when I decelerate my stereo volume goes down....what is wrong with my car? Any ideas? And when it is cold it sorta hesitates when I accelerate but it starts better when it is cold, and it is harder to start when the engine is warm. I replaced the spark plug wires and that didn't make a difference, now I am going to replace the distributer as well. Any other ideas? I can't figure out what is wrong with the car. When I blast down the highway I don't have any problems, the car downshifts swiftly upon decelerating. Ideas anyone? Donna

 

I dunno know about the radio. Pretty weird. Do the lights follow along as well, getting dimmer and brighter? If so, it might be a voltage supply problem.

Its typical for the V12 to take a few more spins of the starter when warm...but just a few. You shouldn't have to work at it. *Sometimes* depressing the throttle a 1/4" helps....I think it's called for in the owner's manual....contrary to most fuel injected cars. If it's really hard to start have your coolant temperature sensor checked. If it is giving a "cold" reading when the engine is warm then you'll have too much fuel when starting a warm engine. If you wanna gamble with $25, just replace it...it's a fairly common culprit.

You shouldn't have to *replace* the distributor unless something has gone horribly wrong. However, the distributor might need some attention....such as freeing-up a stuck mechanical advance mechanism and/or replacing an inoperative vacuum advance mechanism.

It is also important that both throttles be set at .002" gap, the throttle bores be clean, and the linkage be synchronized. Along those lines, the throttle bushings should be checked, as they often crumble away leaving the linkage to the throttle plates all floppy....and creating a hesitation. The bushings are in the bellcrank-type of arrangement at the rear of each intake manifold.

There are other things to check but I'd go after these items first. Unfortunately there are *many* small potential faults that stack-up over the years that you have to check and correct in an effort to make these cars run right. Fixing them may or may not cure the particular fault at hand but, still, you have to eliminate obvious problems first and then dig deeper if needed.

Cheers
DD