Hey Guys

Great to be a new member to the forum. Ive got a 1986 XJS with only 21 000 miles. It's been driving fantastic and everything seems great. Today I had it out and at a stop light the oil light came on then it stalled. I'm wondering if the car automatically shuts off when the oil pressure gets to low? I started it back up and the oil pressure increased back to normal and stayed that way for the rest of the day. I checked the oil immediately and it was fine. Just had a recent oil change and lube.

Just a fluke? It was a cold day (40 degrees f) ..could tht have an effect?

On another note. What gas do you guys use.regular or hi test? I was instructed to use an octane booster aswell? Comments?

Also I've been using fuel injector cleaner as it was idling a little rough and this seemed to clear it up substantially...should I continue to use this?

Thanks for any input!

 

No such feature, at least not on the V12s of your vintage. Not sure about the 6 cylinder cars.

Did the engine stall cleanly or was some stumbling and agonizing involved? If it was slowly conking out the engine RPM would drop...perhaps low enough for the oil light to come on. I dunno. Just a thought.






The "could be" list is long. It'll be hard isolating the fault and/or verifying a repair unless the symptom becomes much more consistant.

A full Saturday spent cleaning connections, relays, and ground points might be the fix....and is never a wasted effort on old Jags. If it doesn't solve the problem at hand it'll likely prevent an upcoming one :-)




I always used hi-test in mine. The key thing is whether or not your hearing any pinging. Are you?

Octane booster shouldn't be needed.

On general principles the distributor vacuum advance and mechanical advance systems should be checked as they are a known problem area.


Opinions will vary. A high grade fuel will have some form of detergent in it so I don't see the need for continual use of additional cleaners

Cheers
DD

 

It seemed to be a clean stall. I think maybe a new fuel filter is in order. Thanks for the help! It's appreciated!

 

Can't hurt!

Pour the contents of the old filter into a clean jar. What you see (or don't see) might be important.

Have you had the car long? Has it seen extended periods of non-use/storage?

Cheers
DD

 

I've owned it only for two months now and am putting it away next week as I don't plan to winter drive it as it never was before. It was owned by an eldery lady who only put about
10 000 miles on it in the 20 years she owned it. She sold to a man who drove about 2000 miles a year. When I first got it it was revving quite high at idle, and was very "lumpy" when idling, you could feel the car missing and sort of bobbing around a little. I did a bit of "an Italian tuneup" and ran the car in d2 at higher revs with the injector cleaner. After a few full ups and with the addition of this stuff it seems to have reduced this "lumpiness" almost to nothing. I'm wondering if all the crap that was removed from the injectors has built up in the fuel filter. Could probably use new plugs...

The only other thing with the car is an unusual grinding sound only when turning SHARPLY to the right. Sounds like some sort of propellor coming into contact with something around the transmission, if this makes any sense. I thought maybe a wheel bearing, but really have no idea. Car is in very good virtually brand new shape.

Jamie

 

I think the oil light came on because the car was stalling and prssure therefore dropped. On top of the very good advice about cleaning the fuel systems,if the car ticks over at below 700 rpm it is a good idea to speed it up a bit. The tickover is controlled by a huge bolt on the Auxiliary Air Valve which is a whole subject in itself (see Kirbert Palm's free downloadable book on JagloversForum). If, big if, the AAV is working as intended, you turn this bolt anti-clockwise to speed up the tickover. It is located on the US driver's side of the engine, at the driver's end of the engine, just below and to the right of the air filter casing and looks like this:



The bolt head you can see is what you turn.