When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
But I've never used one of those things before and wondering what it might tell me with this persistent 'No Start' Situation?
Would it for instance tell me if the 'Crank Sensor' isn't working, although I've also replaced that with a New one and would it tell me if the Injectors are Not getting a Signal
This is going to be the only Car I'll ever use it on, so don't want to spend a shed load of money on something I'd rarely make use of, so would something like a Maxiscan be a good choice?
I know nothing about these things or working on an AJ16 Engine except what I have managed to find on a road that is leading to know where anytime soon
So any advice from anyone who has had similar problems would be appreciated, as I am running right out of ideas
I would probably start with the Elm327 now to be honest if you have a smartphone that can download the app required to talk to it.
They are dirt cheap on Amazon <> $15.00
I would probably start with the Elm327 now to be honest if you have a smartphone that can download the app required to talk to it.
They are dirt cheap on Amazon <> $15.00
Hi Robman
Ok Cheers I'll have a look but may also get a 'Noid Light' as I'm Starting to think the Injectors may not be getting a Signal much more than anything else
OBD wont tell you anything here as the car needs to start for it to work but generally a must have item for AJ16. I suggest D900 OBD scanner for OBD(plenty cheap on eBay), its just easiest to use with its own screen and gives all live data and all the basic codes. I use it myself and recommend it over other scanners I used in the past(Delphi and ELM can overcomplicate things and data isn't very clear, especially for first time users).
Noid lights can be a good idea I suppose(I have a set myself) but you could achieve the same by removing the fuel rail and putting clear plastic bottles over injectors, see whether they click and spray fuel fine.
Crankshaft position sensor is responsible for them firing. You also never mentioned what the car does on easy start, thats usually a good indication what the problem might be.
My 1995 XJS Celebration Convertible 4.0L with AJ16 Engine is running at last!
Even I'm still finding that very hard to believe, as I was running right out of ideas but I've finally got her running for which my Grateful Thanks must go to Forum Member 'Paddy' who told me about this Relay down by the Footwell
Which I was unable to find no matter how hard I tried, as I thought it was down by the ECU when it was up by the Fuse Box, although on the plus side, I am getting to know my way round the AJ16
And so the Story so far is that I found the Handbook which showed me where to find this Relay, which turned out to be the Relay for the ECU where the name alone was more than enough to give me a bit of hope
Having done a Compression Test, Checked the Coils and Cleaned the Spark Plugs and then replaced the CPS and all of the Injectors with Brand New ones and even removed the ECU to clean all the Pins, after which of course She Still wouldn't Start
Where the only Trick now left to try was to replace the Relay for the ECU which I had only just managed to find by the Fuse Box
The only problem being that I didn't have a Relay to replace it with, so what I did was to Swap it with another Blue Relay that was sitting next to it on top of a White holder
Although I still don't have any idea what this Blue Relay in its White holder does (does anyone know?)
Anyway to continue having swapped those Relays over, I put the Battery on and Turned the Key
Where to my Amazement, She then Started up just like she had never been away!
So one of the next jobs is to remove the Speedo, as when I put a New Battery on the Needle swung round to 150mph!
And also replace the Fuel Level Sender which goes into the Fuel Tank
Plus one or two other bits and pieces, that need tidying up, and then She'll be ready to go
Just when I thought that I had finally got 'Carmen' up and running She has suddenly decided to go wrong but not quite sure how serious this might be
Having just fitted Six Brand New Injectors including the New Seals they came with, that were already on the Injectors
When I started her up, Petrol started squirting out from around one of those Injectors in a very heavy mist
So I took out the Injector to try and see what was wrong and when I put my finger in the hole of the Inlet Manifold that the Injector came out of, instead of feeling very smooth like all the other Five
This one had some score marks inside the Bore, which was almost certainly why the Injector was leaking around the outside
Not quite sure how to fix it
Does anyone have know the best way
This Injector was leaking around the Outside, which seems to have been caused by what look like score marks inside the Bore of the Inlet Manifold (Does anyone know how to fix it)
It didn't seem to matter just how many times I removed and then refitted those 6 Brand New Injectors, one or more of them would then start leaking and Spraying Petrol all over the Engine
She could have got up in a Fireball but it looks as though I dodged another Bullet and tried everything I could to stop them leaking but nothing I could think of seemed to work
But then on closer inspection although the Injectors were the same as the ones I'd taken out, the Sealing rings around the Tips were different
Where the Old Rings were much bigger than the new ones 'and I don't know why either' so I put the bigger Sealing rings from the Old Injectors on the New ones and then as if by magic the leaking suddenly stopped
Then once that problem was out of the way She started on the button, which was a massive relief and so I reversed her out of the place where I'd parked her while fixing the Fuel Pump and replacing the CPS
Everything seemed to be ok, so what on earth could possibly go wrong?
Well how about a massive looking Oil Leak! which at first appeared to be coming from under the Oil Cooler 'Just what I need Not!'
'Another Heart Stopping Moment to contend with'
As it turned out, it wasn't the Oil Cooler or even something maybe worse than that, as on closer inspection the Oil seemed to be coming from from underneath the Cam position indicator
The Oil Leak was coming from somewhere underneath here
At which point I remembered removing the Bracket that held the Plug for the CPS 'Crank Position Sensor' and was now beginning to wonder if I'd done the bolts that held it up enough
Maybe I hadn't tightened up the Bolts that held this Bracket quite enough
But when I went to check them, I found that the Blanking Plate that goes on the Auxiliary Shaft underneath that Bracket had gone missing and must have somehow come adrift, when I was undoing those bolts
Although 'The Jaguar Gods' were with me when I suddenly found it underneath a pile of leaves I'd just swept up
That Blanking Plate came very close to being swept away with all the leaves
When I replaced the CPS, its almost impossible to see what you are doing, where putting the bolts in that Bracket was mostly done by feel
So I didn't fancy my chances of having to put the bolts back through the Bracket and the Blanking Plate, as I was pretty convinced that one or the other of those was going to fall
But following the Instructions provided by the 'Woz' I put some Silicone Sealant on the Blanking Plate, which not only Sealed it but also held it in place while I put in the Bolts
Where to my surprise and delight, it not only took 5 minutes to bolt it back in place but also completely stopped the Oil from leaking out of there
(Cheers! Grant have one on me!)
Last edited by orangeblossom; 10-27-2018 at 04:41 PM.
I think I know exactly what you mean, when I took off the Crank Position Sensor from underneath the Car, it took me all day!
But when I replaced the CPS working from on top of the Car, where any visibility is almost non existent and its mostly done by feel, it took about 2 minutes!
'Carmen' Just Ran Out Of Petrol With 5 Gallons Left In The Tank!
1995 XJS 4.0L Convertible With AJ16 Engine
Having fixed most of the problems that I have been having with 'Carmen' including replacing the Fuel Pump and the CPS, the biggest problem faced so far was trying to get her started
Where knowing absolutely nothing about the AJ16 that little problem took over a month to sort out but now She Starts on the button and is running (Touch Wood) like a 'Bird'
Where I can now very happily drive her round the Garden at 'Orange Blossom Towers' without a Fire Extinguisher sitting beside me on the Passenger Seat
Except there was one little problem that has been haunting me, as I could never get the Fuel Gauge working, which I thought might be the Sender with the Float on in the Tank
Because after filling the Tank up with a measured 5 Gallons of Petrol, the Fuel Tank on the dashboard didn't move and it still didn't move with 6 Gallons or even 7 Gallons!
So it certainly looked like the Sender might be faulty and this was one of the later ones, with the unsinkable Float
'I did give this Sender a really good clean before putting it back in the Tank'
Since the Weather has not been ideal for Testing the Brakes in the Garden, I moved 'Carmen' onto the drive so that I could build up a fair bit of Speed to bed in the New Brake Pads
And so I ran her up and down the driveway about 50 times, when suddenly disaster struck as the Engine cut out and not only that but in the worst possible place right in front of the Gate
At which point Paranoia, was starting to set in as I had no idea at all at what might be wrong and was starting to imagine that a Fuel Pipe had come off, where I would then find myself staring at a great big pool of highly inflammable Petrol
Where I was already starting to wish that I had never gone and left my ever growing collection of Powder Fire Extinguishers indoors
So I wasted no time in abandoning Ship, in case She decided to suddenly burst into Flames
Except that on further inspection everything looked fine, including the New Injectors that showed no signs of leaking that they had been doing before I changed the seals
And even though the Fuel Gauge seemed to show the Tank was empty, I knew for a fact that I had put at least 6 Gallons in, so it couldn't be that
Or Could it...........?
Since I had a Spare Gallon of Petrol in a Can in the Merc, I decided to put that in to see what happened, where once having done so She Started on the Button straight away!
So the First thing I did was to drive her to the place in my Garden where I do all my repairs, so that I could check her out to see what had gone wrong
Engine Cut Out With 5 Gallons Of Fuel Still Left In The Tank
Quick Update:
Having just spent about a month trying to find the Cause of her No Start problem, I finally traced it down to a faulty Relay on the ECU and also replaced all 6 Fuel Injectors with New Ones together with a New CPS which I found I didn't really need
So now She Starts on the 'Button' and Weather permitting drive her round the Garden, with only just a couple of minor problems to sort out
One of which is the Speedo where the Needle started reading 150mph even though the Car was stationary and the other one being the Sender with unsinkable rubber float, that didn't appear to be working
Though wasn't a deal breaker during R&D at 'Orange Blossom Towers' where the most important this was to get her running as well as She is now
Where to this end I was running her up and down the driveway, to bed in the New Brakes and although the Fuel Gauge on the dash read zero, I knew there was at least 5 Gallons of Petrol in the Tank
Except that didn't stop her breaking down!
Right in the worst possible place, which was at the entrance to the driveway
At the time in question I had no idea, why the Engine had suddenly decided to cut out as I had checked everything that I could lay my hands on, Fuses, Relays, ECU, the Works!
But I somehow had a feeling, that even with a known amount of Petrol in the Tank (5 Gallons) She may have needed just a little more, so since I had another Gallon handy in a can I poured that in, after which I turned the Key and then She Started!
The really Strange thing being, that the Sender that goes in the Tank wasn't sending a message to the Fuel Gauge on the dash, as the needle didn't move and always read Zero
It seemed fairly obvious that the Sender with the Float was Faulty, so I took it out to Test it which I did by laying it on a Towel on the Rear Wing/Fender, with the Float in the position that it would have been with a Full Tank of Petrol
With the Fuel Sender still plugged in, I laid it on the Wing of the Car, with the Float raised to the Full Position to Test how it would read on the Fuel Gauge
Where to my amazement, the Fuel Gauge on the dash, was now reading Full
Which if nothing else proved that the Sender was working
Nothing wrong with the Fuel Gauge or the Sender, so why was it reading Zero even though I had Five Gallons of Fuel left in the Tank
There was only one way to find out and that would be to remove the Sender and see if there actually was any Fuel in the Tank and had a Mate of mine come round to do a double check on what we found
The New Fuel Pump that I put in, was exactly the same as the one I'd taken out in every respect except the price tag which although of the same dimensions, was so much cheaper that the OEM
New Fuel Pump was identical to the one I'd taken out
As you can see in the following Photo, the Fuel Pump locates in a holder in the Bottom of the Tank which makes it almost impossible to fit it incorrectly
The Fuel Pump fits in a Bracket and clips into place in a Shoe, which makes it almost impossible to fit it incorrectly or too high up on its bracket inside the Fuel Tank
Conclusion: It seems that you need a Minimum of 5 Gallons of Fuel in the Tank, to cover the Sock Filter on the bottom of the Fuel Pump, at which Point the Sender is almost ready to Float and then relay that information to the Fuel Gauge on the dash
As once I put more Petrol in the Fuel Gauge started operating as you would expect
The sender not registering fuel in the tank unless a minimum of 5 or 6 gallons are in it. Cure this by removing the sender and bending the rod downwards a bit. This will make it float when fuel is added from zero and should therefore make the gauge respond.
The pump is not low enough to pump fuel if less than 5 gallons is in the tank. IF, repeat if, this is the case (as your running out of fuel seems to indicate - but worth testing again) then there is, absolutely must be, a fault with the pump setup you have not found. Even Jaguar could not sell cars that ran dry with a quarter of a tank of fuel left!
As I said, I think a careful retest is called for, and when the car stumbles to a halt, open up the sender hole and look to see how must is in the tank bottom, and take it from there.
Courage! as my local mates say at these times...
Greg
The Strange thing is that the 'Sender' (with the float) is in Sync with the Fuel Gauge and also the Level of the Petrol in the Tank and you need at least 'One Inch' of Fuel, in order to fully immerse the Filter Sock on the end of the Fuel Pump
Although the reality is that you would need at least double that, as the Foot of the Bracket that holds the Pump is also about One Inch from the Base of the Tank
Which at a 'Guess' and its only a guess, could equate to the Five Gallons needed to Cover the Filter Sock that's on the bottom of the Fuel Pump
Also there is no way to move the Pump lower down, because the base of the Fuel Pump locks into the Foot which is at the Base of the Bracket in the Fuel Tank
Maybe when someone renews their Pump, they could do a more accurate measurement of the Fuel required to cover the Filter Sock on the Fuel Pump
As for me I can live with that, as once you have the depth of Fuel in the Tank to cover the Filter Sock on the Pump, its really just a one off event that you don't have to keep repeating
And so as far as I'm concerned that jobs done and dusted, as the last thing that I want to do is to take that Fuel Tank out again!
Taking a Fuel depth measurement off the Old Fuel Pump, plus there is about an Inch of space under the Bracket that the Fuel Pump locks into
Last edited by orangeblossom; 11-02-2018 at 06:07 PM.
Alex
I take the point about the pump level (yet another reason the pre facelifts were better!) but I do not quite follow how the gauge can be in sync with the actual level of fuel if it does not register the first few gallons?
Greg
I don't know why either but I'm 'guessing' that maybe the Sender (with the float) could be calibrated not to register any level of Fuel in the Tank with the Fuel Gauge (on the Dash)
Until that first 5 gallons (or so) are in there
And so as such would only register any level of Fuel with the Fuel Gauge (on the Dash) when there is enough Fuel in the Fuel Tank to completely cover the Filter Sock that's on the end of the Fuel Pump
Where bending the Wire on the Sender (with the float) could give you a False reading of any Fuel you have in the Tank but are unable to use, because that Fuel would be below the Level of the 'Sock Filter' on the bottom of the Fuel Pump
Causing you to run out of Fuel, while you are driving along and thinking that you've got plenty left
Again its only a 'Guess' so maybe the next Forum Member replacing their In-Tank Fuel Pump, could give a more accurate measurement so that we will all know for sure
As you will see in the Photo above, the Fuel Pump sits on a non adjustable metal foot so there is no way that it can go down any lower in the Tank
Where as such it looks like it would need a depth of Fuel of at least 2 inches spread all over a large surface area in order to cover the Filter Sock that's on the end of the Fuel Pump
At which point the Fuel Gauge (on the Dash) only starts to register the presence any Fuel (That can be used)
Pre-Facelift Fuel Pumps 'All day long' a so much better arrangement as you say
Last edited by orangeblossom; 11-03-2018 at 07:50 AM.
OB, if it were like that, that would mean a 5 gallon reserve which is around what, 25l? More than quarter of a tank... That is quite a lot of reserve if you ask me...
10-17-2018, 07:12 PM
Congrats!
