Hoping I can tap into some knowledge here. My 03 XK8 with 53k miles on it had been running great this Summer when on a fateful Saturday night upon departing the grocery store she refused to start.

The car cranked like it wanted to catch but never did. For kicks I tried to jump it but no luck. My next attempt was starting fluid in the throttle body, this did allow the car to start but it quickly cut off once the starting fluid burned off.

I figured I had some kind of fuel pump or fuel injector issue and had it towed to a local shop that works on imports. The nearest dealer is about 60 miles away.

After a couple days the shop called me and stated they pulled a code showing an issue with the fuel rail pressure sensor. Silly me, I thought they'd simply replace the sensor but the mechanic made a good point and said he wanted to look closer it could be the sensor is fine and it is coming up because of an issue elsewhere.

Another couple days went by and he called me today stating he was fairly certain the fuel pump would need replaced but he also wanted to "research" why the gas is a charcoal color.

With this tid bit of info I figure my repair cost are soaring, anyhow, has anyone ever heard of an issue that would cause the charcoal cannister to somehow disenegrate and end up in the actual gas tank ? Any other ideas what may have cause this ?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

well, can't help you too much on your issue, but fuel pumps have known to go bad, but mostly on the older (pre-2003) models, and mainly the XKRs as a trend.

I did have my fuel pressure regulator split apart on me, spilling fuel onto the engine, but I was able to diagnose and replace w/o leaving me stranded...it just leaked.

And fuel being black, if at the fuel rail, the image reminds of the fuel exiting the fuel filter after I removed it for a new one. Maybe your filter is letting contaminated fuel into the system resulting in the no start...definitely check it out also!

Does your fuel rail have pressure at key turn #1?

 

When I replaced my fuel filter I poured the fuel in the filter out of it backwards. It was black. So that makes me think that maybe your filter split and allowed the dirt to pass through, possibly clogging injectors. Here's a video of the dirty fuel:

‪Dirty Fuel Filter‬‏ - YouTube

It's also kinda weird that it happened when you got gas. I'm assuming you filled up with the expensive, high-octane stuff. That fuel isn't pumped as frequently as the low octane stuff, especially with the gas prices being so high, so contaminants are more likely to settle to the bottom of the underground tanks. Maybe you got some bad gas. That happened to me last summer. I got a tank that had some water in it.

 

Thanks so much for the ideas / things to check. Mechanic called me yesterday, states fuel pump and tank harness need replaced.... $1380, I guess that's not bad... yes ?
I know I won't ever put that brand of fuel in again, it was 93 octane the sediment issue mentioned previously sounds plausible. Could be a coincidence but I won't risk it again.

 

One other quick question, where did you all get the cool grills ? Were they custome or dod they make them for an 03 ?

 

jaguar xk8 mesh grille - Google Search

 

Why not try draining all the bad gas, and changing the filter first?

If that works, then change the filter again after say 4 tankfuls because it will be picking up a lot of crud.

 

I am not sure if it is the issue on our cars, but on other brands I have seen black rubber hoses in the tank deterorate and leave lots of black residue in the tank.

 

I'd do that before I wrote a check for $1300. And a can of BG-44k, for good measure. (and to hopefully clean out those injectors)