Last night my 2001 XK-8 just died while waiting for the turn arrow to enter the freeway onramp. Made a lot of people very angry.

Nice state police pushed me a short distance to the side of the road and I had the car picked up and put in my driveway.

It was low on gas, down to 1/8 of a tank but the fuel light was not on yet and it stumbled and died. Started a couple of times but would not rev or idle and just stumbled and conked out.

I put in a gallon of gas but that had no effect.

Just had new Continental tires put on the day before on but that should not have any relationship to the starting problem.

Wondered if it could be the fuel pump, but then without a code reader I am stumped at this point. May do a search for a Jag code reader as a starting point.

Plugs are new so I doubt if its a spark issue unless the engine mgt system decided to go south.

the car has only 42,000 miles but is 10 years old.

Any wild suggestions????

Boy, I hate like heck to visit the dealer in Portland Oregon. They do good work but its about $1,200 to get them to open the door to let you in.

 

Just get an inexpensive code reader from Autozone, Advanced Auto or Sears. They will all read and reset basic engine fault codes on your Jag.

Jag specific code readers to read proprietary codes are big bucks...and may not be needed for this problem.

 

I suggest checking fuel pressure, it's probably there.
I always thought that driving fuel injected cars with 1/8 tank aggravated fuel pump wear. I have had many cars and never had a fuel pump problem, may be luck, may be that I keep the car above 1/4 tank all the time and the fuel filter fresh.

 

A typical code reader won't tell you your fuel pressure. It will just read codes, and, unfortunately, low fuel pressure doesn't give a code. Weird, I know. You can check fuel pressure manually by buying a fuel pressure tester like this one: Buy Actron Fuel Pressure Tester Kit CP7818 at Advance Auto Parts

If you take off the plastic cover over the engine you'll see a fuel rail on either side. It just looks like a hard steel tube. One of the fuel rails has a valve on it that looks just like a tire valve where you put air into the tire. You screw that tester onto the valve, have someone crank the engine, and look at the little gauge. You should have around 55 PSI, although my car was running with the pressure down as low as 20 PSI.

You can also just cover the valve with a rag and push in on the little pin in the middle of the valve to see if fuel sprays out. If you have not fuel spraying out when you push in on the pin, then you almost definitely have a bad pump. HOWEVER, just because fuel sprays out that doesn't confirm that the pump is good. It might be generating enough pressure to give you a little spray but not enough to put the necessary amount of fuel into the cylinders.

If you use the method where you push in the pin, make sure you cover it with a rag or fuel might spray everywhere and start a fire.

 

Thanks for the response folks. I will check the fuel pressure ASAP.

Where is the fuel filter located?

 

Try this:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-filter-63864/

 

I checked the valve on the fuel rail and had someone crank the engine. No fuel in the rail at all. No pressure.

My son claims that there may be a code that shut down the fuel flow. Not heard about that as yet, but I will try to track down the fuel filter to see if thats the problem. Pump next, I guess. I did check all the fuses and don't see a problem there.

I will get a code reader on Monday and take a shot at reading the codes that the system may have put up.

 

The inertia switch can shut off the fuel flow, but if it was tripped you'd have all sorts of errors showing up in the display. You can always check it, though. For your model year car it is supposed to be in the fuse box located on the left side of the dashboard. You have to open the driver's door to access it.

 

I checked that out and its OK. Also checked all the fuses again by pulling them out and making sure they were not defective. Tapped on the relay to see if that would help, checked all the electical connections in the trunk, spare tire area.

Added two more gallons of prem fuel but that did not help either.

She cranks but does not catch or try to start. Nothing.
Zero fuel pressure at the engine rail. Hummmmmmmmmmm................just doing the process of elimination to do the easy stuff first.

I will pull the fuel filter, which has not been changed in a long time, but I have my doubts that that would keep the engine from at least doing a big hickup an then dying.

 

You can swap relays in the trunk fusebox if you want to rule that out for sure.

 

Thanks, that was a good idea. I tried that last night and no luck. But well worth a shot.

Found the fuel filter and intend to take that off this am, get a new one and a OBDII scanner to read the codes. I will post what I find.

Thanks everyone for your assistance. Its a process of elimination, do the easy stuff first. Not looking forward to trying to take out the fuel pump.

How do you access the fuel pump? Don't see anything in the trunk.

 

The fuel tank is behind the carpet and metal panels at the rear of the trunk; the pump is inside. You need to disconnect the fuel lines from under the car.

Sam has a video of course! Jaguar XK8 Fuel Pump Replacement - YouTube His 2003 is similar, but not identical to your 2001.

 

Due to the cost and difficulty of replacing the pump, I would try one more thing first besides replacing the filter.

You can probe the fuse (#7, trunk, 20 AMP) from the top (there is a small contact area on each side). Make sure you have 12v between each side of the fuse and ground while someone cranks the engine. If you do, it is probably the fuel pump...if not, you have another problem.

 

Thanks for putting up that video. Looks like a big job to me. Not sure I am up to the task of replacing a pump inside of the fuel tank.

I did manage to get out the filter and will replace that later today. Figured it needed to be replace at any rate.

If a new fuel pump cost about $800 I wonder what the cost would be for a dealer to do the whole job. Maybe 2K, huh???

 

A independent Garage replaced Both Fuel Pumps in my car for about $1300. This included new (In Tank) wire harnesses.

I would expect about $1000 for a XK8 (Single Pump) replacement.

 

Thats a reasonable price for a big job. I got a quote of $900 from a Jag shop in Portland, not a dealer.

I did replace the filter on Monday and got a trickle of fuel in the rail but no more. Not sure the issue but decided to have the car towed to the shop in the near future.

I am too darn old to do the undercar work involved in the tank removal process and still not sure if thats the problem. The car has a lot of busy electronics to be sure.

I will update this post when I find the solution.

 

I forgot to put up the codes that my son pulled off the OBDII CenTec 99722 reader.

PO506 Idle Air Control Idle To Low
P1111

cleared those and then got a P1000. Cleared that and then nothing.

Still very little fule pressue at the rail, just a little bubbling out of fuel as the car is cranked. No high pressure squirt that should be there.

 

P1111 is normally found stored and just confirms the drive cycle has been completed. When you clear this code, you'll get P1000 until the drive cycle completes again when it will be superseded by P1111.

P0506 is the clue. It's set by throttle problems. Could be as simple as a blocked air inlet / filter but more likely to be a stuck throttle valve. It could be throttle body failure but the usual fault with this is the TPS (throttle position sensor) which stores P1121. I'd try a throttle body clean first.

 

First swap out your relay with a like relay in the trunk and have someone turn the key to position II and see if you can hear the pump running. If the pump is not running turn the key off and check fuse #7 a 20a for the pump and fuse #3 a 5a and see if both of them are good.

This might help http://www.jagrepair.com/FuelPumpVoltageChecks.htm

 

If you have a 2001 XK8 the fuel pump can be purchased for less than $100. It's the 2003+ cars that have the solid gold pumps with diamond and ruby impellers.