Okay... unless some one knows how to find out the VCATS codes my car is parts... I have 4 ECU's I don't know the 3 digit extension on any of them and the VCATS sticker has been removed from the car... that leads to the title question.. just how many variations are there of the ECU in 1998 for North American cars (xk8). And now for a vent... WHY would Jaguar not keep these VCATS codes some where? or at least a standardized methodology that could be figured out... makes no sence to leave something that important to a sticker in the trunk...

 

Quite possibly when the car was built they did. Might be in a file cabinet or a now obsolete mainframe (IBM anyone?). They may even have it and be able to provide it from nearly 20 years ago. May cost you at a dealer to find out - have you asked and what did they say? You could try Jag email via their web site and hope - have you tried that already?

You're pretty much a one-off so you may need to be creative since corporate systems tend not to be designed to suit one-offs 20 years later.

I think member motorcarman makes a living from jags, and seems a good source of knowledge, so maybe you could offer to pay for an hour or two for him to research / whatever.

 

I spoke with Jag North America earlier today. They said they were unable to access that information, they did have the service history up to 2005 and told me what dealer had been servicing it and that I should contact them for that history. I did contact that dealer and they told me their system had been purged and they didn't have the service history anymore (although Jag NA does) they also transferred my call to a service tech who is supposed to be tring to find out if the VCATS codes are anywhere to be found.

This is why I was asking the question how many versions were there? I'd love to do business with Motorcarman...

And JagV8 i appreciate the input.

 

From the Parts Catalogue, these are the early ECM's by VIN range and N/A or S/C:

to VIN 018107 : LJA1410GA
from VIN 018108 : LNC1410GA
from VIN 019346 : LNC1410EA (supercharged)
to VIN 020733 : LJA1410CA (except supercharged)
from VIN 020734 : LNC1410BB, LNE1410BE (except supercharged), LNC1410CA (supercharged)

Graham

 

My car is No. 24089 and all 4 ECUs (3 came with the car, only two will communicate with the CAN and only one allows everything to function... except start) that I have are LNC1410BB... however the VCATS adds 3 digits to the part number (LNC1410BB-XXX) this is the unknown that I'm looking for. Apparently ONLY the right number with the correct extension will insure everything works. That was my question, if anyone knew how many variations there are of LNC1410BB. The VCATS sticker is not on the car. Without that there is no way of knowing what that extension should be... and they are not printed on the ECU, so I don't even know what I ECUs have.

 

Man this it tough here are a few reccomendations:

Could the problem with the "mostly working" ECU be related to the key transpoder? It sounds like the one ECU is working but you are in the anti-theft mode. Could you try using that ECU and having the theft mdule reprogrammed to the key?

Have you taken the car to the Jag dealer and asked them to diagnose/fix the problem? That will be expensive but I doubt the answer will be "can't be fixed". They should be able to figure out exactly what is going on in the car with all the CMs. I think the hardware parts are all the same and the software is the difference in the last 3 digits. They might be able to read the software versions.

Can you get the flash/software version off the car's original ECU read?

Have you considered paying for the services of an aftermarket tuner to evaluate the ECU?

Finally if all else fails if everything except fuel and spark is working with one of the ECUs you can always get a stand alone aftermarket ECM to control those functions.

 

The vehicle needs an 'IMMOBILIZATION SETUP'.
Everytime an ECM is swapped it needs to be configured to the car.
(Even installing the original after another has been configured).

The CAN bus will only recognize one ECM that has been programmed to the vehicle.

I would locate a VERY SIMILAR car and get the VCATS from that and try to configure an ECM with the same specs.

Major concerns are......
COUPE/CONV.
S/C or NA
ABC or ABS/TRAC CONTROL

Find a shop with WDS, IDS, Autologic etc.

Perform an 'immo-setup' and see if the car starts and runs????

bob gauff