Use a stethoscope and see if you hear a difference between your #8 and other fuel injectors. You should be hearing a pinging sound and they should all sound the same.

 

Unfortunately I don't have a stethoscope. I guess it could be an injector problem but its weird that it would be temp sensitive.
First I am going to send the ECU back to ASI while its under warranty and see if that is the cause. At least it will be ruled out if they say its ok.


I found a post about the same codes/symptom and they claim it turned out to be both O2 sensors on one side causing it and for some reason the ECU blamed it on cyl 8.
So maybe its a problem that actually has nothing to do with cyl 8 but is being flagged that way...


Dave

 

When I changed my purge valve it took care of my poor idle but did not have a hard code like you have for your #8 misfire. Have you checked your LTFT and if you did what did you get?

 

I have not checked the fuel trims yet when its failing. I will try that tomorrow. The car runs totally normal until it warms up and starts the misfire. Putting it under a load like going up a hill does make it fail quicker but at first even up hills it runs and idles fine.


Dave

 

Dave,

I sure wish I could help, like you have helped me I the past. I recently had my own weird problem that took weeks to resolve. With your car out of service, I know what a pain that can be.

All I can say is hang in there. I was very close to where you are -- thinking of parting the car. Eventually I sorted the problem with the help of many on this forum.

Again, I don't know enough to help, except to say good luck and, again, try to hang in there.

Madbrad

 

At this point I am very much thinking of selling the damn thing as soon as its fixed and before something else breaks.
Its my only car and its just to unreliable and being on disability I cannot afford to maintain this pig. That and it seems almost every time it breaks its down for weeks and leaves me with no transport. I cant afford to buy a second car for the times the Jag is dead and I am tired of renting cars and bumming rides and borrowing vehicles from friends. This is by far the worst Jag I have owned as far as reliability. Even my XJS which also broke a lot at least never left me stranded let alone multiple times and for weeks. I also don't like the bad feeling of wondering what else is going to break when its running. Just don't have a good feeling about this car anymore. Its become an anti-fun car.



Dave

 

Believe me, after my recent experience, I understand your sentiments completely. Nonetheless, best of luck to you.

 

If it turns out to be the ECU again I'll feel a little better about it as it will not be something different that broke. I will just hope the ECU stays fixed assuming thats what it is.
Just to make sure the ECU wasn't pegging the wrong coil for some reason when I did the plugs I swapped all the coils between banks and it still does the P0308 code. So unless all the coils are bad (and only fail when in cyl 8 location) its not likely a coil problem.
If its an injector causing it replacing it doesn't look like something I want to tackle myself and I can't afford to pay someone to do it.

Dave

 

It's easy to swap the ignition modules just to eliminate that possibility.

 

That was one of the first things I tried. Cleaned the connectors and wiggles the harness wires when it was failing also. Its a shame they didn't make the harness that goes to them a couple of inches longer because then you could just switch them without removing the modules.


Dave

 

I've made the decision to sell the damn Jag just as fast as I can whether it gets fixed or not. Tonight my cat got hit by a car AND I HAD NO WAY TO GET HER TO A VET! And because its Labor Day weekend the closest open vet is and Emer Vet in Greensboro about 45 mins away. And no one I know is around that can give me a ride. And all the car rental places are closed. Finally got hold of a friend that can take me there in the morning as the local vets will be closed because of the holiday. Hopefully she will hang in until then. If I could afford to lose every dime I have in that Jag I'd burn the fookin thing. I must of been fookin' crazy to think I could keep this POS as a daily driver.




Dave

 

Here's hoping that your cat survives and the vet can patch her up for you. Remember to never allow your pets to roam free going forward. No matter how "car smart" we believe our animals to be, they simply are not....

You may remember that some of us advised you last year to pick up a decent used Toyota or Honda since you've never trusted your XK8 as a daily driver. I'm sorry that today's situation will force your hand but it is always risky to have only one car when you simply cannot trust it....

Good luck to you....

 

I've been wanting to get a second car ever since I got the Jag but it took me a year and 4 months to finally collect from the insurance company from when my Alfa got totaled. I am on disability and simply could not afford to buy another car until now. I spent every dime I had on the damn Jag. Even so I only have about $2k left over from the settlement after paying everything off I needed to. And the catch-22 is I have no way to go look at cars so I've been relying on friends and even rented a car ($42 plus gas to look at a pile of ****) so its been rough getting another car.
I hate being in this frustrating position of not being able to help my 4 legged friends. Its heartbreaking watching suffer more because I can't get her to the vet due to my poor choice of cars.


Dave

 

Dave,

Sorry to hear of the latest and I hope the cat makes it to the vet. I understand your decision completely, having come within a day or two of selling my car. The electrical stuff is amazing.

Best of luck.

Madbrad

 

Turns out she had no broken bones. Bruised hip and ribs and a puncture wound with a sliver of frosted plastic in it, likely from someones turn signal or fog lamp. Amazingly she 90% back to her old self already and pissed because I won't let her back outside. My other cat is pissed also because I decided he isn't going out either though he is a lot more cautious then the other cat.
I didn't see her get hit but seems like most newer cars are low enough in the front valances that it would act more like a cow catcher rather than let a cat (or dog) get under the wheels as easily as an older car. There is a stop sign one house away from mine so (most) cars are either slowing down to almost stop or just starting to speed up so whatever hit here likely was not going really fast.


The ECU is on its way back to ASI so hopefully I will have news one way or the other maybe by the end of the week. I'm guessing its the problem. Even if the problem is an injector its probably failing because of the ECU. The car runs really well cold and to me it just doesn't seem an injector can be that repeatedly heat sensitive. I've also run lots of various injector cleaner through it. Most times I've had injector problems in other cars the failure is a lot more solid.
If the ECU checks good then I may try replacing all 8 coils at once on the off chance the one thats failing is not being picked up properly by the ECU and its flagging the wrong cyl. Or maybe there really is more than one coil failing and the ECU for some reason only flags cyl 8. For a while it was getting only P0300 codes with no other cylinder codes so maybe its just confused for some reason. Coils can fail only when warm. And of course my car is an early 97 MY so it uses the 2 pin coils without the feedback loop so that might be why the ECU can't always get it right. The later 97's use a different version ECU and this is likely one of the reasons as so they can handle the 4 pin coils. And of course the 2 pin coils seem harder to find cheap than the 4 pin ones.


Dave

 

Any update yet?

 

ASI had had the ECU about a week or so now so I finally called them and they said they are busy and won't get to it until next week sometime. If they end up telling me its not bad then I will order a set of coils. I had also added a can of BG44K when this started but hadn't been able to drive it very much as I didn't want to damage the cats due to the P1316 code that comes up if you keep trying to drive it.
Still looking for a beater and have looked at over 20 cars and have come to the conclusion that all $2000 cars need another $2000 of work done. Finding nothing but junk in that range but its all I've got.
If the ECU and coils don't fix it I may just put it for sale as-is or for parts and take a huge loss on it just so I can raise some money to get something I can actually drive. Been more than 5 weeks with no car now.


Dave

 

What part of Va. Are you in?

 

I'm in Danville, South Central VA near the NC border. Near Martinsville, South Boston, Eden NC etc.


Dave

 

ASI just told me they could not find a problem with the ECU and they are shipping it back tomorrow so I will have it Friday or Monday.
The only other thing I can think to do is to now is to replace all the coils at once on the off chance the ECU was reporting the wrong cylinder failing. Not sure what to try if that doesn't work either. Already replaced the plugs and swapped the Ignition Modules and put BG44k in the tank.
I've been without a car for more than 6 weeks now and I don't have any money and cant afford to be without a car any longer. My only other choice is to sell the car as-is and use whatever I get out of it to buy something that is actually drivable.
Anyone have any other ideas?


Dave