Please Help.
My wifes 2000 Convertible will not start. I've read the horror stories of timing chain

Because her work car was down my wife was forced into driving her baby to work a couple days. She said it ran rough at times. Cleared up and ran rough.

Week ago I had to move the car. Ran fine for just a couple minutes. Next day I went to put it back under carport. Started fine then almost immediately died and wouldn't start back up. I thought I heard something whrn it stopped buy can't be sure.

If you turn over I hear no interference, just cranks.

Yesterday started to look at. 40-42 psi fuel pressure at rail. Only had time to take one plug out but wasn't wet at all. Felt pressure on compression stroke, but wasn't near as much as I thought it should be. I need to get my compression tester back from my father to check for sure. Have Spark and spark seems to be at appropriate time on compression stroke.

Please help what should I do? It doesn't hit at all

 

Oak,
if you have even the slightest doubt over the state of the tensioners then please do not try to start the car again.
Unless you have documented evidence that metal secondary tensioners have been installed, then pull the RHS cam cover to confirm.

There could be several reasons why she won't start: codes would be helpful, plus any recent history - work done, etc.

 

Not familiar with this Cam cover. Is it easy to take off?

EDIT: Looked up RHS cam cover and it looks like a valve cover on a normal engine?

And thanks for the reply

 

Hi Oak,

+1 to Michaelh's suggestion to check the secondary tensioners if you don't have any car history. The primary chains are a less serious problem and easily audible as the dreaded "chain slap" akin to a bicycle chain slapping the mud guard.

As you're mechanically able, checking the secondaries tensioners involves taking off the RHS air tunnel and the cam cover. Very DIY-able with basic tools. I attach a pic of what you're looking at.



The secondary chain tensioner is on top with a plastic guide against the chain. Original tensioner installations had a plastic body (quote from Michaelh - made from crumbly biscuits LOL) and this was later upgraded to metal bodies. If this is bad, you can jump a sprocket which is bad news on the AJ-V8 interference engine as pistons and valves will "mash" in the cylinders. Basically an engine killer.

Onto your no start condition - there's lots of info on this with my favourite being Gus' indepth write up on his jagrepair.com website. You have a spark, so I would suggest a few other zero dollar checks/fixes first.
1. Can't hurt to jump the battery to give a little extra power boost to the starter.
2. Maybe fuel vapour lock - EVAP system - so take fuel cap off and wait for a couple of minutes before starting with fuel cap off. CEL may come on
3. Remove air filter and take off side duct off air box connection and try starting

I have a couple of concerns from what you said. These engines do not like a cold start and turning off straight away. They are suspectible to bore wash, where injected fuel washes oil off the cylinder walls leading to a "lock." Plenty of info available on this fix. Also the fuel pump may be on the way out as intermittent starts are a symptom. It should be audible - whirring noise - so turn the key to position 2 without starting the engine, and you should hear the pump prime the fuel rail.

 

Scary stuff for sure.
I will try to get those covers off tomorrow on my day off.

Fuel pump sounds OK. Does have 40-42 pounds of pressureat the fuel rail

 

Cam covers / valve covers, same thing. Remember these things are old and plastic, so be careful to break as few pieces as possible. ;^)

 

David's comment re: bore wash may well be your starting problem if you last started the engine and shut it off while it was still cold. When you remove the cam cover make sure you have removed the three screws that are in the middle of the cover and don't attempt to pry it loose with a screwdriver. That old plastic is brittle.

 

Well got it started. It was bore wash. Bought new Autolite APP 3924 spark plugs. Put a couple large caps of oil in each cylinder and changed the plugs. Built cylinder pressure a couple times and it started right up.

Gas is several months old but seemed to run great after initial oil burnt off. Went and got 5 more gallons of gas to add to it and after a while it started missing a little and low coolant light came on. Restricted Performance keeps popping up.

Took out for spin and hits rough spots like a coil or something is intermittently bad. Got a check engine light. Came home and has 5 codes. Clear them and try again and keep coming back. I believe these were the same codes we were getting before the Bore Wash. My wife had been saying the car drove rough. Which is Cylinder 8? Picture I saw said back cylinder on drivers side.

P0327 Knock Sensor 1 Circuit Low Input (Bank 1 or Single Sensor)

P1316 Misfire rate excess emissions

P0308 Cylinder 8 Misfire Detected

P1000 Check of all OBDII Systems is incomplete since last memory clear

P0358 Ignition Coil H Primary / Secondary Circuit Malfunction

 

Oak,

Well done on getting your wife's MY2000 XK8 started after a little borewash incident. Bet you won't start/run/stop the car for 1min (from cold) again! You also seem to be having lots of numerous unrelated troubles. Sorry for that!

Now, as our eminent GGG likes to say "As this is a Jaguar, nothing is simple." I attach a PDF showing the various ways Jaguar has referenced the cylinders (taken from one of GGG's numerous posts).

As for your misfire, please find below the relevant excerpt from the DTC book.

As you recently changed out the spark plugs, I would guess that the wiring loom/coil might be damaged. They're old and crispy now, (and FWIW I'm considering changing these wiring looms in my next service.)

As for the low coolant light, stick a pencil magnet inside the tank and fish around the back to "hook" the float. Sometimes the float gets gummed up and stick. Otherwise the sensor may be gone. Try cleaning the wiring connections first as a possible zero dollar fix.

 

I would swap coils between 7 and 8 to see if the misfire moves. If it does, replace the coil. If it doesn't, that may point to wiring damage as David suggested.

If I recall correctly, you have the the cylinder numbers correct. I did a ton of swapping/testing on that side when I was getting P0307 and P1316 intermittently.


Also, as a side note, it may be worth also putting a bottle of Techron in during your next fill up. Gas these days has enough detergents that just getting fresh gas probably helps the most, but it can't hurt to put a bottle in there. When I had several months old gas, my car was running super spotty. A couple of tanks of gas and some Techron smoothed things out a good bit.

 

So according to drawing my problem (#8 H Coil) is the furthest to rear on Drivers Side.

So I cleared codes and swapped coils. I swapped #8 with one furthest to front on drivers side which I believe is #5 or E coil.

It looked to me like spring was in there kind've far and I didn't notice resistance installing it like it didn't touch hard against spark plug. So I put a small piece of aluminum foil inside against the spring with plenty of anit oxident compound.

Ran car. Maybe ran a little better but still misses and is in Restricted Performance.

Just a few miles but no check engine light. Different codes came back but they weren't hard codes yet.

P1000. Check of all OBDII Systems is incomplete since last memory clear

P0355 Ignition Coil E Primary / Secondary Circuit Malfunction

P0327 Knock Sensor 1 Circuit Low Input (Bank 1 or Single Sensor)

P1316. Misfire Rate Excess Emissions

P0305. Cylinder 5 Misfire Detected

P0307 Cylinder 7 Misfire Detected

 

Changed #5 coil and car ran well. Still getting a restricted Performance on dash and 2 codes (P1000 OBII System Check and P0327 Knock Sensor 1 Circuit Low Input). Clear them and they come back.

Probably needs new gas and a long drive. Probably wait till spring.

 

I would start by tracing the wires to the knock sensors and check for anything out of the ordinary, especially at the connectors. The sensors themselves are under the plastic intake manifold and hard to reach, but apparently the better techs can somehow change them by creative use of hand tools and some patience. Removing that intake manifold is a (much) bigger job, but comes with the opportunity to replace those dreaded valley heater hoses...

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

Oak, the knock sensor code may disappear after a few drive cycles. If you see the evidence of a old antifreeze leak, it may have corrosion causing a bad ground.
If that is the case, you can carefully remove the nut holding it to the block, use some needle nose to remove it the last thread or so. A strong small metal wire (coat hanger) and loop it around the wire on the sensor and pull it up out of the intake. Properly have to disconnect it at the thermostat housing. Be sure to tie a string to that connector. Run some fine sandpaper over the bottom of the sensor and a wire brush around the stud it goes on. Put it back together and see what you have.
All that said, give it a few cycles first.