Someone Please HELP, I bought a 2001 xkr from Fla. last Aug. had it shipped to Columbia S.C. when it finally got here someone had taken the exhaust from the cats back, so little by little I've put money into this money pit and almost a year later I still haven't been able to drive it one time it sits in my driveway with me still making monthly payments of $750, I got scammed but I'm not giving up. One of the problems I’m having to deal with is with the fans. When i bought the car the fans kept blowing fuses , found an xk8 donor car and changed out the fans, Fan Control Module, all relays, AC sending unit. Now they don't blow fuses but as soon as I put fuses in the two fuse spots in the fuse box the fans come on, both speeds, without the car even running completely cold engine. So after some research I bought a new temperature sending unit crossed my fingers installed fuses and fans came on once again just like before and won't go off until the battery is completely drained, or I remove the fuses. WHAT DO I NEED TO DO ? PLEASE HELP.

 

Please start by posting the Year and Model of the donor vehicle. For now stop throwing money and components at the car hoping something will stick. You are increasing the likelihood of introducing further complications, especially taking components from 'donor' cars, some are ok to do that, others will require expensive dealership intervention to re-flash components to work in your model and year, but at this point I cannot tell, as I do not know the year of the donor vehicle.

 

There can be a multitude of minor things causing this to happen, or just one. The environmental control of these cars favor the automatic setting, if this is the case in your 2001, and the controls for the A/C are set to auto, then the A/C will start with the car. On these cars it does not matter the year, if the A/C is running, the fans run, period, regardless of the outside air temperature. Set the environmental controls to off, and see if the fans stop running.

edit: reread post

Fans come on the second fuses are put in line, vehicle completely off, no key in ignition. This is completely out of left field, but are there any undefined rocker or toggle switches anywhere in the vehicle, hiding under the dash or anywhere. I wonder if the PO hard wired the fans to run, and there is a manual off/on switch somewhere to control them.

 

Your fans should run in 'series' and in 'parallel', low and high basically; are yours running on high speed or low?, you can easily differentiate between high and low speed. The exhaust was stolen along the way. You need to check and make sure all the ground straps were re-installed properly to the new exhaust system, and all the way through the vehicle and at the all the fuse boxes, as a lot of systems utilize ground to energize components. There are ~10 'STICKYS' above the post page, where if you did not receive one with the car, you can download the owners manual and shop manuals to locate the ground strap locations, and any other related information that should have come with your vehicle.

 

Welcome to the forum revauto,

What's the background to this purchase - did you buy the vehicle without an inspection and test drive?

Throwing parts at a Jaguar rapidly gets expensive and isn't an efficient approach to troubleshooting issues. Also the best way to get the vehicle on the road and start getting some miles for your money is by prioritising faults.

It sounds like the PO could have wired the fans to run permanently but as faults go, I'd much prefer to have the fans running permanently than not running at all!

Check the harness at the radiator fans control module for evidence of interference. It is located behind the left hand side of the front bumper and operates the fans in the SLOW (series mode), FAST (parallel mode) or OFF modes.


(click on the image to enlarge it)

When you get a minute, please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum and post some information about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see. In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

revauto.
Would agree with the above - no point in throwing money and parts at the car until you have identified the source of the problem which means that you, or someone with a decent multimeter and a knowledge and understanding of wiring diagrams, does a bit of detailed diagnosis :


For example - power for the fans starts with the high-power protection fuse in the trunk (boot). It then goes through the Engine Management control relay and then to fuse #12 (10A) in the engine management fuse box. This energises the relay coils for the fans.
The supply through the switching parts of the relays comes from fuse #14 (30A) in the engine compartment fuse box.
The ECM controls fan speed, duration etc according to input from various sensors which include the ACC and coolant temp and others.
A good place to start would be the EMS control relay (which I think is inside the ECU enclosure) but I think a methodical and inevitably slow fault-tracing procedure is the only way to properly identify the issue.


Edit : Graham was typing at the same time as me but got there first .............. the 74 in a square box means a permanent 12v supply and the 61E in a circle means it is a supply which is controlled by the ECU. (this is the one that goes through the EMS relay).

 

Ok,thanks for all input and time spent replying to this post. First the donor car was 1997 xk8. Secondly I bought the car over the internet. I do custom fiberglass body work and make molds for vehicles. I was not able to go to Miami Fl to view the car because when I came across the listing the sale was ending in 2 days and I could not make plans to stop what I was doing here in South Carolina and took the seller's listing as being honest. Figured I could fix any cosmetic issues I came across. The main reason I bought the car was because it had a Aston Martin body kit done to the car. Owner stated over $40,000 was spent putting the car together. Everything looked legit. Even the rims were worth over $5500 and the pictures made the car look quite good( needless to say the 3 piece rims were so pitted and corroded and painted over 3 times with different colors) they were a mess to say it lightly, but pictures did not show any of this. I ended up bidding against myself just to reach the minimum bid, was highest bidder, and won the auction ( sold as is ),payed to have the car picked up and transported from Miami to Columbia ,SC .well to say the least the least it was an "oh sh*t" moment when the car arrived. Now how do I explain to my wife how I took out a loan to buy this wreck! Thank God she's a good christian woman and didn't make me feel any worse than I already did. Since then I've updated all of the interior in the car had a new exhaust put on the car( X pipe, electric cutouts to the side rocker panels, then back to the rear mufflers. Side and rear exhaust tips being done in burnt titanium,)bought buy income tax return. The car is slowly coming together because I can hardly make my mortgage let alone a $750 month car payment. Ive sold everything I had just to make those payments, cannot afford to go to the dealer and I really like working and understanding my car and how it works. So any advice I get from you guys is GREATLY APPRECIATED, THANKS! Will post pictures soon.

 

Yes the car did have a toggle switch but removed it when I swapped out the fan assembly. Secondly when I put one fuse in the first space provided for it in the fuse box(under the hood), I don't know what number location its called in the fuse box, fan comes on like medium speed, when I put the second fuse in the fuse box it goes high speed.

 

And yes the fans come on when the key is "not" in the ignition, when I am installing the fuses, that go to the fans in the fusebox under the hood.

 

Two possibilities:

1. the PO deliberately wanted the fans to run all the time and the toggle switch was to put them off when parked so as not to discharge the battery.

OR

2. there was a fault with the cooling fans and the control system has been bypassed as a quick fix.

It has clearly been a complete nightmare purchase for you but fixing this issue should need investment in your time more than $$'s.

Graham

 

I'm not sure it was sensible to swap modules from an early XK8 normally aspirated engine, to a 2001 supercharged engine unless you double-checked that the part numbers are the same. The cooling systems are quite different (for example - the SC car has an additional coolant pump in the supercharger circuit.)
I appreciate there are financial issues, but as a first step, I would make absolutely sure that the fan module, the ACC module, and anything else with "elecktrickery" inside it has the same part number for both cars.


Edit : Also - can you post the number and location of the two fuses as this might help to narrow down the issue. The numbers are embossed into the plastic of the fuse box.
Edit 2 !! - can you identify how the toggle switch was connected - if it has been used to bypass something, we might be able to work out what that was from where it was connected !

 

First off when I put a 30A fuse in fuse location #12 both fans come on, slow or medium speed whatever you want to call it, if I remove #12 fuse and apply a 30A fuse to location #14 one fan comes on high speed. Secondly the toggle switch consisted of 14 gauge speaker wire connected to a constant power supply in fusebox under the hood ,just hanging there, the other end connected to a power wire at the fan motor itself. Nothing professional about this job not even heat shrink or electrical tape. I've since checked the engine bay for any bare wires. The reason I think they did this was because they kept blowing fuses which happened when I first applied 30A in the empty spaces (12 & 14) in the engine bay fuse box. So I thought something with the fans was wrong causing the fuses to blow. Swapped out the fans, AC pressure sending switch, all relays in fuse box and cooling fan relay mounted in front of radiator, doesn't blow fuses any more instead when fuses are applied fans stay on. Then I ordered a new engine coolant temperature sensor, still no luck.

 

A faulty ECT (Engine Coolant Temperature sensor) would give you more issues than just the fans not operating correctly. Engine management would be affected - I'd expect to see stored DTC's (Diagnostic Trouble Codes) and possibly the MIL illuminated.

Your description of the toggle switch suggests my second possibility in post #10 is the more likely:

So you're not just troubleshooting a fans fault, you need to work out why the PO bypassed the control and what else may have been done to effect this.

As the fans were wired 'hot' direct to a permanent live power feed in the engine bay through a toggle switch, then the control module must also have been disconnected. Check the harness from each fan to the module.

Graham

 

Where is the control module you're talking about and what does it look like?

 

These are some of the problems I've had to overcome. When I first had the car delivered it was 5 days late , I thought the transport company stole the car because I couldn't get in touch with them and they didn't return my messages. Secondly when it got here the car had NO door handles to get into, they had been "shaved". They had to load the car with a large forklift, and they sent me pictures to my phone showing this. Broke both sides rocker panels. Once that nightmare was over there was no way to get into the engine bay, the drivers side hood catch would not release ,pulled on both cables but the problem was with the catch. After a long time trying to get in there I rented a concrete gas saw and cut the car in half to get into the engine bay just before the firewall, from fender to fender.

 

We've got to have pictures of this!

 

Na, just joking about cutting the car in half, I finally did get access to the engine bay. Next major find upon getting this car delivered was the body was literally sitting "ON" the front tires, for two reasons, the tires were 22" and the shock mounts were completely disintegrated, metal on metal. Seats were cheaply reupholstered and missing airbags so was the steering wheel, did I mention the seats didn't work either. Interior door panels were terribly upholstered and they "REMOVED THE DOOR HANDLES" from the inside of the car and upholstered over them, how stupid is that. The solenoids used to open the doors didn't work. Door jams, engine bay, and trunk were not painted to match the car. To fill the car with gas you have to pull a string, that hangs out from a hole drilled through the trunk to release the locking mechanism to pop the trunk open where you'll find a tube to fill your gas tank with, yes they even shaved over the gas cap door. To best describe the car is to say it looks like "Drunk Aston Martin with a hangover having a Tampon hanging out its butt", I kid you not! You cant help but laugh at this situation if it happened to somebody else but every month I almost cry making my $750 month car payment on a car I cant drive.The list goes on and on. Radio doesn't work, Nav doesn't work no disk, woodgrain dash was spray painted first orange then black along with steering wheel. Kick panels were missing. ALL RUBBER SEALS and trim on doors, wind shield convertible, trunk, and engine bay were either missing or completely ripped to shreds. OH GOD...... I'VE GOT TO STOP WRITING THIS, IT BRINGS UP TOO MANY BAD MEMORIES. I'm going to stop writing for now, and kick my dog, that always calms me down. Just joking about the dog part but the rest is true......... Perhaps I should rename this thread " The Saga Of Joe Dirt"

 

Anyone interested in a REALLY NICE 2001 XKR Jaguar with an Aston Martin body kit in PERFECT CONDITION NO PROBLEMS, no really, I wouldn't lie to you! For the remarkable low price of $40,000. Act quickly before someone else beats you to it. ha ha ha.

 

"found an xk8 donor car and changed out the fans, Fan Control Module, all relays, AC sending unit."

The point I was making is that you should not assume parts are the same because they look the same.
For example, the fan unit in a XK8 is MJB4270AB but in the XKR it is MJB4270BC


Now - they may be exactly the same with different part numbers, but there may be a small but crucial difference (for example - some software in the ECU) which means that they respond differently when the ECU outputs a signal to switch on the relay. The same would apply to anything else you have swapped over.
I exaggerate slightly to make the point, but these cars are basically computer controlled - you press the throttle pedal which moves a sensor which send an input to the ECU which sends a voltage to the throttle body motor which opens the butterfly. You switch on the air-con which tells the ACC computer you want to be cold, which tells the ECU to increase the revs slightly, switch on the fans at high speed, jiggle around with some servo motors on various flaps, check the output of various sensors, compare internal to external temperature (but taking into account the input from the solar sensor on the top of the dash) and only then, blow cold air on your legs !!



If you still have the "original" parts, I would put them all back, and then start a methodical fault tracing process to try and narrow down the source of the issue. Otherwise, there's a possibility that we're trying to solve an insoluble problem.

 

RevAuto,

I'm sorry you are having so many headaches getting this straightened out. I hope we can help.

I'm not sure how much of your description of the car transport company was hyperbole and how much was real, but either way it sounds like the car transport company didn't add much positive value here. Would you mind posting the company's name when you have a chance?

Doesn't sound like you'd ever use them again, I don't blame you.

I'd sure like to make a note to myself, maybe others would too, so that I will remember their name. If I ever have to transport an auto, I want to be sure these guys will never be on the short list!

Thanks,

John