About three weeks ago I pulled the valve covers and discovered the plastic tensioners installed. Seeing as I've got 138k on the clock I decided not to drive the car until I fitted the new aluminum units which I did yesterday.

So far so good. I ran the engine for about 20 minutes after I finished to check for leaks etc but I did not move it at all and all seemed fine......until this morning. I pulled the car out from the garage and after about 20 yds I noticed the engine check light and the ABS light were on. Also, there was an amber warning message alternating between 'Traction Not Available' and 'ASC Not Available'.

I stopped the engine and re started but no difference. I drove about 3 miles and stopped for a couple of minutes. Re started and the warning messages and the ABS light had gone out, but the engine check light stayed on. I then drove about 15 miles and everything was working fine. After about 3 or 4 miles the engine check light went out and I thought the gremlins had gone and all was OK. I thought perhaps it was just a bit of damp that had accumulated after sitting idle for three weeks. I stopped again and restarted the engine about 5 minutes later and guess what...........back to square one again. The warning messages, ABS light and engine check light were all back again. I then left it for about an hour and re started for the trip home and it was the same again all the way back.

I'm taking it to my local garage - non dealer -on Wednesday morning for them to plug it into their diagnostics to see what codes are logged. In the meantime, I wonder if there is anything I can check or does anyone have an idea of what might be going on.

I've owned the car since September and prior to it's enforced three week lay up all was well and the only work carried out has been the tensioner replacement.

Andy

Andy

 

Check your battery voltage after the car has been off a few hours. The 3 week layup, plus possible open doors and boot when you were working on it has probably left the battery in a low state of charge. The fact that the car starts is irrelevant if the voltage is too low to maintain the electronics.

If it is under 12.4 volts it needs a charge. If it does not remain at that level or higher with normal usage, it needs replacement.

 

You had it laid up for 3 weeks. The car is very sensitive to weak batteries. Try a long trickle charge to bring the battery back up to a full charge.

edit: WhiteXKR managed to hit the enter key first

 

Traction Not Available' and 'ASC Not Available' if not cleared up by a fully charged battery or new one . Tend to be the wheel sensors for the antilock brakes being dirty. They are easy to clean. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ors-faq-37434/

 

Thanks Guys. I have just been outside and checked the battery voltage, which was 12.28 with the boot lights on and the engine was last run six and half hours ago. I have put the battery on charge - I've not disconnected it, but I have removed both the boot lights to minimise current draw during the charge and I will check it in the morning.

If this doesn't work, is it worth trying a hard reset?

Andy

 

If on start-up you get the warning before the car moves, dirty sensors would not be a possible cause. But trouble with wiring to the sensors would be. The front connectors are especially suspect, and you can re-seat them without removing road wheels.

Another common cause is a cold solder joint inside the ABS control box. Our new pal, Sabrina, recently posted a quick fix for this, and a solid rationale for trying this fix first, or nearly so.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...xk8-fix-85986/

 

My question is, Why is he having all these problems just from replacing the cam tensioners? What do they have to do with all the lights that are going on? It didn't sound like he touched any of those items.

Why would all that stuff just stop working? Jealous?

Just seems really strange. It would be like changing a brake light bulb and the brakes stopped working.

 

The likely problem is that the battery drained, and all sorts of things start going wrong if that happens. I recently left my car sitting for about 2 months and had all kinds of phantom codes as well. Seems to be just a nature of this beast.

 

Yes, the hard reset would be next.

12.28v is not terribly good after a rest of only 6.5 hours. The effect of the boot lights would be negligible. A fully charged healthy battery is in the range of 12.6v after draining the surface charge.

 

I took the battery off charge this morning, left it half an hour and then started up with the same warnings as before and thats before the car has moved. Left it until I got back from work and disconected the battery and then load tested it. All OK there and a voltage of 12.7. Then did a hard re set and started the engine. This time, there were no warnings from the Message Centre, but the ABS and Engine Check Lights were still on. I then took her for a drive and straight away, the ABS light went out but the check light stayed on.
Did a 15 mile round trip and all was well except the check light. Got home, shut down and left it for about 20 minutes and then re started it. Back to the original symptoms I had yesterday......Message Centre says Traction and ASC not available, ABS and Check Lights on.
So.........it's not the batterty and I have just read Sabrina's post, Simple XK8 fix? and I'm unclear about which pump and connection might be suspect and is the way I should be going with this.
The only thought I had about the recent work doing the tensioners, is that when I did the left bank and pulled the dipstick tube up, I cable tied it out of the way and back to what I guess is the ABS unit / pipework but I don't believe I applied enough force to upset anything. I'm not even sure if that's what it is?
As usual, any help would be much appreciated.
Andy

 

OK, so the ABS box in question is the one with the really big connector attached, sort of tucked under the manifold of brake lines that you mentioned. Please take a look through the DIY sticky thread at the top of this page ... I think something will pop up dealing with repairing solder joints on this box. If not, no worries, we'll find you one somehow. I know they're out there.

Also look for stuff on intermittent front sensor connectors ... that possibility is in play too.

 

Thanks Dennis, I appreciate your input.
I have come accross a really good step by step guide with photos in the DIY Sticky, however my only concern is getting air in the lines when undoing them to provide clearance to remove the module. I saw in Sabrinas thread that you managed to remove the module without disconecting the hydraulic lines and I was wondering how you did it?
I have re seated both front wheel sensors and the right hand one in particular was looking a bit grubby but nothing has changed so far.
I must confess to being drawn to the ABS module, as my suspicion is that the solder joint was weak before the tensioner job and during the course of that work I suspect I nudged the harness / connector and that was probably enough to seperate the already weak joint. The theory sounds good.........but lets see what I find in the box. I'm away over this weekend, so it will have to wait until next week but I'd be interested if you know of a way of removing the module without upsetting the brake line as I really hate bleeding brakes.
Thanks, Andy

 

I think we're on the same page about having disturbed the ABS module. Seems like a real possibility. I also agree about not opening brake lines unless absolutely necessary ... which, lucky for us, it ain't.

The following procedure originated with a long-suffering XK8 owner named Jeff Cline (another forum). With it, I was able to remove the ABS module without disconnecting brake lines. This is Jeff's description ...

Removal Instructions

 

Before removing and opening up the ABS module, I'm goint to investigate the wheel sensors and the cabling to the multi pin ABS plug. I took the car to my local garage (non dealer) this morning for them to read the codes for me.
Firstly, they read the engine ECU and the only code stored was C1175 - Rear Left WSS Circuit Failure. He cleared it but then scanned again and it was still there. Then he scanned the ABS module and that came up with the C1175 and a C1145 (Front Right sensor). This last one I was expecting, as I pulled the plug on the sensor the previous evening whilst the system was powered up. He cleared the ABS ECU codes Ok. During the trip there and back the engine check light was on but no ABS light or ASC / Trac messages.
So I'm thinking two things. Firstly the Rear Left Sensor code is probably true and should be at the top of the priority list. Secondly, if I'm reading things right, it would seem that the common soldered joint failure in the ABS ECU is the power supply to the ABS pump and if the supply to the pump failed then I'd expect to see something like a C1095 code which is DSCCM Pump Failure.
Does this make sense?
Andy.

 

Andy,

Codes! You've got codes! That's great; many (most?) of us stumble around without them.

I don't know what code(s) the bad solder joint, if present, will throw but I agree with your idea that none of those you've got seem right for that fault. So, as you said, looking into sensors first seems the way to go.

A quick dump of things that go wrong with them:
- a sensor can fail
- a sensor harness wire can break (almost always front)
- a sensor connector can go open-circuit, full-time or intermittent
- dirty sensors can cause a fault, but only with the car in motion.

If you'll do another search ... you're looking for a procedure to do a resistance test on the four sensors, measured at the connector you removed from the ABS module. They should each be about 1k or 2k ohms, depending on MY. Some published procedures fail to mention this, but the test of the front sensors should include exercising the steering lock-to-lock while watching resistance to see if any "blips" occur. (A connector can be stressed near a steering limit.)

I'm thinking, with luck, we will see the same sensor indicated by your code showing up with bad resistance. That would really narrow things down.

 

Thanks Dennis,
I'll look at it early next week and let you know how I get on.
Andy

 

I'm going to do some testing on the cabling and wheel sensors tonight but can someone explain to me the relationship between the ABS system and the Cruise Control, as I've also noticed that the CC master switch is not engaging whilst the ABS/Trac fault is present. Does the CC become inhibited if there is a fault in the brake system or is there another problem potentially causing the two issues - ABS/ Trac and Cruise Control?
Thanks, Andy

 

With a brake malfunction (e.g P1571 - Brake Switch Malfunction), one of the default actions is Cruise Control is inhibited.

This is one of several codes which act in the same way by inhibiting CC.

You're probably seeing an effect of the ABS/TRAC issue and not a cause or another fault.

Graham

 

Thanks Graham, I was rather hoping to hear that!
Also, I've had a look around but I can't see (probably not looking in the right place) what the resistance figures should be for the wheel sensors, although I guess that in this case with the one fault code all I'm really looking for is a big descrepancy on the suspect corner.
Andy

 

You will find below a pdf for testing the abs system that I found on jagrepair.com. You can test each wheel circuit at the connector, but the resistance values that I and several others have found was 1100- 1200 ohm, not the 2000+ shown on the pdf.

http://jagrepair.com/images/AutoRepa...heet%20XK8.pdf