I just purchased the 97 XK8 Convertible, mileage is 77,000. I am in the US in Southern Calif. My regular mechanic is out of town. A couple of times now, the car has temporarily left me stranded. It runs fine when the ambient temp is cool (below 80 F). The first time I had a problem, it was immediately after I Floored the accelerator to show a passenger what great acceleration the car had ( ugh ) within a few blocks it started running rough and two warning messages appeared: Stability Control Fail and Transmission Fault. I was able to just pull the car off the road. After disconnecting the battery and letting the car sit for about 20 minutes I was able to drive a few blocks into a parking lot. After visiting a nearby pub (irrelevant - unless you enjoy beer) and letting the car sit for a few hours with the battery disconnected. The car operated normally and I was able to drive about 20 miles home with no problem. The ambient temperature had dropped to about 65 F as the sun had set. A few days later, I drove the car about 10 miles with a couple of stops (the ambient temp once again was 75-80F). After parking at locations twice, when I drove about 5 miles, the same problem was experienced, after disconnecting the battery again and letting the car sit for about an hour, the sun had not yet set I drove about 5 miles, the car started to stutter, the same warning messages appeared and I pulled over and let the car sit overnight, early the next morning (after disconnecting the batter and then reconnecting) I was able to drive the car about 15 more miles home with no issues (ambient temp was about 60). Both times this happened the engine temp gauge was below the midpoint when the car was running fine, HOWEVER when it wasn't running well the eng temp guage was right at the midpoint, and the ambient temp was at or above 80 F.

IDEAS on what the problem might be ? My mechanic is still out of town.....

David

 

Read the OBDII codes and report them back here....

 

David, in addition: the day my slowly failing alternator let my battery get real low, yet I was driving, I saw messages like that and others too. I hope it's a simple bad battery, as you will learn much of the sensors and systems on these cars require tip top battery performance.

One more thing. You are new not sure how much experience you have: the temp gauge is borderline useless. Won't move until you are too hot. Look up info on another members product called Real Guage.

Later when things are under control ask about coolant pump impeller for your car (And mine). Cheap and easy to fix, but 1 thing at a time.

John

 

Thanks, for the quick replies. I fear I don't have a very good code reader. HOWEVER, after it happened the first time I got these three codes: P1000, P1797 and P1111. I think with my code reader when the battery has been off then reconnected the codes might disappear (as I understand there are better code readers (?). This morning the only code that shows is P1000.

 

I saw something else that let me think it might be the battery, so after the first time I took the batter in and had it tested (at two different places, one was a simple voltage check, the other was after being under a load) both showed the battery was fine.

 

 

For code reader, start with a cheap ELM327 from eBay/Amazon and a cheap phone app. This is only for standard OBDII codes, but is a great tool for the price, independently of what you get later...

With these codes, you probably need to start reading up on repairing the ABS module. The power connections likely need to be re-soldered on the main board. There are lots of posts about this.

 

See attachment below for P1797 code


Are there any other codes logged - may need to get access to a scanner that can read other modules - such as ABS, etc...