Jaguar specialist in Gloucestershire

[rod3751]

Hi, I am having a few problems with my XJ8se - 3.2 - 2002 and could really do with having a diagnostics check done on her to solve the problem. Can anybody aound Gloucestershire recommend a local(ish) jag savvy garage with suitable diagnostics kit to carry out the job for me please?

Bit of background.
Car has an LPG conversion carried out approx 2 years ago just before i bought her. (Apologies to all the purists and opponents of lpg, but it is the only way i can afford to have, and drive such a wonderful daily used car of this class).
The car has run perfectly on gas and petrol for the two years i have owned her. Car still runs fine on Gas after initial automatic switch over from petrol startup. The engine check light is illuminated, but there does not appear to be any loss of performance on lpg, only on petrol.
Problem occurs just after initial starting (on petrol). The engine runs very unevenly and can shake the car from side to side. She is very sluggish and unresponsive to accelerate away until she warms up, but is still running unevenly when warmed up and switched to petrol. All is fine if i switch over to LPG.
I have recently (December) had a small service and MOT done at a local garage to me and they are quite capable but they don't have the latest diagnotic equipment required for this complex car.
Any recommendations for a decent garage would be most welcome. I am aware of HA Fox in Cheltenham but being a main dealer i am a bit wary of their prices. (Unless anyone can tell me differently).
Many thanks
Rod

[rod3751]

2002 XJ8 SE 3.2
Looks like i will have to go to HA Foxes after all then.
Things took a turn for the worse Thursday/Friday, car wouldn't start at all.(it was freezing temperatures). Come Saturday morning car starts first time but still with uneven running so definitely a problem. (the nightmare intermittant fault scenario). It is almost like the crankshaft sensor issue i used to get with my XJ40 but i thought the X308 did not have this problem.
I will book car in next week when we are back in Gloucester from our stint of babysitting our Grandson. Hope i can still drive it there.
Next dilemma, as this is a 2002 car and one of the last built of this model should i be looking to have the chain tensioners done? Milage is 92K. The guy i bought it off told me that as it was a 2002 car it had the latest steel lined engine and tensioners fitted so no need to worry on that score. Reading all the posts regarding tensioners, i think that is mabe not the case and there is another generation of tensioners available since the 2002 models.
Your views and advice on the tensioners would be most welcome. If i am going to book the car in, i might as well bite the bullet and get the required work done to regain my confidence in the car.
Regards
Rod

[Brakebuster]

Rod

where about in Glos are you , I am an ex 308 owner , I had the car for six years and carried out quite a bit of work on her

your troubles could be an easy or hard fix, but the only real way is to plug it into the diagnostics, 1/2 hour at jag to pull all the codes and then you can make up your mind as to what you need to do

with regard to the tensioners, you would have had better ones, but not the latest ones available , and yes, a steel lined engine would be in a 2002 car

BB ( city of Glos )

[rod3751]

Hi BB,
Thanks for the reply, I'm in Quedgeley, in Courtfield Rd,near Severn Vale school. I have read some of your previous posts and see you have a lot of experience with the x308 so will definitely take your advice to have a diagnostics check at Jags to find out whats going on. I will also seek their advice re the tensioners and have them changed if neccessary
As the car is starting at the moment and will run decently on gas(after warm up) I am thinking of taking it to Swallows Bristol, They are an indy jag specialist with all the latest diagnostics and also offer LPG conversions too, so should be able to cope with my lpg conversion in case that is affecting the car. And they are half the price of Fox's in Cheltenham should i need the tensioners and gearbox oil change done. There's always the good old RAC if i breakdown on the way.
This will have to wait until next week now as we have a stint of grandson baby sitting for a few days for which we will take the wife's car just in case.
Once again many thanks for your reply, I will post on progress sometime soon.
Regards
Rod

[Brakebuster]

ah , very close then , about 2 miles away from me on Robinswood hill ,

the main problem as i see it is the conversion

reason being, there are literally only a handful of converted cars on the circuit, its not something that Jag owners really do , and there have been troubles for those that have , and when things do go wrong there is very limited experience in fault finding given the mixing of fuels

normal things like the throttle bodies and injector issues may not be relevant to running on gas , so its starting from a blank page from what i know about these engines etc

if you need to use H A Fox in cheltenham , then mention you used the club to get in contact and they will work out a deal , i had to use them when i had a faulty engine ECU , and they only charged me for half the hours they spent on the car, but i have been going there for ten years now for my jag bits for all three Jags i have had so far , and they offer a loyalty rate for cars of ten years old or more with special rates.

now, as a newbie you have a special invitation next saturday morning to Kemble airfield by Cirencester, we have a monthly breakfast meeting which is totally informal and is just an excuse to meet with fellow jag enthusiasts , and if you can bring yours along it would be a great thing to chat about and look over and see if anyone there can help out ?? but you don't even have to bring the Jag, just turn up and make yourself known....
just look on the xjs forum for ' lets have our own breakfast meet ' , this meeting is open to ALL jaguar owners , not just the XJS , so please try and make it, arrival between 9 and 10 , and leave when you want, no costs are involved other than buying a coffee and or breakfast for yourself

hope to see you there

BB

[rod3751]

Thanks BB
Robinswood hill was my childhood play area for myself and my friends, (long before it became a country park though) as i was brought up in Tuffley. Happy days and memories. Elf & safety may not agree?

I have used Foxes many years ago with my first Jag (about 2008 i think, a 89 xj40) for a service. I have had 4 jags in total since then, 2 XJ40's a X300, and now the X308. The XJ40's and X300 were very reliable and i could do most of the maintenance/service myself. The X308 is more complex. Plus although i have now retired and have the time, i have lost the enthusiam and movement for crawling around on my back these days.

Foxes have been more than helpful on a few occasions since for certain spares that i couldn't get anywhere else. I can't criticise their work or customer service other that being twice the price, but it is a jaguar main dealer and complex cars to maintain, i accept that.

It sounds from your experience that they may be a bit more older car friendly than they used to be, so i think for my convenience sake, i will have them run a diagnostics report and take it from there.
It may well be the conversion messing up the normal engine settings and there is a lack of expert knowledge on lpg, but i can only go on my experiences with lpg for the last 5 years on my last 2 cars which have been positive and i have not had any problems until now. I think the real problem is of my own making, and i should have had the car put on a diagnostics on a more regular basis and coughed up the money Instead of just trying to look after the pension pot. (The car was my retirement present to me)

Thank you for the invitation to Kemble, unfortunately i can't make this Saturday but would certainly like to come along in the future and will access the XJS forum for details. (i'll cover up the LPG components so as not to horrify anyone,lol.)
Thanks again BB.
Regards
Rod

[rod3751]

Booked car into Fox's for diagnostics check for Tuesday 3rd Feb. Very reasonable (for a main dealer) £50 +vat quoted. Plan was to drive car over to Cheltenham, have the diagnostics done and take it from there with getting repairs done as required. As always things don't always go as planned.
I mentioned bad starting in a previous post and this just went from bad to worse over the next few days until the diagnostics appointment today. I had a few warnings since returning from Holiday in November (after leaving the car for two weeks she was difficult to start) and again another episode in Tesco carpark when i had to leave her and walk home, only to go back an hour later and she started first time. But i ignored it, as things settled down to first time normal starting for prolonged periods thereafter.
Yesterday i decided to take it over to Fox's late afternoon so it would be on site ready. Wrong! It just would not start. I flattened the battery and had to give up and put it on charge and hope for the best in the morning. It was looking increasingly like reverting to plan B. The RAC.
Come the morning i reconnected the battery and tried a quick burst on the starter hoping the electronic fairies had visited during the night and reset everything and all would be well. I no longer believe in Fairies as it would not go. I phoned Fox's to let them know and inform them that i would probably arrive courtesy of the RAC later than planned.
Phoned the Rac who were extremely busy and engineer arrived about 2 hours later. He was very good and plugged his dianostics kit in which showed up a lot of misfire faults. He was more interested in the fact he could not hear the fuel pump priming and carried out a few tests with a meter to establish there was power at the fuel pump connector but no action from the pump. This he suspected was the starting problem. He said he was unable to progress further and ordered a tow truck to take the car to Cheltenham, which duly arrived about an hour later and transported me and the car over to Fox's in Cheltenham. We arrived about 2 oclock in the afternoon.
Fox's rang me early evening with the results of the diagnostics test. The test showed the non starting issue was indeed due to fuel pump failure and also threw up a fault code for an oxygen sensor failure.(This did not show up on the RAC diagnostic reader). Hopefully this accounts for the rough running.
I agreed for them to proceed with the work(don't ask the price, the fuel tank has to come out to replace the pump. 3 hours labour min?) and they have ordered the parts.
I'm not too downhearted as this is the first time i have spent serious money on the car in 2 years of enjoyable motoring.
But what about those tensioners and gearbox issues?
Hope to conclude this post with an "all is back to norm" soon.

Rod

[Brakebuster]

sort of good news then ,and at least they diagnosed it and offered a solution,


so , have you got it back yet ?


will have to meet up some time soon

BB

[rod3751]

Hi BB,
Thanks for advice to go for the Jag diagnostics, they (Fox's) have been very patient and helpful from the moment i made contact. No pressure at all.
As my wife will testify i have been like a Zombie for a couple of weeks now wondering what was wrong and who to take it to for a sound diagnostic. Hence my Independent specialist appeal.
I sort of lost confidence in the car due to the intermittent starting issue and i should have suspected the pump earlier, as back a few weeks ago i could hear it priming sometimes and she would fire, but not run, then no pump noise and no firing at all. Go back an hour later she would go and all would be well for a few days or more. But i buried my head in the sand and ploughed on. I knew the pump was in the tank and have had similar problems some years ago on an xj40 which i found to be a corroding connector to the pump relay in the boot. XJ 40 boots were notorious for damp and condensation. This time, although i looked, i couldn't even identify the relay or connector and only got confirmed i had power to the pump connector on top of the tank by the RAC . I don't like to mess about with petrol or fuel lines so even though its gonna be expensive i'm glad its their responsibility.

As i type this Thursday 5th at 10.17 am, i have not heard from Fox's to date. But they did say they would contact me sometime Thursday, hopefully to say all is ready and that i can pick the car up.

They did have to order the parts in on Wednesday as not in stock(understandable for 13 year old cars that i assume they don't get to work on very often these days). We missed the deadline for ordering on Tuesday evening.
Just sweating it out now and waiting for the call.

Nice job on the XJS headgasket change article in this months magazine. Riveting read, very easy to follow and excellent photos. Very impressed.

Hope to meet up at next breakfast do at Kemble if not on Baby sitting duties for my daughter in Langley Slough( She's a train driver on Heathrow express & Connect service)Its a fair way to travel and we have to stay a few nights at a time and its taking up a fair bit of our time just now. But i'm sure our paths will cross. I will look out for your lovely XJS and give you a wave.
Rod

[rod3751]

I Have the car back and i have to say i am very pleased with the results. I had fogotten how smooth and responsive the car is.
H A Fox's have done a great job and charged me for only 4 hours labour total (when i know from my phone calls for updates that it took considerably longer to replace the fuel pump than quoted, due to difficulty in replacing the fuel filter under the car). The parts, Fuel pump,Filter,fuel Filter,O-ring,ring-sealing and the oxygen sensor were, in my humble opinion anyway, reasonably priced, and i also got a 10% discount on them for mentioning JEC.

No mention of the original diagnostics charge i had booked her in for.

They carried out a 40 point vehicle health check which threw up a couple of advisories,ie slight play in both front lower ball joints and 60% wear of brake pads all round. Renewal recomended at 80%. I did know about these things as they were advisories on the recent MOT in December. They adjusted the handbrake and tested and charged the battery overnight. (Both i and the RAC engineer had run the battery down during the initial breakdown visit).

And to boot they did a wash and vac and she didn't look out of place amongst all those expensive new & used cars on the forcourt. (Well ok not to me anyway) Quite a different look to when i and the car arrived on the back of a RAC breakdown truck. It would have made a good "before and after pic".

To conclude, although it was a significant final bill, especially for me now having to exist on a BT pension, I consider i have received great value for money for a main dealer, Piece of mind, Great customer service at all times. Good honest communication. IMHO, I think the jaguar technician who worked on the car went that little bit extra mile( with the handbrake adj and battery charge)They even found an old pair of glasses buried in the bowels somewhere that i had lost sometime ago lol. A result all round. I am happy, not grumpy, the wife is happy i'm not grumpy, she was happy to be rescued from Bristol Templemeads late last night in the jag after firstly, Signal failure at Paddington, and then meltdown of southwest rail system due to Rugby international fans wanting to get home(how dare they).
Rod

[Brakebuster]

Great result all round then

i , more than most advocate maintaining your car and save as much money as possible by doing the work yourself , but this is only if you are able to , and have the time and budget ,

i know there are perfectly decent independent garages out there, and thats good, but sometimes it actually pays to take it to a main dealership , especially if they come recommended , and you then find that the ' technicians' and staff do actually go that extra mile to at least go some way to explaining dealership prices , but as you found out , a simple mention of the JEC can bring some extra services and discounts , as there is no way they want bad press on forums like this

i am so happy that you have your car back and that you are enjoying driving her again , and with confidence ,

i shall have to pop round and have a gander at her , i hope to be getting my XJS back on the road in the next few weeks after a gearbox change,

and i think this experience would make a great magazine article for you to send in

just if the text from this thread that you have written and send it off ,

good news is always a popular read...


BB