Restricted performance

[jaguar4321]

Hi, Need a starting point with me fault on a 2000 3.2:
Newly purchased! drove 7 miles to the motorway, put in 60 fuel - drove another 5 miles and the "Restricted Performance light came on with the message, the car started to misfire (felt like it was running on 6) then all the way home for 50 miles it flashed of then on in intervals of every 1 min or so, any ideas?
Many thanks, one update, left the car for 3 hours and its runs like a dream, i guess it will start doing the same once fully warm..

[Brakebuster]

sounds like one ( or more ) of the coil packs have given up

usually the car starts fine , as the coils are ' cold ' as the engine warms up the heat makes the coil pack fail due to higher resistances in the circuitry , and then you get the stuttering and the warning signs

you pull over, go shopping etc, come back and all is fine until another five miles down the road....


coil packs come in two flavours, yours are the latter 4 wire type , a code reader should tell you which one ( ones ) are bad, by either a number or a letter code on the fault code , a ( 1 ) being cylinder No 1 etc , b ( 2 ) so on and so forth

hope this helps

BB

ps , i was assuming you know what coil packs are, they are mounted over the spark plugs providing high tension voltage for the spark plug...... about £20 each used, and £80 each new , the choice is yours

[jaguar4321]

Hi, thanks for the response, will leave the car over night and run from cold, should i get a code reader?

[J44EAG]

I`ve had this with tired spark plugs at 1600 and 2300rpm.

Misfires at idle were also evident. Changed the plugs and the problem went away.

Brake Buster`s points are also extremely relevant and I agree with him. Code reading does give the most reliable method of progressing a repair. It does sound like a coil issue. Duff plugs don`t tend to force the engine management light on but coil failure does.

Worth noting that tired misfiring plugs can lead to coil failure. Worth perhaps changing plugs at the same time as any coils that might need changing. As you will have the covers off, it might as well be done. Then you are starting from a known base point for the future.

Mike

[jaguar4321]

Hi Everyone, thanks so much for your advise so far, started the car this morning, she runs like a dream, will warm it up and look out for the dreaded restricted performance light to come on!! cheers

[jaguar4321]

Drove the car for 20 mins up to what seemed normal temp, no dreaded message as yet, having said that the fault happened after around 10 miles yesterday, so the next logical step is to get a code reader and a spare coil pack & some spark plugs......would do the spark plugs regardless of any fault finding, Just to add to this , forgot to mention the fact the car the car wont start in park only neutral, when i filled it up with fuel on the way back i tried to start it in park, all it did was turn over and over for about 20 seconds at a time, could this this have induced the fault maybe (wishful thinking!) any thoughts? cheers, Peter

[jaguar4321]

One other thing: just noticed the air feed pipe from the engine to the MAF was not tight i.e the hose clip was loose, i guess would be ok if it was on the air filter side but maybe more of a problem on the air flow meter side?

[J44EAG]

That could well cause a lean mixture and certainly some electronic confusion between the MAF/airflow meter, the power train ecu and the throttle body.

I`d be interested to learn if the symptoms you have described reduce as a result of tightening the clip on the air inlet trunking.

Mike

[jaguar4321]

Only time will tell!
It must make a difference i guess, it would be nice if it's the cause of the problem!

[Brakebuster]

inspect the indiction pipe carefully from the air filter back to the TB , as they are known to split , especially down in the creases of the concertina part , and this will indeed cause issues, the other ones are the full load and part load brother pipes off the top of the cam covers back to the TB , these are used to balance readings, and with broken or split pipes will also give troubles

BB

[jaguar4321]

I bought a set of spark plugs, air filter (original is so dirty) and a code reader with a big screen that displays the full code.........will have a play tomorrow!

[Brakebuster]

cool

one thing to remember about our car is that they ' learn ' your driving style,

this means that any works carried out on the ignition or air system will not show immediate results as the car needs to be run for around 50 miles before it sets its self back up again ,

the best thing is to pull any codes that might be in the ECU , then do your spark plugs and filter, check all induction tubing, not forgetting the full and part load breather pipes from the top of the cam covers ,

then remove the live battery terminal for around 20 mins, ensure you have your radio code and that the manual side of the boot lock works and dont lock your keys in the boot ,

this will clear any ' remembered ' driving, settings for the ecu ,

take her for a good mixed environment drive, bit of town , bit of fast road , bit of motorway if you can , this will settle the ecu

hope it goes well

BB

[jaguar4321]

Hi, Thanks for this, great advise, would love to capture the errors code from when i first collected the car!
Thanks

[jaguar4321]

Hi, cant get the fault code reader to connect with car!!
Im sure it will all be worth it!! it went into dreaded restricted performance mode when it was driven for 20 mins, it has coil pack issue written all over it, just want a pointer form the code reader, will try again later....

[jaguar4321]

Managed to get a code!
pic attached..............