1998 Jaguar XJ8 Engine Stalling on Freeway

DON_90025

MEMBER
1998 JAGUAR XJ8
V8
2WD
AUTOMATIC
130,000 MILES

Hi,

I own a 1998 Xj8 that stalls intermittently on the freeway and starts up immediately after stalling. I recently had work done on the car after having parked the car for roughly one year. I had three mechanics diagnose the car, saying that I needed to replace the secondary timing tensioners.

The recently had the following work done two weeks ago, the mechanic:
- Replaced all secondary timing tensioners replaced (the top left & right, and the bottom).

- Also replaced the timing blet, the surpintine (pardon my spelling) belt, timing chain, all spark plugs, the water pump, thermostat and housing, valve cover gaskets.

Because the car would not stay running after having the above work done, I also replaced the fuel pump.

But now the engine dies intermittently when I drive my car on the freeway.

I was told that it may be the trottle body. However, the current trottle body on the car is know more than three years old. Before I spend more money unnecessarialy does anyone have a suggestion as to what may be causing this problem.

Thank you in advance.

1 Reply

JAGTECH360

MEMBER
74 POSTS

I would like to know why you had the tensioners replaced other than for noise issues. When you say "bottom" that would refer to the primary tensioners, so I am confused as to what was done. Also this vehicle does not have a "timing belt."

Anyway, was it stalling before the tensioner replacement? It appears that it was not from your description. If this is the case I suspect they may have messed something up. The fuel pump didn't fix anything. Chances are they had the intake off to replace the t-stat housing. Why did they replace the housing? My guess is they broke it during repairs. If these problems indeed started after these repairs, I am skeptical that it is the throttle body even thought they are known to have problems. Not saying that it couldn't be but it seems pretty coincidental the timing of these problems.

I'm think a vacuum leak caused your hard start/no run after the repairs. Once it got fired it adapted to the leak now it runs but not the best and will stall at times. This leak occured during the intake manifold removal and install. Great care must be taken on these to get it to seal back up correctly, plus there are a few vacuum lines that are not easy to get back together along with a PITA throttle body gasket (if they removed that).