Engine cutting out again....

Some time ago I posted a message that the engine on my '88 XJ-S 3.6 very occasioanlly spluttered and died - always when at low revs - traffic or street driving but 90% of the time at tickover.

The odd thing is this happens very very occasioanlly - I mean maybe 3 -6 months between them - well after a year of not doing it it's happened again - before I would leave the car for 15 - 30 mins and was then able to re-start and drive home with no problems - very odd - this time it somtimes started (after a lot of cranking) but always spluttered and died very lumpily - if I revved the engine it would rev up high but the car was shaking and coughing - felt very rough - as soon as I lowered the revs or released the gas pedal it would conk out again....

I am sick of this to be honest - as now I break out in a sweat whenever I am in a traffic jam and can no longer trust it - spent the last 2 weeks driving around in it (had to be towed back last time) and no problems at all - everything A-OK - this is getting infuriating.

I replaced the fuel filter and I guess this may have solved the problem but with it always being so intermittent I cannot say for sure - if anyone has had anything similar happen I would really appreciate the help - my wife is now at the point where she refuses to drive/be driven in it.......

Many thanks

Reply to
Crachadon
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A common problem is the crank timing sensor.... I started having the problem in my 89 at about 100K miles. It was intermittant and would usually manifest itself on the first startup of the day by cranking fine but not starting; if I let it sit 20 minutes or so it would usually start. Always seemed to happen when I had an appointment and was constrained for time (arghhh!). It rarely occurred after the car had been started and driven enough to warm it up. After the crank sensor was replaced (about $200 parts & labor, as I recall), the problem stopped.

Reply to
WayneC

Thanks Wayne but this problem always occurs when the engine is Hot - ie. at least 30 minutes running, it is also very intermittent - Once after it happened I started the car up on the drive and just left it ticking over for about 2 hours - nothing! Ran fine - 3 months later it happens again in a traffic jam........

WayneC wrote:

Reply to
Carchadon

Possibilities: an ignition coil problem, or perhaps an intermittant oxygen sensor wire harness/connector problem.

Reply to
WayneC

Reply to
Carchadon

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