My car's B Bank Coil had gone bad which caused a loss of 1/2 of the engine.

After a more careful inspection, my husband detected the bad coil. (Thanks to the savvy advice I recieved from Ray I was able to urge my husband to test the problem out more thoroughly.) Anyway, we ordered the part, he installed it and the car came back to life.

HOWEVER! Now, the car seems to be in some kind of really bad "limp mode". Although there is no error message being displayed, it is severely underpowered. If I try to go any faster than 15-20 MPH, it seems to utter a low guttural warbling groan and it can't respond. I drove it less than 2 miles and took it right back home.

My husband disconnected the computer from the battery to reset it, but the limping persists.

I have heard of a "limp mode", as well as a "valet mode", but I don't know for sure what either of them is. Are they the same or different things? How do I know what's happening to my car, and can I clear this condition my self by performing some special action that I am not yet aware of?

I'll have to admit, I'm not too technical about all the wiz-bang bells and whistles on my car. (I don't even know how to activate the valet mode if I wanted to. Some instruction on this feature would be very nice, also.)

Thanks so much,

Emily

Submitted by arsenaultd@ear… on Mon, 10/10/2005 - 12:43

Your best bet is to search the Jag Lovers technical forums for "marelli failure" or similar terms, you probably need to replace your cap and rotor, as that probably is the root cause of your problem, and not the dead coil. You can read the XJS book there as well for some information.

You should not run the car until the cap and rotor have been removed, inspected and replaced if needed, you are likely still pouring unburned gas down the exhaust. In addtion, you probably have melted cats on one side, which also probably need replacing.

You will find much more information when you do the search.

Daniel Arsenault
Lakewood, CA
1994 XJ12 Morocco Red
1995 XJS 4.0 Rose Bronze