Recent content by defenestrate

by chance, is your CPS getting old? you might try unplugging and then replugging it (the harness should be around the rear of the intake manifold where it plugs in if you aren't familiar)-if that makes it start, it's probably the CPS. i've had those kill my xj and then be fine after a while...

the cps is where i would start. do some searches-there's not much point in me just repeating poorly what others have already said.

my '93 country has the 4 functioning smoker windows that get plenty of use. my '90 laredo has a good portion of the amenities-power leather seats, upper console with little holders for things/compass/temp/keyless, power windows, abs, selec-trac, 6-speaker stereo, etc.

$325? for just the water pump? a good mechanic should be able to knock that out in half an hour or so.. let's say an hour to have time to burp the cooling system. i believe i paid $155 for my water pump the first time it went. second time i did it with the help of a friend (who is an excellent...

in many cases, xj drivers have been able to get a little more life out of the cps by simply disconnecting and reconnecting the plug up near the intake manifold. if you do that, and it starts up right away, my money is on the cps.

i would just go ahead and replace the switch. it isn't all that uncommon to see the bit that closes the parking light and interior light circuit go out, and it couldn't hurt to have a new switch. it's cheap and easy, though kind of time-consuming and annoying for what it is. you might want to...

IIRC, try jamming on the gas in an open space, and at around 25mph, you should get a fairly heavy shift up to 2nd (the downshift is harsher than the upshift by far, but it should generally be pretty noticable). i want to say that it likes to shift at almost 5K, but i haven't messed with it...

make that X3. in my experience, it's quite common and if you can get used to it, nothing to really worry about. my '93 has about 200k miles and has done it since maybe 100-110k (i got it with ~90k)-it did get a bit better when i had to replace my PS pump, but it's not super-tight and i'm not...

i have 235/70R15s on my '90 that rub a little toward full steering lock, but the same tires as well as 75R15s have caused no trouble on my 93. both have stock sagging suspension, and the 93 has more than twice the miles of the '90.

fuel pump could do this, or a coil going bad. i had a coil go on me down the highway-it didn't take more than 15 minutes to be totally hosed, but it was easy to check-just pulled a plug boot off enough to see whether it was delivering a spark or not (note: if you don't know to keep fingers out...

i have had good results with sutolites and NGK coppers-i like the later because they're cheap, and reliably pregapped (which is to say that i verify the gap but never have to set it). i've generally had cracked insulators or broken wire boots that caused spark misdirection type misfires, but...

it doesn't take long to pull any electrical plugs out and wiggle them around as you put them back in. don't worry. easy job.

screwy plug gaps can cause issues, too, if you use plugs that aren't pregapped and a crappy to tool to do it. firing order is pretty easy to mess up if you didn't change everything by copying what was there. i found that the firing order in the FSM for my 93 was one hole off..

my '93 sounds a little like a diesel, but it has plenty of gitupngo when i punch it, and she's at 200+K miles. in about '96 or '97 (can't remember which), teflon skirts were added to cut back on piston slap, but there are plenty of folks running original engines with lots of miles, so as long as...

howdy- i had a similar leak from the valve cover gasket-it was bad enough that i was afraid my injectors had caught on fire-smoke all over the place. didn't have time to mess with it for a while and was driving my other xj-turned out it was the valve cover gasket. go figure. that's on my '90...