1998 JAGUAR XJ8 User Comment / Complaint

FIX -We got our stalling problem FIXED (yah) after several years. It was simple to do and no cost. We had had the recall done, but the car still frequently stalled, and got worse. We also noticed that it tended to stall at speed WHEN backing off the throttle - hmm! So here's how we fixed it: where the air goes into the engine, in the back next to the firewall, we opened that up so we could get to that flappy throttle valve (butterfly valve?) - easy to do. Then, I found a wooden hammer handle fit nicely to hold the valve open while I cleaned the carbon off around it, esp "cylinder walls" near valve. Used a plastic brillo, various little scraping tools, being gingerly but getting a little more aggressive over time! Then picked up any carbon that fell into intake area with a rag. Reason it works: valve is not supposed to totally close -- if it does -- e.g. when backing off the gas at speed -- the car stalls. So, carbon deposit closes off the valve, removing needed air space! :^)