We started the car yesterday in order to get the lawn mower out of the garage. It is in ‘restricted performance’ mode; again, and has not moved in some time. It has a thick layer of dust now, and there seems to be no reason to wash it. It was running last summer, after the mechanic worked his magic, but it is now back to resting in the garage. I talked to another XK8 person on the Facebook Marketplace who was trying to sell his example. Same issue, and he had the ECU repaired and it lasted 15 days. I am now unsure of what my next move should be, but my thoughts go to having it made operable one more time and quickly trading or selling it. My son suggests that an LS1 conversion would solve the problem, and if I liked the car that much, it may be the solution.
Did you have it on a trickle charger? I know lots of people have problems after the cars sit for a while and the battery drops a little charge. Oh and happy belated Easter to you too!
Trickle chargers are not recommended for storage as they may do harm to the battery if left on when the battery is full. The recommendation I’ve read is to use a battery maintainer.
I have a proper battery maintainer, now. My trickle charger ruined the last battery and made it split open, so we had to clear everything out of the boot and use lots of sodium bicarbonate and a steady stream of water to clear up the mess.
As to all the ‘faults’, I am not going to guess and keep changing parts to get it to run, but rather spend good money on analysis.
Thanks for all the advice on the trickle chargers, but I am really interested in some thoughts on fixing the problems or considering an engine swap to something less complicated. The car is a joy to drive with the top down, and it gets great complements.
Yeah i guess i use trickle charger and battery maintainer for the same thing lol. I know they arent, but i was thinking some trickle chargers also had a maintainer function. If not, my bad. I know the throttle body can cause restricted performance, that would be one possibility. Also the only reason i mentioned the charger is that other people have had issues with low voltage causing stuff to act up. Also a low out put from the alternator has been mentioned as a possible issue. As far as putting in something “less complicated”, lets face it, pretty much any modern engine will have an array of sensors on it that could cause faults. If you want pure simplicity, just slap in a sbc with a carb. No sensors, no problems lol