I few weeks ago I took the terrifying plunge and fulfilled a
childhood dream by buying an MY2000 3.2 XJ8 instead of a
new-but-boring car for light work usage.
It is a very low mileage vehicle (38,000kms) and was owned
by a local Jaguar club member who replaced it with a new
one. By it’s VIN (suffixed in ‘‘Fxxxxx’’) I believe it to be
a non-Nikasil engine.
I’ve had a handful of common, minor electrical issues (brake
switch forcing ‘‘failsafe mode’’ & key fob) but otherwise it
has been beautiful.
Yesterday was an unusually cold morning here in Sydney -
probably only about 8C - I started the Jag. The engine
fired almost immediately (as it does). Although I had not
touched the accelerator, it revved hard on firing for a
second and a substantial amount of blue smoke was duly
produced! This settled down within a couple of seconds and
the engine produced a more normal white vapour.
I’ve never seen it do that (in three weeks of ownership
anyway) and I was a little rattled by it.
Is this normal for this engine? The car was parked with its
nose slightly lower than its tail.
Regards,
Don
Sydney, Australia–
dcm2079
Sydney, Australia
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
Don, if it were a Nik engine I would have sh…t my pants. But since it is not I would doubt that the smoke was actually blue and actually oil. It could have been unburned fuel that was left over. Here in La Paz weather is about 8C in the morning and no smoke ever. Keep looking at your cars exhaust and let us know. Rique----- Mensaje original -----
De: dcm2079 dcmoyle@optusnet.com.au
Fecha: Domingo, Junio 11, 2006 8:28 pm
Asunto: [x300] [x308] Blue smoke on startup normal for low mileage x308?
Hi folks,
I few weeks ago I took the terrifying plunge and fulfilled a
childhood dream by buying an MY2000 3.2 XJ8 instead of a
new-but-boring car for light work usage.
It is a very low mileage vehicle (38,000kms) and was owned
by a local Jaguar club member who replaced it with a new
one. By it’s VIN (suffixed in ‘‘Fxxxxx’’) I believe it to be
a non-Nikasil engine.
I’ve had a handful of common, minor electrical issues (brake
switch forcing ‘‘failsafe mode’’ & key fob) but otherwise it
has been beautiful.
Yesterday was an unusually cold morning here in Sydney -
probably only about 8C - I started the Jag. The engine
fired almost immediately (as it does). Although I had not
touched the accelerator, it revved hard on firing for a
second and a substantial amount of blue smoke was duly
produced! This settled down within a couple of seconds and
the engine produced a more normal white vapour.
I’ve never seen it do that (in three weeks of ownership
anyway) and I was a little rattled by it.
Is this normal for this engine? The car was parked with its
nose slightly lower than its tail.
Regards,
Don
Sydney, Australia
dcm2079
Sydney, Australia
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from dcm2079 sent Mon 12 Jun 2006:
My 1998 XJR occasionally does this, as did my previous 1999 4.0
XJ8, and my 3.2 XJ40 before that. It is very common and nothing to
worry about (my V8s are well past the Nikasil issue at their
mileages). Normally caused by a little bit of oil leaking past the
valve seals. I can go for weeks without this happening. I usually
notice it if the car has been unused for a week or more. The
weather does not seem to be a factor.–
The original message included these comments:
Yesterday was an unusually cold morning here in Sydney -
probably only about 8C - I started the Jag. The engine
fired almost immediately (as it does). Although I had not
touched the accelerator, it revved hard on firing for a
second and a substantial amount of blue smoke was duly
produced! This settled down within a couple of seconds and
In reply to a message from Stuart Williams sent Mon 12 Jun 2006:
Thanks guys - this Cat can sit still for a couple of days at
a time so I’m going to hope it’s just some oil getting past
the valve seals.
This morning was again freezing cold but the Cat started
within 2 seconds of cranking and just the normal white
vapour ensued making this an intermittent problem, if a
problem at all.