A friend of mine has an XK8. He drove it into his garrage one Friday with no problems and it hasn't started since. It turns over beautifully. There is petrol and lovely blue sparks, but not even a cough or a splutter. He donesn't want to go chequebook in hand to the main dealer. What can he try to find out what's wrong?

There is a Jag XK8 starting issue relating to switching the engine off if it is not fully warm, puts the ecu into a funny state and won't cold start the next time, apparently there is some trick to get it restarted, personally I would just try some EeziStart.

There is also an issue with the coolant temperature sensor causing cold start problems on Jags, cheap part more or less regarded as a service item.

As above if stopped with engine still cold it will flood. You may get it going by putting foot flat to floor on accelerator to open the throttle and shut of the injectors and cranking it over, may take a while, would loosen the air box on it in case it back fires!

If not its plugs out, oil the bores and have another go.

If its an early car could be worn Nikasil liners it's the first sign it's knackered

Check to see if the P lights up on the gear selector as rotary switches can cause non start as well

1. 1st make sure you have a good battery plus another as backup

2. Remove fuel pump relay fuse

3. Crank engine over for several minutes, hopefully it will start, probably only on 3 or 4 cylinders, before you exhaust the battery. Turn off engine, then replace fuse, then start as normal.

This happened to me after I moved mine on the drive but didn't run it long enough to get bit off choke

As above, they flood instantly then will crank over all day without a splutter.

They do have flood clear, try starting with foot hard down on the accelerator when cranking and it will not fuel the engine, usually mine starts after around 15 seconds if it gets in this state.

Plugs out, 1/2 thimble of oil down each bore then plugs in and try again, only had to do this once BTW.

They are incredible sensitive to air leaks, causes all sorts of starting issues, check the little pipes to the cam covers and carbon canister, they all join under the throttle body.

rgds Mark