In 2001, there had been a couple of times that the car would not start after being shut off hot and re-started while still hot. At this time my kids were very young and on Sunday mornings they went to a library program. I invited my wife to go for a nice drive and a Starbucks coffee while we waited for them to finish. After our leisurely break we went out to the car and it would not start. The kids were ready to be picked up and you can imagine the stress that ensued as my wife had to call one of her friends to pick her and the kids up. Needless to say, my wife lost trust in the car and for over a year would only go for a drive when she new it would be OK if we did not make it home right away. After troubleshooting and replacing the ignition module, that issue went away.
I first logged that the car would run rough sometimes when hot or after starting while still hot, back in ’98. I read The Book and anything else I could get my hands on while living with this annoyance that occurred occasionally. I convinced myself that the Lucas ignition module was the problem. The unit was designed with 1970’s electronics to deal with a 12 cylinder engine running at 6500 RPM and had to perform in a very hot environment. My car had the Jaguar upgrade that moved the module from within the V of the engine to the rail above the radiator at the front of the engine, but this area also became very hot.
In 2007 I decided to upgrade the ignition and liked the idea of adding modern electronics in the stock aluminum housing. I had the failed unit, so I sent that one back to ReOPUS in NZ and had them install their new board.
This did not solve my hot running problem, but I felt that the new module would be more reliable in the hostile engine bay running conditions.
In 2013, I had a problem that I described as follows “Once the car gets hot and has been sitting in traffic a while, the tach will start jumping from 1500 to 3000 RPM while at idle and for a while while driving at speed (I assume until things cool down). There is no sensation of lurching or pulling, but I can hear a low surging sound coming from the engine in time with the needle jumping all over the place” Dave from ReOpus let me know that my old pickup may be causing the problem, so I sent the unit back to be upgraded to the new ReOPUS H version. He updated the board and provided a replacement pickup for the distributor with a more modern hall effect unit. After installing the upgrade that problem went away.
Dave has been excellent to work with. It doesn’t look like he builds new units anymore, but is still available for troubleshooting.
A couple of years back I had a problem where the car would stall on acceleration and I heard a clicking sound coming from the area of the ignition module. I was convinced the ignition module had a problem, so I shipped it back to Dave, he tested it and assured me that there were no issues with the unit. Well…he was right. It was the original Lucas fuel injection main relay controlling the fuel pump operation. This was failing intermittently. With a fifteen dollar, more reliable, NAPA AR204 relay available in stock locally, the car was back in service.
Update:
Dave has taken down his website and XKS Unlimited, who also sold the REOPUS H from their site have a note stating “Unfortunately, our manufacturer has retired and these parts are no longer available”.
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