i made the mistake of purchasing one through ebay..the seal on the bottom was defective and eventually this ended up leading to me blowing my engine. I would highly recommend doing a coolant pressure test after replacing any coolant components

 

I just bought a new one from O'Reilly Auto Parts for $77.02 and am attempting to install it. The old one developed a snapped-off return line nipple. Anyhow, thanks for the tip on the clip; I can't see down there well enough to figure out how to disconnect it. Now maybe I can do it by feel.

 

Great posts and PICTURES from sjuraud and aholbro1.
Anyone can change the top tank, BUT I need to repeat the need to retain the clip in sjurand's picture that fits on aholbro1's Picture, the open bottom tube which is about an inch in diameter. The clip is a hair bigger than the outer circumference of a quarter and can be lost or misplaced. When messing around the coolant, make sure you replace the coolant with the correct coolant. Since two of my Jag's were under warranty I had the Dealer change them. But then my 2008 Vanden Plas had a small leak, I changed the tank to avoid cooling/engine issues. This small 1/4" PLASTIC nipple that breaks is susceptible to heat, age and any vibration or movement. I LOVE JAGs, but the plastic nipple is probably the worst designed part. This tank is common to all three of my Jag's. SIMILAR to replacing the battery every three years for preventive maintenance, as SOON as there is a visual sign of coolant leakage or the nipple is cracked, please change the tank, it's better than a blown engine.

 

The plastic nipple breaking is a pain but only a minor one I can live with

The real bad design problems were the timing chain tensioner's on the old 4.0L V-8! So be glad you don't have the 4.0L engine. and all those problems.
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Dropped the Quick connect clip. Any suggestions where I can get a replacement? The dealer only sells the entire hose assembly for 149.00

 

Boy oh boy!

That's a bad one to lose! So far I have not found or heard of anyone finding one of these separately. I also launched mine deep inside the guts of my STR. I spent almost 2 hours looking before I found it.

I think your only hope is a failed used tank because all the new tanks come with a new wire clip? Maybe ask if anyone on the forum kept the old top tank when it was replaced?

Meanwhile I would keep looking. I have had some luck using compressed air to blow the engine off and blast the missing part into the air and onto the floor. But it could also force it deeper in it's hiding spot!
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The tanks I've purchased have included the coolant low-level sensor and a pressure cap. I believe that clip is part of the hose asy. It would not attach to the tank without the hose-end being present, IIRC.

You can probably fake it effectively with lock-wire. I had to do such a thing recently on the 05 S-type.....lost the handle on the brake pedal position sensor locking clip during a front suspension upper arm renewal. It went into that dark crevice on the LHS whose twin over on the right is under the cabin air filter and always fills up with leaves - not much flora nor fauna in the LHS cubby, but no amount of searching with light, borescope, nor magnet located it, so I replaced it with lockwire (sometimes
called "SafetyWire") and got on with life. But then, my X300 rear brakes have lock-wired caliper bolts, so I had the wire and twisty-pliers on-hand, already.

 

Just buy the OEM hose. I tried to get a substitute clip and got very close with a Dorman part. It had the same exact shape but ... once installed the fitting leaked! All the Jag dealers I was screwed of course ...

When I got the real thing I compared and ... the ONLY diff is that the diameter of the Dorman piece is .03 mm smaller in diameter which seems like it should not make a difference but it did.

I couldn't find the errant clip. It was not in the belly pan so who knows where it went.

Sucks!

That clip is now safety wired on my car.

You can get that hose for less than the number you posted, keep looking.

Sorry for the bad news.

 

Tanks do not come with a clip.

 

My hose nipple broke yesterday and thanks to this thread I had it sorted in no time.



The broken nipple




The clip




The new tank £52 Ebay with next day delivery




New anti freeze




Job done

 

Staatsof,

I thought you got fed up with your STR a few months back and were dead-set on selling it. What happened?

 

I finally found the cooling system culprit, as noted above.

But I walked away from the car for over a month before trying again and I did not take it on a long 3K road trip to the south as I just didn't trust it.

That snap clip dimension issue is pretty much a real SOB since the Dorman part was under $7 and the Jag hose was about $100 and I couldn't even use the hose portion as it involved too much work to change. Sio I have brand new hose to sell if anyone needs one (minus the clip).

I still cannot explain the occasional slight leak and dried up drip on the sealing flange of the tank. It's been there ever since I've owned the car and that means two replacement tanks and new hoses to the tank which also means a new cap! It's haunted!

Currently I'm uber detailing it for a show next month and after the summer it may go.

I really want to avoid the under supercharger hose failure that I know will be coming. I can't tackle that repair in my driveway and at this point having it done "professionally" is more than the car is worth to me.

 

Yup these bottles are stupid!!! LOL. After changing my radiator, oh wow, trying to get that stupid clip to sit on the bottle. Wow. The radiator was fun. Now, because I didn't know about the stupid DCCV, I am going to tear that apart again. I am thinking of ways to reroute some of the critical hoses. Great you found the solution. These cars are odd, yet, they are so amazing that it's worth the pain or repairs. lol

 

Oops! You are correct! I got it backwards. The clip comes with the hose assembly NOT the tank.

Sorry for the bad info. Interesting you found that Dorman clip. I could not find anything close.

Well I can only say the second time it will be MUCH easier!

I had a second go around of removing the SC when the under SC hose let go and I had to remove everything again to fix a vacuum leak caused by my hose repair! That's a big job!

Staatsof I don't know where you are at but if anywhere close to Houston I can help with that hose under the SC replacement? Laid off and not working since Feb. I see NJ so too far away.
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Well I've never had a car have so many hard to repair things that aren't really huge parts at such early mileage. My Infiniti Q45, also a complex luxury car, didn't end up needing serious stuff until 139K miles and then it was $7k serious! Same issue the previous generation V8 Jag engines had, cam chain guides out of plastic except they did 10+ years earlier. I guess Jag wasn't paying attention to previous industry failures ...

I know why these things fail but given the amount of crap they stuff in the engine compartment they end up making very poor engineering choices in some cases. The plastics in the cooling systems is just crap. But I've heard similar complaints about BMW plastic reservoirs.

You know what's so crazy ... I have a 30 year old Maserati with more miles than this Jag and it's got the original plastic cooling system reservoir. But it's blow molded as a single piece out of a more nylon type of plastic.

Stupid choices folks. It ain't just Jag but this one is not a well built car in many respects in some ways it's terrific. But it's bad ways that give the car a rep. It's one reason why they are cheap. The other is things like the difficulty of some of the repairs which means high repair costs.

 

Yeah that would be a bit far ... I was in New Orleans in May but not with the Jag. We rented a Lincoln MKZ. That's a pretty nice car. Amazingly quieter than the Jag but then it's also 10 years newer. Very comfortable seats and it went well, not STR well but well.

Once it needs that hose gettin' there might be tough!

 

Here is a slight addition to the cumulative knowledge that this thread gave me. I shared some of that indignation about completely bogus statements that replacing the reservoir was a 30 minute job. OMG. Full disclosure...It was more than that for me. How much more...I will plead the fifth.
I did find a handy shortcut, however. Back when I was seminary school... no, let's get back to cars. Back when I was a mechanic and cars had normal hoses and screw clamps on the cooling systems, we used a special tool to get the hoses off of sticky fittings. Heater hose removal tools. And they are still around. Mine is a forty year old Snap-on thing. A screw driver handle with a thin round shaft, a roughly 90 deg bend and a slightly rounded point. This made getting the darn clip out very easy.
1. Slide it down between the reservoir and the radiator hose.
2. Push the tip into the opening for the bail. (clip)
3. Twist the handle CCW
Takes less time than it does to read that. (at least once I figured out what I needed)
The other thing that drove me nuts was the connector. Since I had the new reservoir, I could see that the connector needed to come off. Have no fear. The lever for the release is on the bottom of the connector. Don't try to remove the sensor. Remove the connector. And while it probably does help to have tiny trump-like hands, my gloves are size XL and eventually I figured out how to get my hand down there and squeeze up on the lever while pulling the connector out. (to the rear of the car)
I would post a picture, but I did not have the patience to document any of this during my struggles. Our issue was a constant Low Coolant warning on the dash. I don't know if the sensor was bad, the float sank, or if the float was stuck. And don't care. It is fixed now.

 

In the never-ending thread, has anyone had experience withe Ebay cheap tanks? Could they be worse quality than OEM? 27k on my 07 and she's sprung the infamous leak.

 

I do not believe it is possible to get any worse quality than OEM on these lousy coolant reservoir tanks. When the tank in my wife's 2006 XK8 began leaking in September 2017, I replaced it with a $50 tank from rockauto.com. It looked the same, fit the same, carried the same part number, and continues to do the job today. I believe it is indeed an OEM tank at perhaps a third of the price you would pay at the typical dealership. I do not expect it to last any longer or shorter than a Jaguar-supplied tank....

 

I wonder what the difference is in a $39, $75, $98 & $149 tank on fleabay...?