Hello,

I thought I would share this post as it will become a common fault.

My car is the XF 3.0D S Portfolio 2012 facelift mark 2, just out of extended Jag warranty.

May this year I noticed the air con was not cold. It was a very hot Sunday, so I decided to take the car to Kwik Fit for a simple recharge. They connected it to their machine and checked the car for leak etc, all fine. They then recharged the system, 'cold air again!' Two weeks later no cold air, back to Kwik Fit - they checked for leaks no issues and recharged it again. Four weeks later same issue again, no cold air! Kwik Fit once again checked the system and recharged the system. Another four weeks no cold air again. Obviously a leak somewhere!

I called a local mobile air con specialist Auto Aircon Direct, based in Shaw, Oldham. Auto Aircon Direct - Mobile vehicle air con services in Oldham, the guys name is Dale. He came out filled the system with nitrogen, wet tested all the pipes and system and discovered the leak. It was a failed high pressure pipe hidden in the condenser area. When Jag built the XF both the high pressure and low pressure pipes go through a small mounting sponge, this sponge was the culprit! The sponge retains moisture etc and as a consequence corroded the aluminium high pressure air con pipe, but unnoticeable to the eye. Very poor design Jaguar, you do not expect corrosion on a four year old well looked after old car!

Anyway, I instructed Dale to go ahead with the repair and to replace the pipe. As a safe guard I also went ahead with other low pressure pipe as that too goes through the stupid costly sponge mount!

The first pipe took approximately 2 hrs to replace, the other one was an absolute pain to replace taking over 4hrs. This is due to you having to strip almost everything out of the engine bay (near side), bar the engine.

Anyway, the replacement pipes cost approx, £75 each from Jaguar, labour and the re-pressure test and then re-gas £200. I believe this whole job would have cost easily over £700 from Jaguar.

I am quite DIY savvy, but I highly recommend leaving jobs like this to certified experts - I highly recommend Dale at Auto Aircon Direct, a great guy who knows what he is doing.

Finally, my air con is now perfect! - I hope this post helps all you XF owners who are enduring the same issue.

 

The sponge was not your problem. Remember every car on the road uses the same setup. Aluminum tubes don't corrode from water. Maybe you got some salt along with the water?

The foam is to block air and force the air flow more thru the radiator.
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Thanks for your reply.

The sponge in question is a mounting spacer concealing nothing, i.e. not part of enclosing air flow etc in the area. In this case it simply keeps the two air con pipes separated from each other.

You are probably correct in stating salt was the actual culprit although the whole area was immaculate and free from any other signs of corrosion. What is required by Jaguar if along with the sponge mount separator, is a sleeve on each of the aluminium pipes to prevent the congress of water or salt water.