I've had my '16 F-Type R up for sale for the past several weeks. I dropped the price to $40k and finally got some interest. This morning a guy made an offer just below asking and I accepted. I was headed to the car wash to get her cleaned up one last time for the new owner, and wouldn't you know... I stopped at a red light and some smoke was visible coming out of the engine bay. First time I've ever seen this, of course.

There's a T-junction (plastic I believe) where three hoses meet. Even after the car was off and sat for a few minutes I could still see drips coming from under that top hose that runs to the reservoir. I'm planning on calling the JLR dealership tomorrow to check on parts. Is this going to be as easy a fix as I hope it will be?

 

Yep, it's an easy fix, I replaced that pipe/tube a few years ago. From memory it is called the expansion tank overflow tube or something like that, the part number is around here somewhere. It's fairly cheap, around $30 US.
The only slightly tricky bit is the connection of the lower hose (of the two that connect to the water pipe across the front), I found that I needed to lever it in with a flat blade screwdriver.

 

Oh wow, so that's all one piece? I see it listed like you said - "radiator expansion overflow tank hose". Do I need to drain any coolant?

 

Yep, it's one piece/tube from the expansion tank to the engine cross-over water pipe.
No real need to drain any coolant as the connection to the expansion tank is up high but there may be some coolant left in the hose so maybe have a cloth ready to mop up any drips.
But to play safe you might want to drain just a little coolant out of the expansion tank using a syringe or turkey baster.

 

I found and picked one up at the JLR dealership today. P/N T2R5910. $104.22

Their service dept. schedule is forever out (like a month) so I'm trying to get a local shop to install it. If not, I guess I'll be playing with coolant tonight.

 

It's an easy DIY, if I can do it with my dodgy eyesight and fingers then anyone can!

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I went ahead and did it myself this morning. Wow, the old part was brittle as hell! Probably why the problem started in the first place. I broke off two of the smaller connectors near the front just trying to disconnect them.

I have a 2000 Pontiac Trans Am (I got in 2001) that still has pretty much all the original hoses. This is a 2016 luxury vehicle with just 28k miles. Did Jaguar just use cheap material for these hoses / connectors?

 

Yep, when I removed the old/original part it was like uncooked spaghetti and crumbled into about five pieces and the connectors snapped off as well.

 

Blame environmental standards that came about in the early 2000s. Those changed the make-up of the plastic.

BMWs were very prone to plastic breakage. Some plastic pipes on Buicks were notorious troublemakers, too.

 

Just ordered one of these just in case from Jaguar Palm Beach for $48.26 including shipping.

If you are not careful taking off oil filter you could break this part.

 

That's probably true. In my case, I think it was me just putting on the plastic engine cover in prep for taking some engine bay pics to sell the car. I think I may have just tapped that T-junction with the cover while trying to snap it in place and it was enough to crack one or more of those hoses on the assembly. I can't stress how brittle they are. You couldn't get those connectors off the endpoints without cracking them if you tried. The first one I wasn't expecting. The second one I was using care and it still cracked into pieces. The thicker hose up near the reservoir wasn't as bad and still had some flexibility in it.

 

Easy $30 piece don't let them overcharge you

 

Hmm... I had this same exact leak on the hose coming from the expansion to this T junction about 2 months ago on my '16 car. Three feet of 5/16" coolant hose and two hose clamps ($9) took care of the problem.

Might be an age thing that others might want to keep an eye on.