So, Driving home the other day, I got the Low Coolant message on my dash. Not unusual, I've seen it before. It happens when the coolant is a little low. Not a biggy. I was 10 miles from home. I kept driving and noticed the shifting getting harder. Ok. I know I have a Transmission Pan leak. She shifts hard sometimes when the trans fluid is low. Just got the new pan and filter and was planning on changing it out this weekend. Not a big problem. Drive a little more, and now I'm smelling something odd. Kinda smells like burning oil, but not really. Just passed some construction, possibly tar and asphalt. I'm now about 7 miles from home. Stoplight. Temperature gauge is rising. Well ****. Did I bust a hose? Keep an eye on it. Drive a little more, temperature drops back to the normal range, engine never overheats. Ok. Almost home. 3 miles out, temp gauge starts rising again. Then it drops back to normal. Still doesn't go into the red. This isn't good. Get to the house. Shut the engine off, get out and now I can smell it. ****. Think I busted a hose. Go inside, let the engine cool and I'll look at it when it's cooled down. An hour later... Lets pop the hood. I can see the spray all over the engine and side of the car. Yup. Damnit. Ok. Which hose? Start looking. Something looks funny about this coolant spray. It's not supposed to be milky... Oh ****... Pop the cap. Milky mixture inside the radiator fill reservoir. Many swear words, kicking, screaming (may have been a tear or two) later... Check the dipstick. Oil looks good. No coolant in the engine. That's good. Ok... Think... Conclusion... Blown Head Gasket, possibly a cracked radiator as well. Well, ****. That sucks.

So here's the real puzzle. Jag is parked in the drive way and I now have to move her. Put her in the garage so I can start tearing the engine apart. I topped off the coolant just in case, go to start the car so I can move it. Literally 20 ft. Engine wont start. I get nothing. The lights come on, the dash lights up, but that's it. No click, no engine turn over, nothing. Idea's???

 

OOPS.

Maybe as simple as the trans safety switch (neutral start switch to some) hates you also.

Try it in N, and see if its the same no go.

Failing that, lock the car with the remote, and then unlock it again, the electrickery may be also on a hate cycle. That worked a few times with the X300, never needed it on the X200's yet.

 

Well, considering that there is probably a great deal of hate with this car, (the wife never wanted me to buy it in the first place) I will give the shifter a try. The Key Remote however should not be an issue as the car never came with one. There is only, "The Key". (Key Remote is to be a future purchase).

 

Check the wiring looms and connectors for coolant contamination resulting in bad electrical connections.

Do not use the temperature gauge for any other purpose than to see when the engine has reached normal operating temperature.

 

Well, that didn't work. It was a good idea tho. :/

 

This may be my best option. I'm sure there is significant coolant contamination. I will update after a good cleaning has been performed and let you know. (And like most good mechanics, I use the Temp Gauge as an indicator nothing else. That's what diagnostic tools are for. )

 

Not sure I'd go straight to a blown head gasket. That usually causes coolant to collect in the oil pan, evident as milkshake on the dipstick. Since you already had an external coolant spray, find and fix that hose/fitting first.

After that, use a pressure tester to see if the cooling system is intact internally. My hunch is the hose failure is not the primary fault, but a symptom of something else. For example, say the transmission cooler (inside the radiator) sprung a leak. Depending on the transmission line pressure, your cooling system is now subject to higher than normal pressure. The cap should have vented, but who knows what happened. Or maybe the cap vented properly and was the source of the spray. You'll know when you run a pressure test on the cooling system.

What about the engine oil cooler? Is it external (air-cooled) or internal to the radiator? If internal, that could be another source of over-pressurizing the cooling system.




Look at the J-gate at the shift lever. Is the P or N illuminated? The starter won't engage unless P or N is on.

 

I was thinking that same thing. I checked for a bad hose and found nothing. I wasn't able to determine if I had a cracked radiator because I couldn't see a leak or get the car started to test it. I have to look into it deeper. However, as there are a very many things wrong with this car, it might actually just be worth it to do a complete tear down and restoration. The more I fix, the more things break. At this point, that's what I'm leaning towards.

 

The usual spot is the right hand plastic header near the DCCV.
Your leak sounds like it will be easy to find once the car is running.

 

After a cold-soak, preferably overnight, pressurise the cooling system with a tester to 1 bar. If the system looses pressure after ten minutes or so, check for external leaks.

 

I agree with 98664. You can't check the trans. fluid (no dip stick), but the milky looking crap in the overflow tank gives a good indication of oil and water + the antifreeze.

After doing a pressure check of the cooling system and no outward leaks, the trans oil cooler would be my first idea. Drop the pan (u said you had a new one) on the trans and have a look at the oil. If it's also milky you may have found your problem.

Keeps us posted.

Cheers (I think)

 

 

exactly , the first place id check is the radiator itself . its very common to see oil contamination from the trans oil heat exchanger inside the radiator . and well documented too .
i know you can't rule out head gasket .
but just may be it would be best to pressure check the coolant system with the trans cooler lines disconnected , if you see coolant escape from the trans line ports in the radiator , theres your fault . the coolant pressure cap may have been releasing the pressure caused by the trans oil pressure . worth a look any way .

 

Excellent suggestion to disconnect the transmission cooler lines. If there was a transmission fluid leak was inside the radiator, the line pressure was probably higher than the cooling system pressure. With any luck, no coolant got sucked back into the transmission.

You had mentioned you were planning to drop the transmission pan. Keep track of how much fluid is drained. This should give you an idea how much fluid (if any) was lost.

 

I have to admit, this is one of the reasons I love this forum. You guy's are all alot of help. The biggest reason I am leaning towards a complete rebuild is the fact that there are still alot more issues with the car. Some of the car's history...

I bought the car from a dealership who was looking for a quick turnaround. Got it for $800. Dirt cheap. When we pulled the car's history, we found that it was an auction baby for the previous four years. It went from dealership to dealership to auction. Noone wanted it. It was like that poor ragged puppy you see on the street. So I bought it. Looking closer at it myself after the purchase, I could tell that even the previous owners (before the dealerships) hadn't taken care of it either. There's alot of damage. Suspension needs alot of work. I have the front about 75% complete. I still have to do the back. The brakes are in bad shape. They work, but really need to be replaced. The DCCV is shot, the interior needs some work, the Radio doesn't work, the transmission is leaking fluid and needs the solenoids replaced as well. And that's just a few things off the top of my head. Upon closer inspection, when I replaced the fuel injectors, I noticed what appeared to be sand around the bases of all of them. I didn't see anything damaging the area's, nor when I looked into the head from what I could see did I find anything. I have a suspicion that this Cat is a flood victim that was never reported.

So, I now have a choice to make. Do I keep her and continue the repairs, or do I get rid of her. Truth be told, I haven't had a restoration project in a long time and this is really sounding like alot of fun. And, I kinda like being able to say I own a Jag. It's been a dream since I was 15. (ofcouse back then I really wanted an E Type. Still do. Something very sexy about the 60's styling) Also, having a Forum like this and people like you guys who are all willing to help out make it worth it. So, I have another car, a motorcycle and I am looking at buying a truck next year. So this isn't my daily driver and I'm not in dire need of transportation if I can't get her fixed. But, if I'm right, I'm just going to be chasing my tail on repair after repair. I think it's time to restore her to her previous glory. She needs all the TLC I can give her and if I have to do a complete restore, then so be it. Never rebuilt a Jaguar engine before. Could be alot of fun!

 

This was my original thought, and I think I am still going to go this route. I need to find out what happened so I can fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again. I will keep you posted and let you know what I find.

 

When dropping the transmission pan, don't forget to replace the electrical connection sleeve. Its a $13.00 part, a very common leak point and only is accessible when trans pan is removed.

A word of caution, MAKE sure you are able to loosen the fill plug on the right back side of transmission BEFORE you remove the easy drain plug! The fill plug requires a shortened 8mm hex wrench. I purchased a 3/8 socket 8mm hex socket from a big box store for a couple of bucks and removed the hex from the socket with a vise, hammer and punch. I also purchased 2-8mm wrenches for the job as well. Very little room where the plug is located. I used the box ends and actually bent both wrenches whilst beating the hell out of them with a BFH trying to loosen. Use Mercon SP as an less expensive alternative to LifeGuard.

 

^^ What Rick said. He has performed drain-and-fills on multiple ZF 6HP26 transmissions, including both of our Jaguars twice. Mercon SP is the affordable and Shell M1375.4 spec-meeting ATF of choice for many of us....

Good luck and keep us posted....

 

I've already filled it twice now because of the leak. I took an 8mm Allen wrench that I had an extra of and cut off about 1 1/2 inches of it. I put that into the fill plug and then use a wrench to loosen it. Worked great. As for fluid, I looked up and found that the Castrol Import Multicar ATF meets all the standards and is cheaper at $21 US for a gallon. As well as a couple Jag owners here locally use it in their cars, so that helped verify it.

I was not aware of the Electrical Connection sleeve. That's useful information. Thank you.

 

Details here:


https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ics-faq-30991/