Our MY03 3.0L has been a great car. But yesterday I saw a low coolant warning for the first time. Knowing that there was probably a leak I topped up the reservoir anyways and drove to church. When I came home I looked around for a leak at the usual suspect, the reservoir. Nothing obvious, but when I was feeling along the bleeder hose the thing popped off, spraying me with hot coolant. The "turret" fitting on the top of the plastic cross over pipe had snapped off. Not an uncommon problem based on my archive search.

It appears that I will have to order the entire upper hose and thermostat assembly (Part #XR854920). I guess it might also be a good idea to do the reservoir while I am at it? Any opinion on replacing the factory hose clamps with standard hose clamps (aka jubilee clips)?

 

It's not the clamps that fail or cause problems as far as I can tell. I don't know that you need to order the thermostat assembly, but I don't have a 3.0

 

As a follow-up to my earlier post I replaced the broken cross-over pipe and coolant reservoir last weekend. I have posted some pic.s showing the broken part, below. The new part is indeed an entire assembly consisting of the upper hose, the plastic cross-over, and the thermostat assembly.

The "turret" fitting on the top of the cross-over came away with just the slightest pressure. Luckily it happened in my driveway and not on the road. If it had it would have resulted in a massive coolant loss as the water pump, just inches away, would have merrily done it s thing. There would have been a "low coolant" idiot light followed by the temp gauge pegging and a cloud of steam, and possibly an engine failure if not stopped right away.

Removal and replacement was easy enough: loosen the clamps on the both ends of the air intake assembly and hold it out of the way with a bungee. I loosened the hose clamp just above the thermostat to let the rest of the coolant drain. There was not much left in the upper hose thanks to the amount that was pumped out in the two seconds it took me to turn off the engine during the initial incident, and the few seconds it took me later to pull the car into my garage. The spring hose clamps that the factory use were easy to loosen with a pair of channel locks, except for the one on the bottom of the cross-over that connects to the heater hose, which was hard to get at. I removed all of the other hoses and pulled the assemblage to the left side where there was plenty of room to get at it. This was the only clamp that I replaced with a standard screw drive hose clamp as it was much easier to tighten it with a long screw driver (see photo).

While I was at it I also replaced the coolant reservoir, although it was not leaking (yet). With the upper hose out of the way it was easy to get at the hose connection on the bottom of the tank.

Tip: When removing the old hoses I first cut a slit ( gently, not too deep) in the old hose. This was a big help to remove them from the plastic and light alloy fittings on the radiator etc. and avoided damage from ham fisted pulling and prying.

Bleeding the system was also easy since the MY03 and later have a bleed screw on the tank. As I did not drain the entire cooling system it refilled quickly and the heat came on right away after warm-up. Per the book, after reaching operating temps I shut the engine off and let it cool down. I had to add about a pint later to top it off.

Moral: The cross-over turret fitting is a potential engine killer. If you find a need to drain the cooling system for other work I would replace it, especially on an older car like mine.

 

Thanks Andy,

It's not too long since I did the thermostat hose assy also.

 

Thanks for sharing Andy!

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

 

Well done, Andy. Great write-up, too....

 

Good job!! This is timely as I have noticed a samll collant leak at the front of the engine and it looks to be the crossover pipe is the culprit. I didn't realize that this was a common problem. Thanks for the pictures and the write-up.

 

Glad to be able to contribute something! This forum has been a big help to me, thanks to all of you. When I searched the archives I didn't find much that was specific to the cross-over replacement, so I thought I'd fill in the gap. As Red Green says, we're all in this together.

 

I dropped by my local Lincoln/Ford dealer and ordered a new coolant crossover pipe prior to tearing it apart. When the part came in, I could that it was different from mine. They had ordered a V8 crossover pipe instead of the one for a V6. They checked the parts schematic and I showed them the correct part. Unfortunately the crossover pipe is only available as part of a cluster of coolant pipes and hoses and they wanted over $300 for the lot. Grrrrrr! I took a refund instead ordering the upper coolant assembly and decided to take it apart, identify where the small leak is occuring and see if I can repair it. I ''ll post what the results are.
all the best ,VMV

 

Any way to fabricate a new one from the typical assortment of pipes and hoses you can find at NAPA or the like? Take yours with you and see what you can come up with. It certainly would be worth it for what Jaguar or Lincoln/Ford charges for their hose cluster if you only need one specific pipe....

 

I paid $209 for mine from jagbits, but if you google the part (Jaguar #XR854920) you will find some cheaper:

Terry's (aka Nisonger): Xr854920

Generic On-line Vendor: JAGUAR XR854920 HOSE/RADIATOR (QTY of 1 Jaguar parts), JAGUAR OEM PARTS

Ebay: JAGUAR TOP RADIATOR HOSE 2002-2005 S-TYPE OEM #XR854920 3.0L | eBay


I wish I had seen Terry's earlier. They are a long time Jag parts supplier and very reputable. I buy stuff for my E-type from them. Dang.

I suppose you could cobble one together with a tee, a wye, and then some drilling and tapping for the temp sender and a hose barb for the bleeder. Pro: More durable than the factory part if done right; con: may not fit, a lot of time and effort hunting the bits, etc., and it looks, well, "improvised". Here's hoping the new part will last another 8 years!

 

I got mine from Nalley last June for $161.20 shipped.

 

That can't be beat! Oh well...

 

Thanks Andy

Very nice info.
In my case, after running the engine for about 10 min or so switched it off and was trying with a small mirror to locate where the leak was coming from. When part of the mirror touched this "turret" it came off spraying everything with hot coolant including myself.
Luckily it missed my face and it wasn't extremely hot either.
So guys beware, except from an engine killer as Andy mentions it can be a face and skin burner as well.

Regards to all