that's the hard way not fast, Fast is just clamp the larger of the 3 hoses with vise grips. no coolant will flow and it takes a whole 10 seconds

 

Earnest, what happened? I thought we had a thing going. But now you don’t write, you don’t call, you don’t even send flowers...

 

 

Hello Karl, and everyone else who has been wondering what happened to the sweltering guy in the Deep South.

I'm still around with the same problems from a several months ago, but the weather is much cooler and my AC is acting like it's fixed, with comfortable cooling from the vents. For the life of me, I still haven't figured out why my climate control is sensitive to the outside temperate. Back in July, it never cooled adequately, but in September it's cools just fine.

But the good news is that I now have several months of fall and winter temperatures to continue tinkering with this thing and hopefully have it figured out by next summer. Or at least, that's my story and I'm gong to stick with it. As most of you recall, I was going to get a set of manifold gauges and check the high and low side readings. But life in general has a funny way of throwing a wrench in the best plans. So I got sidetracked from the infamous "most tested and troubleshooted" 2006 S-Type around and all its climate control woes.

Here's my absence-from-the-forum story and although it has nothing to do with my car, I'll at least mentioned the word Jaguar every paragraph or so. Enjoy.

The first thing is that being a Jaguar enthusiasts and self-proclaimed Jaguar mechanic gives you a false sense of security and makes you think you can fix anything, even things non-Jaguar. Just apply the same methodical logic and troubleshooting steps and you'll get to the bottom of whatever problem presents itself.

So did you know that if an outside water hose faucet is rusted through behind the little handle thingy and springs a leak while you're washing the Jaguar, there is no way to shut the water off. The pressure of the water from the bowels of the city lines seems to be enough pressure to push a train forward. So if there is a hole about the size of your little finger in the pipe that disappears into the wall, you'll have an impressive stream of water shooting across the yard and almost into the neighbors yard. It was a sight to see. For some reason, things of this nature always happens as the sun is about set.

So what does a Jag guy do; fix it of course. If I can track down a faulty brake light fuse in the boot fuse compartment of a Jaguar, surely I can fix a water leak. And did you know that is no cutoff valve anywhere in my house for the outside faucet. I hope your house has one and I suggest locating it while you don't need it. So as I admired this horizontal geyser of gushing water taking place, I figured I'd better get busy and get this taken care of right way.

And also, have you ever noticed that the main cutoff valve between the city lines and your home can range from a few feet to what seems like half a mile. And I know Jaguar dudes have a pretty well equipped tool box for every conceivable repair, but if you don't have a "Water Cutoff Wrench" in you toolbox for the meter box somewhere in your yard well, you're not prepared for what life may throw at you.

Now I know we all have worked on our Jaguars at night under poor light conditions and bugs and whatever, and at some point throw in the towel and go to bed. But with a water leak, you can't leave things gushing like Niagara Falls. So you walk all the way out into the yard and turn off the water, then walk all the way back to the backyard and try different methods plugging the hole for the night so you can get some rest and call a plumber the next day. Let me tell you, nothing works to temporarily plug a leak at an outside faucet. Homemade plugs; PVC fabricated caps; duct tape; electrical tape; rags; suggestions from home improvement books. No luck.

After you stubbornly install the latest fix to stop flow of water, then walk all the way out the meter box to turn the water back on and make it back to the faucet, whatever contraption you had fashioned has now been jettisoned over into the neighbor yard by the pressure and the water is gushing as proudly as ever. So you make a dozen or more trips back and forth between the faucet in the backyard and the water shut valve way out there in the front yard.

So now it's around 2:30 am, the wife is sleep, the dog is sleep, and it's just you and the gusher. It's time for a genuine Jaguar limp-home mode attempt to plug the leak and go to bed.

I dig around in the garage and find a long painters pole, nail a 2x4 into the wood edging of the brick sidewalk, stuff a rag into the pipe and brace with the painter pole between the faucet and 2x4. I think it was pretty ingenious and something only a Jaguar owner could come up with. Sort of like the same concept as connecting your test probe/light to bout twelve feet of wire with alligator clips on each end to reach from the battery in the boot to the engine compartment to test fuses. At least the rag stuffed into the faucet cannot be forced out of the pipe because the pole has it wedged in. It'll still trickle water for the remaining few hours of darkness, but that'll have to do for now.

The leak was fixed the next day and all is well.

But in a fit of rage against the innocent S-Type's cooling problems (had to blame something) I bought a new truck and was simply amazed that the climate control system works as it should day in and day out. Aw, nice cool air conditioning. So I parked the Jaguar for a few weeks to enjoy my spectacular AC in the truck and my new faucet that does not leak.

Now that the weather is cooler, I'll get back to the Jaguar's cooling problems and watch YouTube videos on fixing a water leak for an outside faucet. I'll be better next time.,

So Karl, I hope you enjoyed your break, but I'll be back to bring more Jaguar cooling problems into the forum. And I learned a lot about plumbing to compliment my Jaguar skills.

Earnest

 

Thanks for that!

 

I thought you had run off with some other forum, after I’d given you the best years of my life...




Time to put on your orthopedic thinking cap for this one. Let’s say your AC system is operating at reduced efficiency. For giggles, let’s say it only has 75% of the cooling ability of a system in good working order. For an example of 100% ability, think of that expensive new truck you just bought. Was it a Chevy?:



So on a genteel spring day, maybe 70F or so, would you really need 100% cooling ability? No, not at all. But then August rolls around, and you’re sweating profusely from places you didn’t even knew existed. Does you car need now every last bit of cooling ability? Of course. That’s why your car’s AC seems to be sensitive to outside temperature.