Over the past year or so, I've come across the various threads regarding coolant reservoir leaks in S-Types.

Mainly regarding the recyclable materials used that are causing cracking.

For those folks who have experienced leaks, where exactly does this seem to be occurring that is consistent across other forum members? Is there a certain area on the reservoir? Is it on an inlet hose area or on the housing shell?

Lastly, is there a more durable reservoir that Jaguar offers that I could replace if I wanted to before I experience this issue?

Thanks.

 

I don't know about the other models but I think you could have a really good sheet metal guy, artisan really, make on for you out of brass for the STR. But it wouldn't be as slick looking as what's in there. I think there are plenty of crap plastic things on there as well.

I helped a friend upgrade his XJ8 to the replace the plastic tensioners and guides.

We had a Jaguar tech helping us and we still broke a few simple plastic connectors. They get fragile with age.

That's not just a Jag problem.

 

lol...

A lot of people report it's where the black upper portion meets the lower clear portion...Both my S-Types leaked on the upper nipple...

 

Yep, dem nipples can be dribbly things ...

I just finished watching a NOVA special about some of the advanced intelligent materials being used in innovative products. It was a great program.

I can only conclude that Jaguar went in the opposite direction and continued down that path even after it became obvious - Lobotic materials.

 

High underhood temps denature the plastic.

 

True but there's nothing unusual about the temps in my low miles easy life car.

Just sh*t parts. No excuses.

 

Many thanks guys for the general location of the leaking area.

I am going to also try and follow up with my local Jag service dealer to see if they know of any improvement fixes.

Regards

 

The expansion tanks will be akin to each part in the space program: contracted out to the lowest bidder. That bidder will have promised the tank was fit for purpose. (You don't think jag actually MAKE the tanks?!!! c'mon.)

Then maybe went out of business.......

 

You're not saying that it's not Jaguar's fault if they bought tanks that didn't get the job done are you?

You specify design and the materials and then verify that the proper items are being delivered.

If there's an engineering failure or parts quality problem then once identified you correct it.

From the stories heard on here none of that happened.

There's just no way my tank should have been leaking this early in it's life.

I'm not terribly comforted knowing that the warranty replacement item is just a much a POS as the original.

Ditto on the under supercharger hose.

I know I'll be annoyed if the fuel door and DCCV go south as these are also bad ideas.

I cringe a bit every time I get a tank of gas because it's mandatory full serve in NJ.

 

I've no idea if it's jag's fault or the supplier (I just gave a scenario that seemed plausible) but I also suspect that 5-6 years would be regarded by the powers that be (the courts) as good enough, so it doesn't matter whose fault it is - we're stuck.

I'm not happy about it but equally I've never had a car that by 5-6 yrs old (or more - mine's 7.5 yrs old) had no faults at all of the same sort of "type/blame". That doesn't mean I was happy that those cars had faults, just that by 5-6 yrs I kinda expect something to have gone wrong that ideally would not have.

I've had quite a few cars over the years. Have all yours been perfect for 5-6 yrs? No similarish issues (as the expansion tank) where ideally an item wouldn't have failed but did? I had a bonnet (hood) cable that frayed and broke. I had an a/c de-ice switch/sensor that failed. I had a parking brake cable that stretched too much. I had.... well, you get the idea.

The big exception on this car is that hose under the SC but it's a small volume car and I imagine jag just didn't realise that hose would fail often. (I'm not sure it does fail OFTEN but maybe it does.)

 

I've had several Italian cars so I'm used to things not being perfect.
I'm just not willing to cut them any slack on these items.
It appears that these are very predictable failures at this point.
They should have well engineered replacements for these issues. I haven't heard anything about that being the case.

Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.

But I believe there's a reason for that ...

I had a couple of early failures on my 90 Q45. The entire dash (padded portion) developed dimples and had to be replaced after 2 years. Then the power steering pump on a 4WS car started to make noises at 3 years and it was replaced with an upgraded pump.

After that nothing significant until about 120K miles and 9 years and it was a humdinger. The plastic cam chain guides and tensioners were about to fail. Sound familiar??????

I would have thought Jaguar would have learned from that stupid mistake but they repeated the same idiotic design in their V8... That one was massively expensive.

 

I don't know specifically who each of the makers you mention bought the various parts from nor what each of the specs was but clearly they didn't meet your desired specs. Maybe they didn't even meet the makers' specs but they wouldn't know for (say) 5 years. Jag have changed the tensioner a few times, trying to get a lasting kind (at least that seems to be the reason). If they were still making the S-Type and regarded the coolant tank as needing a change I expect that's what they would've done. For a car they stopped making around end 2007 and whose tanks seem to last about 5-6 years, I can well imagine they're not going to do anything now. It doesn't strike me as particularly unreasonable. If I have to fit one every 5-6 years I can cope. Heck, I've had cars where some of the brake pipes only lasted about that long! (Quite common on many makes, actually.) When I asked, the only OE replacement pipes have been the same crappy kind (rustable steel with a thin plastic coating) so I nowadays make my own (non-rustable) replacements. It's a pain.

I suppose it would be especially unlikely they'd re-do the STR's tank, as they sold in such small numbers.