On way home from Local Tesco suffered huge coolant loss.. Waiting on recovery now from a tyre centre literally next to where I stopped. Meanwhile they have taken a look and once underpanels removed found the metal coolant pipe under radiator had ruated through and has a 2mm hole in rusted section.. The other metal coolant pipe also looks to be on its way out. Am getting her recovered home as with stands it is something I can do.. Any suggestions or advice on cheapest source and on reassembly refilling the system. Garage has said very lucky on side road low speed and stopped her promptly if on motorway could well have fully drained by time stopped. Been waiting over 2 hours so far for recovery so safe to say i cannot recommend Start Rescue it seems..

 

hi
as a quick fix, you could measure the pipe and get some water hose from a local car parts place, cut the pipe where the hole is and put the hose over it, with two hose clamps
then get replacement pipes sorted
cheers
Joe

 

If your car is a diesel, you should consider replacing the other hoses and pipes as well. You may want to try SNG Barratt for sourcing the parts as they're also a forum sponsor.

 

Yes have located the part number for the metal tube, at SNG Barratt.. and yes it's a diesel 2.7D.. but now wondering about all the hoses.. the top hoses all look to be in great condition but now I have seen how this metal pipe sits almost touching the bottom cover and I am guessing sits in any water that gets there.. I saw another post from some years ago and they suggested duct taping the pipe to help protect it against wearing through the coating of paint. I was extremely lucky with this that it happened almost outside a fitting centre who were prepared to remove covers for me and take a look, and I had been at low speed so I could stop quickly. I am ordering XR849219 which looks like the small metal pipe on the right underneath and the XR848271 which is the straight pipe both of which were corroded now.

 

You may also want to consider applying some additional rust-preventing paint once the pipes are in situ.

Since they hoses and pipes are going to be disassembled, it would be false economy to not just replace them at the same time. Especially the ones carrying hot coolant.

 

Sorry to hear about your misfortune Steve.
Plain black Hammerite springs to my mind to paint the new exposed metal pipe.

 

Just ordered the antifreeze, and axle stands now.. so you can guess what I am up to next weekend :-) Just glad to get her home and that its not something bigger that had failed, and after this I will know all about getting underneath the engine lol.. 4 Jags and I am still learning without a doubt lol.. thanks for your input.. I'll put some pics up of the pipes etc next weekend ..

 

Ok. I am now the proud owner of antifreeze concentrate, axle stands, and a shiny new hydraulic jack I am dying to try out and SNG Barratt have just shipped the parts.. DHL due with me tomorrow.. All I then need is good weather at the weekend :-) only current concerns are how to make sure I don't get airlocks on refilling and if I can realistically get the bottom covers back on with the front of the car on axle stands.

 

Steve,

Good luck for the weekend work. The BBC weather forecast for your area doesn't look promising.

Graham

 

This was the original steel pipe across the front
Now replaced with what feels like an aluminium pipe note the 2mm hole that led to really rapid coolant loss at the time
Here is the round the corner pipe from the front now also replaced with a lighter aluminium pipe.. This one was a bit of a pig to refit as the hose it connects to is above the frame..
Used hammerite on back metal pipe that had some corrosion and on the framework that had surface rust. Antifreeze and water back in and no sign of leaks as of yet.. Coolant level falling as the air I am assuming is shifted but even with heater on HI still no warm air and I cannot see any bleed valves on my 07.. Any ideas? Have been running her with cap off for some time with some bubbles and then on 20mile run with cap on pushing the revs to get everything flowing so to speak. Many thanks in advance :-)

 

You can try pressurising the system after an overnight cold soak and opening the bleed screw for the heater core.

 

I haven't seen a sign of a bleed valve anywhere... Whereabouts is it? Bearing in mind I have an 07.. :-(

 

I forgot you have a diesel. Did you follow the procedure in the Workshop Manual?

What I've done on some of the 3.0 litre petrol cars is to loosen or remove the hose representing the highest point in the system to bleed the air out. I try to avoid using the bleed valve in the upper radiator hose if possible as they're prone to break.

 

I don't have the procedure for this Jag.. Nor workshop manual as the jtis is for pre facelift and I think it was when the facelift was brought in that the bleed valve was removed.. Other cars in the past have a been a bit of a pig for this but flexing the top hose usually did the job with heater on Hi but not happening here..

 

I will take the engine cover off in the morning and see where the highest coolant pipe is and see if I can bleed it there :-)

 

After my mate fitted the new DCCV valve he refilled the system with coolant and let the engine tickover for quiet a long time minus the header tank filler cap so we could watch all the bubbles as the air came out. The engine got up to working temperature too. Didn't need to do anymore, but I checked the level every day afterwards anyway.

 

I spent two and a half hours running the engine with the cap off/cap on, varying revs and eventually managed to get some warmth out of the passenger side vents.. and then after a 5mile drive had hot air out of all the vents :-) I have managed to refit the front under panel, but without ramps cannot fit the middle underpanel back on as the axle stands sit where it needs to fit, and I have to admit that by the time I started to battle with it I had had enough lol.. but she is back on the road... topping her up as she goes and watching out for any other small leaks that may be lurking.. meanwhile I have received a fine for parking at the garage for too long so now I am collating info to put with a letter to contest the fine.. you are only allowed 20 mins parking at the garage and IU was there broken down for 29 minutes prior to carefully moving her next door to the fitting centre who located the issue for me.. blah

 

With regards to the car that's a result !! Congrats!

 

I have learnt a few things from this exercise:

1) Anyone with an S-Type that is 10 years old or coming up to 100,000 really should check these pipes as they are hidden, out of sight, and you would never know without removing the undertrays, and they do corrode - and if they go, they empty your coolant in a matter of one or two minutes max.

2) It is worth replacing both the front metal pipes at the same time as if one is going the other definitely will be (there is a third metal pipe further back that should be changed same time too but I missed that until too late to change it at the time so I have hammerited it - lots :-))

3) The undertrays are maybe a necessity, but also a nightmare without ramps, hence in my case now just the front and back panels fitted for the moment :-)

& 4) Diesels take way longer to warm up than I thought, or am used to with Petrol engines, and can take quite some time to bleed the air out of the coolant :-)

In my case I was very lucky - was barely moving when it went, could pull over quickly, managed to get the covers off and the issue diagnosed before the recovery arrived, parts ordered from stock the same day and when I had issues, had everyone here to fall back on for advice. Many thanks to everyone :-)

 

Would you believe I am still pulling air out of the coolant system.. after the repair and running her at varying revs etc until hot air started coming out of the vents she was left standing for about a week and a half before being started again.. on starting her up I got cold air out of the vents again and even now a couple of weeks on, the air vents are still only luke warm.. things are not helped by this being aircon weather not heater weather and she is only used for weekends and holidays.. I am assuming that what air there was still in the system has now collected at a high point that feeds the heater matrix during the standing time - blah.. :-)