Hello,

I recently bought my X-type from an auction, which has turned out to be a terrible idea as it has problems left and right. The most recent is that, while also leaking coolant from a yet-to-be-determined place, each new fill-up of coolant quickly turns a pale, rusty color. Essentially, it looks like rusty water.

Is there a specific reason for this? Or perhaps it's a normal thing for Jaguars?

Thanks for your help.

 

Forgot to add also that I had it flushed recently because I thought it would help.. so far its been the same if not worse.

 

Jackie, welcome to the forums. I think you will find a lot of useful information here. But, we do ask a simple thing from you. Please stop by the New Member Section and introduce yourself. We pride ourselves in being a different car group and we like to get to know one another. This will also give you a chance to figure out who the movers and shakers are around here too.

NOw, for your problem. When you refilled the system, did you use tap water, demineralized water, or distilled water. These waters are actually very different and with the metals that are being used these days, can lead to things like you are seeing. But, before you start flushing the system again, we need to figure out your leak issue. The X-Types are known for a few common leak points. They would be:

- driver's side, back by the firewall - nipple on the overflow bottle, requires new overflow bottle installed
- driver's side, from the area around the transmission - water pump seal failing, requires new water pump installed
- front end, just behind the front bumper - radiator leak, normally from where the plastic end caps get attached to the metal core, needs new radiator
- passenger side, behind wheel - T-connector failing, leading to a crack developing, replace T-connector

When you refill the system, try to use distilled water. This is a cheap thing to buy and make sure to mix it 50/50 with the anti-freeze concentrate. If you are buying the pre-mix stuff, then no need to worry about adding water. When doing the flush, make sure to use the distilled water. This will benefit you two ways. The first being that you will not have random minerals in the water that can lead to the cloudiness that you are seeing. The second being that because there is no minerals in the water, some of the soluable minerals are going to be absorbed into the distilled water and will remove some of the corrosion products from the walls, increasing your heat transfer ability.

I work at a nuclear power plant and water quality is key to what we do.

 

Thanks for your help, Thermo. I know for sure the leak is somewhere on the driver's side, so your suggestions will help me narrow it down. Just have to spend some time checking it out further.

As for the water quality tip.. that could easily be my whole issue. I most definitely used regular tap water the last time I filled it up. I'll give distilled a try!

Lastly, would you recommend I stick with the Dealership-sold antifreeze, or can I switch to something less expensive?

Thanks again for all your help!

 

Jackie, you will find that most of us have switched over to something aftermarket when it comes to the antifreeze. The big thing will be that if you do another flush, make sure to give it a good flush. Then do a fill with distilled, drain, then do your 50/50 mix of coolant/water. That way, the amount of any impurities in the system will be minimal. I personally am using Prestone in my car right now. As long as you are sticking with a brand name coolant, you should be fine.

 

Seeing as the car is pretty new to you maybe the previous owner had a leak and put in some kind of stop leak product and it is just kind of working itself through the system. Hope not. Those things are a pain.

 

Alright, thanks again for all of your advice. I'll try all these things out and see how it all turns out!

 

When you drain your system, be sure to open the heater valve. There's plenty of coolant in there too that needs to be drained as well.

 

You can also get the Pre-Diluted Prestone Dex-Cool...saves on mixing the concentrate with distilled water.


BTW...No heater valves on these cars..just air dampers flapper doors that direct air over the evaporator or heater core in the HVAC mixer box...Heater core is always having coolant circulated through it regardless of heating or cooling demand.

 

thejackieline,

What year is your car? If the coolant has never been replaced, I wonder if some of the metal coolant pipes are rusting inside. Someone posted an article here on the Duratec engines the other day and it mentioned that this is something mechanics see on Taurus' (which use a variation of our engine) when the coolant replacement has been neglected. On the Taurus cars, the fix is to replace the rusty coolant lines.

It's something to keep in the back of your mind if you continue to experience this.