I have had my Xtype for a while now and have a question about the Climate Control specifically about the heat side of it. I notice that on a moderate temperature day and I would like to drive with the window down and no A/C on the heat coming from under the dash makes it unbearable so I end up turning on the A/C anyway, is this normal? I have investigated the source of the heat and it is NOT coming from out of the heat vent, it is heat radiating from the heater/AC box itself. I have never encountered this in any other of my post 1970s cars that had climate control including my previous Jags. They all had a vacuum operated valve in the heater hose to cut off or regulate the flow of water to the heater core but I have not been able to locate such a device on this car... Is it supposed to have one? If not would it be conceivable to add one or do like we did in the 60s, pinch the hose off or is the heater core line involved in the return cooling circuit like it was in my old Wolseley 110 MK2, (I miss that car!), and cannot be pinched off but the heater core had to be bypassed to keep the cabin cool in the summertime? Or is here another issue I am missing?

 

George, the X-Type does not have a valve that "stops" the flow of coolant through the heater core. It flows through the heater core all the time. Whether it heats the dash air or not is dependent on the positioning of the flappers at the discharge of heater core.

If the heater core is putting out that much heat, I would be looking at your fan controller and making sure that it is spinning the fans at the correct speed. You may be approaching a condition where your fan controller is starting to fail and it is allowing the car to run a little warm. The temp gauge is somewhat of an "idiot gauge" (ie, goes to a preset point when things are good). In the case of the X-Type, it will follow temp as the car heats up, but then has a dead band at the normal operating temp until it exceeds a certain temp (190-210F?), then it will start rising again. This was done to prevent people from questioning why their temp gauge rises slightly when sitting at a stop light or other conditions like that.