So I went to my Buddys house, drove on the expressway and everything was peachy. Pulled into his lot and I get red lights, error message engine temp high. Turn off get out and my resivior is empty!! Was full before my 45 min cruise.. What can I use to get it home? Like fluid wise? Cause I don't have the dex cool crud on hand.. Spry typing this on my I pod. Any advice?!

 

badplan, I would say to first take a look at the hose leaving the coolant bottle and see if that is cracked. if so, do what you can to seal up the tank, but odds are, you are only going to slow down the leak, not stop it 100%. next, check all the hoses to make sure that you don't have a hole in a hose. if there is a hose with a hole in it, replace the hose. if it is a rubber hose, a temporary fix to get you home is to use some duct tape pulled tight around the hose with a few layers off set from each other (cover about a 4" area to either side of the hole). Just make sure to use 1 continuous piece during this as it will make the repair more solid for a trip home. Also of note, if you can find it, get the shiny red stuff. That is the most sticky of the duct tapes. If you can't get you hands on that, get the really shiny silver. That will be pretty good (yes, the color of duct tape has meaning). In short, if the duct tape will stick really well to itself, then that is what you want to use. If it sticks so so, you are going to have problems on the way home.

As for what to fill the car up with, please don't use straight water at this point. You will more than likely end up destroying the block due to the water freezing solid. So, you are going to be force to get some coolant. Get some more of the dex cool, but if you can't find that, then anything where the coolant is the same color should be good to go.

 

Thanks for your reply Thermo! I know exactly where the tanks leaking at now... Apparently, who ever serviced the car/ the original owner had snapped off part of the hose connection on the upper left side of the expansion tank. And it looks like he rigged something up by putting a connector inside the hose and inserting the nozzle into the tank and then clamping it.. So looks like a new expansion tank is in order... which are outrageously expensive.

one thing I've notice, on a side note here, the price of parts for Jaguars are grossly overpriced! In comparison to Mercedes-Benz or Infiniti's or, basically anything non-Jaguar. Seriously, $120 for a flawed design expansion tank? I can pick an expansion tank up from the Mercedes dealer for around 45$.

Unfortunately, I had no choice but to use a different kinda antifreeze ... Peak pre-mixed to be exact... as you said thermo, I wouldn't dare put water in at this time of year and, didn't want to risk coming close to/ over heating the engine. So what kinda damage would one expect from mixing Dex cool with Peak?? And for curiosity, what happens when you mix anti-freeze types/brands?

 

badplan, when it comes to mixing coolant, the outcome is hard to say. I would do a look on the internet. If I remember right, it can make the coolant become thick/gel and lead to lack of cooling due to lack of flow. But, if you have drained out most of the old coolant, then you should have very minimal interaction. If you had to add about 2 gallons of coolant, then the system was about empty.

Wish you luck in getting things back in order.

 

I hope you get it fixed. When my coolant poured out, it was because my thermostat died and didn't trigger the fan to turn on, and the car heated up and the hose blew off.

 

I have an manual xtype 2004 68k and I was on the highway about 4 hours ago and all of the sudden my engine made a thump and the rpm shot up and the car slowed down and the overheating light went red. I pull over and checked out if i had enough coolant and the tank was full. Then i went to run my hand over the engine and see how hot it was and to my surprise it was cold... I got back into the car started it up and it was fine but the engine light stayed on. Continued driving and like 5 mins later the overheating light went on again and I pulled over and shut off the car. I waited a minute put the car back on and it was fine.. So on my way home it kept doing the same thing over and over. I would pull over so not to drive on the overheat red light and restart the car and then minutes later it goes on. I checked all the fluid levels and everything is fine.

One thing that did happen last week while driving on the highway was a real loud thump like a gun shot. I thought maybe it was something on the road I hit but I have a feeling it all might be connected..

I have no idea whats wrong, if anyone can give me a pointer were to start that would be very helpful. Thank you

 

Dusted- this is a somewhat common problem. Mine does it as well. Something to do with the engine temp sensor getting a reading that is to hot or to cold and sending a malfunction warning to the computer. The computer says "oh S..T!" and sends the temp gauge to max, which puts the car into "safe mode" meaning the cruise control will turn off and the the car runs only at low rpm. Turn it off and restart it and voila, everything is normal.

I found some threads in a jag forum that addressed this. I think people changed the thermostat and the sensor and that seemed to fix it.

My car does it when driving in the mountains, it gets warm going uphill, then to cold coming downhill. The quick change in temp freaks out the computer (my guess).

Here's some links to this issue:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ght=temp+gauge

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ght=temp+gauge

Good luck.