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Road Trip Report
My wife and I relocated from San Diego, CA to San Antonio, TX (1300 miles) a couple of weeks ago.
We decided to rent a 20' U-Haul with a Auto Transport trailer (to trailer my 2007 X-Type), with Janet following me in her 2008 X-Type. About 6-hrs into the trip Janet radioed me on our walkie-talkies that the temp gauge was reading a little past normal (center of gauge), as it was 105F OAT (outside); I told her to keep an eye on it and let me know if it dropped back to normal. A few minutes later she radioed that the temp was climbing and the caution and warning lights in the cluster were now illuminated. I immediately pulled the U-Haul combo to the shoulder and Janet pulled up behind me and shut the engine off. Walking back to her car I could see fluid dripping and smell coolant, with my first thoughts being radiator, coolant hose, or water pump failure, and we have to be in San Antonio in less than 48-hrs. Once we had the hood up we discovered the source of the leak was the nipple from the engine to the top of the coolant recovery tank had broken. 'back to the U-Haul and digging around in my "road trip tool kit" I inserted a small bolt into the hose and secured it with a threaded hose clamp. After adding coolant (actually 1-gal of anti-freeze and several bottles of Dasani bottled water) we were back on the road. At every fuel stop I checked the coolant level and it was reading at the full mark. As soon as we arrived in SA I ordered a new coolant recovery tank. Funny thoughts (in retrospect). 1. Worse case scenario; We could've taken my perfectly fine '07 off of the trailer, loaded the '08 on, and continued on. 2. I could have cannibalized the coolant tank from my '07 and installed it on the '08. (How much fun would that be in 100F+, on the side of the road, and with traffic whizzing by at 80MPH). 3. There's a bit of truth to old adage "If you're going to buy a Jaguar you better buy two (so you'll have one to drive while the other one is in the shop)" ;) The "Good Stuff": Janet's X-Type travelled over 1300-miles through desert, up hills, down hills in temperatures averaging 100F, at speeds averaging 80MPH, and returned an average of 30MPG for the entire trip! 'going thru west Texas Janet pulled into the passing lane and blew by me.. (I'm thinking.. "Wow! That is a gorgeous car"!) I figured that she was tired of trailing the U-Haul SJTP (Spare Jaguar Transport Vehicle), and decided to stretch their legs. :) A few minutes later as the Janet and her Jag were fading out of view; She radios me "Where are you"?, I radioed back "I'm still behind you dear".. Brain fart? LOL! Once we were settled in San Antonio, we went to fuel Janet's Jag (93 octane for about $2.50 per gal vs. 91 in California for over $4.00?!?!) HELLO TEXAS! :) Walking back to the car Janet was talking with an older gentleman at the gas pump, when I asked her what the conversation was about.. The gentleman had walked around her Jag, pointed to the "Leaper", and said to Janet; "I haven't seen one of those for a very longtime". Cheers Y'all! Chad & Janet |
Interesting story. Incredible fuel economy. So far, with the limited driving Ive done on my 3 litre X type Manual, I havent gotten better about 24 mpg, but that's indicated on the display. My XJR get slightly better consistently than the display.
The nipple leaking concerns me a bit. What was the root cause? I lived in San Diego (Poway and worked in Sorrento Valley) for a few years. Ultimately the costs drove me out to the Midwest. I have a feeling the Jaguars will receive a warm welcome in Texas, knowing Texans. |
Gotta love the leapers. I have 4 of them. One on the daily driver, one on the spare Jag in the garage, one on the shelf at home, and one on the top of the monitor i am typing this on.
Funny enough, I just saw in the For Sale section of this forum today - someone is selling the original tooling to create the leapers - they say its the only one. Yours for only $10k. |
Originally Posted by BlownKitty
(Post 2097559)
My wife and I relocated from San Diego, CA to San Antonio, TX (1300 miles) a couple of weeks ago.
We decided to rent a 20' U-Haul with a Auto Transport trailer (to trailer my 2007 X-Type), with Janet following me in her 2008 X-Type. About 6-hrs into the trip Janet radioed me on our walkie-talkies that the temp gauge was reading a little past normal (center of gauge), as it was 105F OAT (outside); I told her to keep an eye on it and let me know if it dropped back to normal. A few minutes later she radioed that the temp was climbing and the caution and warning lights in the cluster were now illuminated. I immediately pulled the U-Haul combo to the shoulder and Janet pulled up behind me and shut the engine off. Walking back to her car I could see fluid dripping and smell coolant, with my first thoughts being radiator, coolant hose, or water pump failure, and we have to be in San Antonio in less than 48-hrs. Once we had the hood up we discovered the source of the leak was the nipple from the engine to the top of the coolant recovery tank had broken. 'back to the U-Haul and digging around in my "road trip tool kit" I inserted a small bolt into the hose and secured it with a threaded hose clamp. After adding coolant (actually 1-gal of anti-freeze and several bottles of Dasani bottled water) we were back on the road. At every fuel stop I checked the coolant level and it was reading at the full mark. As soon as we arrived in SA I ordered a new coolant recovery tank. Funny thoughts (in retrospect). 1. Worse case scenario; We could've taken my perfectly fine '07 off of the trailer, loaded the '08 on, and continued on. 2. I could have cannibalized the coolant tank from my '07 and installed it on the '08. (How much fun would that be in 100F+, on the side of the road, and with traffic whizzing by at 80MPH). 3. There's a bit of truth to old adage "If you're going to buy a Jaguar you better buy two (so you'll have one to drive while the other one is in the shop)" ;) The "Good Stuff": Janet's X-Type travelled over 1300-miles through desert, up hills, down hills in temperatures averaging 100F, at speeds averaging 80MPH, and returned an average of 30MPG for the entire trip! 'going thru west Texas Janet pulled into the passing lane and blew by me.. (I'm thinking.. "Wow! That is a gorgeous car"!) I figured that she was tired of trailing the U-Haul SJTP (Spare Jaguar Transport Vehicle), and decided to stretch their legs. :) A few minutes later as the Janet and her Jag were fading out of view; She radios me "Where are you"?, I radioed back "I'm still behind you dear".. Brain fart? LOL! Once we were settled in San Antonio, we went to fuel Janet's Jag (93 octane for about $2.50 per gal vs. 91 in California for over $4.00?!?!) HELLO TEXAS! :) Walking back to the car Janet was talking with an older gentleman at the gas pump, when I asked her what the conversation was about.. The gentleman had walked around her Jag, pointed to the "Leaper", and said to Janet; "I haven't seen one of those for a very longtime". Cheers Y'all! Chad & Janet
Originally Posted by Count Iblis
(Post 2097648)
Interesting story. Incredible fuel economy. So far, with the limited driving Ive done on my 3 litre X type Manual, I havent gotten better about 24 mpg, but that's indicated on the display
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...ac91d58f6.jpeg But my old X type read exactly the same. It’s my driving habits. My AJ16 XJS does a little better and my V12 E type does a whole lot worse. |
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