Hi All,

I am going to start looking for the leak this weekend when I have a reasonable gap to concentrate on it.. but am looking for any advice on likely things to look out for.
My x-type suddenly steamed from the radiator grille on Saturday as I pulled up in a car park. I opened the bonnet and about 1.5litres of coolant had gone and looking at the front of the engine bay could see some steam but none of the usual signs of coolant drying on surfaces. I topped it up and started worrying.. just keeping an eye on it.
On Sunday I put a bottle of bar leak in the coolant just in case it was a small leak and well, it was a potentially cheap temporary fix.
Sunday night after motorway driving through the day no coolant had gone.. I started to relax.
the car rested Monday, and Tuesday I drove the 3 miles to work, and back through stop start as usual and the car had again lost 2 litres of coolant. |same today :-( I have looked around, and the coolant filler has no sign of oil in it, I can see no obvious signs of water having steamed and splashed around in the engine bay.
At the weekend I guess I need to get the covers off the top of the engine and see if I san locate the leak.. What would be helpful is to know where it is most likely to be, and any other advice you may have.. the engine management light is not coming on, and the cur runs as gorgeously as usual so I am assuming (yes I know assuming is dangerous ) it is a seal or pipe that is failing... I would appreciate any thoughts you might have..

Many thanks
Steve

 

Yes take those covers off, top up the coolant, and watch it as it runs. That's what I would do. I'd be watching that water pump first. If it is the water pump, cheap and easy fix. Good luck!

 

With a mysterious coolant loss and no obvious split hose / leaking hose connector / expansion tank cap leak, I'd put a sticking thermostat high on the check list together with the water pump.

Graham

 

Another possibility is the radiator itself. Ours has just over 100,000 miles and I've replaced both the water pump and the radiator. I would rather replace several water pumps than to have to change one radiator!

 

If you have to buy a water pump be sure to check the aftermarket. Ford uses the same pump and I think Mazda too on some models. I think I paid something like $50 USD for a new one and it is very easy to change out.

 

I had the same mystery loss. Mine was a crack in the upper radiator pipe right below the air intake that opened up under pressure (not visible) until it sprayed. It comes with the whole pipe and thermostat pipe,thermostat.The other mystery leak was the hose that goes to the water pump.Also check the hose on the coolant recovery tank, the pipe breaks from pressing on the hood.

 

Hi all, thankyou for your input so far.. tonight I managed to top it up and run the engine for a short while at least to try to tie things down a bit but no time to take the covers off the engine :-(.. I have discovered that if the car is idling there is no sign of a leak at all - but when the revs are raised to 2000 rpm or so coolant starts pooling rapidly on the driver side (right hand drive here :-)) almost directly under what looks like the alternator, in the underskirt of the bumper then coming out to the road. I cant see much in the way (if any) pipes in that area - there does appear to be some kind of pipe just below that corner of the radiator goes from there somewhere - but because it only leaks when the engine is above idling speed I could not press the accelerator *and* see the leak.. hoping for a better look at the weekend if I take the panel off from under the bumper.. any thoughts come to mind please?
Many thanks for any thoughts... I very much appreciate anything that points me in the right direction

 

Yes I have one idea. Lower radiator hose is there. It runs from the oil cooler (at the oil filter) to the bottom right of the radiator. Snaps into place on the rad with a spring clip and seals with an O ring. Also check the drain tap in the fitting at the radiator and check that it is tight and sealed there.

 

OK, an update.. my wife (rightly as it turned out) persuaded me to get the car checked at a local garage - and the water pump has a small leak they will regasket, and the radiator has failed... cost of parts and labour £429.36 :-( *but* thankyou for your input everyone.. I *had* wondered with my track history if mine would be more a worst case scenario than just pipes :-)

 

Get them to do a good flush of the system too, Steve. Try to get that Bars Leaks out best you can. And as far as the pump I would just have them replace it. Ours didn't last much further than where you are now and it would be a shame to visit that work twice.

Make sure they reinstall all that foam surround on the new radiator or you could have overheat problems with it. That stuff forces the air to go through the radiator.

 

Final update (I think) .. on pressure testing the radiator virtually split about 3" up from the bottom.. so it was well gone I would guess.. anyway the garage bill was £492 in the end, knocked down to £480 - they replaced the radiator (couldnt transfer the foam across as it was leterally falling apart), resealed the - to quote - three plastic sections on the water pump, and replaced all the mounting bolts for the radiator as were coroded solid, refilled with coolant and repressure tested... myu only notes this morning driving it for the first time was that the air on hot in the car was much hotter than it has ever been before, and at idle the engine seems less lumpy not that I can see how that could be connected and must be the usual paranoia of everything being checked after the car has had something changed grin...

 

Steve,

Thanks for posting the result. Good to hear you found the leak and got it fixed. I've added 'RESOLVED' to your thread title.

You may find the coolant level drops slightly after the system has been 'opened' like that and refilled as any trapped air (particularly in the heater matrix) clears.

Graham

 

Good to hear you are rolling again Steve. The foam deteriorating is very common. I have a thread in this forum that shows how I replaced mine. It can be done with the radiator installed but probably not worth the effort unless you start to have overheating this summer. Graham is right that it will take a few cycles to purge all the air out of the cooling system. Keep checking the catch tank the next few days and make sure it stays topped off.

 

Thankyou very much for that - I did the short run into work today and noted the coolant had gone down maybe 250ml or so.. I'll likely leave it till tomorrow to top it up. I'm guessing the hot air from the heater is now probably more as it should be, and the water flow was not as should be with the old radiator since before I took possession .. and to be honest where I am up to a pipe or two, replacing a radiator is beyond me esp without a garage or ramps/pit.. so it all worked out in the end.. one question though.. I know from my XJ previously that Jaguar temp guages do not show consistently if the temp goes up above normal.. if I do start to get overheating in the summer is it just a case of watching for steam? I know a daft question but I know on the XJ it definately did not show me overtemp when a water pipe went and it worries me.. :-)

 

I think the instrumentation on the X Type is trustworthy so no worries there.

I did the radiator swap on mine. For that matter pretty much rebuilt her firewall forward. I have to admit it requires slightly better than shade tree skills to work on this machine. And since the radiator comes out the bottom, you almost need a lift to get the front up high enough. I did it with jacks and stands but it was tedious and you'd have to know what you're doing to make it safe.

All that said, you don't learn if you don't try. But you have to pick your battles.