As I'm trying to clean up my dirty girl, I took apart the intake and found that on both sides, the (per the manual's nomenclature) "Air Cleaner Center Intake Duct", which is part of the "Intake Tube" (C2Z1689), seem to be degrading and shedding rusty crud into the intake. Granted, the filter should clean it up, but it seems like a pretty stupid design which needlessly clogs the filters. Additionally, was there a reason they chose this type of fabric-on-metal design for this section?

The degrading-material pieces appear to be one part of a whole which costs north of $200 (x2 for both sides) to replace, so I was wondering if anyone had replaced just these “Air Cleaner Center Intake Ducts” or otherwise modified them to prevent the rust-bestos from unnecessarily filling the filter pleats?

I searched around and didn't find anything on the forums, but I did find a few pix from where it looks like someone had wrapped (or completely replaced) them to contain or eliminate the nastiness (possibly from where I'd guess was an Eastern European market, based on the website’s language).

I thought about spraying them with something to contain the crud, or even fabbing up some new ones, but wanted to ask for a potentially easier solution before wasting time fixing them.

Thoughts? Thanks.

 

+1, Mine are breaking down as well, gotta be an alternative material we can use for this!

 

I might just clean it off with a brush and some Simple Green HD Pro or something similar, and then try to seal it, as I really don't feel like trying to replace it with another material right now. I was initially looking at some high-temp silicone spray, but I think it's probably too rigid and will break apart. I've got a bunch of flexible coatings lying around like truck bed coatings, stone chip protectors, sound eliminators, etc. (I'm a hoarder), and noticed that Flex Seal liquid withstands temps up to 350°, so that might be my winner. I'll do a little more research tonight and try to settle on something cheap, easy, and effective. I'll update the post with results.

 

I’ve decided to definitely not replace these rusty "Air Cleaner Center Intake Ducts" at this time. I was considering replacing them with silicone hoses or something similar, but the plastic pieces which make up the rest of the “Intake Tubes” have hooks which are meant to grab onto the rusty pieces, and even with hose clamps or something similar, I don’t think it would all hold together well.

I’ve already cleaned the entire intake tubes with Simple Green HD Pro and immediately thoroughly dried them, and I’m definitely going to use Flex Seal liquid to coat the insides and outsides. I was considering applying a rust reformer primer on the rusty areas, but couldn’t find a readily available option which was semi-flexible and could also stand up to engine bay temps, so I think I’ll just rely on the Flex Seal to encapsulate the rust from both sides. That should significantly slow the rust down and should make it a non-issue for the remainder of the car’s life, especially as far as flaking into the intake filters. If not, I’ll figure out something else in another ten years.

Side note: I’m also going to use Flex Seal on the seams of the plastic pieces of the entire intake tube, as there are plenty of areas where air is able to get in and out, due to the multi-piece construction. Is it overkill? Definitely. But, that’s what I do (don’t tempt me into spraying them with a heat shielding coating, too – Ha-ha!).

Here're the aforementioned hooks:


Decisions, decisions:


Seams in the plastic, even before the whole intake tube is reassembled:

 

you weren't kidding about the hoarding

 

Ha-ha! I hate running to the store when I need something only slightly less than I hate waiting on something to be delivered.

 

Replacements for the air intake fabric tubes are available. I found them on EBay, Amazon, and AliExpress. The ones on EBay and Amazon seem overpriced. I was able to purchase a pair of these on AliExpress, shipped from China, for $15, which included shipping to the US. Shipping took 9 days. I installed one last night and the fit is good and they appear to be the same as what was on my 2013 XF - a black fabric with some thin nylon wire that spirals through the fabric.

To find these try searching using "Jaguar XF air intake cotton tubes".




Mike