Thanks to this excellent forum, I have had great success maintaining and repairing my car(04 XJR). I have rebuilt the suspension compressor, changed air-shocks, replaced rotors and pads, temperature sensor, just to name a few.

Of course like everyone, life doesn’t always afford me the time to do everything; hence, I’m fortunate to have a super mechanic help me when needed.

To the question:

Out of town with car & “add coolant” light comes on. Take car to dealer. Prognosis: needs new water pump. However, when he attempts to do this, he stops and recommends that we take a gallon of coolant with us and head back to Seattle because he is afraid that he will break the bolts getting pump off and it would take more time than we had. Fair enough. Cost: 200 & change.

After getting home, take car to mechanic. He says that after pressure testing, he sees no leak. So, we drive the car and after 4 weeks light comes back on. Bottom line is that we are using a gallon of coolant every 8 weeks.

Take car back to mechanic and get a price of 800 US to replace pump and belts(car has 60K mi). So, I say: please fix.

Guess what? Yep, get a call & the first bolt broke and the bolt removing expert is out of the country at a family wedding.

We have the car back, awaiting the expert's return. She runs like she is brand new in spite of the fact that she’s leaking fluid(same amount as before) and has a broken bolt.

While, once the bolt removing expert returns, we plan to take the car back to have the water pump replaced. I suspect the cost, once the bolt(s) are removed the $$ will be significantly more than the $800.

My mechanic says he has replaced hundreds of Jag water pumps and he has never had a bolt shear-off. Has anyone else ever had such an experience? Any words to the wise? I have a feeling that I should count my lucky stars that I didn’t have the time to take this project on!

 

Never had a bolt break on any of my Jaguars. I wonder if the first mechanic when you were out of town may have started the failure or the second shop broke it by trying to use an air tool tor remove the bolt when it is best to break those bolts loose by using a hand ratchet. My leaks have mostly come from the "octopus" hose at the back of the engine or in the newer 5L engine the coolant tube under the supercharger between the heads.

 

Thx, XJsss.
Pray between the dealer & my guy, they are at least replacing the right part.

 

I had the first one break on my XKR when I went to change the pump, was very gentle with the rest, got the pump off grabbed the torch to heat up the block along with the vise grips, when I clamped them on, the bolt spun, without heat.... turned out that the bolt was frozen to the pump....