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SO, im not getting to use my XJR a lot these days, work and stuff, I was worried with all the damp cold weather that it was going to get damp inside, so maybe once a week or so i jump in, start it up and let it idle for half an hour or so, crack the windows a little bit and put the heating on max. then shut it off, close up and go inside. But this time, I sat a bit longer, playing a game on my phone, maybe an hour if truth be told, heater was on full, car was toasty warm, then I got whiff of antifreeze, and looked up to see steam belching out from under the bonnet, I shut the engine off immediately and left the ignition on with the heater on full, temp gauge was still sitting half way, popped the bonnet and had a look, seems to be from the rear of the engine, so assuming could be a heater hose, or more likely the valley hose that everyone talks about. It was getting dark and it was damp and cold and i was heading for a nap before night-shift, so only had a quick look, hopefully get a better look tomorrow. But whatever it is, I will need to fix or replace it, and wondering while I'm in there, especially if it turns out to be the valley hose, if there was anything else I should consider doing, car has 134,000 miles, obviously I will be renewing the anti freeze, I did consider using Evan's waterless coolant, which sounds like the dogs whatsit's of coolants, but with a cooling system capacity of over 17 litres, and at somewhere around £12 a litre, plus £8 a litre for the prep fluid, it seems a tad on the expensive side at around £340, compared to good old fashioned anti-freeze at about £40 for the same job.
A few things I would suggest when you have the SC off the engine.
Definitely "degunk" the charge coolers and everywhere you see the soft carbon build up such as in the lower part of the throttle body and the elbow below that.
Many suggest replacing the knock sensors while you are in there.
Change the SC fluid while its out of the car and on the level. You can easily drain it all.
Your antifreeze sounds expensive over there.
Do not mix non oats with oats antifreeze or you will get clogging and likely in the heater matrix.
Yeah, everything in the UK is expensive, I will def degunk as much as I can, I found more forum posts and other sources and have got hold of a list of parts that someone suggested replacing while doing the job, will def change the SC fluid, The Knock sensors come in at around £150 for the pair, but I see what you mean, if they did happen to go after i did the job, it's a full strip down to change them again. I.m Wondering if I should replace the water pump while I'm that deep in the engine bay. Also I have been getting an intermittent Fan Rationality fault code, with the occasional faint electrical burning smell from the front left headlight area, so intend to take off the front bumper, take out the radiator and fan unit, and inspect them and the wiring while I'm at it. So my credit card is all charged up and ready to get maxed out on Jaguar parts.
Yes on water pump and yes on knock sensors for sure. I have a set and an extra one, brand new in the box as I have to tackle this as I get the occasional low voltage error.
One knock sensor gave marginal resistance and the other is kaput. I suspect from contact with coolant.
Currently I have that KS bypassed with a 200 ohm resistor on the harness side.
Well, I bit the bullet and stripped it all out last night, I was suppose to be nightshift, but it got cancelled and as I was up anyway, i decided to use the time. What an absolute nightmare, nothing came off easy, nothing was easy to get to and nothing wanted to come off. took me over 5 hours to strip it. The be honest there is not "really" a lot to come out, but access to the parts that do, is just shocking, and most screws and bolts can only be moved fractions at a time, IF the engine was on the floor, I believe it would take less than an hour to get all the parts off. Unfortunately the engine was not on the floor.
In the end up it was not the valley hose that had split, it was one of the short hoses from the EGR to the Throttle body, I could probably have stopped there and just changed that, but If it's gone, how far away are the others from failing, so I carried on.
I cannot stress this enough, Access is ridiculous, It is clear that the whole thing was put together on a factory floor, then a car was built around it. And no thought was given at all to the possibility of any work ever needing to be done ever. I read as many write-ups as I could find, and I was still unprepared for what I found.
I would start by saying If I were doing it again, The first thing I would do is remove the bonnet ( hood ). as most of the work you need to do is at the rear of the engine bay and the Hinges and struts alone are definitely in the way. I was alone and it was literally the middle of the night, so couldn't even call anyone to help me remove it, but I will be calling on someone to help me get it off for the rebuild. Getting the Scuttle panel off was difficult, after removing as many clips and fasteners as I could find I pulled and pulled, but it felt like there were more screws holding it onto the windshield, but there are not, you just have to pull, and it really is in there tight, eventually it gave up and came out. I removed all the clips and screws from the Bulkhead, but that was just the start, getting it out past the rear of the engine was another matter, Don't know if this area is the same on LHD's but as you face the car, the right side of the bulkhead is wedged behind the throttle body, wiring harness and other bits and pieces, so it had to be "manipulated" to get it out, I found harsh language and grunting helped a little , and as I pulled and it finally came away, I could only wonder how the hell i'm going to get it back in there
Everything after that just got harder and harder to get to. Most write ups said the screws that hold the Inlet elbow on where difficult to access, but let me confirm, they are a Gnat's curly hair away from being IMPOSSIBLE to access.
The Elbow is held in lace by 4 torx AND 2 10mm bolts, the 4 torx bolts are accessed from the back, mounted horizontally, 2 at the top, fairly easy to get at, 2 more under those which is why you have to remove the EGR valve, with the 2 bolts even harder to get to also mounted horizontally, but accessed from the sides, one on the left one on the right, these hold the Elbow onto a bracket attached to the engine block, which cannot be removed with the elbow in place. There are some wires and those hard plastic tubes that have a "squeeze" fitting, but they are a bugger to release. Once the elbow is out, access to the supercharger rear bolt is easy, the 2 bolts at the front are also easy to access, however, on my car, a 2006 model, the Supercharger pulley in under the Water rail / Thermostat housing that has almost every hose in the engine attached to it, and again access to the 4 torx bolts that hold it in is limited. This has to be removed to get the supercharger out. Once I got the supercharger out, my heart sank, there were NO hoses under it, only one at the very front, that had a u shaped centre section, and I suddenly remembered reading one thread where a guy had said Indy Jaguar mechanic had told him HIS car did not have the valley hoses, but when i lifted out the Insulator pad, there they were, 2 hoses one either side, both intact, but def getting hauled out and replaced, along with any other hoses i can think to change. Just have to order them all up now, plus 1 of the plastic tubes I managed to break removing.
Might as well do the water pump as I have no idea if it's ever been done and the car is at 134,000 miles, still not sure about the Knock sensors, It's another £150 if I do them, but I could be tempting fate by not doing them.
OK, I will try again, tried to post a reply earlier with attached pics, but it seems to have gone AWOL, think maybe the pics were too large.
So I ordered up a list of parts, Including the 2 Knock sensors, probably won't get them til after Christmas now, But I am still having trouble Identifying and getting part numbers for one hose in particular, the second hose that runs the length of the Valley, and would Ideally like the number of the U-shaped hose in the second pic as I think it would be a lot easier to replace this hose at this time too. Here goes......
Last edited by brian5; 12-18-2018 at 08:57 AM.
Reason: Pictures would not display
Yeah thanks, stuffed the ports with rags, after the pics, I left all hoses pretty much in situ until i get the replacements to aid in remembering where and how they go.
Ordered parts so far are:-
OK, here we go, I ordered a parts list from David Manners on 18th December, hoping they would arrive before xmas but not really expecting it, They said, parts were not stocked, but 2 days should see them at their place, so I thought, ok, still a chance of getting them before Xmas, not a word from them, xmas came and went, still nothing, checked their website again and found that they closed on 24th December and would not reopen until 2nd January......, I called a Jaguar parts department in Glasgow and gave them the list, and asked about price and availability, No chance, we don't stock parts for the X350, they will have to come from the factory and it's closed until 2nd January. SO, I still wasn't sure I had the correct parts ordered, so spend a few days, researching and finally I went onto Jaguar classic parts website, and ordered the parts from them, on 27th December, Cancelled the David Manners order, as I was really pissed off with them for not getting me the parts, or even contacting me during the 6 days they were open before they closed for the holidays. Also sent a message to Jaguar Classics, asking when I could expect the order as I was really in a hurry for it, however, they were also closed until 2nd January. I got an email first thing on 2nd, January saying, they would have the order to me by Friday 4th January, and true to their word, first thing Friday it arrived, BUT, the wife had been pestering me to go away for a few days, and on Friday, we jumped on a train to York, not returning until Wednesday evening. While I was away, I got a message from work that there had been a f*^k Up and I would have to go to Manchester on Friday for 9am, to attend a refresher course. Then straight back to work on Saturday night. It was like the world was plotting against me.
ANYWAY, I slept most of Sunday, and as the wife was Nightshift on Sunday night and I am not back to work now until Wednesday night, I decided to do it on Sunday night. At 8pm, I Popped down at to the Garage and got stuck in, cleaned stuff up, set out parts, checked the parts I had ordered were what I needed, I had 2 extra hoses, and the Knock sensors were wrong, everywhere I had looked, it was 2 Knock sensors, and they all seemed to have the same part number for every Jaguar built since the pope was an Alter boy, but not on mine, no, mine has 2 Knock sensors, but they come as one piece, both wired into one multiplug. I worked away, I changed the supercharger oil, which was literally jet black and smelled burnt, I replaced the 2 hoses under the supercharger, cleaned all mating surfaces, and then finally decided to go with the original Knock sensors, as I couldn't wait any longer to get this job done, I know, I know, it could come back to bite me in the ****, but it is now over a month since the hose burst, and I want my car back.
First thing is the fit the supercharger, easy...ish, that thing weighs a ton lean over the front and drop it nose first trying to tuck it under the water rail, got it in and bolted it down, fitted the belt, and reattached the water rail, popped all the front hoses back in place, locked everything off, then went to the rear of the supercharger, and found I have managed to get one of the hoses trapped under the supercharger, had to undo the 3 bolts, completely remove the rear bolt and get the hose out from under it. bolted it back down and onto the elbow, tight, but got that in, and fairly easily got the 5 bolts in for that, Next is the EGR valve and pipe, again, a tight squeeze to get it on situ, but, bolted down nice, throttle body, down it went, and then it all got difficult, pipes hoses wiring plugs, can;t see where they go but got to get them in, found a "spare" plug at the back and couldn't see anywhere for it to go 15 minutes, just feeling about for a socket, finally got it, right at the back and almost underneath the throttle body. made sure all plugs and hoses and pipes etc where accounted for and plugged in.
Next is the bulkhead, what an absolute c*^t it had to squeeze between the rear of the throttle body, heater hoses/pipes, a bunch of wiring harnesses and the bulkhead, it has to be forced in, or it just won't go, had to try to lever the heater pipe forward while pushing the panel down, finally got it in, then the cabin filter box and paneling goes in, scuttle panel wipers, etc.
next is the plenum, held down onto the throttle body by a rubber ring and 2 Jubilee clips, access is limited , as they say in the Haynes manuals, I found harsh language and kicking stuff worked a treat. Popped in the filter assembly and plugs, engine cover, and now to, arguably, THE most difficult part of the build.....the coolant reservoir......I mean REALLY?????, that bottom hose took me a full half hour to get that sucker in, I remember having trouble when I changed it last year, but I don't remember it being that bad. popped on all the trim finishers. which left just the under trays to go back on, popped the key in the ignition, turned it and it started first click, sounded ok, a momentary squeel from the belts and it settled down to a fast idle, happy, I switched off and as It was now 2am and I had no anti freeze , i finished up and headed home, but before I went I counted up my "comfies", ( as in, where the f*^k did that come fae ( from ) ), 1 10mm nut, I know it's from the cabin filter area, but I could not find where, and 1 8mm bolt that, I think was from the the wiring harness at the rear of the engine. I have ordered up anti freeze and will pop down again to night and run it through, test drive, and hopefully all will be good, THEN, i just have my Jagdroid upgrade to fit, oh joy, LOL
Thanks for posting an update Brian, reading that I'm glad I didn't attempt this myself on my own car which has just had it's valley pipe replaced by Chris Isle at The Jag Specialist. Would have been too much for me to handle!
It had pretty much all the other hoses replaced at the same time as they were past it (car has done 223k) and the water pump which had worn bearings. Was £450 plus vat just for the hoses and pump etc, and 8 hours worth of labour!
Good to hear Ben, I should have replaced as many hoses as I could but as long as the ones around the Supercharger have been done, the rest, if they ever need doing, should be a breeze....
I got round to fitting the Jagdroid unit yesterday, just got to wire in the wake up and the reverse switch, hide all the other gubbings under the glovebox, set up the steering wheel controls and attach the antenna's for the DAB and the GPS, Then I will consider fitting the reversing camera, and maybe a front camera, I bought 2 of those reversing camera's with that idea in mind, but we will see.
I was just wondering, with regard to the GPS antenna, do i attach it to the dash or the windscreen?
12-09-2018, 09:02 PM
Coolant leak
