Well, thought that would get everyone's attention
My father in law was driving my '05 VDP and did not notice that the red lights on, and that the engine was overheating as he drove it up the freeway to my office.
I noticed the fans weren't kicking on when hot, cleaned the front engine grounds and they do now. Maybe the water pump I put on recently broke the shaft or something. I'm not going to investigate further.

Anyway, he picked me up, and it had cooled down, but as soon as we get on the freeway it starts to overheat. I immediately pulled off the freeway and popped the hood to let her cool down.
It will drive in the city fine, runs solid, it's however, now using up coolant. White out the exhaust so I'll assume a head gasket went.


I've had my fun, I'm going to move onto something else, maybe an XJR or maybe another make.


So what do you do with a car thats nice, needs work you don't want to do? What can get me a few bucks out of her?

 

I'm sorry about the overheating problem with your 2005 Jaguar, but I don't think that it would hurt at this point to try some radiator stop leak tablets first before parting with the car. Before doing so, you might want to contact the manufacturer of the stop leak tablets to determine the specific type that you should use. Regarding the cylinder head gaskets, they rarely leak or rupture in Jaguars, but in your case, they could have done so as the result of the overheating.

Of course, the overheating problem will likely remain assuming that the radiator stop leak tablets had sealed the head gaskets so the root cause of the overheating will still have to be ferreted out.

 

Sorry to hear of your over heating situation.
Especially if someone else was driving, & missed what was happening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Putting another motor in, or rebuilding yours is your best choice i m o.
Otherwise your not going to get much selling it.
Unless an unknowing buyer shows up, & the stop leak works till after the sale.
Do you not like the car, & think fixing it not worth fixing???

 

Good points, I actually had forgotten about some of the stop leaks. I'll look into it as an experiment, that's easy and could be fun.

Wingrider - she's got ~150k miles. It's got a few needs (headliner). I've still got boxes of parts, but frankly I'm just tired of fixing it, and don't have time. Two kids take up any fun wrenching time, or drive it to the mechanic time. It used to be fun, not it's just pain. Different stage in my life for this type of car. Look at the common issues thread/maintenance and basically the car has had every one of them done (suspension rebuilt, air suspension all new, interior parts etc etc).

I like cars, so I'm just going to move on.

And no, I would never sell it to someone knowing it had stopleak for a headgasket without fulling letting them know.

 

Where are you located?

 

I'm in Columbus, Ohio if anyone else is interested; bit north of OSU campus/downtown. I have had a few private messages - send me one if you have interest in her.

If I can figure it out, I'll post a few pics. Two sets of wheels - BBS wheels at the top of this link in Oyster (were an upgrade for an S type R). Stockers too.
https://www.finishlinewheels.com/JAGUAR/S-TYPE/2005/

*it was bought by a long time Jaguar fan off of this site; I flew down to Florida and drove her back. Was Jaguar CPO'd. Usual scratches, scrapes etc for the year, but still shines up very nicely with a good looking interior.

 

I'm surprised these don't have cylinder deactivation when overheating. I had a Lincoln LS that kept shutting off different cylinders so the intake air kept the engine cooled. Helped me get to the next exit when I lost coolant on the highway. Way down on power but able to drive 50 to 60 and seemed to cause no long term problems.

 

Proper temperature gauge (with a good old fashioned needle: moving from cold to normal and then showing anything TOWARDS overheating) would do!

I mean, what is the point of a gauge that only informs you that you have already overheated and probably damaged your engine?

 

Use block seal, you have nothing to lose and the 4.2 are really hard to hurt even overheated so you still may be able to salvage and sell cheap running

 

....if only I had an XJR Brutal

yeah, I need to figure out why it was overheating for sure in the first place. My guess is water pump I recently put on got something stuck in the vanes, or the shaft broke. I also noticed when popping the hood that the cooling fans weren't on, which of course they should have been (then they kicked on full tilt). I went to clean the the 3 front major grounds, had some build up/white powder that wasn't obvious to the naked eye. Cleaned all of them then two of the mount bolts snapped when I tightened them back down. Replaced with bolts and nuts.
It only overheats when you get it on the freeway now.

I'm not as mad at the car now, if I get some time this weekend I'll get in there.

 

HAHA Ross, did you say overheating when driving? Fans wont do that, you get enough airflow, but a bad water pump will and even more so the outlet pipe internally where the back of the thermostat seats. that plastic channel breaks inside and overheats the engine driving because it does circulate coolant correctly. iirc it flow in circles in the engine instead of going to the radiator to cool. just pop the 3 screws out of the t stat cover and have a look. this is EXACTLY why I never recommend just the thermostat and not the complete housing

 

rosskuhns -
this is mike in columbus - remember we PM'd regarding who works on my 05 Super V8 - Interestingly I also just had an over heat problem and posted the title as "an overheating experience" just a couple days ago.

Anyway, I had similar symptoms as yours, except no white smoke out of tail pipe. My shop replaced an easy to reach bypass hose that was obviously leaking and worn (did not solve problem). Then, since the top of the engine had to come off to further investigate issue he also replaced fuel filter, and o-rings on injectors. It turned out that one of the other bypass hoses was bad - he replaced that and all other hoses since he was there. Car is now running fabulous and can once again be my highway cruiser.

My shop said they had ten hours into the car, but he charged me only $500 for the work. This rate, this time, was due in part because of the time I give him to work on the car, and because I had another repair on my 09 Altima that also required going back into the shop (Total A/C replace that when pressurized sprang another leak elsewhere - corrected at N/C). I am extraordinarily patient, and have that luxury as the Jag is not my primary drive. He is more than competent and trust worthy.

Anyway I now see why Wingrider responded to my post saying I was lucky not more damage was done when I was driving in near or at red overheat for long period on freeway - my shop did mention that it could be a head gasket (since replacing first bypass hose did not work).

Perhaps my shop is an option if you can't work on your car - I'm not trying to drum up business for him - the shop is VERY busy. But perhaps it's worth considering.

Plus you can get there easily on side streets from where you are.

Hope this is helpful.

Mike D.

 

Columbus is two hours from Stow, with no issues such as road construction, rush hour, etc.
A good, as well as honest mechanic, is truly a find, stay in touch.
An old friend of mine, helps me out when i get stuck on a job.
He has more work than he can handle, from word of mouth.

 

Well, I pulled the thermostat last night (with the 'help' of my 6 year old son) and tested it with my heat gun. It works.
No debris, no cracks in the housing; I do recall I replaced the whole assembly not long after purchase.


Next?
I guess pull the serpentine belt and see how the water pump turns/feels.



Man, that's the disappointing part, just looking at the engine and the number of new parts I've put on it in the name of keeping it reliable (coolant hoses, reservoir, vac hoses, throttle body and it goes on). That's the disheartening part.

 

You probably know it but this could have been a replacement of a something small and silly had your father-in-law pulled over when the warning lights came on. Since he didn't that's why now it's a possible engine replacement scenario.

 

AJ16er, yep, I know this...but what are you going to do? He's family and a bit absent minded on these sorts of things. He's a good man, just not a car guy; I'm not going to bring it up, the engine just 'blew up'. These things happen. In the end, it's just a car.

 

Keeping things peaceful in the family, & home, has it's price.
Given the rather low cost to acquire another, just keep this one for a parts car.

 

Wingrider, I live in the middle of Columbus, no room to keep a parts car around...and my neighbors would not be happy

I need to get rid of the girl. I've not had a chance to see if the water pump broke.

 

Hmmm, well I got an hour or so and pulled the new water pump I put on. She's not blocked, shaft fine. Hmmmm...

I wonder if it:
a) just blew a head gasket on her own in a good old fashioned way
b) bad ground caused the cooling fan not to work, she overheated, father in law failed to see any of those red lights, and it then blew a head gasket.

I pulled the thermostat, heated it up and it opened; looks like it's good, unless it was some weirdo stuck thing.


Worth it to pull the whole thermostat housing to look for a block or something?

 

My 2006 XJ VDP had a bad radiator cap relived pressure @ 41 psi, causing the Crosse over pipe between the two heads to split open and allowed water to spray out.
It is in the front of engine and with a radiator tester is easy to trouble shoot and not to hard to replace, you should be able to see the fiber Crosse over with the plastic cover off.
New pipe $175.00 new cap $12.00
I am 65 and not as good as I once was took me 6 hours

Hope this helpes