I noticed today that the drivers side of my 2004 Sovereign 3 litre V6 is cold.
I just had a look at the FAO's and it says:

"The heater core in our cars blocks up eventually which means less heat getting to the drivers side (regardless of LHD or RHD) if you're lucky it can be flushed out. If not then it's dashboard out to replace the core".

So it's a complete flush out is that the general opinion and if you're lucky all will be well? anything else I should be looking for?

I did a coolant flush recently on my son's 1987 Mini just connected a garden hose to the inlet removed a hose and flushed the whole thing out. Anything else of special interest I need to know?

Dave

 

You may be able to connect the hose to the two heater connections where they

penetrate the firewall.

"Dashboard out" is a bit misleading since you pull the core out from the passenger side

which means dropping the glove box and maybe removing it alltogether.

You still need to be a contortionist but not as bad as working on an E type!

 

Here is where I backflushed my heater core.

Both of those hose ends are easily disconnected...once you get to them. Depending on the size of your hands and how much room you need, you may have to take off the expansion tank and remove some of the hoses from the aux coolant pump to get good access to them. I used one of the removed hoses to connect it to my garden hose and flushed both in and out of the core. It did help with heat on the driver side.

 

Thanks but the E-Type must be the easiest car to remove the heater core it sits outside of the cabin in it own easily accessible black box.

Dave

 

Matt,

An even bigger thanks, I really need to get some sort of manual for this car, not easy since it looks like Haynes don't make one. I haven't even lifted the bonnet of the car since I first bought it so your photos are a great help.
Its just coming up to 100K so according to the thread I quoted it looks like I have some work to do. New front rotors and pads were planned before this little issue popped up.

Dave

 

Dave, in the forums, there are links to download your two biggest 'manual' needs...(1) Jaguar Electronic Parts Catalogue (EPC) and (2) Jaguar technician Information System (JTIS)

both can be downloaded and installed on your computer, no CD or DVD required. They are invaluable if you do your own work and/or order parts yourself

 

"Thanks but the E-Type must be the easiest car to remove the heater core it sits outside of the cabin in it own easily accessible black box."

Apparently there are some heater pipes which disappear into the firewall and run along a

labyrinth,then back out into the engine bay.

My friend needed to replace these on his E Type and was complaining about the difficulties.

 

I know the pipes you mean that is the first thing you replace when you restore an E-Type, I made my own out of stainless steel and covered them with pipe insulation.
If you need to replace when the car is complete it's a hard job unless you find someone with the hands of a 5 year old child with the strength of Desperate Dan and arms as long as a chimp. Dash off, speedo and rev counter fascia out, glovebox out and the wiper rack out and you still struggle.

Dave

 

This morning I decided to tackle the flushing of the heater matrix. Removed both hoses and put a hose in the top steel tube and let it run. Once the anti freeze had cleared there was no debri flowing through just clean fresh water.

I checked the engine and pollen filters which looked like they had never been changed and cleaned them prior to replacement. Luckily it's the Jaguar spares day at Stoneleigh tomorrow so I now have an even larger shopping list.

After flushing the top hose I removed the garden hose and fitted it in the bottom pipe to back flush. Left that going for at least 20 mins then replaced all the hoses, topped up the coolant and ran the engine, no change, still cold on the drivers side.

I was a bit dubious that this would work before I started, if fluid is going through the heater matrix core then it can't be blocked there has to another fault elsewhere. Without having a line diagram of the system and all it's components then its very hard to fault find.

There is another thread where someone had the same problem and then lost all heat, it was the auxiliary pump, are there two of these or is there something that feeds either side.

I'll have to try downloading the manual again, last time wasn't successful for some reason.
At least the morning wasn't wasted as I found I need new filters etc.

Dave

 

Lack of heat to driver's side is usually due to blocked core but a flush is not

always successful even though you have water exiting the core at full

bore,part of the core is bypassed!

I don't understand it either but that's what can happen.

You need to look at the aux pump.(There is only one near the rad)

Is it running and if yes is it pumping?


https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...l-cold-128241/

 

I took the XJ to the Jag spares day today about 40 mile trip there and after around 5 miles or so the heater started to warm up, not working 100% but better than it was, might get better with a bit of use or a bit more flushing.

Dave

 

I let my core sit overnight with vinegar also before I flushed. Sorry, I forgot to mention that part.

 

H20BOY

Great write up, will probably be tackling this job prior to winter. It gets cold up in NH

RyeJag

 

Did you remove the heater core to soak it in vinegar or pour vinegar down the pipes and let it sit overnight?

Dave

 

I connected a hose to the top pipe, plugged off the bottom, and filled her up! It was probably 50/50 mixture

 

Jaguar Procedure for older models. Assumming they use dexcool, you can obtain the chemical kit