I have a leak at the hose from the water pump to the water pipe at the clamp area. I thought tightening the clamp would help but it just made it worse. Looks like crud is building up under the hose also. I figure it just needs a new clamp and clean the crud but figuring since the car is 24 years old, might as well replace the hose. As well as the lower and upper hose while I’m in there.

I’ve heard complaints about the URO lower hose, but all I seem to find readily available are the Eurospare and URO hose. Anyone know if the Eurospare brand is reliable? Or am I better off just leaving the original on until it leaks and dealing with it later?

Also are the gaskets on the water rail known to leak? Should I replace them while I’m in there or not bother?

 

As a general rule, I have found the original Dunlop hoses to be of excellent quality, much better than anything that can be bought today. If your hose is in good condition with no obvious cracks or bulges, I'd simply take it off the radiator, clean any crud or deposits and reinstall.

 

I'm inclined to agree with Jagboi; you may well be better off with the original. It galls me to say that; most of us have been trained to replace hoses every 10 years or so just on general principles. But, nowadays, it might end up being a backwards step.

In fairness and honesty I've never had a URO hose fail, personally. But URO, broadly, does not have the best reputation and some URO parts I've purchased were clearly of lower quality.

Eurospare has been a bit of a mystery to me for years. The name is owned owned by "Hotbray"; I think Eurospare does not exist to day as it might have 10-15 years ago.

https://www.hotbray.co.uk/about-us/
https://www.hotbray.co.uk/eurospare/

If you order Eurospare you may well end up with a URO part for all I know.

Cheers
DD

 

Here is a failure report with 500km on the hose: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...e-fail-250767/

 

Cool thanks for the replies. Will keep the original lower hose and clean the surfaces they attach to. Especially since it isn’t the one I’m having a problem with.

Not looking forward to getting at the one under the intake to clean though for the other hose from the water pump to rail.

 

It might be easier to remove the supercharger, it's not that difficult to do and gives you much easier access to the "octopus hose"

 

I’m in luck. I’m naturally aspirated. I took a quick glance at it and seen the other end of the hose that’s giving me the problem under the intake manifold. I’m assuming that end will be just as dirty as how the other ends look (haven’t taken it off yet just judging by how it looks around the outer edges of the hose).

Looks like if I take that secondary air pump off it may be a little easier to get in there.

 

Other trick is if you have a small pick with a angled tip, run that between the hose and the metal pipe. That breaks the bond between the rubber and metal and the hose comes off much easier. Not sure why I had it in my mind you had an XJR.

 

Water rail gaskets will leak. I've had it occur on 2 of 4 X300 NA AJ16's. You can get to and clean the water rail-to-b*st*rd hose nipple with the intake manifold in situ. Not so with the water rail gaskets, at least as far as my experience goes. Cut sandpaper into appropriate-width strips and use a back-and-forth sawing motion all 'round the water rail nipple.

I've had a Uro b*st*rd hose fail incredibly early, memory foggy, but like 3-6 months.

 

cool thanks for the response. Would you recommend replacing the water rail gaskets or waiting for them to leak? Might just wait for them to leak.

Got it apart and cleaned, just waiting for the pump to rail hose to show up so I can put it back together.

 

I'd wait. Cleaning the water rail wasn't all THAT difficult with the intake in place. The water rail gasket leaks I've had were significant, but not the gushers that deplete the whole cooling system like a 3-month old failed Uro b*st*rd hose.....people who "don't have far to go" and drive with the hose failure consequently "don't get too far." Whereas with the gasket leak, If you "don't have far to go" you will likely make it to your destination....or at least you can continue with a stop or two for topping up the coolant with distilled. And besides...I've got a '95 with 270k+ on the odometer that I've not had to change the gaskets on......

 

270,000, nice definitely waiting on mine then, I’m at 70k. I need to find the drain plug on the radiator though, mine is destroyed I got it back on but not sure if it’s tight enough since the little flat head slot is almost non existent anymore. Can’t see to find a replacement online either.

 

Yeah, I usually just use the lower radiator hose connection for drain/flush.

Checking records, I see I got my cars mixed up. The 270K '95 got water rail gaskets at 211K. The other one I did was about 110K. To be fair, although the other 2 X300's are at or just over 200K, I don't know their histories well enough to say if they may have already had a water rail change.

 

yeah, going to have to hope this plug is on tight enough and never touch it again

 

nope, put pressure tester on it and it leaks every so slightly. Took two screw drivers to try to tighten a little more by turning them in sync on the very edges of what’s left of the notch and it snapped. Guess I’ll have to get it out and try to find one. May have to try to find one in a scrap yard.

 

Just to add thought to the discussion, are gaskets really a mileage item? Does the 26 year old gasket care whether it's seen 270,000miles or 70,000? I figured after a certain birthday, it's time to change the thing.

 

that’s a good point. Already put it back together and pressure tested it and it’s not leaking so it’ll wait till it starts leaking or I need to do another job that allows easy access to them I.e intake manifold gasket

 

Anyone know where to source a drain plug? Or know the thread size maybe I can find something that’ll work?

 

got the broken piece out and found a metal bolt that fits put the same size o ring and thread tape and looks like it’s holding pressure. Not sure if metal bolt into a plastic case will cause issues with expansion and what not but it’s about the best option I can find at the moment. Only put about 3-5000 miles on the car a year so think it should last a while.