On my 255K mile XJR which was built 10/97 it has always had a funky smell coming from the evaporator/heater core when I turn on the climate control. I took it upon myself to just replace the evaporator and expansion valve (UAC brand $50 shipped from Amazon) even though I wasn’t experiencing a refrigerant loss. I wanted to take this opportunity to:

1. Clean/sanitize the entire ventilation ducts as much as possible.
2. Disassemble the blower motors and throughly clean/sanitize the fan cages. I had a spare set of blower assemblies from a low mileage parts car that I took out a few years ago so I did this already before dismantling my interior.
3. Replace all the foam seals where vents meet the ductwork, the tubes that connect to the blower motors, where the blower motors meet at the underside of the cowl panel and where the ducts join at the main air box all the way to the backseat.

I’ve only done one other evaporator on an X308 two years ago (refrigerant loss on a 313K mile 03’ VP) so I knew what I was getting myself into.

Since this job hasn’t really been discussed before, I put in a few extra photos to hopefully help someone else out in the future.

 

 

You can see just how dirty and clogged the evaporator is. Obviously the source of my odor issue. If I knew the evaporator was a common issue, I’d be more informative on this process. One thing I will say is I really wish a cabin filter was available these days. I had thought about fabricating some kind of filter/screen on both sides of the blowers but it’s not easily accessible just in case my “engineering” skills didn’t pan out. Besides, I spent a little over a day doing this already and I just wanted to be done with this job.



The clean side of the old evaporator.


The bottom of the evaporator case. ^

 

I put two wide strips of butyl tape across the top off the new evaporator since the original, form fitted, thin foam couldn’t be removed without ruining it.





Passenger side reference photo.

Drivers side reference photo.


Something I didn’t know would be an issue was needing repair. If you look closely in the picture of the underside of the dashboard, there’s a gap where there’s glue going from one side to the dash to the other. That glue is for holding the defroster duct to the dashboard. I didn’t want to spend another day researching what glue I should use, stripping the dashboard completely down, obtaining countless clamps to hold it in place and drying time so I just skipped this. If I feel sporty enough some other time.

 

The hardest part of this job by far was the steering column. It’s those two clips just under the IP that are a SOB to get right and trying to get the bottom of the column mounted up and the steering coupler. Without looking at the manual, I’m sure the proper method is to drop the steering rack down a bit, go back inside the car and push the coupler down a bit and then fasten the steering column to the brackets and then reinstall the rack. I ended up cutting the top of the clips off and it made a huge difference.

When it was all said and done, I had much improved air volume coming out of the vents (even to the backseat vent) since I got rid of that clogged evaporator and sealed all the vents and ductwork. The biggest improvement was just how much colder the A/C was and the smell was gone. Yesterday it was only 88* but on fan speed 5 (5 of those little bars showing) it blew as cold as 32* within about 5-10 minutes of driving with recirculation on. I used a little thermometer that I have at work and it’s as accurate as the outside temperature reading that displays on the climate control. Because it got so cold, for the first time ever I had to turn the recirc off. I’m guessing there was a 3-5 degree difference in temp. When I started this job, I pulled 1.5 lbs of Freon out so I know the system wasn’t low on refrigerant. I’m sure glad I did this job and that it’s over with. 😀

 

Interesting ... not something I would try .... but interesting. !

 

I am not a big "fan" of using re-circulation. My years. as as a service advisor with a Cadillac dealership convinced me to rarely use it. Not allowing fresh air to enter the cabin breeds odors and cabin dust to be trapped in the ducts. As a comparison it's like not using the fresh air fan in a shower room breeding mold and mildew odors on the walls and tile. I leave my auto climate controls set to 70 to 72 degrees all year long. On a 105 F day I lower the windows for a few minutes, turn off recirc. then raise the windows. Most owners manuals will mention to not use recirc. continually but to switch it off once the the interior is comfortable. Using Max A/C on a non auto climate control car also engages recirc. There were many bulletins from Cadillac regarding odors on a restart of a car in a hot climate because the system defers to recirc.

 

I agree. More or less that was one of the many reasons why I did all that work. Now that the efficiency is substantially higher, I can now not always rely on the recirc.

 

I'd say that's a pretty complete disassembly of the dash! Looks like the HVAC system will be much more efficient now. Nice work.

 

Thank you so much for the pictures. Wow that was a lot of work. I will show them to the mechanic that works on my 2000 xjr. I sure wish Jaguar had installed filters back then. I am afraid to know how much $ this will cost.

thanks again !

Jdthomas

 

I know this is an older thread but I thought my post was relevant. My evaporator smells badly on startup up so what I did is I bought an ozone generator from Amazon ran it for 5 hours on recirculation and open mode and the smell has totally gone

 

Good idea! Too bad it couldn’t remove all the hair and other nasty crap restricting airflow though.

 

Excellent pictures and priceless information an old thread for a problem becoming common as these cars get older

 

My a/c suddenly stopped blowing in my 2013 XKR, so I took it to my independent shop. He said the Freon (or whatever is in there now) was super-low and recharged it. When they started the system it filled the cockpit with a cloud and it appears the evaporator has a huge leak. He searched everywhere for an evaporator (as did I) and the only place you can get one for that model is Jaguar, so super-expensive. The hours of labor to remove the whole dash and do the job is the bulk of the cost, and based on your pics, I can believe it! Total estimate is $3100 - or more than I spent on a number of my early cars. Ill try to get a pic of the old evaporator and see how bad the blow-out was and will share it here - if the new one ever comes in!

 

That’s funny you mentioned a blowout on your evaporator. I had that exact same experience on a 2010-2013 XK about 1 1/2 years ago. If you have a sun damaged dashboard where the material is shrinking/curled up or otherwise damaged, that would be an excellent opportunity to have it repaired with it removed from the car. I spent a great deal of time replacing that evaporator in that XK.

 

how did you can’t get the steering column back into the shaft….I can’t get the column to fit back into the clamp…😭😭😭….Help