The heater doors for the footwells on my 94 XJS 2+2 will not fully close. They remain open approx. 1/2 an inch. If I unhook the vacuum line they move freely, however once the line is reconnected they once again stop at that 1/2 point. Any advice to remedy this would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Lionel

 

I'm guessing that you are only getting a partial vacuum; try and trace upstream and see if you have a blocked or kinked vacuum hose or damaged actuator.

 

Thanks Steve. What does the actuator look like and where would I find it.

 

I've never seen them but my guy has just changed them on my car; I think that there are 4 of them and you'll have to trace the tubes to find them buried up behind the dash somewhere.

 

Did you have the same symptoms Steve? How much was it, if you don't mind me asking?

 

My symptoms were as follows;
Switch on to low speed on the fans:- they would kick in from low to high, constantly; gentle blow to Force 12, cycling in and out.
Switch to medium; similar, but not quite the same.
Switch to high and it was Force 12 From Navarone, full force in the face and blowing your socks off at the same time.
There was no temperature change in the supplied air at all, it was just randomly blowing outside air inside, all over the place.
Check out the Forum feed for 'British Engineering!'
I don't know what the exchange rates are at the moment but I do know that over here it will cost you over £1000 to get someone to pull the dashboard out to diagnose what the problem is before they even start to fix it.
If you can live with it, then do; otherwise it will just suck your wallet dry.
If it's cold, wear a hat and gloves.
If it's hot, move to a cooler State.
I have an old boat and it had a 3 way fridge (12V, 240V and gas). It didn't work properly so I pulled it out and rodents had gotten in and eaten all of the insulation and half of the wiring. As it would only hold 4 Budweisers and a chicken burger I thought that it would be cheap to fix.
Nope, £450 (4 years ago, about $750).
Sod that, moved a bit of wood, installed a standard domestic fridge which takes 12 bottles of wine, 16 beers and ice for the Pimms; possibly some food too but I haven't checked that yet.
£105.
Focus on the important bits about the car; Jaguar only put a/c in so that they could sell it in America.
Make sure that the car goes and stops; the rest of it is icing on the cake.

 

Great information and a chuckle too.

On my car, which I only drive in the summer it blows full heat onto my feet. I have been contemplating unhooking the vacuum line so that I am able to manually fully close the flap and then taping it closed with Tuc tape so that it is sealed. Given the price I am leaning further and further toward this option.

 

That is a brilliantly simple solution. If there was a way you could tie it shut during the warmer months and open it back up during the colder...it might would even better. It'd be something you would have to tend to twice a year.

How about using nylon zip ties? Easy to put on, cheap to cut off?

 

That might work, but I'd probably have to drill a couple of holes. I only ever take it out if it's warm and less than a 20% chance of rain