What a week!! Last week I posted that the 07 XKR started leaking into the passenger foot well - lots of help and advice from many forum members set me up for succes with trying to get it sorted. (Especially Brutal and Rsculto)

I have always had the car looked after by Lucas AutoCare on Grant Road in Cypress (Houston) it is a bit of a hike for me to take the car there but the reviews on the place are always really, really good, my experience up to now has been very good but after this AC episode I have to uprate my experience to absolutely amazing and wonderful the car is not going anywhere else for TLC from this point forward. They are not a Jag Dealer but then they dont do dealer pricing! If the customer base is any indicator of service, it is rare to go there and not see them working on at least 2 or 3 high end luxury sporty cars - Jags/Lambo/Porsche/Ferarri etc.
( www.lucasautocare.com/ ) The owner is a really cool, friendly and personable guy too!

Initially, the guys at Lucas Autocare explained that it was going to take a half day of work to strip down enough of the inside to have a look and see what was going on - rates for that are reasonable and less than the dealer price for sure! They did that and advised they had put a scope down to the "Duck Bill" Drain hose, and blown down the line and it was clear - they advised putting a secondary drain into the area where the motor housing is as the high humidity and heat in Houston may be causing the excessive water that the "duck Bill" is finding hard to handle - It sounded reasonable and having understood from forum members that there were other fixes out there for this problem, presumed this may have been one of them.

I got the car back on saturday morning and all was well until sunday when I went for a longer drive and found some water (not as much as before, but still some) dripping into the passenger foot well again.

Monday, I called Lucas Autocare and they sent someone to pick up the car at my work location and took it back to their place. they stripped down the full dash, removed the AC unit and called me in to have a look that evening. Kirby, the guy that was handling my issue warned me it may be a disturbing sight but "Oh shock and horror what did they do to the inside of my car!!" The whole dash was removed, the steering wheel was resting on the drivers seat, the instrument cluster was in the trunk and I was looking at the firewall between the inside of the car and the engine compartment!!

That may not be scary to some forum members, however this particular one may drive a fancy car but he knows very little of car mechanics other than to get it serviced, regularly, put windscreen wash fluid in when the wipers dont spray anymore and to take it to the mechanic anytime something doesn't seem right!! I also know to consult the forum when trying to understand anything that may be wrong with the car

Kirby and Nathan - the "Technician" that "did my car" explained what was happening and showed me all the pieces and listened to my thoughts, mostly dumb, and then advised replacing the "Duck Bill" hose with a piece of fuel grade hose that was the same/slightly larger bore than the original "duck Bill". (High damage, heat and oil resitance properties)

I explained that I had heard/seen on the forum that the "Duck Bill" design was an attempt by Jaguar to prevent insects and bugs coming into the car - with a smile they listened and explained that this may be a genuine rationale but seriously, the drain hose does exits right above the transmission housing and any bug would probably need a sat nav to find it and a fire suit to get past the heat from the engine/transmission !!

That being said, when they made the fix, they tell me they did put a heavy (wide) mesh on the end of the hose that would probably be as effective as the "Duck Bill" Design - the only concern expressed by them and me was that perhaps the mesh would "clog" over time - the mesh is apparently wide enough, and the flow of water from the AC in our hot and humid climate is high enough to give some confidence that the sediment is not likely to be an issue.

At the end of the day - I went with the hose they suggested - because we know the "Duck Bill" is a poor design that Jaguar knows fails over time - so the open, wider bore hose feels like it should be more successful over time.

(Interestingly the Jaguar supplied drain hose is a thin flexible rubber material that felt like it had become "Sticky" and that is probably the source of the design flaw. It needs to be flexible and thin walled for the "Duck Bill" arrangement to work but over time the rubber deteriorates and the duck dont quack no more!!

I did take some pictures of the car stripped down and put together a two page PDF that shows what was going wrong and what was done to fix it - hopefully it will upload as an attached PDF to this. This may help some forum members visualize/understand what is actually happening - the length of the hose really amazed me - I thought is was going to be a much longer andmore secure item.

It took the guys at Lucas Autocare two days to do the strip down, fix and build back, allowing time for me to come and look, cry and accept their advice, to test it and run it in the coldest settings for a while and test drive (on Winding roads and parking slightly uphill to force water away from normal/natural drain area)

So far all is well with the XKR - no more urinating into the passenger foot well - I will keep the forum informed if anything untoward is experienced.

Cost of repair? Lucas Auto Care did not charge me a cent more than their original quote for the half day they originally indicated it would take to fix and for that I am truly thankful - My experience has endorsed why they continually get such good reviews, and of course they will continue to get to look after my car/s

 

Thanks for this write up and taking trouble to post this topic . I wish you have a good driving and no drama

 

Great pictures. Thanks for taking the time to share them. Just had the same issue and not covered by warranty as well. My dealer did it for $500 and change and provided a rental. After several weeks of talking with Jaguar customer service, I just got $500 worth of owner loyalty certificates, so it was a wash. There is a TSB on it, so you'd think it should be covered. Still, I'm happy with the outcome. Just bought an 04 XJR - yes I am a glutton for punishment! I'll use the certs to get the fluids done in both cars - something I just don't want to fool with. Glad you got yours worked out.
Dale

 

Thanks for the excellent info, Kevin....I just had mine done by a Jag dealer at $1,500...Jag did help some with the costs.

 

I just got my 07 with 60k miles on it and voila. Water in the footwell. Dealer quoted me $1240 on the repair. Any info on Lucas' cost?

Thanks.

 

Drew,

My repair at the dealer was $520 or so if I remember. Didn't watch them do it, but the offending drain is behind the center stack. Should be 2 or 3 hours labor and the drain itself. $1240 is very high. My car was a CPO car but the extended warranty still didn't cover it. I argued with JCNA for a couple of months and they finally gave me 2 $250 repair certificates. It was after all, a TSB and if they are aware it's a problem and change the design of the part, I think they should cover it. You should at least argue the point. Good luck. Otherwise, my car has been perfect. And I probably shouldn't have said that..................

Dale

 

Superb Kevin, thanks so much for sharing.

I've added it to the FAQ / HOW TO section and given due credit

Thanks

 

I just closed all my vents and turned the A/C on full blast, and some water (it's not very humid here yet) spat out onto the ground. That method seems to work if your system is not fully clogged.

I wonder if you did this periodically (say, every time you filled up the car), would it help keep things clear?

 

Sounds like a sensible precaution. Presumably, the longer the duck bill sits undisturbed, the more likely it is that the two halves will stick together. Giving it a regular blow-out has got to help.

 

I've been worried about the potential for an AC leak and a bothersome chirping sound coming from the blower so I gave this a try today. Though it was cold outside, I turned the AC down, shut the valves and low and behold, got a nice little squirt from the hose onto the driveway. I feel like a proud papa who just got his puppy to pee outdoors instead of on the kitchen floor. Afterwards, I could still hear the fan, but the chirping was gone. Thank you very much.