Hi all,

Would be grateful for your guidance. I took my low mileage XKR 2011 into a reputable independent a couple of months ago because the aircon wasn’t working, a new condenser was fitted which fixed the matter. On driving away from the garage at 5pm a restricted performance warning appeared, since been doing so intermittently. Took the car for a service a week or two ago at a different reputable independent and was advised that a fault code for the coolant pump circuit and that the headlamp washers are leaking water behind the bonnet. The second independent garage advised I’d be better following up with the first garage given the proximity of the work for the condenser replacement and the timing of when restricted performance warning appearing. The warning light came on again this evening and I’m hesitant to drive the car back to the first specialist given the distance. Can anyone help me understand what might be the root causes and the best approach to resolving with cost in mind? Unsure whether to make the journey or stop using car until I can get into the local specialist which has a very lengthy wait to have matter investigated properly.

 

I do not know how similar the 5.0 and 4.2 are in this particular aspect, but since I have the service manual open (for the 4.2, so take this with a grain of salt) I thought I'd see how difficult of a project this is. It looks like you would have to do quite a bit of disassembly to the front end to get this done. They call for removal of the supercharger radiator, which I would have to assume requires yet more access - hood, radiator, bumper cover, headlights, undertray. That tells me that they forgot to clip your headlight washer hose back together, which is easy enough to do. It would also lead me to believe that air could have been introduced into the coolant system, which could cause problems until it is bled out.

I would bet that your first independent caused the issues with the work they did, but I'll also bet it isn't too bad to rectify.

 

There's a super charger coolant pump which is easy to replace and commonly fail. The headlamp washer fittings are also visible and easy to check.