Couple weeks ago took my 2007 4.2 Jaguar XKR to a graduation party for a buddy of mine's son, 96 miles away from my place, on the way down, I had the car above 140mph whilst I was messing around with a brave youngster on crotch rocket. On the way home stretched its legs again to about 130 up a gradual grade and on came the dreaded check engine light.

Took it easy the rest of the way home and noticed no issues. Took it to Auto Zone the next day and had it flashed. Code came up with a pair of catalytic converter faults.

Went ahead and cleared them, I figured I was dumping lotta fuel through and it was probably was the cause of the lights.

About two weeks later I was driving the car, ironically with a policeman behind me whilst traveling at 35mph and it began chugging, the engine light came on and I pulled into a local restaurant at dusk. Popped the bonnet open, smelled coolant but didn't see any, the fan was running and the engine was hot. Turns out tjat the coolant reservoir was empty so I took a hike and bought 2 small diluted 50% antifreeze 50% water bottles for $26 US, talk about getting gouged at the local quickie Mart,

Proceeded to top off the overflow tank and coolant be sucked into the system quickly, went into the restaurant, filled the empty bottles and brought them out again until the radiator quit pulling fluid from the reserve tank. By then the car had cooled off.

When I restarted it I got a mild backfire and it ran fine, I limped it home. When I got home I noticed a puddle of antifreeze under my motorcycles stored to the right of the car, so it had been leaking in the garage and I missed it.

When I started it for the flat bed tow, It let loose a good puff of white smoke, ran fine on startup. Flat bedded it to my local mechanic and they believed that the leak might under the supercharger, possibly the intake gasket, regardless they thought it was over their head and I had it flatbeded to the Jaguar dealership, where she sat now for a week and a half is they are booked out a good while on their service department obligations. I'm hoping they are able to dig into it this week and get a prognosis, I am wondering if any members have experienced anything of this nature?

Concern that might've toasted a cylinder but the car seemed to be running fine when it ran. The initial backfire is concerning, when this happened had me a little bit concerned as did the puff of smoke when it fired up after a day of sitting, starting prior to getting it towed out of here.

On pins and needles waiting for the Jaguar To work her in. Provided the motors not blown I'm going to have them go through the court system replace all the belts and hoses and fittings, water pump while it's all part serpentine belt, oil change even though I just sprung for a mobile one oil change. Thoughts?

E

 

First thing that comes to mind after that sequence is head gasket, or worse, warped heads from overheating. Too bad you didn't check your oil to see if there was any coolant in it.

 

The most likely explanation is a water pump seal gone and the second most likely is a split hose. There are some plastic parts on the XK cooling systems which are susceptible to failure but this is less likely. A competent garage should be able to find the source of the leak without too much difficulty.

If there was no evidence of steam under the bonnet then it is unlikely that any serious damage has been done but you won't know until the leak is repaired. A compression check or a simple test for combustion products in the coolant and for water in the oil will be illuminating.

Richard

 

I say the plastic coolant lines under the supercharger. Take a look at the rear of the engine bay, on the top of the transmission torque converter cover (not a bell housing). If there's pinky orange goo, it's the plastic lines.
I also do believe Shemp is right about a head gasket took a ****. That's about the only explanation for the white puff on start-up. You should hope to dickens that the head didn't warp.

 

YOU ARE CORRECT! Stopped at the dealership today went through everything with the mechanic, the supercharger had been removed, underneath the supercharger there are two small coolant hoses in the well that is underneath ... one of those hoses split .. he has drained supercharger and changing the oil (at my request) and is replacing all hoses on that assembly, radiator flush, replace water pump, fill, flushing oil system, fill with Mobil 1 Oil change + filter and taking care of the transmission fluid, filter, gasket as well as it is drippy ..$5000usd includes the tow there and three weeks rental car.

... The price you paid to sit in the good seats I guess, like my old boss used to say: Talk is cheap, it cost money to buy good liquor.

Can't wait to get it back and flog the living snot out of it. 🤣😝

 

So no issue with the cylinder head or gaskets?
That would be truly good news!

 

They seem to think they have it all under control, the guy that is working on my car has been dealing with these since the prior XK8 model, at a Jaguar Dealership, so I'm taking their word for it.

Being without the car for the last two weeks .. my mind started to wander about possibly trading it in, but when see it up on the lift, you kind of get your spirit rekindled. I will say it's ugly without the supercharger though, kind of like when my kids were both born by C-section and you see something that you love and care about is split open, guts hanging out ... in both cases, you just hope they get it put back together like it was and everything's like new when you get it back ...

 

Good news then👍

 

2007 XKR SUPERCHARGER OIL AT 53k miles, it stinks as well, glad to have it changed.

2007 XKR SUPERCHARGER OIL AT 53k miles, it stinks as well, glad to have it changed.

 

Glad it's all getting sorted and done right.
Just makes me wonder why some dealerships will tell you right off that they won't work on anything 10 years or older and others will gladly take them on.
I guess it comes down to the expertise and experience of their individual technicians.

 

One reason it took two weeks to look at it was due to their ACE mechanical looking over the shoulders of three new techs they brought on ... seems to be a COVID phenomenon, everyone quit and no one knows where they went - I'm sure it boils down to the mechanics ability --- $175 per hour US adds up quickly on a job like this, so you'd think they'd be glad to do them - if they have the competency.