Ok, on the way into work today I get out of car and check for fluid issues, still smelling rad fluid. I look at the front of motor at the Tstat area. I find below the top hose that goes into the Tstat, there is a round opening, about size of a dime on front of housing, directly below the hose, is leaking. What is this, why is it leaking? I just had been driving it for about 15 min and the fluid that was hanging off that area was not all that hot. And I also must note that my heat has not been good at times. It is decently hot then cooler. Is my tstat bad and is leaking? What is the purpose of that opening.

 

her is the tstat what is the small round part that is about a finger sized opening. The when mounted, that would be facing down. What is it's purpose???

 

brgjag,
I have no idea what it is, so shouldn't be responding, but just wanted to express my thoughts.
After looking at what Jaguar came up with, for a T-Stat housing, when they designed this engine, is a complete abortion. While finishing the design for the cooling system they ended up with all these hoses and had to come up with something to connect them to. Looks like something you would see at the bottom of a dishwasher.

Chuck
05/XK8

 

This car is pissing me off. I know they cost $$ to maint. If the fact orig tstat housing can go 95k, why the F can't a replacement. Hell I am not even sure if that is what is leaking, just looks like it is coming from the housing, from that small round hole, opening?

 

I don't recall if my old one had that on there but i know there was no hose to that area.

 

could the Tstat be bad? I assume I can replace just that in this housing??? Assuming that opening I am asking about maybe some type of release opening???
Help, anyone???

 

Could it be an air vent?

 

I talked to Dan at Jabits, he says it is sealed off. I will see when I drive home tonight what happens. I did not lose much fluid based on Reservoir level.
Is there a overflow tank on an 03 other then the reservoir tank?

 

Its quite common for the thermostat housing to crack with age and the number of thermal cycles.

Thats why many of us have replaced it with an aluminium after market one.

good luck

 

My tstat housing has MAYBE 100 miles on it, BRAND NEW. 03 and up there is no Alum version avail.

 

ok upon thinking of what happened, what little fluid did get up front on front of motor, not top as it was bone dry, it was not much and it was cold making me think it was leaking at startup cause 15 min later if it were still leaking it would be at least warm. The fluid was coming from above or top of WP from what I think was the top rad hose that goes into the tstat housing. NONE of the bolts on it (t-housing) were wet or showed signs of wet. The bottom of that top rad hose at housing was wet, top of WP pulley has with a few specs of water and just the top of the rad fans area was wet, as if if the fluids shot across the top above everything accessory wise on the front of the motor.
So I looked at the hose connection at the tstat housing, it WAS NOT pushed all the way in to the stops and the house clap (not the orip type) was not tight and the hose was barely over the hump on the housing so I think since the temps dropped to 20 last night and the lousy hose connection it shot out a little till the car got warm and the hose sealed down a little.
I never went back and looked at the rad hose clamps after orig install this summer. Today they all easily took a little more turning to feel like a tight snug.
reason i thought of all this is cause my sons Stang did this a last week after the first COLD night, it pissed just like mine appears to have done. His hoses were replaced this summer and one was not tight when it leaked the other day on a cold day at start up.
makes sense RIGHT? ha ha ha
Soooo lets see what she does tonight.

 

The opening in the picture you provided that is about the size of a finger and facing you is for a heater hose connection. The picture is looking at the back of the housing upside down.

 

BRG, you have a bad thermostat, as you should be getting good heat and the drips should have been really hot. This doesn't take away from the leak, check your claps, as it should not being doing any seeping.


Wayne

 

well if the hoses are loose at cold start and it spits water for a bit when it is still cold it COULD stand to reason that the water would be cold. It stopped leaking after a few minutes of running MAYBE.
I don't think it is the Tstat because I had great heat after I did the octopus hose after I took a few days/bleeds of system.
I just got this car back on the road after I did the valley hoses/remount of reservoir and refilled system and have not got a good bleed of the system yet, my experience has been a top off of reservoir several times before system is bleed well and return to hot heat is there. That said you may be right I could have a bad stat that has less than a few hundred miles on it.
I had good heat today at 20 degree temps outside, but I felt could have been hotter.
That said I think my leak was the hose, it was not all the way pushed in on the tstat housing and the clamp was a hair bit uncentered around the hose near the raised part of the connector. Lets see how it plays out.

 

Well the leak around the rad hose this morning is gone. There is a still a slight stream of fluid coming from directly behind the wp pulley down the front of motor. It is a small leak and if you didn't not look for it you would not see it. I cleaned off that area today before I left work as it had looked like it had leaked in the past. There was always a slight smell but never a full blow of leaking. I guess wp is next. I felt all around the bottom of the Tstat housing it was dry and clean.