Hello Jaguar colleagues

we all had our adventures, with our Jags on the road, but this was totally new for me.

Last Saturday morning (on the German autobahn, nice and try), engine warmed up nicely, just started to roll in at about 200km/h and then without warning:


First coolant drops on the windshield! Instantaneously white smoke in the rear view mirror and all over the autobahn! A sound from the engine compartment! And all at once to smell of coolant! Engine temperature still at exactly half! And then finally the warning light “coolant level low”!

What happened? The coolant expansion container, with lid, which was designed to protect the system from excessive pressure, splits completely open, into two pieces. That just after 80.000km and close to 10 years.

Fortunately, had the space on the empty road to roll out on the hard shoulder, went back home on an ADAC auto transporter.

Engine showed no excessive temperature, luckily. Just hope that no more components were damaged during this incident. After filling up, the system, with roughly 6 liters of water and fix the two container halves with cable ties together. I drove the XKR on the tow truck and later the few meters from the tower into my garage. I visually checked all and removed the broken container. Pictures attached.






So now what? Just replaced the container and the lid and fill everything up again?

Or what would the pros, of the Jag community, check as well?

Greetings
xk_mike

PS On the picture you see level indicator, a way you normally should never see it

 

I would just replace the Coolant Tank and continue. If the Temp "Indicator" did not rise from center, probably no damage.

 

I agree with Paul, but for added insurance a cooling system pressure test would not hurt.

 

This happened to me on my 2000XKR. I left the car idling in the drive way for about half an hour. Luckily I was near by and caught sight of the clouds of steam coming from the engine bay. I attempted to repair the tank using an high temperature epoxy resin, but the repair was not successful and I replaced the tank, Ł120, from Jaguar.
I have not had any further issues for 2000 miles. However you will find the coolant gets everywhere. The smell lingers for ages. I changed my spark plugs and found it had leaked into the spark plug recesses.
I think these tanks fail due to age and this may be something older cars may experience.

 

Actually, it might be a good idea to replace the Thermostat also.

 

Quite the cooling system adventure - I'm somewhat of a veteran of past cooling system excursions with previous vehicles.

Currently,my '03 XK8 has a slight drip coming from somewhere below the expansion tank, dripping on the exhaust manifold (odorous). I'm sure the best course of action is to replace the tank ASAP before something nasty happens!
When I bought the car recently, the Jag dealer inspection noted upper & lower radiator hoses should be replaced, which I may as well do when I change the expansion tank, along with a thermostat and fresh coolant. Comments?

 

More examples of where the Ford-Jaguar accountants won out over the engineers. Plastic subjected to heat is going to fail eventually. Heck, plastic subjected to the sun will also fail or simply rot in a number of years.

 

If you suspect the cooling system pressure was excessive; then I would also get a new pressure cap for the reservoir.

 

Blowing up the expansion tank blows my mind. For that to happen the pressure relieve valve must have completely failed to open or just a bad tank.

On the expansion tank there is a stub at the top pointing toward the engine. Can anyone tell me what that is for. If it doesn't do anything that might be a place to plumb in a good pressure relief valve and connect it to a vented container so you know when it dumps fluid. That might give you a heads up on a stuck thermostat.

Comments anyone?

EZDriver 2000 XK8

 

So,


finally I had today everything ready to go again. System filled,vented and Tank changed.

First start, everything sounded ok, no warning lights. So I started to a test drive, out of the garage.
500-800m after the start, warning light “ low coolant level” appears, followed by engine running rough, white smoke from the exhaust and the next warning light" Engine power limited ".
My guess, the head gasket was affected from the coolant expansion tank disaster. Or maybe a faulty head gasket started the whole thing, at first. :-( (


So for now, I have to get an appointment at my local Jaguar dealer.

And when everything is already open, I will change the old chain tensioners also. They were running without any noise or rattles, but we all know, they will fail sooner or later.
So, would you also replace the chains, guides and the lower tensioners as well, because engine has run just 80.000km / 50.000miles, or not?

Greeting xk_mike

 

XK Mike: Sorry about your predicament.

Do you have any independent shops in your area (i.e. BMW/Mercedes specialists) that can do the job?

I'd hate to think how many Euros a Jag dealership in Bundesrepublik Deutschland would charge for this job. It's a pretty major job in man/hours.

 

So,

I know have some shop offers here.

The Jag dealerships estimates are around 6-7.000EUR, Jag specialist around 5.000EUR.
Just parts, from head gasket set, water pump, thermostat, new sparkplugs, timing chain tensioners, chains, hoses and so on, roughly 1800EUR.
So, is there really a specialist workshop needed? Or should I maybe start this project by myself? Of course with some help of a machine shop, for checking the cylinder heads. Hmmm, will I need some special tools, or is a good standard set enough for the job? Restored some old cars completely in the past, but was always a little shy to work on modern all wired up engines. With all these senors, km of wires,plastic clips and parts.

So, what do you think? Is it manageable in a normal garage with standard tools?



Has anyone performed a job like this at home?


So long Mike

 

Headgaskets and timing chains is a pretty big job for the home mechanic but if you have some experience and a lot of time, you can do it. The only thing you couldn't handle easily would be a damaged engine block.
The big question is what the problem is. Has a shop tested the compression or done a leakdown test to see where the problem is? There are other ways for coolant to get into the cylinders, so be sure that you need a head gasket replacement first. Testing is cheaper than repairs to stuff that is not broken. Based on the symptoms, you did lose the headgasket though, so you may need to pull the heads, (actually only the one with the bad gasket), check them for warpage or other damage, and reset them with new gaskets. You will need the timing chain tool set and thats about it for special tools. If I were doing this, it would take two or three days plus a trip to a shop to measure the heads and do a dye test for cracks. I would add a new thermostat housing to the parts list.

 

I'd pull the engine and replace it with a known good one. It will much cheaper than diagnosing warped cylinder heads, and magnafluxing for cracks in the block.

There are tons of low mileage, late model, Jags getting totaled by insurance firms everyday because their retail values have recently taken a nose dive. Find a good engine and replace yours.