I looking at jobs to do on my car while its stored for winter. There's a tiny leak in one of the oil cooler hoses, so I shall be replacing them. Are any of the coolant hoses prone to failure ? I had the thermostat tower replaced when I purchased the car.

 

You should at least do the upper one...and the lower. The lower one I haven't pulled off yet, even with my fancy new clamp compressor tool. The upper one on my 05 was weak. Their fairly inexpensive as well. Look very closely at your serpentine belt as well. Both sides, really close.

 

All of the coolant hoses are subject to failure on a car that age, but I would start with the radiator hoses and also do the water pump.

Your 4.2 doesn't have a cooling tower like the 4.0, so I assume it was the thermostat housing that was replaced. Did you also get a new thermostat?

 

I am aware of that coolant hoses generally deteriorate over time but was wondering if the XK8 had particular hose (s) that caused problems. I did have the thermostat and housing replaced in August. I'll check all the hoses for softening/swelling. Is there a particular issue with the water pump or is it just typical ageing as with any vehicle ?

 

The upper and lower radiator hoses are probably the most important ones to replace, and the water pump in newer cars is not as likely to fail as in the 97-98, but if the plastic impeller does fail you will overheat without the cloud of 'steam' that a hose failure causes.

 

As you are asking, double check those oil cooler lines, all 4 of them. Check the Al/rubber interfaces for seepage. To my knowledge, all 4 see the same pressure, so all should be replaced. There is a TSB with a VIN range, as the original parts from Jaguar were somehow faulty. This is unfortunately a situation where a blow out of these hoses leaves you without engine oil is seconds...

 

Yes . I have read that TSB and when I was getting the oil changed fore storage i noticed a 'weep" at the forward end of the supply line. I plan to replace all four lines over the winter