I changed the sway bar bushes today, driver's side was toast. It was also a PITA to get out. Afterwards I took the car for a drive. When I arrived home I noticed a distinct sweet coolant smell and I could see the trail of coolant that indicated how I backed up onto the driveway. Great, it's a big leak and I can't drive it like that.

I opened the bonnet and inspected the area I worked around of. I saw the leak. Traced it up to a plastic three way coupling for the hoses that come from the supercharger. It seems I can work around it? The top two hoses that connect to this connector are not leaking, it's the third one that runs into the radiator that is leaking. The leak seems to be at the connection of the lower hose but not the other three.

I'm not sure if I should mend it until I can afford a new hose with a new three way brass coupling and screw type hose clamps, or park the car until I can buy the hose. Or maybe I could get the hose fabricated?

Thoughts?

 

You can cut the clamp of at each end and replace with a 3/4" hose and clamps until your new hose arrives. That T is barbed.

 

 

I believe this is the hose you're looking for:

https://www.sngbarratt.com/us/#!/Eng...c-d83b7dbe623f

 

 

The hose connections to the supercharger are out.



Lower radiator hose is disconnected from radiator as well as the fan shroud is removed.


Can't figure out how to get this hose out without removing the bonnet. Is there another way?

 

I think it is this hose: https://www.sngbarratt.com/us/#!/Eng...b-ac843dd0d510

SNG has it on backorder. Could I just be any luckier?

 

Here is one from a place in Miami:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Jaguar-XKR-...i:112699118899

 

Probably be easier to remove the bonnet to access the hose.

 

Yeah, that's the conclusion I finally came to. So, I've decided that I'm going to wait for the hose to arrive before I proceed to remove the bonnet to disconnect that hose. I already ordered a new one. In the meantime that car is staying put. I decided to also buy a new radiator drain plug because when I removed it this time a bit of it came undone.

 

Just as a quick reminder, there is a service position for the hood so it stays almost vertically, clearing quite a bit of room to the front area. I used it to replace the radiator, and access was never an issue. You have to use a small blade screwdriver and unlock the top or bottom part of each of the struts so the head pops off the ball attached to the hood. Once free, the hood can be maneuvered to a vertical position. This position allows you to put a bolt through a couple of holes in each of the hinges to secure everything in place.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

^^ What he said. Putting the hood into the service position should give you enough room to do the job. It certainly did when I replaced the coolant outlet pipe assembly in November 2014 and again when I did the alternator refurbishment / serpentine belt replacement in July 2018 (both jobs performed on my wife's 2006 XK8)....

 

 

You could try this type of clamp tool:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radiator-Br...uM2N:rk:6:pf:0

Reuse the constant tension style clamp. Using a worm style clamp will cause the plastic connection to eventually crack and fail.

 

Problem solved, the Jag is back on the road. I ended up calling SNGBarrat about the hose I had bought and they said it would take two months because of the backorder. I asked Will about the genuine one and he said he could get it to me by Friday. Although pricier, I have more peace of mind with this hose than the Eurospare I had originally ordered. Now I want to do all the other hoses, including the valley hose, the octopus, and the upper radiator hose, but I will have to wait until summer. I bought the clamp tool suggested by NBCat and it arrived yesterday. I now feel confident I can tackle all those other hoses with minimal swearing.

The hose and the radiator drain plug arrived on Thursday. This morning I woke up early to finish the job. The clamp tool made the job 10x easier. I was able to get that uncomfortable clamp off in under 30 seconds and removed the hose, installed the new one, changed the plug and put the fans back on the car in about an hour. I spent another hour filling the coolant and burping the system. Then I went for a drive and noticed absolutely no coolant smell. I checked under the hood and I could not find any leaks. When the engine cools I am going to check to see if the coolant level dropped any, but I suspect it may only be a small decrease since I thoroughly burped the system.

 

When I read the title of this thread I thought someone was writing my life story. Anyway, it seems that you got your problem handled so Happy Motoring.

 

Yes, as an added bonus I also took care of the bleed hose and have nearly no leaks.... well not so fast.


Ever notice that if you replace a leaking hose, another one that was borderline starts failing? After a few days of driving I noticed a very faint almost imperceptible coolant smell and no drips on the ground. After the car cooled I checked the level and it was full. Not a drop lost.

So where did the smell come from? Some looking around and I found two hoses that attaches to the throttle body from the driver's side. One of them was weeping just a little bit. It uses a crimp style clamp. I don't know if it is the throttle body return hose or if it is called something else.

I think I will leave it be until I can buy and set aside some time for the upper radiator hose, octopus, and valley hoses. I will however pay close attention to it.

 

Yep, all of the original coolant hoses in every XK8 / XKR need routine monitoring at this point in time. Those owners who do not pay attention to their cooling system may eventually lose their engines....