Well, with the weather on the change, it's time to get to some jobs I've been putting off. Next up is disappearing washer fluid.

To cut a long story short, the headlight washer motor is leaking, semi-rapidly draining all that precious, precious washer fluid. It's in kind of an odd place and I'm wondering if it's fixable. Where the hose has the right angled connector that attaches to the motor, if you follow the part that it connects to back to the motor, there's a "square" bit at the body of the motor. The fluid seems to be coming out between the square bit and the body of the motor itself (I've looked carefully to make sure it's not running across from where the connection is and it doesn't appear to be. Basically, I'm wondering if/how that can be fixed. If it can, I'm thinking it's probably just an o-ring or something but the question is how it comes apart.

Edit: Added a pic to show where it's leaking.


Credit to Skid Mark for the original pic.

 

I thought all that grunge looked familiar. I hope you found that other post "useful" and thanked me, since my reputation as a meticulous XK owner has just gone down in flames.

 

The right angle connector is Part No LNA7072AA and there's 3 of them used in the headlamp washer system:

Jaguar XK8 - Headlamp Powerwash.pdf

See Item 5 in the above. One from the pump and the other two connect to the washer units.

The headlamp washer motor and associated parts are shown here:

XK8 & XKR 4.0 ltr - Headlamp & Windscreen Washer Reservoir.pdf

Headlamp washer pump Item 8 - there may be an 'O' ring on the outlet pipe but it's not listed as a separate part.

Graham

 

I wondered what kind of barbarian had been having a go at that right angle connector.

Graham

 

I'm getting a sudden urge to yank my left wheel well liner out in a fit of embarrasment and do a complete disassemble and cleaning of the entire area.

Then post a BIG pic.

 

Don't worry, mine was not particularly better.

I think I may just yank the pump and find a way to stuff up the hole. That would give me time to prod the unit at my leisure and it seems that some people like to disable the headlight washing feature in any case.

 

Actually, looking closely at yours, I'm wondering if yours is leaking a bit too. The area around the cyan looks a little darker as if it were damp.

 

I noticed that too, I'll check it when I go in there. A lot of owners deacivate the headlight washers. The easiest way is to pull the #7 fuse in the fuse box next to the blue washer filler cap. It's the only 30 amp fuse in the row to the left as you look in and deactivates the headlight washer pump only.

 

I'm not really fussed either way. But this leak is occurring continuously with no activation so deactivating the motor itself won't help on its own.

 

Took the liner out and found not much had changed, haha...

Looks like the refill tube is leaking where it joins the reservoir, but not very much.

I did clean the area up, so I can see if the leak continues. I sungged the tube up against the reservoir as much as I could. The fluid level is still at the top, and it's been a good while since I filled it, so this is probably not going to be a problem for some time.

Must say that cleaned up well.

 

Haven't had a chance to look at this yet. I'm thinking that although it looks like the square bit possibly comes out, it probably doesn't and it's probably all one piece with a stress fracture causing the leak. heat welding and/or jb weld will be the likely outcome.