so the morning started off great but <5 minutes into the drive - got the dreaded engine coolant low. Pulled into the gas station and saw steam coming from under the hood - temp still slightly below mid-scale (yeah I know it's not a real picture of temp). Anyway shut her off, popped the hood and only saw a small amount of coolant on the driver's side engine cover (reservoir was still 1/4 full). Ultimately found the bleeder hose from the reservoir to the thermostat housing had separated at the clamp (see area circled in red). Bought a clamp but the plastic tube was so brittle it disintegrated when I tried to reattach the hose - just bought a piece of rubber hose and installed, topped off reservoir and back on the road. Mechanic will check everything out this afternoon - but not a good way to start the day!

 

Well spotted.

I've seen that plastic bleeder hose replaced with copper pipe before - a bit 'Olde Worlde' but lasts forever.

Graham

 

Yet another case to justify my checking the coolant reservoirs and their connected tubing in both of our Jaguars every single weekend....

Great save, sklimii. Paying close attention to these Jaguar coolant reservoirs is mandatory....

 

While inconvenient, saving the engine from overheating with a short piece of hose and no drama, has to qualify as an excellent ending.

Good catch.

 

Same here, I end up using 3/8 high pressure fuel injection hose with high pressure band clamps, it costs more but no more cheap plastic to worry about.

 

I almost let it go as the last time the coolant low came on - no discernable leak but about 1/2" low in the reserevoir. It was advice seen here that made me a little more cautious today - enough to stop and check. What I found funny is the rigid plastic tubing connected on each end with hose and clamps - why even introduce another potential fault - whether it be the additional connection points or material into the picture? using a single piece of 3/8 hose works like a champ. I would recommend to anyone with an older year Jag - replace the bleeder hose ($4.25 for the 2ft lenght of hose and 2.99 for 4 hose clamps) now and save potential headache/monetary impacts later!

 

Hi all,
Whichever engineers, design departments, quality control people and budgeting teams who encouraged, designed, tested and approved the use of plastic junk in vital engine components should be pariahed in the industry.
Does that company deserve its place in the upper echelons of the auto industry?
Is a 1950s Morris Minor a superior car than an XK8 if it out lasts it and components don't unnecessarily fail?
Is there a basic integrity in Morris that the Jag lacks.
Sorry for the vitriol but I can't believe there is not more public backlash against these practices.
I am aware of course that probably all marques are guilty of this but it gripes particularly with the Jaguar as in other ways they are so beautiful.
Luxury, performance, style and endless extras and refinements are worth naught when the car is destroyed by a plastic fitting that saved the company cents. For the cost of the ridiculous plastic cosmetic engine covers to 'pretty up ' the engine bay durable components could have been specified.
Ultimately I guess I'm really objecting to societies total acceptance of inbuilt obsolescence.
All this venom but I still love Jags.
Alan

 

Good points ....... but my 1972 XJ6 was seriously rusting and on its second engine by 1976. Each model I've had since has got better and I certainly wouldn't trade the condition and reliability of my 2005 XK8 for the build standards of previous eras.

Graham

 

Nice one Steve....

Shame you had the issue but good find and a good save too.......thanks for sharing

 

Thanks Graham,
Yes in general cars are so good these days which I guess is why cars ruined by such trivial things as previously mentioned makes me angry (my own nightmare was the near loss of the engine through a cracked radiator filling tank though the idiot water temp gauge of course reassuringly read normal)
To add insult to injury, here in Australia there is still some anti British (car) sentiment from the bad old days of Leyland and perhaps a anti colonial type thing from a more distant past. As I am a great fan of English cars and have quite a collection of them I often find myself defending British cars against slights and accusations of oil leaks, unreliability and unsuitability to local conditions.
Having a car as beautiful as the XK8 live up to people's negative stereotypes is quite disappointing.
I am concerned that my wife has lost confidence in the 8 and I can't prize her out of the ever stoic x300
Regards al

 

sklimii,
I had the same thing happen about a year and a half ago. Actually the plastic nipple insert into the rubber hose from above the thermostat broke and my car starting spraying coolant all over. I noticed it immediately, pulled over, and found the problem as soon as I opened the hood. I didn't want to leave the car by the side of the road, so I walked into a convenience store next to where I parked the car, bought a tube of superglue and glued the tube to the edge of the nipple just so I could drive the car to my cousins house a couple of blocks away. It worked and I had the car towed the next morning, picked up the $20 part from Galpin Jaguar and had it fixed.

 

Enough tales of woe here (plus the PO of my own 2005 XK8-L having been granted a new engine in 2009 - 'probably' as a result of a coolant issue, though I do not know the particulars)...

. that first order of business was to order-up 'proper' temp, oil-pressure, and voltmeter gauges.

- next-up looks to be shedding those silly covers so I have a fighting chance at laying a practiced Mark One eyeball on leaks and such before they morph into disasters.

Plastics - properly utilized - are not inherently evil, but 'proper' is far from universal, so neither are they any form of sacred, ergo fabbing a proper header tank goes onto the list.

No real point to just putting up with a marginal choice if ENDURING corrective action is less costly life-cycle-wise than chronic replacements - and accompanying chronic RISK of more serious money vanishing when least-planned for.