2006 XK8 with 121,350 miles....

I noticed a small pool of coolant underneath the engine bay this morning after I did a 20-mile exercise jaunt in the car yesterday. I filled up the coolant reservoir again (it took about 8 ounces), started the engine, allowed it to warm up to temperature, then opened the hood to have a look. I could smell coolant on the passenger side of the car and a close look with a flashlight at the plastic Norma connector underneath the air duct tube and beside the upper oxygen sensor confirmed that it indeed was leaking a drop of coolant every 30 seconds or so. Each drop of coolant would splash on the ZF housing and instantly vaporize. The octopus hose itself still appears to be in relatively good shape....

My planned fix is to cut out that lousy plastic Norma connector and install a brass hose barb along with a short new section of hose along with the appropriate hose clamps. This same type of fix worked quite well when Wayne (cjd777) and I repaired the power steering fluid leak in February 2018 by cutting out that leaking plastic connector and replacing it with the appropriate (but much smaller) brass hose barb. Not a drop of power steering fluid has leaked since that repair....

What size brass hose barb is required for this octopus hose Norma connector leak repair? The firewall side of that hose end is considerably larger in diameter than the engine side where the plastic Norma connector clamps onto the metal pipe....

As always, thanks for any information from those of you who have already done this repair....

 

I had the same problem and did a temporary repair before I bought a new octopus hose. 3/4" barb. I'm now using the barb on the other side as the connection to the pressure tank would not stop leaking. I had a 3/4" hose elbow that I patched in. Even a new octopus can make trouble.

 

Thanks for your input. I think I now have the bases covered - this afternoon I purchased both a 3/4-inch by 3/4-inch brass hose barb and a 3/4-inch by 5/8-inch brass hose barb. One of those should do the trick but we probably will not know which one until we actually do the job....

 

For those of you who cut the leaking black plastic Norma connector off the end of the octopus hose in situ, what tool did you use? My neighbor's Dremel tool with just a 1-inch diameter cutting wheel appears to be too long and perhaps a bit too bulky to be able to fit down into the space and then get it parallel to the Norma connector in order to make the proper straight-through cut....

From the photos I have seen in these repair threads, it appears that this Norma connector is set deeper into the cavity on the 4.2 engines than it is on the 4.0 engines, so the fix for the 4.0 engines may indeed be easier to access and complete. I have the 4.2 engine....

Also, how far does the metal pipe on the engine side protrude into the plastic Norma connector? I am trying to determine where the best spot is on the Norma connector to make the cut....

 

After draining and capturing perhaps a gallon of coolant by pumping it out of the detached top radiator hose, I accomplished this repair by using my hand to twist and pull the end of the octopus hose out of the rear of the plastic Norma connector, then used a big pair of channel-lock pliers to crush and twist and pull the plastic Norma connector off of the metal pipe. The exposed end of the octopus hose is flared out to nearly an inch in diameter where it plugs into the plastic Normal connector, so you must cut most if not all of that flared portion off. A 3/4-inch by 3/4-inch brass hose barb, a new 3-inch section of 3/4-inch heater hose, and three new worm-drive clamps allowed me to complete the job. The toughest part for me was being able to get my gorilla-sized hands along with the proper tools correctly positioned into the very limited space in that area....

 

My mechanic did the splice repair last summer instead of a complete octopus replacement. It worked well and saved me a lot of dollars. It was leaking at the joint where it connects to the tube at the rear of the engine.

 

Sure glad to have the leaking Norma connector out of the system now. The brass hose barb splice repair makes so much more sense....

What about the various other hose ends of this infamous octopus hose? Are there more plastic Norma connectors on it that eventually begin to leak and must be replaced as well?

 

I guess it's personal preference but when hoses start leaking it's a sign of things to come.
Based on age and mileage, I just went for it and replaced all the hoses even though I had no leaks.
All of the removed hoses appeared to be in reasonably good condition but I'm not sorry I replaced them. Now I have peace of mind.
I flushed the cooling system, and even the radiator drain petcock didn't give me any problems. Yes, it can happen.
Now I don't expect to have any problems in that area for many years.

 

The hose itself is not at fault - the stupid plastic Norma connector is. It sits there just above the passenger-side catalytic converter and bakes in the engine bay as the years pass by. My octopus hose itself still looks to be in very good shape....

 

Hi, I'm also about to renew coolant hoses. The part you refer to as the Norma Connection, what part no is it?

 

For your 4.0 XKR, my SNG Barratt catalog appears to show this particular hose as part no. MJB4518AD. But please doublecheck this with an actual 4.0 XKR owner (which I am not)....

The Norma connector itself does not carry a separate part number. It is integrated into the hose....

 

Thanks. Will check Sng barratt

 

There's a plastic tee connector sat atop the other cat, under the expansion tank, that also decomposes - but it's cheap to replace. See this thread of Shoreguy's:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...4/#post1931483

If you're referring to the octopus, its part # is MJA6728AC

 

Thanks Michael. I will keep that information for future use....