Took the Convertible to work today , it being a fine and sunny 27 degrees celsius.
Lovely run to work this morning and even popped out for a meeting during the day , all good.

On the way home tonight we probably sat idling in traffic and slowly moving for about 20 minutes.

About 10 minutes before the slow traffic , I thought I could smell petrol fumes but as there was a little digging machine on a trailer on a car in front of me , I thought that could be the cause of the fuel smell.

Caught a faint whiff a little bit later and thought, that's odd.

After about 5 minutes in the crawling traffic I thought the air cond wasn't working that well. It was set on 19.

I turned it on and off a few times. Still didn't work.

The fumey smell was kind of there as well.

After 20 minutes the temp gauge started to shoot up and actually hit the red and the red light came on for about 1 second.

I turned the ac off right away.

As it was a busy 3 lane road and I was in the left lane I decided to turn off and park up and order a tilt tray. As soon as I started to move the temp dropped and made it's way back to sit on half.

With the air con off and kind of continually moving it stayed at half.

Have just put it in the garage.

No fuel coming out , no water coming out, starts fine, runs fine.

Took the expansion cap off slowly and carefully and that is still full of water.

So my questions are;

1. What the heck caused the petrol fume smell?
2. Can that be anything to do with the aircond?
3. Having had the temp hit the red momentarily have I cooked it?

Bugger !!!!

Pete

 

The AC puts an additional load on the cooling system.

One trick to dissipate heat in an emergency is to turn the heater
on full blast. This is especially effective with Jaguars because of
the separate heater circulation pump.

One suspect would be shredded vanes in the water pump. Another
is inoperative cooling fans.

No, you have not necessarily cooked it. But, testing etc. ought to
take place where you will not get trapped in traffic so that you can
pull over.

I run a 71*C thermostat and accidentally left the car parked nose
to wall in 35*C temperatures on the roof of a parking structure for
eight hours. Temp needle was still in the middle when I discovered
it. The only problem was non-existent AC due to heat soak of the
freon in the hoses. AC was regained after ten minutes of slow
driving to cool everything down.

 

Thanks Plums

I let it cool down for about an hour after getting home

On start up the cooling fans ran fine.

I think the pump has been replaced already by Prev owner?

Aircon is at an air off of 10 degrees celsius. It certainly wasn't doing that out on the road.

Went for a drive as well . No issues. Sitting comfortably at half way

Managed to get a hold of my Indy Jag mechanic.

He asked about error messages like low coolant etc and I old him other than the needle getting up into the red and the red light comic on for 2 seconds there were no other messages.

He had another XKR that showed similar symptoms but it was only a faulty sensor.

That caused over fuelling as well.

Off to see him in the morning and we'll hook up the fault reader and see what it says.

I wonder if the ac could be short of gas which is causing the condenser coil to freeze> That usually only happens at the evap fan or inside fan.

Good tip about the heater fan too. Thanks

Pete

 

Another item to check is the intercooler pump and the inter cooler loop fluid level. Though generally if the expansion tank is full the level will be ok, but perhaps not the pump (under air box). If you turn the key to the #2 position you can hear the pump running, it's electric, chk fuses if not first.

Also Fuel smell, this maybe a purge valve or emissions leak, It won't always set a code. How full was your fuel tank ? If this problem exists it usually is noticeable when below 1/2 tank

 

Thanks jam

In key pos #2 ( all lights up . the 1 before starting) I can here something running. LHS of engine ( looking from the rear) How do I check if there is water at the intercooler pump?

I would think the fuel tank was around 1/2 full when this happened

Interestingly not 1 fault code came up on the fault reader at the mechanic this morning.

The needle did definitely sneak up into the red and the light even came on for an instant before I started moving and it dropped right back to 1/2 way within 10 minutes?

The other weird thing is that the auto shift pattern seemed to change whilst it was indicating hot. It seemed to hold the gear for longer during auto upshift.

I just checked the service records.

It definitely had a new water pump and a new thermostat back in Nov 2013.

The mech says that the TS are notoriously dodgy and has suggested a new one again and a sensor also.

Seeing as we were at the mech ( who is about 40 mins away and car did not miss any obvious beats) we continued on to look t kitchen stuff at a display nearby.

During all that and the trip home no issues?

Pete

 

On the top of the intercooler there is a hex like a large allen key nut, see the DIY sticky you can get a bolt that will fit with 2 nuts to remove it ($1), check the fluid there. The intercooler is on the PASSENGER side under the airbox.

You should really be wary, the car should not enter the red zone ever, the temp gauge on these cars are not accurate, it's either middle or when it's too late red. Many posts and warning on this, do NOT run it in the red or you maybe in for a hurt of engine trouble. It probably won't go away, I'd suggest a good flush and refill of fluid (known to be good) and pull the Tstat and maybe put a new one in, not expensive or at least test yours (put in pot of water with a thermometer and see when it opens as it goes to boiling).

It could be a off chance, though small that the temp sensor or connecting lume has a issue but this is unlikely.

I will say again DO NOT run in the RED. Search for posts on this and you'll see what has happened to those that do.

 

Thanks again

Understood.

No heavy traffic driving for me then