Today the water pump started squeaking and leaking water. I assume none but a fool drives the car even short distances like that?

I actually need to do two 5 mile trips tomorrow and my other car is away.

Mike

 

Murphy strikes again

If it's squeaking, then I guess the bearings are dry and they could collapse if you tempt providence. Or it could go on for another 100 miles.

Guess I'm a tad paranoid about keeping the cooling system up to snuff on these cars. Phone a friend?

 

Agreed. I would not risk driving it....

 

Frustrating but with luck a new pump arrives tomorrow so patience! Not my strong suit. I have a load of things to do tomorrow five miles away

I need to take a load of crap with me so I can't walk it!

It really would be roulette!

 

OK so I'm changing the pump. I watched a video that made it look straightforward apart from draining the coolant which he let come out of the pump into a bucket.

That doesn't seem t so great to me, I thought there was a tap or something at the bottom of the radiator. He didn't seem to want to touch it which I thought was a little odd.

Any advice please?

Mike

 

I have been using that tap on several Jags over the years with no problem, others have said it broke off. If you do use the tap open it just enough to let the coolant dribble out, or it will be all over the front of the cat and no better than just loosening the pump and letting it drain.

My procedure now is to snake a 1/4" hose down through hose at the bottom of the pressure tank and siphon as much as possible from there first.

 

That sounds like my kind of plan as you don't need a full drain just enough to stop s flood.

Thank you.

 

My DIY experience might be helpful. It was on a 4.2 but should be about the same.

 

When I did mine I could not get the plug out the radiator so I just loosened the bolts off and it was no drama just caught it in a tray and reused most of it .

 

Thanks for that which is encouraging.

 

FWIW, you can drain quite a bit from the overflow tank. Use a turkey baster and a clean container. Then remove the overflow tank and keep draining from the bottom hose with the same baster (you can lower the hose by hand to remove even more). Should get the level low enough to replace the pump without making a mess. You don't need to get all of it out, and, if new enough, you should be able to reuse it.

You are going to want to put the hood in the vertical/service position for this job.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

Well the job itself is much as described and doing it again I would be much quicker I'm sure.

So far dry as a bone with a test run, then my two five mile trips and the water temperature was the same as usual so that's all good. I just drained the coolant from the pump slowly and collected it. I shall replace all the coolant as I suspect it's geriatric - rather like me.

So far so good and once many thanks to a very helpful forum!

Mike

 

I meant to ask: the cap on my coolant reservoir is very fiddly to get on and off, almost as if the thread was reluctant to engage. Is this normal? It works fine under pressure just tricky to get off.

 

You need to press down on the cap while turning it to get it to catch. I think that's the 'O' ring. It's the same on the original reservoir and the OEM I replaced it with.

I normally nip it up then back off a 1/4 turn, as the seal isn't dependent on it being tight. Easy to undo from there if necessary.

 

my cap did the same thing. You couldn’t tell it by looking at it, but it was slightly warped. Like yours it held the pressure perfectly but was hard to get started on , and off.

I decided to try a cap from my spare (and new) reservoir. It goes off and on perfectly.

Z

 

I shall try Michael's suggestion and then probably bite on the bullet and buy a new one should it not work. It's not something you do all that often but it's an irritation.

 

Mine was so difficult to remove that I was worried it might crack. That prompted me to try my spare.

note: a new tank complete with cap from RockAuto is about the same price as a cap
alone from a Jaguar source. Nice to have a
spare tank.

Z

 

I'm in the UK

 

Mike ..you can get a new one on ebay for £6 or £12 if you want it asap

 

Coo that's cheap.