Coolant leak

[andypryce]

Hi all,

Yesterday stuck in a queue and car started to steam, pulled over and eventually tracked it to leak in the hose returning to header tank. On inspection this sits on top of the metal casing for the supercharger and I think the heat has affected the pipe leading to the burst. I have ordered a new pipe, but my question is what is the best thing to wrap around the pipe as a heat shield to prevent same thing happening again?

andy

[J44EAG]

This range of products via Demon Tweaks, Andy.

A variety of lengths and diameters available. Should do the job, I think.

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... rmo-sleeve

Hope that helps.

Mike

[andypryce]

Thanks Mike,

Regards, Andy

[andypryce]

Ordered, nice one Mike.

Andy

[ionod]

Hi,
I have just purchased a new header tank for my X350 and would like advise on how easy it is to change please.

Thanks in advance

ionod..............

[robv12]

dead easy, but mind you do not drop or loose the clip off the bottom hose

also be careful not to break off the overflow outlet pipe, these are very fragile

allow an hour at most for the job

and remember when you top the coolant up to bleed the air out via the bleed screw, and then not to over fill it, only fill to the white max marker in the tank, leave some headroom

[ionod]

Thanks robv12,
If the rain holds off today will have a go. The reason I'm changing it is because my nozzle broke off. It's so close to the header tank body that I can't fix back on, tried allsorts. Even tapped a thread into the remaining nozzle and fitted another pipe but still leaked.

Regards,

ionod

[J44EAG]

These tanks and some other parts on modern cars are made from polypropylene. The material has what is most easily understood as " an extra molecule" on the surface of the material. As such that makes a structure made from this synthetic micro structure completely impossible to bond together even when mechanically abraded or attempts are made to fix parts together with adhesive. Use of even a poly-sulphide based sealer/adhesive such as Sikaflex 291 will fail. The same for superglue, contact adhesive, epoxy or other useful products. The material is also likely to fail given age precipitation, pressure and heat. It embrittles and then falls to bits.

Stub pipes on these tanks are of very thin and slender proportions and no attemts by the manufacturers have been made to increase the radius or otherwise increase the cross sectional dimensions to attempt to cure this frustrating situation. they would rather you bought a new tank!

The tanks of both early and later models of the S-type have always had identical issues. With the ever present possibility of a failed tank lurking under the bonnet, I carry a brand new one in the wheel well of my car. having had to replace two tanks during ten years of ownership, I`m wise to and wary of the issue. There`s faith for you!

Mike K

[ionod]

Fitted new header tank yesterday with no problem. Took longer to retrieve the spring clip from the engine tray than it did to fit the tank. Thank heaven for my endoscope with light and magnet.

managed to save most of the coolant but had to top up with water for now as after bleeding the warning light came on. All seems fine now apart from an annoying squeal from a belt which has now gone, but will get jaguar coolant as soon as.
Just another point while on, how often should the belt be changed? I've done 90,000 miles now.

Thanks for tips and info all.

Ionod.................

[J44EAG]

Overdue unless previously changed is the short answer. Personally I work on visual inspection and apparent condition.

If you remove the belt and fold it back on itself a worn belt will display hundreds of cracks across it. Time expired, a liability and due for the bin!

Here is the one off my V8 S-type having covered about 75k miles. Living on borrowed time! If in doubt, chuck it out!!

phpbyrMBhPM.jpg (72.08KiB)Viewed 5714 times

Mike

[robv12]

Fitted new header tank yesterday with no problem. Took longer to retrieve the spring clip from the engine tray than it did to fit the tank. Thank heaven for my endoscope with light and magnet.

managed to save most of the coolant but had to top up with water for now as after bleeding the warning light came on. All seems fine now apart from an annoying squeal from a belt which has now gone, but will get jaguar coolant as soon as.
Just another point while on, how often should the belt be changed? I've done 90,000 miles now.

Thanks for tips and info all.

Ionod.................

I TOLD you NOT to loose the clip!!!!!

I always have a spare ready when I do this job!!

[ionod]

How much of a job is it to do myself? assuming it's not been changed already. Will have to check back through service history.

Thanks,

ionod.............

[J44EAG]

I suggest you inspect rather than rely on service history. Eyeball is more reliable!

I assume it is the belt that you are considering changing and a non supercharger car as well.
Supercharged cars have two belts and two tensioners. They are most easily done by two people and two ratchets. They are a little more complicated.

Firstly obtain a new belt. These will usually come in an oblong cardboard square sleeve and the belt will have taken an odd shape whilst in storage. Plunge it into hot water to relieve the stresses and make the belt pliable and rather more round than when you took it from the packaging.

Assuming the 4.2 has a similar tensioner detail to the earlier 4 litre V8, you will need to look for the tensioner on the right lower front part of the engine. Space might be constricted due to the proximity of the rear of the radiator.

You will need a ratchet with I think it was a 3/8 square drive peg on it. A longer torque wrench will help. Otherwise you will have to slip a long piece of bar over the handle of a normal size ratchet. You need a bit of length to counter the force generated by the spring in the tensioner unit.

Before you begin either find a schematic drawing of the belt run in a publication or draw out the idler pulley, tensioner drive pulleys etc so that you have a visual record of the run of the old belt. That established, it is a ten minute job, possibly made longer if there are difficult obstructions to work around.

Engage the 3/8 drive peg in the square hole in the spring tensioner with the ratchet or torque wrench engaged. From memory you lever to the left to act against tensioner tension. With tension off, slip the belt off the water pump pulley and relax your leverage on your ratchet. Remove the old belt from the pulleys, idlers,a lternator, power steering, aircon and crank pulley and remove from the car. As I said previously, note where the belt runs before you remove the old belt and note how it sits on pulleys and under idlers..

Take your new and hopefully now pliable belt and feed around all the pulleys and idlers. Ensure the belt fits properly into the right grooves on the pulleys. If you have the belt on correctly you should not finally be able to fit it onto the last pulley (water pump) until you again ratchet and hold the tensioner against spring pressure with your ratchet. With leverage applied to the ratchet, you should now finally be able to slip the belt onto the water pump pulley. Relax ratchet tension and remove your wrench and 3/8 drive peg from the tensioner. Now again check that the belt is sitting correctly in all pulley grooves. Start up and make sure all is ok. Job done.

Popular folk law says I can do this job quicker than Mr Jenner.

Mike.

[ionod]

Hi Robv12,
Not lost, just misplaced lol

Took car on a good drive and all fine now with no more leaks.

Thanks

ionod...............

[ionod]

Hi Mike (J44EAG),

Mine is a 3.5 V8 2004 X350.
While replacing the header tank, I could just about see the belt but not clearly, too many hoses and pipes in the way. How much would I need to remove to gain clear access?

Dumb question probably but I do suffer from a bad back (spinal opp years ago) and therefore want to spend less time as possible under the bonnet.

ionod............