rad 4.0 xjs celebration

[dhdove]

HI Glad you're back
I have no idea what the true horror of your personality may be, but, I would say relax, I have only met five people who post on this site.
They are all very nice people (IMHO)
As for the rest , I guess you just have to make your own mind up
As far as this thread goes, I think that we are going so far off topic that the Moderator will intervene soon. I have PM'd you if you want to continue the conversation.
Good Luck With Your Rad
DH Dove

[ptjs1]

Christine,

Such a shame that you didn't come over and find me on Sunday with the rest of my Von Trapp offspring! I'm amazed you didn't see us jumping up and down the steps singing "Do, Re, Mi.."!!

By the way, if what you saw in the car park was a genuine D-type then the price of your new rad will suddenly seem very very cheap by comparison!

Glad you enjoyed the day and found an option for your rad. I think it's a straight choice really. The recon price seems fair & the price of a new Jag rad is actually very good. (You should be able to get at least 10-15% off as a JEC member from your dealer). I'd echo DH's advice. If the cooling fins in the top third of the rad are starting to crumble, then you probably need to replace it. However, if the fins are OK, you could just try taking the rad out and (carefully) sloshing caustic soda through it and watch the muck fall out.

Without wishing to worry you, one thing you might want to look at whilst they are taking the rad out is the condition of the hose connections on the oil cooler which is mounted up front. If they are corroding, it's impossible to remove them without destroying the threads inside the oil cooler. Now I do know someone who sells genuine oil coolers much cheaper than Jaguar...


Let us know how you get on

Regards,

Paul

[milly2]

Hi
Thanks for that
I am afraid a new problem has pushed the rad situation into the back ground.
The car failed its mot on emissions. The sensors were replaced . . We managed to get them from Gendan( half the price) and had them delivered to the dealer. The car went back for its MOT and failed again. On further examination the catalytic converter was found to be in bits. I don't need to tell you how much this is going to cost.


I am sorry I didn't find you all at Stoneleigh I could have done with a rousing chorus of "The hills are alive.

[dhdove]

Milly2
Check out BB exhaust thread.....Catalytic converters
Which bit has failed?
I presume since the mid "cats" can be replaced with straight thru pipes and still pass an MoT that it must be the front one in the downpipe thats u/s.
In which case I believe that the replacement cost is somewhere between
OOOGH and OUCH
Hope I am totally wrong
I believe that pjts1 has some expertise on this subject..........
Regards
DH Dove
Climb every mountain..................

[ptjs1]

Christine,

Sorry to hear about your recent setback or as we say "How do you solve a problem like ma XJS??"

I've just been through the split exhaust downpipe problem myself but managed to get it welded up cheaply. If the cat has really gone, you have a few choices:

- Junk the downpipe with catalysts and replace with pipes from AJ6 Engineering. I think their replacement stainless system (replaces all pipes from manifold back) would cost about £760 which is less than just the downpipe from Jaguar (£890!!!) They claim that the car will go through the emissions test fine with their system and no cats. You might want to talk to them to get a guarantee on that. Have a look at their website at:

http://www.jagweb.com/aj6eng/


- Buy a new downpipe - Ouch! Price is about £890! However, I know a dealer who has one on the shelf and might be prepared to sell it to me for about £550 + vat. Phone me if you're interested in pursuing this. My phone number is on the contacts page.


- Buy a second-hand one. However, if you do this, I would get someone to run a ring of re-inforcing weld around the pipe near the end as it will split fairly soon probably otherwise. Again, I know someone who might have a used pipe for sale...

Decisions. decisions...

Regards,

Paul Sinnott

[milly2]

P and D
I have been discussing the various options with the" in-house " engineer.
The part that needs replacing is the twin close-coupled downpipe starter catalyst assembly....yes, the expensive one. Both cans are badly burnt/eroded, and the car passes too much CO to pass the MOT.

Thanks for the suggestions regarding second-hand or alternatives, ,I will probably go with the replacement OE assembly, at c. £730 incl VAT . That doesn't seem too bad a price to pay compared with some of the numbers you have mentioned. I will then be sure I wont have to worry about this particular component for a few years to come.

The car will be MOTed again probably on Thursday ,if it passes without any more nasty surprises I will get the rad done as well.

[poprivet]

I'm sorry to read about the problems, you've had a really rough week or so. It does seem the later models suffer from expensive/difficult to find parts.
Very unlucky that the cats need replacing, quite often the cause is the Lambda sensor failing with age, overfuelling the engine resulting in destruction of the cats. Have you seen an increase in general fuel consumption since the last MOT by chance?
Pop

[milly2]

Hello pop

We have only had the car since may and conveniently the owner didn't have a note of the emissions from its previous MOT. I've only driven it a couple of hundred miles at most so can't make the comparison you suggest. We paid less than we would have expected to pay so suspected there were expensive problems that couldn't be seen. We are slowly uncovering the problems but this is probably the most expensive one so far. We are hoping to get it to a point where we could take it on a long run with out anything failing too dramatically,probably in the spring.

Its been as you say, a rough week, but these cars are "characterfull" and thats why we love 'em.

With a lot of luck the central heating boiler will last another winter and the plastic sledge I've put in the loft under the leak in the roof will perform as well as it did last year.

[dodgy]

Hi,

Don't know if you have sorted the radiator out as yet however I had mine re-cored (1995 4.0L) at a company called alglo european Radiators in Farnham Surrey. The cost was approx £150. They did a great job, all resprayed black and very rapidly too. I dropped it off at around 9:30 AM on a Thursday and they called to say it was ready on the Friday afternoon around 4PM. You cant ask for better than that! Having changed the radiator the temp gauge now runs mostly just below the 'N' on the gauge and if I push the car hard on a hot day it will rise to the middle of the 'N'. Prior to changing the radiator I have had to resort to turning the heating on and openeing the windows on a hot day in traffic just to keep the needle from rising! Using the AC was out of the question because it just added more heat to the cooling system.

As long as you can get it done reasonably close to you then I would recommend to do so. The only issue would be if parts of the radiator are badly corroded.

Cheers

Dodgy

[milly2]

Hello
Yep
Rad recored and the engine doesn't run quite so hot now. But I won't know til the spring for sure. The seasonal temp may be part of the reason for a cooler engine . There are fewer puddles on the garage floor as well.

It cost me about £170. Compared to the work needed for it to pass the MOT on emissions it was a small price to pay

Milly

[nigel1]

Nice to hear thats one problem solved.
BTW, the car you mentioned seeing, D type without the fin, that would be an XKSS, doubt if it was original, only 16 (Ithink) ever made it out of the factory, alot were lost in a fire at Browns Lane).
Steve McQueen owned one.
Cost of an original now runs into million plus, on the plus sides, they dont have catalytic converters

[MARKPEARSON]

these are on special offer at jdht web site for£185+vat