www.jec.org.uk

I have just got my XK8 and to learn a bit about it, bought the 'you&your jaguar XK8' Haynes book. In the book it says you can check if the water pump is working correctly by removing the coolant expansion tank filler cap (when the engine is cold) then run the engine at approx. 1200rpm. Coolant should be circulating briskly, causing a swirl of fluid from the bleed pipes back into the expansion tank. If the water pump isn't working there will be little circulation and therefore hardly any swirl. On checking this I found no circulation at all . I emailed haynes, who offer a 24hr reply service, on 11th Oct, I've had no reply. I have only just joined JEC and on Saturday emailed the technical advice department and Nigel Thorley who wrote the book (no reply as yet). The reason I want what the book says confirmed is: My car is 2002, 45k mls. I got it from a Jag dealer (Stratstone Luton) It has FSH at Stratstone. It was supposedly checked over before being sold to me and I have 1 yr warranty. Plus jag assistance. My thinking is should the coolant circulate before the thermostat is open.

Hi, did you ever get any replies as I would be interested the answer? I also read the book and assume you can see the movement before the stat opens.

I did get a couple of replies (see General section). The best advice was that if the pump or thermostat fails you'll soon know about it. As far as I can tell there is no way of confirming the pump is working by looking in the expansion tank. When I did the test, the coolant started to rise and probably would have overflowed if I hadn't turned off. There certainly wasn't any sign of circulation.