S-Type (2001): FANtastic fix and Fluid situation

[Guest Lord Sward]

I told it was shite from the outset Dickie.

[RichardMoss]

It hasn't let me down and all the dire predictions made on a certain other forum have failed to materialise.  I just has a shitey driving position.

[garethj]

I've found the driving position very good, the heigh adjustment on the electric seats gets me comfortable and the seats themselves fit my arse nicely.  I agree about the visibility being not great but that's the same for all modern cars, unfortunately.

 

But if you don't find it comfortable, that's pretty important.  That's an actual reason for punting the car on, not like most of us have - boredom, so we make up a reason

[Guest Breadvan72]

Foak me!  Allah Akhbar, or what? 

[RichardMoss]

I've found the driving position very good, the heigh adjustment on the electric seats gets me comfortable and the seats themselves fit my arse nicely.  I agree about the visibility being not great but that's the same for all modern cars, unfortunately.

 

But if you don't find it comfortable, that's pretty important.  That's an actual reason for punting the car on, not like most of us have - boredom, so we make up a reason

The seats are great - nice and supportive etc. but the problem lies with the position of the throttle pedal - it's an LHD car so that pedal is up against the transmission tunnel.  As a result there is nowhere to rest that foot on a run.  I can't rest it on the pedal because that's too sensitive and the car would keep accelerating.  I can't rest it on the tunnel when the cruise control is engaged because the angle of of my knee and hip puts everything under tension (and hence agony - no exaggeration).  There is also no space to rest it under the pedals (and I don't have especially big feet) and therefore I run out of options.    On an RHD version I could rest my right foot on the wheel arch.  The stupidity is that if the pedals were shifted slightly to left then space would be available for a footrest. 

 

Oh well, time to bung it on the notice board at the local supermarket.

[DSdriver]

 The later dash is known as the horseshoe type ...  

 

My first thought was that the designer had drawn around the grille on an Edsel

[RichardMoss]

My first thought was that the designer had drawn around the grille on an Edsel

Bloody Ford, eh? Dredge up an old design

[saucedoctor]

Get a RHD one.

[RichardMoss]

Get a RHD one.

Nice idea - apart from the "being illegal here" issue

[RichardMoss]

June 3rd:

This has been out on loan to a friend who was leaving the country (and therefore had to sell his car) and on the afternoon of his last day in the country it overheated and developed a big water leak.  It was coming from under the expansion tank so I hoped it was just the hose but sadly no - the tank has split in several places.  That will sound familiar to anyone who has owned a Rover 800.  This one looked like it had been cooked by the underbonnet temperatures and gone brittle.  

Hopefully no damage has been done to the head gaskets - Dave stopped as soon as he became aware of the problem.  So I'll be fitting a new header tank and fingers crossed (I may chuck in a can of K-seal just in case).

New one:  
$200+ from Jaguar in the USA and probably double that here.
$160 from a local independent
$70+ postage from http://www.partsgeek.com (total about $90)
$50+ postage from ebay (total about $70).  

Guess which I went for (given that I plan to sell the car).  It should be here in about a week but in the meantime I have a spare car or two I can rely upon.

 

June 13th:

The tank has been replaced and the cooling system is now watertight and the correct bleeding procedure was followed. However, the car was still getting hot and it appeared that the cooling fans were not running.

I checked the handbook and it told me that the fan is controlled by fuse 25 in the engine bay fusebox (80amp) but on the diagram of the fusebox on the opposite page there is no fuse 25 - they only go up to 24!  So, the first question was:  where the hell IS the fan fuse on a 2001 S-type?  Thankfully, someone on a Jaguar forum was able to point me in the right direction I(in the fusebox, disguised as a relay).  The fuse was OK.

I assumed that there must be a relay for the fans but there is no mention of that in the handbook (not that it actually mentions any relays in detail!).  So question 2 was: where the hell is the fan relay or is it part of the "cooling module" on the bottom of the shroud?  In fact it is part of the cooling module (a bit like the 800s black relay pack) but they are apparently very reliable (thankfully so, at £350 apiece).  It could have been a problem with the thermostat but even if that was bad, I would have expected the fans to cut in but they didn't, nor with the aircon switched on, either.

My bluetooth OBD scanner connected OK to the car and showed live data on my smartphone (temperatures, throttle positions etc) but I got no fault codes at all.

So, after checking the 80amp fuse (fine), I swapped the relays around in the fusebox (in case one was faulty) and unplugged and reseated all the electrical connections for the cooling module and fan wiring. Nothing.  I therefore deduced that the fan was probably seized - so I hit the motor casing with my hammer and the fan started to rotate slowly. I hit it again and it started to rotate at normal speeds and now all is well.  The temperature is normal whether parked or driving and the fan works properly after stopping and restarting the car. The only costs are the replacement header tank and a refill with coolant - the tank is an aftermarket one from ebay at about 1/3 the price of buying a genuine one here.  No obvious signs of any damage to the heads and gaskets, either (phew)

Fixed with a hammer - you've got to smile

Now to track down the cause of the uneven throttle response - pedal position sensor, throttle stepper motor or throttle position sensor.  or something else.........
I'm going to bite the bullet and take it to the dealer to get the codes read and then once the fault is diagnosed I'll fix it myself.

[RichardMoss]

June 14th:

I forgot to mention that I changed the gearbox filter and fluid the other day.  As always seems to be the case, the filler point is hard to get to so here's what I do (a tip learned years ago from the Scimitar and Sabre Owners Club magazine - specifically referring to filling differentials):

A garden sprayer, with the atomiser nozzle removed, gives a nice, easy way to do it. Fill with fluid, pressurise the sprayer and then lie down and spray


The second picture shows it in action:


It was also treated to a good clean up on the wheels - "Wonder Wheels" does work wonders - along with a set of Toyota solid wheel nuts because standard S-type ones are as bad as Rover ones:

[saucedoctor]

Good call on the wheel nuts. God help you of you ever break off part of a JLR locking wheel nut - none of the tyre places want to know.

[RichardMoss]

Low crime rates here mean that wheel theft isn't really an issue - so I don't bother with the lockers.