Blew up the car

XJ-S
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Can confirm: white

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Any colored plastic will break off as white.

I think it looks pretty damn yellow.

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Ian, No, you just tested the limits of an old cooling fan. It broke and you lost. Hopefully you’ll come away with noting more than minor replacement damage instead of having to rebuild the motor. When was the last time ALL your coolant hoses were replaced?

Stay Well and Happy Trails,

Dick

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I truly am sorry for the damage, but ya gotta look at the bright side.

No body damage, so costs are contained. There doesn’t seem to be anything destroyed that you can’t easily find and install yourself!

Furthermore, that radiator was probably questionable so it was time to either get it boiled, or replaced. Now you will have a solid and dependable cooling system!

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You dud NOT “blow up the car”, you blew up only the radiator!!!

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No the fan blew up cut the radiator that ate the belt that made the loud bang that swallowed the fly .:blush::blush::blush:

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Ordered new fan and clutch yesterday. At 105k miles I quit gambling!

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If it’s original fan clutch, you’ll probably notice a tiny bit improvement of cooling at idle with a new clutch. A bit noisier too when engine is warm, but that’s good. And it’s very difficult to ‘test’ an old fan clutch.

A symptom of a NEW fan clutch, at least for me, when I shut mine off warm, the next morning, the fluids take a while to get back into the middle of the clutch, so it’s actually a bit noisy when cold for a few minutes. Not sure at what temperature the clutch/fan are turning 1:1, but you’ll hear it.

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Thanks… I was messing around in my memory. Jeff Isbell. that is the guy. He wrote a very useful tome as well. The XJS, slice by slice.
Tossed fans are not unique to Jaguar…

  1. Pal Roy’s 39 Fords tossed one just east of Blythe, CA!!! We “patched” the radiator and limped home… Sans fan!!!

  2. I have a fan from an A Ford. Once a four blade, now a two blade!!!

Carl

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Hey shaguar, when you finish up there, would you mind heading my way? hehehe Sorry about your troubles but could have been worse. I guess…

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Lemme guess … the (yellow) fan blew up first? :thinking: So sorry to see, Shagman … :sob:

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I still don’t understand how that fan can cause that much damage - fan = plastic radiator = metal (brass?) … :confused:

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Or, inspect the fan closely at regular intervals for evidence of cracking. I would think there would be visible “warning” signs b/f the big one … :thinking:

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A lot of sources for the black fan on Ebay, but pick carefully … Some are as low as $50, while other vendors want to rape you for $150+ … :grimacing: I notice someone is now selling a white fan, and am curious where that version came from and whether it is as reliable as the black one or less so … ? :confused:

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I remember not too long ago I saw a couple of USED yellow fans being peddled on Ebay … wth??? One even appeared to already start to have cracking. :open_mouth: I wrote that vendor, in case he wasn’t aware of the peril he was selling, and tried to persuade him to take that item down. No response, and he kept his listing up … I hope the sucker that bought it doesn’t suffer disaster soon … :grimacing:

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What’s really scary about that article Gregmatic is note the date - 1996! So even while still relatively new (and while the XJS model was still being produced, in fact) the yellow fans developed that issue. :grimacing: It’s therefore NOT just a matter of “old age”, desiccation of plastic, etc. :thinking:

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This may be a dumb question, but I’ve always wondered why Jag decided to switch (upgrade?) from the Lucas system to a problematic one (i.e. Mirelli)? Whatever happened to, “if it ain’t broke, don’t ‘fix’ it”? :confused:

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Agreed, Gregmatic … :+1:

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Atty,

Do you really believe that in Coventry, UK - all the XJS cars coming out from manufacturing line - were having same parameters as the XJS cars coming out from manufacturing line during the weekend shift and XJS cars coming out from rework line?

It is not the case of the fan itselfc but how lucky you are with runout of the coolant pump / pulley and the fan itself…

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Jaguar probably considered the Lucas to be problematic. The centrifugal advance would seize up, causing the engine to overheat, valve seats to drop, etc. I’m sure they fully believed the modern electronics of the Marelli would be vastly more reliable than the archaic mechanics of the Lucas.

They thought the Teves III was a good idea, too.