OK, so it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything regarding my repaired 1996 Jaguar XJS.
For quite some time, if I accelerate and turn left (I believe) I get a scraping sound from the front of my car. I believe I have narrowed this down to a loose radiator. It simply takes no effort at all to pull on the radiator hose and have the whole radiator move around. I suspect it’s banging into the fan.
The problem is that I don’t know how to fix it. There are no bolts or nuts to tighten to keep the radiator secured. The radiator has to posts on the top and two on the bottom. I did make sure that I kept the bottom mounting pads, CCC4794, which are quite robust.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell if there’s a bushing or rubber support I can replace in the upper support, or if it just comes integrated in the top support member (HHD4157AA), in which case everything has gotten very squishy.
Maybe I just have to find some properly sized bushings and jam it under that upper support panel to help lock the radiator down. I came here looking to see if anyone had history with this problem.
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
2
You might want to check your motor mounts, too. The radiator is supposed to be free to move a little bit, but perhaps it’s the engine moving as well that’s causing them to come together.
I have replaced the motor mounts, so I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt at this point.
The radiator moves a lot, and very easily. I need to add some bushings to the top to tighten things up a bit. The rubber bushing will still allow for some movement.
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
4
With the car sitting in the garage, can you physically move the radiator far enough to touch the fan?
With the engine cold and the car running, I could not get the radiator to hit the fan. The radiator, on the passengers side only, moves freely, but not enough for me to make the sound I get when making left hand turns while accelerating…
I’m going to attack this issue over the weekend and report back.
I changed the rad of my 93.5 coupe not long ago, and there are bushes at the top, and the rad can’t move at all
you should be able to check / replace the upper bushes just by removing the 4 screws holding the upper panel, and move it a bit : you’ll see if the bushes are shot or still ok
(loosen the nut holding the fan shroud, too)
to replace them, you have to disconnect the bleeding pipe from the rad at the right : be sure to have the correct copper washers to replace the old ones when refitting the banjo bolt
also remove
the 3 fan shroud nuts, (green arrow above)
the 2 nuts holding the AC condenser, (red arrow)
the 2x2 nuts holding the AC dryer bottle
the upper plate should be free to move ,
change the bushes and refit, they’re probably shot / crumbling because of heat
The problem is not the radiator…it’s the condenser in front of it. They are not in the holes, so the plate is too high, allowing the radiator to wobble!
So the condenser coil was definitely out of the holes. It’s an aftermarket that I fit in when I bought the car because the original was leaking. It fits, but needs some spacers to keep it in place.
Anyways, I was hoping that would be the problem, but unfortunately I solved it, but I still get the grinding noise when accelerating hard, from a stop, when making left hand turns.
The radiator is still loose. Not as loose, but still more than it should be. The large donut baskets are soft and are not rigid enough to lock the radiator in place. I may have to get back in there and add spacers to tighten that up. I no longer believe that the loose radiator is the problem.
Even the blades don’t look like they’ve been scratching anything up.
I suspect that perhaps you guys are right and the wheel is running up in the well. I fixed a loose door, but the tires come oh so close to the well when the wheels are turned…
I can’t figure out how to investigate this issue.
It is as easy to recreate as it is to avoid doing in the first place!
I think I found the culprit. (Dammit Kirbert, I think you were right all along). The fan blades look perfectly fine…except for the ends. They look a bit rough. There’s no evidence of any contact with the shroud, but the ends of these plastic fins sure look beat up.
I replaced the motor mounts a while back, but I think since the car was stolen and rammed into a wall…they may have failed since. I’ll have to get a jack under there to see if the mount has delaminated.
I don’t remember enjoying replacing the mounts the first time round. I think I unbolted both mounts at the same time the first time around. I have since read that it is recommended to do one side at a time. I had a really tough time lining up the second mount.
Had the intention of replacing the engine mounts yesterday. I detoured and pulled off the Boge shock on the drivers side.
Dead. I mean, it will eventually get extend back out, buy we’re talking minutes. Luckily I had the original ones that were in much better shape. I put them back on instead and the grinding sounds like its much better. This may have been the culprit all along. I wanted to put a jack under the engine and see if the mounts gave, but I never did that. They appear fine, but I’m sure they only look bad when they’re given an opportunity to pull away.
I did pull out the passengers side, and although it was in better shape…it’s getting there too.
Sounds like an order for some new shocks. I thought I bought the Boge with a lifetime warranty, but I can’t find the receipt for it and I have no idea where I bought it from! Not Amazon, RockAuto or FCPEuro. Nothing comes up in my email search either…
It hasn’t cleared out. Something about hard accelerating when making a left turn that’s still occurring. Also a hard acceleration when going down hill…weird.
It’s not as harsh now? I’ll be buying Bilsteins up front, then figure out a time to swap out the motor mounts. I need the car on ramps for that.
It was indeed a motor mount that was shot. I replaced both mounts with OEM Metalastic mounts.
It was the drivers side mount. I replaced the passengers side first, thinking it would be the culprit. I was disappointed that it came out whole. I thought it was going to be something else, so you should have seen the thrill in my face when I moved on to the drivers side!
I’m sure this was a leftover result from when my car was stolen and damaged.
I also replaced my front shocks with Sachs.
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
20
IIRC, it is always the port side mount. That’s the side in tension. The other side is in compression.
