Friends: My Indy mechanic advises sooner or later a replacement for a leaking radiator, notes leaking tranny cooler lines (85,000 total miles, 60,000 since tranny was replaced by prior owner), and I’ve managed to badly prang the cup holder. The questions:
1: Radiator: A) Anyone have experience with the Behr-Hella radiators ($215 with free shipping a 3-year warranty against $421 from a Jag dealer in Kansas who sells on line)? B) Are there coolant hoses I ought to be getting to have my Indy replace at the same time? I can’t find any hose kits like you could for the XJ-40 or 300s.
2: Transmission: I find the cooler hoses for about $240 via PartsGeek. Does anyone have experience with this outfit? I find a genuine ZF filter kit for a mere $66 via “Auto Parts Way”, and as best as I can tell the 6HP26 transmission takes Ford Motorcraft Mercon SP fluid. Has anyone used that stuff as opposed to the overpriced Jag stuff?
3: Cup holder repair/replacement: If I figure out how to attach photos, I will. This is a non-standard and very shallow cup holder. The center console has nearly no storage as it holds the second AC/heater package for the rear seat pax, As best I can tell one must remove the whole darn console to take off just the lid to the small storage area that holds the cup holder so you can extract the mechanism for repair/replacement. Again, does anyone have experience with this or can point me to parts?
Many thanks in advance, and I’ll see if I can post cup holder photos with this. Aha…it worked! Photo 3 shows the underside of the small lid that contains the cup holder assembly. I can’t tell if the four dots are perhaps snap-in fittings for the plastic assembly on the underside of the console lid. The whole assembly pivots on two arms that go into the underside of the console cover.
Eliot
Annandale, VA
‘06 Radiance Pearl VDP (previous ‘89 XJ40 fans ‘97 X300, all carrying the tag GUD KITY
I’ll give that a try. If it works, I still face either repairing the cup holder or replacing with a new part … and I’ve not found anything like it online. That said, Monday or Tuesday I’ll see if I can find out what those plugs are. The top portion of the cup holder — the part that rotates forward when the latch is released — seems to just be vinyl glued over the part. One tab on the thing (right side in the picture, left side on the car) has broken off and I hope I can find it!
Robin: I found a new-old-stock OEM supply of these armrest/cupholders in England. I have a question in to them regarding color, and if that pans out, with shipping it’s just under $100. Practically a bargain. All I need to do is find the directions in the shop manual for removing the console and the back electronics, and then install the piece. Failing that, I have an auto upholstery shop I can turn to have it done professionally!
$83 for orders via eBay vs $98 on their website! I ordered the champagne with white stitching as it is closest the the alleged “mocha” interior color of my car.
Sorry for the delay in responding. The short answer is yes. The longer answer is the AC unit fills the entire back end of the console and cuts the storage area down to something big enough for a credit card and small packet of hearing aid batteries. The exterior appears the same, or somewhat similar, but the operation of, and maybe the placement of the lid is different. Here’s a picture of what the interior of the console looks like. The tiny storage area is on driver’s side where the blower motor can be seen.
Thanks for thinking of me. I was able to find the hinged cover that contains the cup holders and is the cover for the mini storage area at a place in England, so my crisis was avoided. I had fun paging through the shop manual to find the instructions on getting the console out, and this list helped a great deal with guidance on replacing the top and its really awkward-to-fasten hinge arrangement!
