Hmm, there seems to be some sort of translation error. I believe you meant to say that it worked and I am a genius. I'll wait if you want to edit your original message.

Not sure what else to suggest. You can still check the accuracy of the evap temp sensor. After that, you probably are looking at a compressor issue. Shame you can't do much work yourself, as you could try the piston mod.

If you do go to a shop, just report the symptoms and what you've tried. Don't just ask for a certain part to be replaced, as that's your problem if it doesn't help. Let them do their own diagnosis. Whatever they decide, ask how the final bill works if that doesn't fix it. Some places charge for their guesswork, while more reputable shops only charge for the final fix.

 

NO, There was no difference at all, virtually no cooling at idle when stopped. I have 12 months guarantee here in Spain when buying from a dealer.
My big problem is that they can fit secondhand parts and that takes time to order/deliver etc. and I need the car, it is my daily transport and the dealer
is 60K from here and not easy to reach with public transport.. Certainly they will not take my word for anything. The Belt dressing has probably worsened the situation with them.. The belt looked very good actually, No cracks and not shiny etc.
The Evap Temp sensor never gets near 38F. A/C is crap but fuel economy is very good 4.1L /100K at 110k on motorway cruise.
Quote "Shame you can't do much work yourself, as you could try the piston mod".
I only have ramps + I am 71 and not quite as flexible as I once was. If I had a MK2 It would be different but the modern tubular jungle......( And I thought my old X3 was a lump of Plastic%^&* under the bonnet)....The diesel A/C compressor change requires dropping the subframe on one side to remove a bolt, ie wheels in the air on a lift for starters. Of all the minor jobs, This appears to be one of the worst from the DIY point of view.
Can you recommend a good UAZ ?? I was looking at an excavator in for poor AC. Brilliant!! A 10 year old could work on it. Maybe a Mehari with one cylinder blocked off is more up my street!!!!

 

Anyway I will see what the guy in Alicante has to say, I saw a new compressor with clutch for 220 Euros so maybe the guy that loaded the gas could sort it, Time off the road
and convenience is an essence! I have other probs too, One Injector offset low 640 all others from 980 to 1220 maybe causing lumpy acceleration around 2krpm.

 

Wished I had more conclusive advice for you. For the compressor, other than reading gauge numbers, I don't have a solid means to say it's good or bad. Even the gauge readings can be difficult to interpret because of how the self-regulating feature operates.

I got a nice PM from another member wondering if the thermal expansion valve could be acting up. This is another possibility, but I haven't looked too deeply into that yet. From what I understand, if you need to change this valve, it's a LOT of work. It's easier to grind off the VIN, start a fire, and collect the insurance money.

The compressor and thermal expansion valve are probably the two most expensive components in the AC system, once labor is considered. Fortunately, they are usually quite reliable. In my troubleshooting guide, I deliberately didn't delve too deeply with either item for two reasons:

1) They can be difficult to diagnose, and many relatively inexpensive components can show the same symptoms. My thoughts were to rule out these external factors, which will probably take care of 80% of the cases.

2) I'm justifiably scared of an angry crowd showing up at my door, wielding torches and pitchforks. I don't need anybody mad at me for saying to replace a particular expensive part, when it was really something else at fault. My guide mostly sticks to the cheap and easy stuff. I still strongly suggest getting a professional diagnosis for the expensive stuff.

 

Thanks anyway Karl, It was interesting and informative to say the least. I thought of that valve too!!! The AC guys were both convinced about the compressor and when you think of it after 15 years of working 6 months a year it is not surprising that it is worn out. The previous owner was well aware of this I'm sure.
Thanks again and I will let you know how it goes.
Mike

 

your compressor is bad. Low high side readings show no compression. And high low side readings means no suction. Your compressor is bad and needs to be swapped out before you toss a bunch of debris throughout the system.

These compressors are not very stout in my opinion. I am changing my compressor on my 06STR with 120,000 miles on it because of the compressor leaks. Once I got the compressor out which was a pain in the *** I tried covering the pressure poured with my finger as I rotated the compressor pulley and noticed there was hardly any pressure coming out that port. I tested it against a used compressor I got for a V6 off eBay. The eBay compressor had much more substantial pressure Build up as a cover the port and rotated the pulley by hand. However since the compressor I buy from eBay was for a V-6 and would not fit on my STR I went out and bought a new compressor from the parts store for $300 and I’m installing it to today. I noticed the brand new compressor is hard as hell to turn. And builds up a lot more pressure on the bench. So this tells me that as these compressors age they stop compressing and that is probably what is going on with yours. As a sidenote even though the compressor mod was not recommended for STR‘s I did it anyways as I am taking that whole variable compression aspect of the system out and it should increase My AC compressor performance at Low rpms.

I managed to get the compressor installed last night (job was HELL) and I pulled a vacuum for a good two hours and I let it sit overnight and when I get out there I’ll find out whether not I can move forward. I also changed the desiccant bag in the condenser.

something to note was that when I removed the original compressor I tried to drain it to find out how much oil was in it and surprisingly I got less than a teaspoon of oil (really hardly any). however it does not appear that I have any residual debris in the system as I found nothing in the oil in theCompressor. I did not flush the system out although I did buy system flush. After finding out what it took to get the expansion valve out so I could do a proper flush I said screw it I’m not going to do that and less I have to so I’m going to try it without doing a flush. According to the materials I found on the Internet it says that if the oil drain for the compressor was less than 90 mL but I should add 90 mL of oil so that is what I did. It also said that if there was between 90 mL in 200 mL of oil in the used compressor that I should add 200 mL of oil which I thought was weird. I added 90 mL or 3 ounces of oil to the compressor and then added about 1/3 of an ounce of oil to the high-pressure line coming off the compressor for the condenser to make up for the desiccant bag that I replaced. This job is a nightmare. Wish me luck

 

Btw, I noticed many posts did not mention what the high and low side pressures are for different scenarios. To diagnose ac problems, high and low side Readings along with the ambient outside air temperature and the vent temperature when the AC is set on max AC air circulatory all windows open, and the RPM and whether the car is movingly are crucial to being able to solve the problem.

One thing I did notice during my repair yesterday was that my intercooler radiator and the condenser and the engine radiator were extremely dirty with lots of little rocks and dust and some bugs all stuck inside the cooling fans of all three components. I bought some condenser cleaner and sprayed that as best I could from the front and then I used engine degreaserAs best I could to spray into the cooling fans and I flushed out so much crap I was amazed and you might want to look at your set up as well

 

I have done just about everything I could, in the end I went to company specialising in Vehicle AC. After a few checks and looking at the pressure H/L at various revs,
their unanimous decision was worn out compressor. They also knew they were not going to get the job so they had nothing to gain.
Waiting now for the vendor to give me an appointment with his mechanics to confirm the problem/

 

The vendor has been washing his hands on the guarantee, He is not responding to my emails in accordance with the terms of sale and guarantee etc, since an erratic Spanish telephone conversation regarding mileage, I have not completed 4000kms yet. But we may have a surprise in store for him next month.
Anyway I procured a supposedly good Compressor and clutch assy, checked operation of clutch, appeared normal in operation
along with the current draw @3.4A
Got a quote for fitting it from a local Brit Indie and agreed to take the car in. After about 6 hrs he calls me and says it is very complicated
and the car will not be ready until the following day. Today he called me and said he could not do it and it would take him 2
hours to put it back together. He said it was very complicated and the steering pump was a big problem !!!! It is not mentioned in the
workshop manua! at all! From various UK Indies it seems that the replacement takes between 3 and 4 hours while an Amateur without
a lift etc could take twice that time. Tomorrow I will check out another rather more competent motor mechanic based on previous experience.
Watch this Space!

 

Hi Karl,
After nearly a year I got back on it and changed the Compressor, Finally I have a "COOL Cat". The Diesel is a real pain in the butt to change the compressor.
Local indie garages said it was too complicated. It took me 4 days to do. Many said it was removed from the bottom, this is not true, it must come out from the front and above.
1. I did not have the tool to remove the rubber tube clips so this took many hours.
2. The Jaguar manual is wrong!
3. The removal and refitting of the Autobox heat exchanger is a real pain too, there is no mention of the 2 sunken 13mm bolts.
4. Problems due to underneath access, Not having a lift causes problems in access to the top and bottom right compressor fixing bolts. Use of Imagination necessary here.
5. Lower right bolt should be shortened by about 8mm to not foul A/C piping.
6. I could have done the job in about 8Hrs with the right tools and a car lift.
7. If you do not have the above, Do not try it. Take the relevant pages from the manual to an Indie and convince him it is easy but you just don't have the time to do it at the moment.
8. A big thanks to Karl for his knowledge and patience. His guide and procedures are excellent to understand and fault find the A/C.
Cheers Karl,
Mike

 

First, the serious stuff . . . Well done, both Karl and Mike.

Your patience and perseverance overcame even the tetchy moments that often arise when a myriad of complex problems threaten to overwhelm. The sage advice of Karl's mentor of long ago, was evident throughout. Can I say, to both of you, that the generosity you shared and the insights you have offered all of us who lurked but listened, was warmly appreciated. You both do JF proud!

So now, for the less serious . . . or is it?

I wanted to send a copy of all 70 posts off to both Ripley's and Marvel Comics. Both have refused. Ripleys have said they DO NOT BELIEVE IT! And Marvel have said that even in comic-book land, there needs to be SOME element of truth and credibility and they found your sad saga totally lacking in both. Really! The very thought of Jaguar owners working on their own cars was totally preposterous !!!

We who remain, all salute you . . .
Cheers,

Ken

 

Here are some pics of the removal of the compressor, forgot to take some after new one was fitted. I had no choice but to do it myself, I am 72 and get a very poor pension.The pulley of the steering pump had to be removed to gain access to the top right compressor bolt. My hands are still painful and swollen. Definitely not a crawl under job unless you are a nutter like me!

 

How good to hear from you! I thought you had given up, and we'd never know what happened. Glad to hear you got the problem sorted out, even though the repair sounded like a bear.

Not trying to be a wise guy, but would there have been any advantage to pulling the engine for access? Or at least loosening the mounts and raising it a few inches? On other vehicles, I've spent a LOT of time, making extra work for myself, just to avoid removing the engine. Many times there's just that great mental divide, and once you finally make up your mind to remove the engine, you can have it out in 3 or 4 hours. And then you end up asking yourself why didn't I just do this in the first place?

Re: The power steering pulley - Could you have removed the entire pump for better access, and not just the pulley?

 

Hi Karl, Good to hear from you too. I would have done it earlier but things always came up. The reason I did not remove the steering pump was because someone has cross threaded the bolt holding the rear of the pump. I looked with an endoscope, it was almost tight but would not move in any direct with the little spanner I could get in there. Before getting into more trouble I decided to leave it there. With the very limited space I could only move the bolt on the compressor one flat at a time and it was never loose enough to turn by hand. It took about an hour and my hand and fingers are still a bit swollen from this part of the job. As for taking out the engine I have no lifting gear. Only a small trolley jack and some blocks of concrete. It was 8000 KMs since the last oil change so it got 6 litres of Castrol too. Btw all the probs with the Parking brake and ABS warnings were sorted by soldering the cables into the battery connectors and the body end of the - terminal. Importance of good battery and contacts cannot be under estimated !!
I still have the problem with the right side of the heater being 5Deg higher than the left. This comes from the control box processor or an associated component. If I parallel the FET gates disconnecting the drive to one then the temperature is the same on both sides. Anyway wifey is happy as it is, it is still plenty cold enough for her so the control box will stay for the moment.
I hope I haven't bored you too much, and thanks again for your invaluable help.
Cheers and keep them cats purring!
Mike

 

Since doing this job I notice the radiator fan seems to run much faster and runs for about 5 secs after switch off. Engine appears to run cooler too?
Think I must investigate a bit here.