It has been confirmed that the refrigerant is escaping from my airconditioning system somewhere within the climate control system behind the instrument panel; either the evaporator, TX valve or associated pipework. This means that the heater / aircon system needs to be removed and dismantled. From what I can ascertain, this involves removing pretty much everything between the seats and the engine.
I am trying to decide whether to do this job myself or pay someone else to do it. One independent Jaguar repairer has told me it is at least 3 days work thus will cost at least $3.000 in labor. He cannot do it until February. I'm waiting to hear back from another indy regarding cost but he cannot do it until mid January. Either of these options means I will be going through the bulk of summer (which is just starting here) without airconditioning which is not a pleasing prospect.
The magnitude of the job does not worry me- what worries me is that I am getting a bit old to be crawling under the dash in horrible postures. I have done these sorts of jobs many, many times over the years but I'm not in my twenties any more, 59 in a couple of weeks if you must ask, and that sort of work leaves me in pain and hobbling around for a week.
My question then is how much this job entails lying on one's back in the footwells- or is it just a matter of sitting on the seats and undoing screws and clips?

I may be waiting until mid January for the parts anyway so the timing might not change much, but $3K is $3K.

 

I guess it looks like I'm breaking new ground here. Can't say that makes me feel any better about it. Still undecided about whether I will do the repair myself or pay someone else, may depend on how long the parts take to arrive from the UK.

 

Pulling the dash top isn't as hard as it might look. Once you've done that, accessing the rest of it shouldn't be too challenging, although I never got that far as I was just having my dash top recovered and adding wiring for custom gauges. There was some lying on my back in the footwell which definitely wasn't comfortable, and I hear you on the recovery time - maybe worth looking into comfort solutions to improve this eg pillows etc? I'm not sure how the pro's do it.

Here's a pic from mine with the dash top removed - I don't think you'd need to remove much more than I did though, probably center console side trim etc and maybe the metal support structure you can see held in place with some pretty obvious bolts. I drove it about for a good few weeks like this with the instrument panel/ICE screen taped into place No rattles since reassembly either which I was a bit worried about as well.

 

Thanks for the reply Dave and for the photo. According to the one indy I spoke to who has done it, yes the metal support frame has to come out plus the centre console as well I believe. I can tell you how the pros do it- I spent the first 6 years of my working life as one of those 'pros'- they lie on their back in the footwell just like you did! Or they make the apprentice do it- which is one of the things that weighs in my mind against having someone else do this, the rattles and such that would likely ensue from a half-arsed job by an inexperienced person who doesn't give a damn about the car. This has always weighed heavily with me against giving work to others, it's so hard to find someone who will do a job to a high standard. The ones who do good work can generally pick and choose their jobs- and they choose not to take on the jobs that involve hours of lying on their back in the footwell....so it's a bit of a vicious circle.

How much of the job you did involved working from underneath? If the bulk of the job is accessible from above, I'm more likely to attack it myself.

 

The parts arrived sooner than I anticipated and have been waiting for me to get time to attack this. I made a start this afternoon, got the centre console and audio system out. Took about 3 hours. There are several components where it is not obvious how they are fastened in, so the workshop manual has to be consulted. I find that an incredibly frustrating exercise- every remove / install instruction refers you to some other section in a seemingly endless backwards sequence.
One of the sections stated to set the face vents to 'always open' to enable removal. I did this before disconnecting the battery, then realised I needed the battery connected to open the glove box; reconnected battery, opened glove box, disconnected battery then noticed that the damn vents had reset to closed. Glad I spotted that before I got too far. What I did neglect to do though is to lower the steering column before disconnecting the battery- hoping that doesn't bite me too hard. I also removed the bolts from the rear of the seat rails before moving the seats all the way back, in case I need to remove the seats. Probably would have made the console removal easier if I had taken the seats out.

 

About 12 hours in and the climate control assembly is almost ready to come out.


Need to drain the coolant and disconnect the heater hoses at the firewall, disconnect the aircon hoses at the TX valve.

The alloy cross-frame was an absolute pig, there are screws that attach the climate control system to the cross-frame from the firewall side, obviously when the car was built the c/c system is mounted to the cross-frame and then the whole lot installed together. Fortunately the 3 screws facing the firewall are accessible from the top of the frame but the one on the glovebox side will be getting flats ground into it so I can get an open-end spanner on it when it goes back in.


Someone has been in here before- not as far in as I am but I suspect the dash top was replaced under warranty (it has the staples around the speaker hole to retain the leather). There are telltale signs of things being put back together by someone who did not give a stuff. One interesting find relates to the non-functioning face vents; these have never had air come out of them since I have owned the car, I ordered a replacement stepper motor to go in while the interior is apart. Here's what I found:

It may not be obvious but the lever on the right of the picture has a lug on it's left-hand end that is supposed to run in the track of the piece below it. This lever controls the face vents. Damn thing was just put back together any-old-how.
This is why I invariably choose to do these jobs myself, I could be paying someone else thousands of dollars to do this and have them throw things back together any old way, the problems they create will then be my problem. I can't abide the aggravation, just do things myself and take the time to do it right.

To the main thing- I lost sleep last night over whether I have been barking up the wrong tree with this whole job, seems so unlikely that an aircon evaporator should spring a leak. This afternoon I went down the street and bought a little UV lamp. I poked it in the climate control case where the evaporator is just visible:

That's aircon leak detector dye on the evaporator. A pig of a job this is, but at least it appears it is the correct pig of a job.

 

About 20 hours so far and the dismantling part of the job is done.




Disconnecting the heater pipes where they enter the firewall from the engine bay is a pig of a job, I have to wonder if there is a special tool to squeeze the lugs on the couplings as it is too tight for fingers in the recess. I made up a makeshift tool and wrestled with it for about 45 minutes. I expected the unit to come away once I had disconnected the aircon pipes at the TX valve but no, that would be too easy...those pipes have to come out with the unit and the connection for the aircon is also at the firewall, right behind the throttle body. These are the times when I envy those with something other than the supercharged V8 variants of the XF. The little M6 bolt with an 8mm flanged head hides behind an access panel, hoping I can re-install this fitting without too much more difficulty than I had removing it.


Dismantled the climate control unit on the bench sufficiently to remove the evaporator and TX valve. Definitely the source of the refrigerant loss. There's dye liberally slathered on the evaporator, just a dark smudge to the naked eye but lights up like magic with the little UV torch. It appears to be coming from the top corner where the TX valve is attached, not sure if it's the connection or a crack in the core. Either way, new parts will go in.


This is certainly not a job for the feint hearted. I was so relieved to find my diagnosis of the source of the leak was correct, it had been weighing on my mind that I might be doing all this work for naught and still not know where the leak was when it was all over. I think last year's engine / transmission / subframe removal was probably an easier job. The reassembly ahead of me is quite daunting. I'm thinking I'll mount the climate control unit to the alloy cross-frame for the refit. Also I'll take the steering column out.

 

You are correct, per the workshop manual:


For anyone else daring enough to attempt this, I'm sure something suitable could be found on Amazon etc.

 

Glad that was the leak. After all that work!!
Thanks for posting pictures and description. Very interesting to see.

 

Starting to go back together. The new evaporator and TX valve are installed in the climate control assembly, two new vent stepper motors (probably un-necessary as I'm pretty sure the mis-fitted lever was the problem), 47cc of compressor oil added to the new evaporator as per the book. I mounted the climate control unit to the cross frame for the re-install; for anyone coming after me with this job, this is the way I should have removed it.


The cross-frame has locating dowels at each end, this enables it to be lined up before the heater and a/c pipes poke through the firewall. The a/c firewall connections weren't as difficult as feared, I had my assistant jiggle the frame back and forth from the cabin side whilst I jiggled the pipes from the engine side, got the retaining bolt in the pipe fitting before pushing the frame all the way home and bolting it up.
Next job is to try and figure out where all those wires were supposed to be.


With complements to the person who replaced the dash top, this debris was rattling around inside the climate-control box, helping prevent the flaps from moving and closing properly. It's all broken pieces of the dash that has been dismantled by some ham-fisted mechanic.

 

Got the evaporator replacement job finished this afternoon. I estimate about 30 hours all up and yes, much of it lying on my back in the footwells. Ah well, the things we do...and if I had paid someone else to do this, I'm sure they would not have troubled to do things like re-tape the loom and apply anti-rattle foam wrapping, lube all the vent levers, cup-holder lids etc. Many things working better than they have since I have owned the car, centre face vents now blowing air, happy days. I'm hoping my aircon guy will be back from his holiday on Monday and I can get the system re-gassed. Fingers crossed for no leaks- although I reckon I could do the job in half the time now I know what order things need to come out and how they are all affixed. Well maybe not half. Hope I don't have to find out.

 

Hi @POD XF great job here, you sure do know your stuff! Not sure if this is the right place to put this, but seeing as you have "been there, done that", do you know how easy it is to switch out the control module or blower motor and housing, parts 8 and 7 on the attached. Thanks

 

Hi and welcome to the forum. I hope you aren't feeling daunted by the amount of work described above; the removal of the blower fan unit is very easy. It's above the passenger footwell behind the glovebox, there are 3 clips that hold the soft trim piece on- the horizontal piece above the passenger's feet- and then one wiring harness connector to unplug and 3 screws that hold the fan unit into the climate control assembly. The control module I don't recall as clearly; just can't remember whether it is affixed to the underside of the climate unit above the transmission tunnel, or if it is between the blower unit and the tunnel. Or perhaps outboard of the blower unit. Sorry I don't recall exactly but a quick look with that trim piece removed should tell you.