Jag is dead. Call from the wife saying engine was on fire. Hauled *** to meet her, thankfully everyone was OK but no fire. What I did see under the hood was dried coolant all over the front of the engine.
I suspect all the smoke was the coolant evaporating on the engine block creating a lot of steam. No evidence of flames or excessive heat.
From the location, I'm guessing the water pump failed? I did try to turn the engine over, but nothing. Currently waiting on recovery back home before I can diagnose further. I've heard a few horror stories about the water pump failing and leading to a bricked engine. Worst case scenario, will be replacing, as it's probably more cos effective to rebuild. Anyone else had a similar experience?

 

Sorry to hear - but are you talking about a 2009 XF? Or do you also have a 2010+ XJ that this is the forum for?

 

The XF SV8 was my old car, this is a 2011 XJ

 

Water pump failures are fairly common in 5.0 litre engines of this vintage. If your wife didn't drive the car too far, the engine may not be "bricked" actually cooked is a more appropriate term. to learn more about water pump failures, type in 5.0 litre water pump failure in the search box at the top of this thread and read. There are multiple threads on the subject. I myself have had water pump failures on both my former 2012 XK and current 2013XKR. Good luck and report back as to what happened and whether your engine survived the water pump catastrophe.

 

What was the mileage when it failed? My 2011 XJL @ 30K still with original cooling parts is asking.

 

I'm about to do a cooling system refresh on my wife's XJ, replacing almost everything except the radiator (considered it too, and may later).
It's almost up to 155,000 miles and has had no problems, no coolant system replacements yet, EXCEPT the vent hose between the surge tank & vent host at the top of the throttle body - I replaced that about 3 years/ 40,000 miles ago because the plastic tubing was getting brittle.
I'm using ALMOST all genuine JLR parts with the only exception being the short hose where the surge tank vent hose connects to the throttle body, which is a Gates (Gate PN 51693) from Rock Auto. That one just wasn't worth keeping genuine (to me) for what JLR charges for theirs, and I trust Gates.
But I have had the coolant flushed & filled every couple years since we've had it, and I think fresh coolant helps keep the system healthy.

I'm doing the system refresh as a preventative maintenance, since I figure 150k miles is a good bit of use for most external mechanical parts, especially the cooling system.

 

You have 155K miles on the original water pump??
AND those crappy big seam plastic pipes??
That must be a world record of some kind!

Lost the WP on my 2014 XJR with less than 30K miles on the car! At least it was still under warranty and thankfully I had brought it in for just an oil change when they found it. Surprised me but they also swapped the two big cooling pipes too!

Just a suggestion but have you considered improving things? We now have several lifetime Aluminum components from the aftermarket to replace the factory failure prone plastic parts and it would be a great time to do it.
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Yes, as I said, original parts other than the one I had replaced a couple of years ago.
There was one owner prior to us, and he religiously had it maintained at the dealership where he had bought it new, and of course that dealership has the full record of maintenance/repairs available as all dealerships do through the JLR network. The one gripe he had returned it for a couple of times was body-related, door or something IIRC.
BUT no record or sign of the cooling system being touched before that. All existing parts on it are FoMoCo & Jaguar.
The well-known bypass tube that previously went from the front of thelittle hose at the throttle body to the front hole in the coolant pump is still there. Now that comes from the upper coolant inlet hose to the top of the thermostat instead. I did want to keep that configuration since it's been working for me for this long, but ended-up surrendering to the subsequent design with the new parts, mainly to keep all parts genuine JLR other than the one I noted above. The 2 hoses that supported the initial routing are no longer available from JLR.

My 2012 NA LR Range Rover with the same engine also had the original rear heater manifold (cross-over) too, but an aftermarket pump & front return pipe. I just refreshed that cooling system last month too, with almost all of the same parts that the XJ takes. I used almost all JLR genuine on that too, although not as concerned on keeping the RR "100%" (well, except for that 1) genuine.

AND I use genuine JLR parts as often as they're available more out of respect for the Jaguar - it is a beautiful car.

I know I read a lot on this forum, the LR forum(s) and other Jag forums about the cooling systems failing, but although it is pretty often, I'm not convinced that it's the rule rather than the exception. For each of you that have horrible experiences of it failing (which leads to most forum members to join a forum, as problems/failures do).
Yes, it happens and all too often.
So I don't think it's any kind of record, but probably longer than any plastic cooling line should be expected to be healthy.
The pipes from both my XXJ & RR look pretty good with no sign of failing seams.

Of course I'd guess that I change coolant more often than most, even moreso when it comes to those that have had the system fail. I know that coolant claims long life depending on the type/brand, but although it keeps cooling, it also becomes more corrosive over time, especially where plastic is concerned.

As a matter of fact, I'm certain that my 2012 Range Rover experienced a cooling failure episode before I bought it that resulted in the gremlins I deal with that I suspect a warped head or cracked head/block are causing. BUT as long as I've had it, it does a wonderful job of engine temperature control (except that I do need to tend to it with care, since it does have those gremlins).

And YES, I have considered upgrading to aluminium from plastic where possible - if you look back, I believe I was one of if not the first to introduce the aluminium pipe between the oil cooler & coolant pump into this forum.
So if you can find a source for aluminium front outlet & rear crossover (or any other) pipes for the NA engine (I know they're available for the SC engines), I would be giddy, and VERY thankful!

 

Just ticked over 100k. Had it 7 months with not much history but the report showed regular dealership servicing. It had a few minor electrical issues which didn't put me off so much, but they did price it $7k under the average because of that. only issues I've had to fix was a worn bushing on an upper control arm, replaced coolant header tank because of a leak and a bad spark plug.

 

After the water pump, the main failure point on the AJ133 is the water outlet pipe at the front of the engine.

If the engine was operated under overheating conditions, most likely the block and or heads are warped. If that's the case, it's best to find a used engine as I'm unaware of anyone successfully getting the AJ133 or AJ126 to properly seal once overheated.

 

Crown Jaguar in Clearwater (same as Tampa to me) is where it was bought & has always been serviced other than 1 service (including motor mount replacement) I had done at Tampa Jaguar.
They have been pretty good to us & the XJ, maybe a little moreso before they rebuilt as a Jaguar Land Rover combo dealership.

 

IRT my Range Rover (the Jag's alright)
Yeah, I'll get around to pulling the heads (this is on the Land Rover, NOT the XJ which has no problems) one of these days. I'd rather open it up & take a look, and worst case just put it back together and keep it as it is than change the engine. It's not that bad of a problem, more of an annoyance.
I've been driving it for over 50,000 miles & 3 years without major problems.

 

The entire journey from the house to the school is only 12 miles. She said she saw smoke around a mile from the school where it made a rattle and stalled as she pulled up there. at that point, more smoke (what I now know was steam) billowed out. That's probably because she was stopped though. When I arrived, I did try to start it but it wouldn't turn over. Not sure if there's a safety thing with the coolant or it's seized.
I have just got the car recovered home, about to take a better look and try and get a socket on the crank to see it it will turn.

 

SO, looks to me like the water pump itself took a crap. Biggest relief was turning the crank and finding it free and no rattle. So not seized and no broken rods. There was a casualty, one of the small pipes snapped taking off the intake manifold.
Anyone else wanting to Undertale this, there is a bolt under the belt tensioner to remove the pump.
One thing I did notice was a pool of oil under the head of bank 2. Currently weighing up options. Remove engine and do it properly? Or ignore and top up?.
Looking at the front, it looks like I can remove the whole front end, support and disconnect engine and transmission, and simply roll the chassis back away from the engine. Does that sound feasible? I don't have a lift or hoist at home so I may attempt this.

 

Before attempting anything else, it would be a good idea to perform a compression test on all cylinders.

When reassembling, do not use jubilee or worm type clamps on any hoses that connect to a plastic pipe. Use only constant tension clamps to reduce the possibility of cracking the plastic pipe at the connection.

 

Prior to performing a compression test, remove the fuse for the electric fuel pump in the tank as it's triggered to run when a door is opened.

 

Solid advice, thank you.

 

Battery already disconnected. I had to remove the high pressure fuel line so that was one of the first steps. Thanks for the lookout though.

 

That is pretty rough looking. The rattling when driving when the pump failed isn't a good sign, but on the other hand, doesn't mean the engine's toast either.
The area around that pump looks pretty rough though, it takes a bit of time leaking to look like that.
Looking at the pics, it looks like there's more to it than coolant blown out of a failed pump. I'd guess there was some sort of sealant in it that finally blew out. Considering that you've had it 7 months, is it possible that it had a "pre-existing condition" from the previous owner?

If you've got a 2011, I'm guessing that your coolant pump had been replaced once before because you have the revised bypass route, from the coolant hose to the front of the pump; I can tell from your picture that shows the short hose from your throttle body has the blanked-off barb without the bypass hose coming off of it. Mine is a 2012, and has the original config with the bypass off of that hose.




The oil you're seeing is likely just valve cover gasket leaks. my wife's XJ valve cover gaskets began leaking a little after 135k miles, and I replaced the left at 145k and right at 147k.

 

What color is/was the coolant? All that white residue looks like a large dose of Blue Devil may have been applied to me - one of the more effective coolant system leak sealants.

This is a pic of the newer configuration hose that the bypass comes from, apparently post 2012, but is in your XJ. This hose goes from the output pipe above the pump to the top of the thermostat.
My wife's 2012 still has the original config where this hose is just hose without that middle piece, which will be replaced by this.
But the point is, if your 2011 has the later config, at least those two hoses have been replaced.



On the pump you removed, does it have the Jaguar, Land Rover or FoMoCo logo on it? Or an aftermarket branding?