The Voices

Happy motoring !

New hoses have arrived, I am severely stressed out attempting to fit the short hose from the thermostat housing. There is just no room to work and the hose is so short that it is very difficult to bend it into place. Given up to it for today to avoid taking the sledge hammer to the car. I would like to get hold of the guy that decided on this design and cut his fingers off with a set of bolt cutters !

Whatever Mitsubishi say, this chicken is rubbery ! Another refugee from the old jokes home !

The Mitsubishi Typhoid ! Has a certain ring to it ? I personally think that the Colt Starion was meant to be 'Stallion' but problems with pronunciation perhaps ?

Or typhoid !

New hoses should arrive tomorrow, I will need to fit at least the split one myself to get the car mobile.

Glad you got something sorted !

Steve, here is what I do to bring Sue around to my way of thinking. I utilise a subtle blend of psychology and extreme stupidity. When I wanted to buy the first Impreza, I spent weeks talking about buying a Nissan Skyline R33 GTR until she was fed up of hearing about them. The Impreza then seemed like a 'sensible' alternative. Just start looking at something like a cheap Maserati or other similar monumental money pit (pretty much anything Italian) If you manage to make a convincing job of the deception, the S-Type R will look like a rational purchase ! Or If you like a bit of danger and excitement in a relationship, casually walk in one afternoon and whilst discussing your day at work, drop in 'oh, by the way, I bought another car today' Better than the New Years Eve fireworks ! Or so the crash team told me when I came round in A and E.

Thanks Steve ! If you want a proper read, check out my 'epic' thread on Scoobynet, entitled 'Help, killed the scoob' It tells the story of one mans heroic struggle against an evil, tyranical Japanese overlord, powered by two lawnmower engines bolted together ! Or alternatively, me managing to get myself into all sorts of bother building Subaru engines ?

We refer to that as 'Jaguar precision adjustment tool number 3' Often seen being used on 'reluctant' brake discs to aid removal. I have a 14lb sledge in the garage if the thing puts up a struggle !

It is a battle of wills, what did I expect on a 156k, 10 year old, 400bhp V8 ! Absolute pain in the a**e to work on as everything is in the way. Very frustrating, as I am usually pretty good at being a 'roadside mechanic' (or should the more grand title be a 'thoroughfare technician' ?) The bank holiday hasn't helped either.......................................................................... Very lucky that we have a 'spare' car to use so no real pressure to sort this out in a rush.

I tried to remove the hose to 'pop' it back into shape but it was an absolute b***ard of a job to get to the clips. The new tool I purchased for removing spring type hose clips is great when you have a lot of room around the clip but no use in tight spaces. I battled for ages to get it back on and refilled the coolant, changed the expansion tank cap for a spare one I had (as an experiment to see if any difference) Managed to get my new OBD2 gadget working with the 'Torque' app on my tablet so that I could monitor coolant temperature. Took the car for a run once the temperature gauge was up the half way mark, figures ranged between 94 and 98 degrees on a mixture of motorway and 30mph stuff. Got back and had a look at the hoses and they seemed to be 'normal' rather than compressed once the engine was turned off. At this point I was think 'result, faulty pressure cap'................................................. Until I spotted the coolant leak under the car ! Think I have managed to split the hose when removing and refitting it ! Coolant is not flooding out and the temperature reading I was getting using the app is within normal parameters as far as I can tell. Hopefully no damage done but need to work out how to sort the problem so that Andy can sort the replacement hoses (leave it to a professional !)

Can't agree on the later cars 'worse' build quality, at least they ironed out most of the 'bugs' as the lifecycle of the car progressed. The earlier cars had less equipment fitted as standard, no satellite navigation for example, but it is down to an individual car as to what was ordered from the factory. Regarding the brakes, I have driven both the Brembo equipped cars and the later ATE / Teves equipped cars and can't say that I noticed any difference in braking performance. At the time when we dropped the Brembo brakes, I was very dubious that the new setup could be anywhere near as good but was very pleasantly suprised. There are two theories as to why we moved away from Brembo as a supplier, the first is just down to cost, cheaper to use the ATE setup. The second theory is dissatisfaction with the quality of the Brembo brakes, we used to get loads of complaints from customers about warped discs, excessive pad and disc wear and the 'dealer' replacement costs which were horrendous because of the cost of the parts. These days, there are plenty of aftermarket brake suppliers doing 'Brembo compatible' discs and pads and the Brembo calipers look miles better ! Prices for the 'R' seem to be all over the place and not that many for sale at any one time due to the small number that were sold new. Go and have a look at a few and get a feel for what you get for the money, bear in mind that the newest one you can buy is now 9 years old though !

So £295 per year (pre-23/3/2006) instead of £515 after that date. I wouldn't base my choice of which car to buy on the £220 difference but worth bearing in mind. As one of the supermarkets say 'every little helps'

I think mine is £515 road tax (anything from March 2006 ?) Is the pre-2006 road tax £290 per year ? If so, only a cost difference of three tanks full of V-Power, if the right car comes along and happens to be in the higher tax bracket.

Exactly what he said ! I would rather have typhoid !

Homer Simpson mode ! Mmmmmm................................... Speed restrictor removal................................

Temperature gauge is fine, not moved above the centre mark. The valley pipe has supposedly already been done once but could have failed again ? Typically happens over a bank holiday weekend ! Russ, the header tanks from 2002 onwards are notorious for cracking on the underside of the small plastic 'spigot' inlet. I am with you on the jubilee clips, I hate these 'self tightening' spring clips, mainly because I now need to find a set of spring clip pliers to remove them (nothing I have is big enough) I have managed to get the part numbers for most of the hoses, but my options are to order them online (nothing will happen until Tuesday !) or wait until I am back in work in case they have any of the hoses in stock. The main problem is that the smaller, 90 degree hose is totally squashed and I cannot manage to 'pop' it back into shape. I didn't really want to mess about with it myself but looks like I will need to remove it to 're-inflate' it. Really need to get the car 'driveable' so that I can get it to Bolton for Andy to sort it out when he is available (I don't think he does 'house calls' !) There is a 'dodge' we use in Subaru world of putting jubilee clips around a collapsing hose as a temporary fix, this would be my plan and nurse the car into the dealership. Needless to say I will refill the coolant and try a short run first ! Ah................................................. The joys of motoring..........................................

Hard for me to say based on what I paid for mine ! I think the price for that one is a bit strong based on the mileage but it does look a very nice car ? Condition and service history rather than 'low' mileage would be my criteria, depending on price of course ! I found this one that seems a sensible asking price. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201607236126471?search-target=usedcars&make=jaguar&model=s-type&minimum-badge-engine-size=4.0&sort=default&searchcontext=default&radius=1500&postcode=bb90at&page=2&onesearchad=new%2Cnearlynew%2Cused&logcode=p&adPos=10

The fact that it is still for sale says something about either the price, condition or both ! Sounds like about £2k tops to me ! I would not pay anywhere near the price of a 4.2 for a 4.0 myself, as I have mentioned previously. The 3.0 V6 is a good engine, once again I would always go for the 2002 facelift cars with the 6 speed auto and electronic parking brake.

Here are the pictures. The first one is of the hose under the supercharger air inlet. I presume that the metal piece it connects to is the thermostat housing ? Second picture is the short length of the radiator top hose connected to the plastic 'T' piece. What I don't know is whether the collapsed hoses caused the problem or whether it is as a result of something else ?

The 2.5 has now been sold from my Autotrader advert. I have a new problem with the 'R' however ! My wife called me yesterday and said that there was pink coolant on the floor under the car. Had a look when I got home and couldn't see anything obvious, other than coolant level low in the header tank. Checked the two plastic fittings that usually crack on the header tank and no sign of a break. Off this weekend, so had a look today and one of the top radiator hoses is 'compressed' for want of a better word (not quite flat ?) The short 90 degree hose under the supercharger air intake is even worse ! Car is off the road until I can get an insight into the problem, tried to speak to Andy who does all the work on my cars but he must be away this weekend. Any suggestions guys ? Someone mentioned a possible faulty radiator cap or just hoses are fatigued due to their age ? Wife is not happy as she will have to drive the Impreza instead !

Now sold via Autotrader !

Thanks for the update Russ, I prefer the same all round if I can. I still haven't made my mind up but I bet that I end up 'wimping out' and buying the Michelin Pilot Sport 4's (just because of the reviews) The Continental Sport Contact 3's that are on the rear at the moment are legal but on dry roads I was getting the DSC light flashing under hard acceleration yesterday !

Hi Russ, my experience with remaps on N/A cars is that you will get better 'driveability' and throttle response rather than a noticeable power gain ? Combining the remap with an uprated filter (K+N or similar) helps a bit. £300 is not bad value if it does improve things ?