Badge of honour
Although the sun was shining when I got into the 3.6-litre Jaguar XJ40, it had been raining quite heavily over the previous couple of days. I could hear water swishing around, and when I turned left onto the main road, I got an unwanted shoe-full of water. There was no alternative but to return home. After whipping the carpet out of the driver’s foot well and pouring the water away, I raised the bonnet and undid the screws securing the black plastic trim panel over the heater air intake. Lifting the panel back, I looked down and, just as I anticipated, the whole chamber was full of rainwater; the drain was obviously totally bunged up with crud.
After lifting the panel away a tad more, I then inserted a straightened wire coat hanger. Following a certain amount of wiggling, the end of the wire finally emerged from the slot in the rubber cone attached to the large round drain tube that passes through the bulkhead into the bottom of the heater air intake. As the wire came through, the water began to pour out. Eventually, by moving and rotating the wire around, I managed to clear the drain slot and empty the chamber completely. It was amazing how much water came out. The later Sovereign 4-litre has had this rather short and somewhat unnecessary rubber item removed, leaving the open drainpipe from the heater intake. Without that rubber thingy there to block it up, crud does not build up and get trapped, so the problem is basically eliminated. With that knowledge, I grabbed a screwdriver, then slackened the jubilee clip holding the offending part and removed it. I should have done that ages ago, I just liked that the car was so original.
One of the things that bothered me about the Gentry