I recently bought a used 2003 Jaguar X-Type with 55,000 miles on it. It just started making a metal on metal grinding noise in the pasenger side of the engine compartment. it is moderately loud, and sounds a bit like a tin car rotating with metal ball bearings in side. It does not seem to affect performance at all, but is worrysome. Anyone have any idea what this could be?

 

lazer, if I had to simply take a guess at what your problem is, I would be venturing to guess you have an idler pulley that is starting to go bad and needs to be replaced. These are cheap to replace, getting to it may be another question. The best advice that I can tell you is to take a metal rod of some sort and as best you can without endangering yourself is to put the rod against the engine parts or the support bolt of a pulley and then put the other end of the rod up to the backside of your ear (rest the bar on a part of your skull). This will allow you to get a good sound of what that part of the engine is making and you should be able to narrow down where the noise is coming from. But, keep in mind, you will be around rotating machinery and one slip can pull the rod out of your hands and cause other damage. The other trick is to spray each moving part one at a time with some lubricant and see which one causes the noise to change. If it changes, atleast needs to be looked at in the future, if not changed out.

 

Thanks for the helpful info. I am hoping it is something like that and not something worse. Where is the idler pulley located in the engine compartment? The noise is coming from the left side of the engine compartment if you are standing in front of, and facing the car. Is the idler pulley in that location?

 

lazer, open up the hood and on the support bar running side to side (right above the headlights), there should be a sticker there that shows the belt diagram. If you look on that, it will show you exactly where all the idler pulleys are.

 

I live in Montana, and it is cold here now. I have also noticed the noise is more pronounced when it is cold. I am going to have the pulleys looked at by my personal mechanic. Is there anything else anyone can think of that would be causing the metal grinding noise (like ball bearings in a tin can) sound? Any information on this will be helpful.

Thank you!

 

and again, there is no noticeable performance drop or anything. It is just the sound and small vibration.

 

I like to use a length of hose to check for the source of noises. If it accidentally gets into the belt all it does is try and slap you a few times.

(Just don't use too small of hose and stick it all the way in your ear - if you find a vacuum leak it can suck you brains out!)

You don't mention if the noise is just when driving, or all the time.

Driving at about -10f or below, I get a racket from the same side of the engine compartment. In reading this forum I found it is likely just a seal or somesuch with the Constant Velocity Joint. Mine goes away after a couple miles of warm-up.

In poking around I see that the rubber boot covering that joint has split and has puked grease all over the backside of the wheel. I have yet to order it, but the replacement boot is less than fifty bucks USD on Ebay.

Am putting the studded Pirelli's on later today and making a Monday run through Wyoming in the snow while it is still warm out (12f tonight, veritable Heat Wave!)

Let us know what you find out.

 

Thank you all for your help! Especially Thermo, your diagnosis was almost exact. It turned out is was the idler pulley, but also the AC compressor clutch. BOth were worn. I had them both replaced using salvaged parts from other x-types and it is running perfect now.

Thank you all for the help!