I am in the process of replacing the engine and transmission mounts on a 2011 XF SC. I was hesitant of going DIY on this, but after getting quotes of $600 plus just for labor I decided to dive in. I have actually completed the engine mount replacements already. The passenger side engine mount is pretty straightforward; jack the engine up, remove the engine side mounting bracket, swap the mount and put it back together. The driver side engine mount is another story because access is very limited. The shop manual calls for disconnecting some AC lines and dropping the steering gear, but I was able to get the mount swapped out without doing that. I removed the top and bottom nuts on the mount and jacked the engine up far enough to maneuver the engine mount in/out. The old mount actually fell out as it had failed in two as you can see in the picture. I did have to loosen the bolts on the steering gear to squeeze the new mount in, but I didn't remove the steering gear and I didn't disconnect the steering column splines. I jacked the engine with a 2x4 just behind the steering gear. Now I am planning to deal with the transmission mount which looks like an easy job compared to the engine mount, but I have a question as to where to jack up the transmission. The transmission oil pan seems to be the only jack point, but as far as I can tell, the transmission oil pan is plastic. Is it safe to jack up the transmission from under the pan with a good sized piece of wood, or is there another spot that would work better?


Passenger side and driver side engine mounts, L to R.

 

I’ve seen someone use a large board under the pan to help support the tranny.

 

I ended up going with a 2x4 the width of the transmission pan. I was a bit skeptical but it seems to have worked okay, no leaks and the new transmission mount is in.

 

Where did you source the parts?

 

I went with Parts Geek for these. The engine mounts were $132 per (MTC brand) and the transmission mount was $200 (Eurospare), so almost $500 for the set. They looked to be of good quality. The engine mounts looked identical to the OEM mounts I replaced, and the transmission mount was a little more robust (thicker rubber). They are all installed now and the ride, shifting, etc. is smooth. The car had 88k on it and both engine mounts had failed or were near failure, and the transmission mounts had cracks in the rubber. Hope this helps.

 

My last task is to replace the seal on the brake vacuum pump which is seeping oil, but that looks like a piece of cake compared to these mounts.

 

Oh, and for the record, I determined that the engine mounts were bad by doing a power brake. I snapped off the inside plastic coolant reservoir mount in the process. Luckily I have a 3D printer to fix that problem.

 

Make sure you look at the vacuum pump first. Half the time, it leaks from the case or plastic connector for the vacuum line.

 

Thanks for the write-up, Oboy - gave me the courage to do the engine mounts myself earlier today on my 2012 XF SC and wanted to add a couple of notes in case others find them helpful.

First of all, I lucked out on sourcing the parts. Euro AMP sells the engine mounts for this particular model in pairs for $70 (total for two mounts), which seemed too good to be true. I assumed they would be cheapish knockoffs at that price, they didn't specify on their website from what I could tell, but to my delightful surprise they were OEM Jaguar parts (branded sticker on the box and stamped on the part itself). Score. Btw, they also sell a bundle which includes the transmission mount, but it was out of stock.

Secondly, my old mounts looked exactly like the ones in Oboy's picture above - the passenger side was cracked all around like the left hand one in the picture, while the drivers side was completely disintegrated like the one of the right. It's clearly a common and perhaps consistent issue on these cars after a while. I had about 96K miles on the 12 year old car.

OK, so once you get the front of the car jacked up and bellypan removed you can see the mounts. Remove the top engine cover as well as you'll be raising the engine quite a bit, and removing the plastic cover will allow for a bit more travel before it touches the firewall/cowl. Back under the car, you'll see that you have two 15mm nuts to remove from each mount (one on top, one on bottom). You'll need a deep socket for the bottom ones as the threaded piece on the mount is pretty long, but they're otherwise fully accessible and easy to remove. The top ones are not fun, it's super tight between the mount and the heat shield and very little space around to get any kind of ratchet on the nut - the passenger side is a bit more doable than the driver's side. Thankfully, they're not torqued that badly (at least mine were not), so you should/may be able to loosen them just with a stubby 15mm wrench. For the driver's side I ended up putting a go-through/pass-though socket on the nut and then a longer wrench on the socket through the opening towards the wheel for leverage - it was enough to loosen it, and then I used the 15mm stubby the rest of the way, one tiny turn at a time - you have to be patient here. Once both bolts are off both mounts, you're ready to raise the engine. I used a 2x6 flat against the oil pan to jack it up. Based on my experience/observations, there are no hoses/wires/other stuff that are restricting the raising of the engine - I didn't unplug or uninstall anything else, but be careful and don't raise it more than needed - you don't want to snap anything off. I found I had to raise the engine until the back of the top of the engine almost touched the underside of the cowl. Not necessarily to get the old mounts out (as they were compressed and/or disintegrated), but to get the new ones in.

As Oboy also experienced, the passenger side mount came out relatively easily and even the new one went back in ok. Just know that you have to raise the engine quite a bit given the length of the threaded studs on both sides on the mount and the fact that the new mount is thicker than the one you just removed (not collapsed). I seated the bottom of the mount first, then the top, raising the engine just enough for the threaded rod to clear the engine bracket and into the hole. Make sure the little tab on the top of the mount seats into the inner hole in the engine bracket (I put on the top nut and tightened it enough so that the tab seated and the mount didn't rotate out of position before I lowered the engine). The driver's side requires you to lower the steering rack to remove the old mount (unless it's disintegrated) and install the new one. Unbolt the three 18mm bolts on the steering rack and just pull it down and towards the left side of the car to get it out of the way. To Oboy's point, you shouldn't need to remove anything else. Again, once the new mount is in position, put on the top nut so that the alignment tab on the top goes in the right place. Same amount of patience required - not much room to turn the nut. The bottom of both mounts should still have the threaded rods at least partially through the subframe mounting hole, in which case you can carefully lower the engine again. Then tighten both nuts on both mounts - I don't have the torque specs but it's not like you'll get anything resembling a torque wrench on the top ones, so I just tightened them as far as it would allow, and then re-install the steering rack with the three bolts. That's it.

It was not quite as bad as I had feared, and it took about 4 hours without rushing. The car feels much better, the cabin vibrations I had been experiencing are practically gone. I'll get to the transmission mount next.

 

Why would there be oil in the vacuum line?

 

Drain some engine oil out first or you will have a mess.

 

Thanks for writing up your experience - im ordering the EuroAmp kit thanks to your confidence/disclosure of the parts. After doing the rack unbolt. did you need an alignment? My guess is toe wouldn't be affected without touching the tie rods, but not sure if there is adjustment in those 3 18mm bolt mounts.

 

I did not do an alignment as there really isn't any flex in how those bolts are mounted, pretty tight tolerances if I recall correctly. I ended up doing an alignment after replacing the control arms anyway, but in my opinion should not be needed after dropping the steering rack only.

 

Thanks! Will update here after my experience with install, wish me luck

 

How did it go? Curious if you ran into anything unexpected or had a different experience. I found it time consuming and a bit frustrating with certain bits but not particularly difficult.

 

We just moved, so while I have the parts, I unfortunately didnt get to this DIY before we moved, and haven't had time (or space) at the new house quite yet to get this taken care of. I just ordered stuff for my annual oil change though, so it will likely get done here before Fall rolls around.

 

Finally got around to doing this - big thanks to this thread for the info/courage/inspiration.

Honestly, not a bad job at all. Getting the car up on stands, belly pan off, and just getting everything setup took more time. Couple notes:

1) Used a 2x8 block on pan and floor jack for raising & lowering motor
2) Getting the stock, sagging/compressed mounts is easier than the new tall/stiff ones in
3) It wasnt clear above, but do one side at a time, so that the when you raise the motor it tilts up higher on the serviced side. At first, I unbolted both thinking I had to raise the entire engine up, but this didnt yield the same amount of access room on the driver side specifically.
4) I unbolted the rack, and was able to pull it back and up a bit to get the DS mounts in/out. No lines undone, no AC discharge, no pinion shaft de-coupling.
5) a small ratcheting 15mm wrench and some dad-strength got the nuts on and off. Many small turns and not enough room for a socket setup. I tried every combination I had with no success
6) YRMV but, my Euro Amp mount's upper studs were 2-3 threads too tall. with the motor jacked up all the way (I even had to unbolt the strut brace for extra clearance) I could not get these in. I had to Dremel off 2 threads on the DS mount stud to swivel it into the bracket hole. This added time and frustration.

Car feels great, crisp, and tight again.