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So we have a loud squealing coming from the front of the engine. I've removed the a/c belt and the alt/ water pump belt and the squealing stops. Re installing a new alt/water pump belt only (nice and tight) brought the squealing back. The noise fades away after 5 or so minutes of running, so I'm taking a guess at water pump bearing that gets better with heat. Sound reasonable? The only other item would be the alternator. Has anybody had a similar problem?
Thank you. I never thought of the balancer. Any way of testing if this is the case? Is there a visual inspection that we might try? The water pump spins freely without any binding. Might a delaminated balancer stop squealing after the engine warms up? Sorry for so many questions. I appreciate any suggestions.
Any way of testing if this is the case? Is there a visual inspection that we might try? The water pump spins freely without any binding. Might a delaminated balancer stop squealing after the engine warms up?
Here's a way to test for harmonic damper delamination: with a paint pen, Liquid Paper or a touch-up paint brush, paint a white or light-colored line across the edges of the harmonic balancer pulleys, perpendicular to the face of the pulley (in line with the axis of the crankshaft). Allow to dry. Start the engine and run until the squeal stops, then shut off the engine and inspect the painted line. If the lines on the different pulleys are no longer in alignment, your balancer has delaminated. A very common symptom of balancer failure is the loud squeal at startup that goes away after a few seconds to a few minutes.
Does the water pump pulley feel smooth and like the bushing is still tight with no lateral or longitudinal play? Same for the alternator pulley, idler pulleys, power steering pump, etc.?
I wont get to doing the white stripe till Sunday at the earliest. So I've been Googling this and it does sound very much like this is our issue. It looks like we could buy a new balancer/damper on ebay or have ours refurbished at Damper Dr. (If that's indeed what's wrong). Is there a preference amongst the forums here for new or refurbished?
It looks like we could buy a new balancer/damper on ebay or have ours refurbished at Damper Dr. (If that's indeed what's wrong). Is there a preference amongst the forums here for new or refurbished?
We have lots of reports of dampers successfully rebuilt by Damper Doctor and Dale Manufacturing. I can't recall a report of someone buying a new one from eBay, but on other forums there are reports that Mototeknika, one company that offers new dampers on eBay, sources its parts from China, India, etc., and that the quality is not up to OEM standards, but may be perfectly functional and worth trying if it comes with a decent warranty.
Last winter, my X330 began to squeal at engine start up, but decreased after a few miles.It turned out that it was commimg from the alternator drive belt that was slipping due to the heavy current load required to drive all the defrost/heating systems that were switched on.I changed the belt,it was showing cracks on the inside, the grooved side,It may be worth checking yours! AlecG.
Thanks everyone. This appears to be just the harmonic damper (so far). We did the paint test:
Before After
My son owns the car and decided to go with a new damper instead of a refurbished unit. He understands it may have a limited life. We've already recieved the new one. I marked the new unit with a small scratch on the side to mark where the keyway is and have it ready to begin pressing on. This one seems a bit tighter than the original, as the original was easy to remove.
My concern is that as we begin pressing it on that the key might become dislodged and we'll have to remove it all again. So I thought I'd check here on the forums if anybody has any hints or suggestions before we proceed?
I marked the new unit with a small scratch on the side to mark where the keyway is and have it ready to begin pressing on. This one seems a bit tighter than the original, as the original was easy to remove.
My concern is that as we begin pressing it on that the key might become dislodged and we'll have to remove it all again. So I thought I'd check here on the forums if anybody has any hints or suggestions before we proceed?
Hi Bobby,
My first thought is that, given that the new damper fits so tightly on the crankshaft, it might be prudent to remove the Woodruff key and test fit it in the keyway in the new damper just to be sure it fits properly. I'd hate for you to get the damper jammed onto the crank only to learn the keyway is too narrow for the key.
If all seems well with the key, your alignment scratch mark is a great idea. Normally, you can get the damper right up to the key and wiggle the damper onto the key, but if your damper is a press fit you may have to get it right the first time or pull the damper off and try again. Please let us know how it goes.
Thank you Don for the solid advice. Since we had it at least close so we dicided to move ahead VERY slowly. We used a wooden yard stick to help hold the key in place (key facing straight up) while we gently cranked on the installer shaft. It was a tense few minutes, but we were successful. We installed the balancer bolt with some torque and then tested it. The car started right up. Shutting it off we added loctite to the bolt and torqued it to 150 ft/lbs + as close to 80 degrees as we could. Me pulling on the breaker bar and my son pulling the opposite direction on the chain wrench. If we ever have to do this again I will follow your suggestions above before starting to remount the balancer. It would helped to know it was all going to fit before committing. I would also put in 2 scratches, each at the corners of the key channel instead on one at the center. The removal tool we used was excellent, as it's also an installer. It worked brilliantly (once I read the instructions). It's also nice that it was a free rental from Autozone. Unfortunately I had to buy the chain wrench. But it wasn't too expensive. $67 on sale at Northern Tool. The box says it's for pulleys/pipes up to 4 3/4", but it fit the 4.0L balancer with a couple links to spare. And the bar extends to 24". Sorry if this is old news to everybody here. It was a leaning experience to me.
puller/installer.
Northern Tool chain wrrench.
Last edited by BobbyDing; Jan 19, 2021 at 07:05 PM.
One thing to add for anybody else new to this proceedure. The 8m x 1.25 screw holes used to pull the balancer needed to be tapped out before the screws from the puller would fit right. Since I don't own an 8m x 1.25 tap (and I'd be concerned about it snapping off with the balancer still in place) I used some extra 8m 10.9 strength screws I had leftover from the suspension work to open up the threads. Running them in and out repeatedly with some liquid wrench (going a turn deeper each time) did the same as a tap, but without fear of having it snap off, since they were 10.9. After that the puller screws went straight in.
Some extra shots...
Original bad balancer with cracks in the rubber.
Chain wrench in place. New balancer. Over the old belt.
Sorry I missed this one...may have been able to provide some helpful insights. Hopefully not too late to remind you not to throw the old one away! Save that....from my perspective, I'd hold it in anticipation of failure of the new one. As you may have noticed, when they delaminate, these dampers give plenty of advance warning between first chirps and total failure. Dale takes every third month off, I believe. In any case, should the new one fail early, you'll have plenty of time to get the old one rebuilt....unless you throw it away. Alternatively, you'll find, even knackered, it has intrinsic value to other members who may be experiencing the problem and may not be able to have the car down and non-startable for the avg week of elapsed time it takes to send one off for rebuild and get it back in-hand.
From my recollection, the 5/16" bolts that came with my puller threaded into the pulley just fine.
For others who may come stumbling along later, it is not always an easy-off / easy-on evolution that one may infer from your description, despite wrestling with the woodruff key. I'll edit links to my experience:
Fun fact - this whole bad delaminated balancer thing seems to be almost exclusively american issue. Its very rare issue in UK or Europe, I had a number of X300 and XJ40 and knew probably a hundred of these cars and even more than that xj40.com users and cant even remember a single case of delaminated balancer.
One would think Jaguar used same balancers for all markets but maybe that's not true? Its baffling
Fun fact - this whole bad delaminated balancer thing seems to be almost exclusively american issue. Its very rare issue in UK or Europe, I had a number of X300 and XJ40 and knew probably a hundred of these cars and even more than that xj40.com users and cant even remember a single case of delaminated balancer.
One would think Jaguar used same balancers for all markets but maybe that's not true? Its baffling
That's a very interesting observation! I wonder if it could have something to do with Americans using air conditioning more often and putting greater stress on the balancer? It would be unusual for Jaguar to use different balancers for different markets given that they've always been a low-volume manufacturer and economies of scale would dictate larger numbers of the same part vs. smaller numbers each of multiple parts unless required by law in a given country or region.
. ..Hopefully not too late to remind you not to throw the old one away!..
Nope. I understand it may yet need to go out for a rebuild depending on how long the new one lasts. For the record I would have done the rebuild, but I think my son did not want to wait for to/from shipping, as the cost was similar. I keep all the old parts
Harmonic Balancer / Crankshaft Damper Noise
