Don't think any less of me, but...........my 98 XJ8 was my first Jag, and I got a wicked deal on it from the Chevy dealership. They just wanted rid of it. It was from Ontario, had high mileage, a spot of rust under one tail light, and a broken resonator.

Despite all that I loved her, and got many trouble free miles out of her, and now I'm hooked on Jaaags.

I gave you the backstory to justify why I never did the tensioners. It sounded like an expensive and troublesome job, costing more than half of what I paid for the car, so I decided just to risk it. Also it was my daily driver, and taking it off the road would be an issue.

The other day my daughter started it, and the rattling noise was truly awful. I figured tensioners, so we parked it. (It was essentially a spare car for the family now).

Today pulled the LH valve cover because the noise was from that side, and although it has plastic tensioners, nothing was wrong. Then the RH side, same thing, no problem. Maybe the water pump, I thought, so off came the belt, and after spinning everything by hand, I found the steering pump pulley quite loose.

Good news overall, a cheap fix for an awful sound.

Now the question; I'll do upper tensioners and risk the lowers, but the VVT (I think) has always made that rattle when cold, followed by a ka-chunk and silence afterwards when revved.

Can I rebuild the VVTs, or remove or disable these things while I'm in there?
Thanks for any advice in advance.

 

The usual repair of the VVT's is to move to a higher weight oil. A quick, easy, cheap test is to pour in a can of 'Restore', an oil thickener. If the noise goes away then move to the thicker oil at the next oil change.

 

Has anyone tried Shell Rotella T6 oil for this? Sythetic 1 gallon at Walmart for $21.99. Really quiets down lifter noise. Good stuff.

 

I guess what I'm asking is, can I remove and repair the VVTs and/or solenoids?

 

I think remove and replace is a more appropriate description.