Short version - car has a faint but rather irritating rattle on acceleration between 2k and 4K rpm. Tensioners have been done. Took it to a mechanic, their diag notes are as follows:

“Was able to verify the rattle from the vehicle. With the car in the air, the noise is clearly coming from the bell housing area. After further inspecting can see on the back of the flex plate that it has started to contact the motor. The bell housing is pretty well sealed so nothing could have easily fallen into the bell housing to rub. Its possible that the flex plate is starting to bend and contacting the engine block. Attempted to shift the crankshaft as if there was damage to the thrust washers allowing the crankshaft to walk forwards and backwards and was unable to verify any movement. At this point the next step would be transmission removal in order to see what the flex plate is contacting since right now the noise is definitely in the bell housing.”

They want $1,800 to pull the transmission and poke around. This is the bill that’s likely to break me on this car and get me to sell it, if I have to fix this now. Would rather disclose the condition and offload rather than pay $1,800 just to *find* the problem and then countless thousands more to fix it.

Looking for some guidance on whether this is a “it’s annoying but the car will live” type deal (deferred maintenance FTW!) or if it’s actually a necessary fix in which case I’ll make it someone else’s problem (with full disclosure, obviously). Thoughts?!

I never know if my signature is working so for reference this is a 1999 X308 XJR. TIA!

 

There will be more to pay after removing transmission
Sell it as is , some buyers will diy it and the car will live

 

Your signature is fine, what you see, we see.

Do these folks have experience with Jaguars or Euro cars in general since the 722.6 is common in all. When was the last time the trans was serviced? If its been awhile, the pump could be fighting to get fluid to the torque converter.

Have they or you checked the rest of the drive line, thus checking the front and rear jurid couplings and center bearing. Cavitation is easily mistaken on the drive line as another issue. Review this and you'll get an idea of what I'm saying... https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...g-info-188400/

As for further flex plate diagnosis, there is a inspection/cover plate where the crankshaft position sensor is. It's been quite awhile since I've been in this, but I would think it a point they could have put a depth gauge on and turned the motor over by hand to check for warp or perhaps a crack. The attachment is clipped from the tensioner replacement procedure to lock the flex plate. I just wanted it to show where I was speaking of to attempt to measure any flex plate play. I would hope someone with more recent and direct experience can give better information.
Another area I'd think to use to get to the flex plate would be removing the starter motor. But, since I have not had to do this and have read in threads it can be an absolute bear, I digress to someone with experience.