That sound is more likely from the serpentine belt tensioner or idler pulley. If you you or your mechanic remove the belt and start the engine that will eliminate the sound if I am right. I assume the sound only occurs when the engine is cold.

 

I have a 02 xj8 with 108k and it’s slapping I did a valve cover gasket swap and the cam to cam tensioners look good and there doesn’t seem to be much slack in the timing chain at first I thought it was my Vvt solenoids cause a code came up for one and they make same noise when bad. I do have a check eng light on and only code that comes up is p1396 and p1000 the others went away could the crank to cam shaft tensioners be the bad ones as the top ones look good

 

Now this is making more sense in conjunction with your other post. If you’re getting a slapping sound, you’ll have to get your engine in time using a special set of tools. They’re cheap on ether eBay or Amazon. It is sounding like a primary timing chain rail that has broken to me. This sounds like you’ll need to pull your timing cover off.

 

and I get the slap real bad if it’s at idle and I just press gas a lil bit it’s loud then the more I press has it seems to go away. I’ve never did timing on a vehicle I know it can be complicated so best bet is to buy the parts and have a garage install them correct and it allmost sounds like a knock but they tend not to go away as you rev this noise goes away and I’ve noticed that it’s very slugging from 2-4 gear 1 and two are decent normal power but 3 and 4 aren’t so great like I really gotta give it some juice for it to kick in and take off

 

Every garage is different when it comes to the customer supplying their own parts for install. If you have a garage that you trust with your car, hopefully they’re experienced with your car and they have the right tools to time the engine properly.

If I were in your position, I would tell the garage what you’ve done so far and what you believe is going on with it. I’d let them diagnose what’s wrong with it given the information you provided because if they say it’s “X” and they sell you on the idea and it doesn’t fix the car then, in my opinion they’re on the hook for it.

 

i don’t mess when it comes to my vehicles I go straight to the dealership yeah it’s pricy but the work comes with a guarantee and being it’s a jag like you said things have to be done a certain way with special tools. I figure a timing chain job is gonna be in the range of 1500-2000 I may be way of I honestly don’t know

 

Your engine number will determine what type of timing chain system you have. (Primary Morse style or roller chains for BOTH primary and secondary)
The Morse chains should have different primaries that are not as susceptible to tensioner/guide blade failure as the roller chain versions.

Make sure you know the difference and get the correct parts if that is the problem.

 

appreciate that and I’m just gonna take it to the dealer and have it taken care of it a very nice jag with very low miles for the year no sense in going to a garage that doesn’t really offer a good warranty on the work jag dealerships offer great warranty

 

I don't know your location but MANY Jaguar dealers will NOT work on cars that old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Word of caution... I bought an '01 1 1/2yrs ago and specifically asked for shop records to see if tensioners were replaced (had 151K at time of purchases). Invoice said tensioners done @ 130K at local Jag shop, so I felt confident in the purchase. This past summer ('21) the replacement tensioners exploded! Shop replaced with all-metal
style and gave me a bag of the broken parts. They were the plastic-metal hybrid type. Lesson learned.

 

You might want to contact the dealer before you bring the car down??
As posted above you might not even find a dealer willing to take on the repair.
Also be ready for a much higher bill than $1500-$2000.

We have found it's usually better to find an independent Jaguar shop that has done one of more of these types of repairs.
With the slapping sound you are getting I would stop driving or even starting the car. Your timing chain is probably eating into the Al. block and heads.
Here is a Lincoln LS version of our engine with badly failed tensioners.



So don't delay in getting this repaired.
.
.
.

 

When I worked at the dealer, one of the mechanics had a 4.0 XJ8 or (4.0 S-Type?) that did not run.
Pulled the cam cover off to find a part of the cylinder head missing where the broken secondary timing chain had 'wadded-up' around the sprocket and pushed the metal out.

A Jaguar reman engine was ordered ($9,300.00) and installed. I don't remember if it was warranty or customer pay.

 

@Richard1978, where are you located? It doesn't show on your profile.

As others have said in previous posts, I doubt a Jaguar main dealer is going to want to touch an X308 as many of their current Technicians are unfamiliar with older models and may no longer have the Special Service Tools to work on them.

It may be best to remove the cam covers and check the condition of the timing chains, guides and tensioners, and to see if the chain(s) caused damage to the block and cylinder heads.

 

Since Bob shared a story, I’ll share one. We had a lady who owned a 2000
S-Type with the 4.0 V8. When she bought the car with about 100k on it, she had a receipt from an independent repair shop that the previous owner had the secondary timing chain tensioners done so we never had to reason to double check it. We’ve maintained it over the years and she drove it from Florida to Maine this one time. On her way back to Florida, the engine started making a racket while on the interstate somewhere around Massachusetts. Being a smart person, she immediately pulled over and shut the engine off. She checked oil and coolant which was good and she keeps her eye on the coolant gauge and knew it wasn’t overheating. She called a wrecker and had it flat bedded from Mass to Fla!! $2k tow bill. Anyways, I pulled the valve covers off and even though the secondary tensioners were replaced, the POS bolts that held one of the tensioners in place came loose (or maybe wasn’t tightened enough to begin with?) and the tensioner came loose and snapped the chain. Some valves were damaged. She had us pull the engine and go through it when it had 180k miles on it at this point of failure and we tried talking her out of it but we got it going for her again. The moral of the story is, if the tensioners were done, they may not have been done properly.