Hi everyone,
I’m going to let my 1999 x308 have its plastic belt tensioners changed.
previous owners told me he never changed them (!!) and it has 79.000 km.
I just bought the car and I’m spending a bit to restore it.
i already bought the kit and my trusty mechanic (who has a lot of experience and it’s NOT a newbie) will make this job ….

He will need to change
- Belt Tensioners + Belt itself
- Timing Chain plastic tensioners
- Water pump + thermostat housing + thermostat

only…. I was wondering = are there “Service Bulletins” or an Official Guide for these jobs?

Ive seen the MAIN thread (sticky one) on the main page but can’t find the “official Jaguar guide with photos “ etc…(I’m not very bright too I must add I guess)
I would gladly give this to him before the cat undergoes the operation so he can study it better…

anyone knows? Thanks

 

Try the above Youtube. Process is the same on either the XK8 or XJ8

 

For the moment I was on my wrong foot and thought, you want to swap the timing chain tensioners - I could have send you my link for that, too.
But you just want to swap the drive belt tensioners - and hopefully the drivebelt, too...:
When you do: Check all idler pulleys! Their bearings might need to get replaced. After the belt is off, simply spin the pulleys - you'll notice, if something is wobbling around madly or squeaking like a ghost...

PS: I just realized that your are mentioning "tensioners" (Plural!), which is why I was thinking of the timing chain tensioners first - there is only ONE drive belt tensioner - and for all I know that one rarely needs replacement - maybe greasing it will do.

 

GOSH... my english is rusty... he will change the Belt + ALSO the plastic Timing chain tensioners!
Do you have a link Peter?

Thanks!

 

Thank you Jhartz!!
I'll give it to him... !


He will change
- Belt Tensioners
- Belt itself
- Timing Chain plastic tensioners
- Water pump!

Any other video or PDF guide?

 

...just wanting to make sure: You do understand that "timing chain tensioners" are totally unrelated to the drive belt and it's tensioner? And if you are not just thinking about the 2 upper timing chain tensioners, it's a major job, and it will easily cost a few thousand dollars... - while replacing the timing belt, etc. is more or less child's play...

 

hi Peter

I need to do BOTH jobs - timing chain tensioners (as my car still has the plastic ones” + drive belt and it’s tensioners as I want to change it.

yeah it’s not that expensive here - 1200 euros for the timing chain tensioners luckily.

do you have a PDF guide about it?

ill also replace the water pump + thermostat + thermostat housing

 

I can do better than a pdf guide - my own guide (for the timing chain and it's tensioners and guide)...
There might be a misunderstanding between you and your garage:
Swapping the 2 upper tensioners is possible after simply removing the cam covers, BUT...: if you just change those, you still have not changed the 2 guides and the 2 lower tensioners!!!

To do that, that is quite a job - as I pointed out already, and that's the job I am talking about:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...e-swap-266724/

 

GOSH that’s insane….. but in order to be safe I should change all right?? Or only upper ones?
as I bought all the kit already

AWESOME guide .. will use it . Thanks !

 

Hi It is up to you, I recently bought a 1998 XJ8 with 96k miles and found that the secondary tensioners were split and about to fail, both secondary tensioner bodies were badly split and one tensioner had lost the nylon wear face so the chain was running on a metal face.
I bought a full timing chain kit but looking at the size of the job my mechanic and I inspected the chain loop with a bore scope and could see no sign of wear on the primary chain. The links are tight on the sprockets so there is no stretch and the tensioners show no sign of wear.
The secondary chains also showed no sign of stretch.
The main difference between the primary and secondary tensioners is that the primary are pinned against side load whilst the secondary have the side load directly onto the pistons hence the original plastic bodies fail.
We were happy to then just replace the secondary tensioners but if you are a rev head and work the motor hard it might be better to do the entire loop.

 

Amongst the responses, you have most issues and the processes involved. I would add: replace the thermostat and radiator hoses (including the stumpy pipe and crossover) since most of the exact same labor is involved and the price of these additional parts is trivial compared to the labor to do these replacements at a later date.

There are lots of threads on this forum describing the replacements of the timing chain tensioners. As noted, the secondary tensioners break easily and should be replaced on models between 1997and 2002 or your motor could be destroyed if they fail. The design changed for the model year 2003 (US market) and the secondary tensioners and chains are much sturdier. Pull the threads and have them translated for your tech. For my 2001 model, I just changed the secondary tensioners, the primaries were in great shape (there are lots of write-ups describing the process: and easy job if you go slow and are careful); my current (2003) has the upgraded tensioners.

 

As I said it is up to you and your budget. I have a Land Rover Discovery V8 with 280k km and the heads have never been off. A 2005 Ford Falcon with 330k km, never been touched. These motors will go 500k + if looked after. The basic design of the engine is good but if you want to spend a lot of money to replace the entire cam drive because jaguar made a bad decision to use plastic for the tensioner body which needs to be changed after 150k km and some fail before then go for it. Ask for other opinions from the forum if they replaced the secondary tensioners or the entire cam drive.

 

I've only done the secondaries on mine, because they are what tends to fail first & kill the engine when they do (unless you're very lucky). However the primaries do fail & the plastics on the primary guides do crack & spilt so bits fall off & block the oil pick up. Mines getting booked in later this year for the complete job, I knew just doing the secondaries was a temp thing when I got it but finances dictated the big job had to wait.