Vee
I would nor be surprised if the tire was rubbing on the wheelarch baffle at full lock.

 

I can only replicate it when I accelerate hard from a stop (or almost stop) while making a left (not right) hand turn.

No evidence of tire burning through plastic.

 

I think I found the culprit. The fan blades look perfectly fine....except for the ends. They look a bit rough. There’s no evidence of any contact with the shroud, but the ends of these plastic fins sure look beat up.

I replaced the motor mounts a while back, but I think since the car was stolen and rammed into a wall....they may have failed since. I’ll have to get a jack under there to see if the mount has delaminated.

I certainly did not remember loving replacing these mounts the first time. I think the recommendation (that I didn't listen to) is to do them one side at a time. I unbolted both of them and had a hell of a time getting the second one back on.

 

So I set up to replace the motor mounts, but I ended up pulling off the drivers side shock absorber, which I replaced with Boge a few years ago. The shocks were dead. It would eventually extend back out after MINUTES, so I replaced both front with the original shocks that I managed to keep. They were in much better shape, but again, replaced after about 20 years of service.

I thought the Boge came with a lifetime warranty, but I cant, for the life of me, remember where I bought them. I searched through my archived orders at RockAuto, Amazon and FCPEuro....no dice.

Anyways, I'm either going to install Bilsteins up front, from RockAuto for about $170, shipped, or I can buy the OEM Sachs for half that from FCPEuro, with a lifetime warranty? They aren't terrible difficult to replace, so I'm kinda torn. I mean, the back, when I get to it, I'm going to buy something I'll hopefully never have to replace again, but the fronts???

Anyways, it seems the scraping, or grinding noise is less, but definitely still exists. Perhaps after replacing with proper shocks, it'll be fixed?

I need the car on ramps before I attempt to replace those motor mounts. Now that it's getting warmer, I'll have the time.

 

I wouldn't think the shocks would be doing anything in this case. The "accelerating hard" may provide the clue, I was think that combined with battered fan blade tips sounds like the motor moving on it's mounts. Especially since the car has been hit, I'd be looking at the mounts and if the motor is sitting in the right place - are the mounting brackets on the block bent as well?

My first step would be to jack up the motor carefully and see if the rubber mounts separate. If so, you have your culprit.

 

The fan shroud itself has some adjustment in its fixings. It could have become just a bit mis-aligned.

 

It's all one piece, there is no way to adjust any of it. Everything looks good and is quite roomy when standing still.

 

Mounting brackets on the block? I don't know specifically what you mean.

I do intend on checking those mounts...

 

I think you may find that when you undo the shroud fixings, the actual holes in the shroud are larger than the bolts' diameter, thus allowing a bit of adjustment. Could be wrong, obviously...

 

I think you may find that when you undo the shroud fixings, the actual holes in the shroud are larger than the bolts' diameter, thus allowing a bit of adjustment. Could be wrong, obviously... I did away with mine many years ago when I went to full electric fans.
Also, it might be worth checking that the fan blade tips definitely are hitting the shroud, if you have not already done so. (eg) If you put some thick grease on the tips, then do a test and create the noise, then see if the grease has smeared off.

 

Hi Greg

You are NOT Wrong, the Shroud has heaps of Adjustment in almost every direction and in fact I had to Clamp mine in place to keep it in position while I put the Bolts in and before I tightened them up

Photo of Fan Shroud showing oversized holes for Adjustment + How to make a New Fan from an Oversized one + How to Refit the Banjo Bolts and Washers on the Top Pipes of the Closing Panel with Lots of Photos

 

The rubber motor mounts don't bolt directly to the block or subframe of the car. There are brackets in-between. Items 1&2 and 7&8 in the diagram: https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.../brand/jaguar/

Any or all of them could be bent if the car has been in a shunt.

 

Those brackets appear to be fine. I certainly couldn't tell that there's anything wrong with those parts when I had a look at the car without the radiator and fan.

Speaking of the fan, that shroud sits in large holes taken up by pegs in rubber bushings, then the upper end is bolted into place. The rubber gives it some ability to move, but not much. The radiator is mounted in a similar fashion....with much more room to move. You basically place it into holes on the radiator support beam, using pegs on the bottoms of both parts, and the rubber bushings keep the bottom in relative place, until the top is locked in place. No way to adjust.

The fan is centered in the fan shroud, so I don't believe any adjustment is necessary. Will do the grease trick though...hadn't thought of that.

 

Hi Vee

Are you sure about that?

The Pegs on the bottom of the Radiator go into the Two Rubber Doughnuts on the bottom beam where the Pegs on the Top go into the Two Rubber Doughnuts on the Top Closing Panel (of which we both agree on)

But the Fan Shroud doesn't sit on Rubber Doughnuts like the Radiator does (at least not on my 89 XJS V12)

Instead there are Two Brackets (with oversize holes for adjustment) that bolt onto the 'Inside edge' of the Top Closing Panel

At the bottom of the Shroud are Two 'Similar' Brackets to the ones at the Top again with oversize holes for adjustment and these Bolt on to Brackets on the Bottom Beam and these Brackets can tend to rust out over time because they are not what I would call very substantial

So your Fan Shroud may well have come adrift at the bottom, if your car has impacted on something, where the Bottom Fan Shroud Brackets on my Car, had all but rusted away and so rather than go for OEM replacements, I decided to make some New Brackets which was very easy to do

And also much more Substantial than the OEM replacements

I would definitely check the Bottom Shroud mounting Brackets just in case something has come adrift down there

You can see how I made the New Brackets about 1/3 down page: 48 of my 'Cherry Blossom' restoration Thread including Photos

How to make New Bottom Fan Shroud Brackets for a Pre-Facelift XJS V12 which are a lot more substantial than OEM and even have better adjustment very easy to do and cost just a few Cents

 

A good test for motor mount movement is to place the car in drive, hold one foot on the brake give it gas with the other. The torque of the engine will try to move the car but can't but if any mount is weak or broken, the twisting torque movement of the engine will move the against the broken mount and flop the engine up away from the split mount if it's broken. You'll be able to see the en gin actually lift away from the broken mount to whatever is the problem. Best to have someone's eyes near your suspected fault area is while doing the check. Check both in Drive and Reverse for the other mount. You may be able to hear your noise as well.

 

Wan't able to have anyone watch, but when I slam the gas in D, with the brake applied, I can get it to scrape...not a lot, but its there. I cannot get it to scrape with slamming the gas in R.

 

Vee,

As I'm sure you've worked out, if the scraping is happening with car loaded in D and not moving, that implies the front of the engine is lifting. And with no external reciprocating parts apart from the belts, pulleys and fan, that does seem to be the first place to look. You really don't want a fan breaking under contact with the shroud as that can be very expensive! And whilst worn engine mounts may cause it, the cause is often a worn gearbox mount allowing the engine and transmission to pivot around the engine mount. However, I thought I recalled you saying that you refurbed the gearbox mount some while ago, didn't you?

Paul

 

You are a much better reader than I am. Yes, I personally replaced the gearbox mount once, and then it was replaced again, by a reputable Jag shop after the car was stolen and crashed. It was one of the few things that I missed after getting the car back together.

I’m hoping it isn’t the mount, since I did pay the shop to replace that. They’re a good small shop that only work on Jags. They were very good at finding the solution to a 32 second idle hiccup that a closer Jag shop threw parts at, and my local indie shop could track down. (Leak are the intake manifold gasket)

I had previously swapped out both of the motor mounts, using URO branded mounts. (I bought one euro spare mount, on a lark since it was so inexpensive, and it seemed way too poorly made). That was pre-theft though, and I could see how the wreck might have damaged the mount.

I guess I’ll have someone else help me check out the mounts with this test. I’ll post back.

Thanks.

 

You may not get the same scrape behavior in reverse as you would in Drive if only one mount is worn. The engine will want to longitudinal twist in the opposite direction of engine rotation. So if the engine spins clockwise looking at it from the front, then the engine will try to lift counterclockwise from that side away from the right side while looking at it from the front (or left side while sitting in a LH drive car). If there is enough lift from a weak mount, it may be enough for the fan to scrape the shroud. The opposite mount will tend to go down as the other side rises but will go nowhere as its already loaded down. In reverse, it will try to twist in the opposite direction but if the good mount is good, there will be no twisting and the bad mount is already down and compressed so that will not go anywhere during the test and no scraping in reverse.

 

Vee
Only fit genuine motor mounts, is a good plan.