Hi All,

My son's XKR has started making a rather unpleasant sounding squealing noise - not constant, seems to come and go but he's only noticed it in the last few days. We've taken the S/C belt off and it still persists. When you're listening in it seems to come from somewhere around the front top of the engine near or directly under where the oil filter housing sits, but always difficult to be sure with noises. i intially thought water pump again, but it had a new one fitted less than a year/10k miles ago, and it seems to rotate smooth and tight when hand spun with the belt loose. All other pulleys seem smooth and solid as well.

Here's a youtube clip he's uploaded... any ideas anyone?

Any advice anyone?

 

It doesn't sound good at all. I've heard similar squealing from alternator bearings on the way out.

I would remove both the drive belts and start the car but don't let it run for longer than you need to check for the squealing. That will remove many of the usual sources of such sounds.

Richard

 

Yep, that's our next course of action, to remove the other belt, check for anything loose, then fire it up. We had it loosened off yesterday to check the water pump but couldn't find anything that felt rough or wobbly on any of the pulleys down the front of the engine. Today we're going to do an oil change and top up first (it's a little bit low at the moment at the bottom of the gauge) then take out the second belt completely and try again.
His engine sounds coarser then mine, like there's an underlying "looseness" that mine doesn't have. I can see trying to track it down is going to be a PITA.

 

Alternator, compressor, tensioner or steering pump bearings. I reckon with all belts off it won't be too hard. Also worth getting a stethoscope to pinpoint the source

 

HIya, yep we're just changing the oil now and have locally sourced a used alternator from a low mileage 2019 F-type for £170 so we'll try it with no belt to see what happens, and then swap out the alternator. The one on the car spins with virtually no resistance, the "new" one has much more drag when turning the pulley so I suspect it might be the alternator. Time will tell, hopefully it is.

 

Right. Update and resolution.

Having spent all weekend, on and off, removing and renewing pulley bearings, alternator and accessory drive belt, I'm glad to say it was none of these.

We fired up the car with the accessory belt OFF and it didn't make the noise, so put the inner belt , alternator and pulleys back on and fired it up.... the noise returned. So I gave things a bit of a wiggle from where the noise seemed to be coming from and realised the noise could come and go with moving the crankcase breather tube around, the black one that wraps very tight around the front corner of the S/C body. Part no. 2 in this diagram... https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic...e=C65172219188, part AJ812235.

Turns out the pipe had split on the inner corner of the S/C where it presses against it, and air was being sucked in (or out) and the split piece of brittle plastic must have been acting like a reed in a wind instrument givng us the horrendous noise. For now we've cut out a section of the breather hose and clamped in a length of rubber tubing around that bend. We'll order up a replacement tube, it's a 5 minute job to swap out.

So 2 days of work, and about £200 in parts, for the sake of a 70cm plastic tube.

Oh well, at least we know all the pulleys and belts and alternator on his car are good for a few years!

 

Great work!