The engine is making a scraping or sandpaper like sound on initial startup. After the engine has warmed up after 10 minutes, the sound stops. I think it might be a pulley since it seems to be coming from the front of the engine?

I am trying to upload a video so that you can listen to the sound but for some reason it is not working:
Edit, had to end up using youtube.

 

Cant be positive, but id personally lean towards a pully too

 

Yeah, I think I will pop off the belts and spin them by hand to see if anything feels wrong.

 

Sounds like an idler or tensioner pulley bearing. Once you get the belt off you should be able to feel the offender. Jaguar decided to to sell the tensioner pulley as a whole unit and no longer just a replacement pulley. The idler and the tensioner are the same pulley while you are in there I would just buy 2 idlers and replace both units. Be aware the tensioner bolt is a left hand thread and unscrews to the right.

 

I checked the idler and tensioner pulleys for the accessories belt, as well as the water pump, alternator, and lower pulleys. All of those felt smooth when I spun them. I wanted to check the supercharger belt tensioner pulley, but I can't fit my breaker bar in the slot because there is not enough clearance between the fan motors and the belt tensioner.

Does anyone know of a tool that can fit in that tight area? I don't want to remove the fan shroud because that also involves draining the coolant to disconnect the radiator hoses.

 

I had a similar sound coming from the front of the engine last year and it was the accessory belt tensioner pulley. It felt fine but when the mechanic misted it with water the noise stopped.
Replaced the pulley and the noise didn't come back. You could try water in a squirt bottle and mist each pulley to see which one it is.

 

Do you still get the noise with the belt off?

 

It somehow didn’t occur to me to start the car without the belt.

 

Finally got somewhere today.

• I rented a belt removal tool hoping that it would be thin enough to fit between the supercharger belt tensioner and the fan motor. It wasn’t, but pulling back on the fan and using some muscle would get it in. I don’t recommend this, but it works in a pinch.
• I removed the supercharger belt and started the car, the noise was still there.
• Then I removed the accessories belt and the noise was gone.
• Relieved as I was to confirm this wasn’t coming from the internals of the engine I also ruled out that it wasn’t the supercharger belt.
• I spun all the pulleys and they all felt fine. I was puzzled. However, the accessories idler pulley was the least smooth. It was almost imperceptibly scratchy. I spun it again and it seemed fine.
• Perplexed I reinstalled the accessories and the shortchange supercharger belt and the noise was present.
• I did the water spray trick mentioned by Ozbot. Spraying on the outside of the pulleys did nothing, nor did spraying on the external part of the belt. It was when I sprayed on the tracks of the pulleys that the noise paused briefly. However, this worked with all pulleys: idler, tensioner, power steering, a/c compressor, alternator, water pump.
• I was dumbstruck, I wasn’t sure which pulley was bad.
• I kept shining a flash light, looking and listening for the sound.
• I finally found it, the accessories idler belt pulley was wobbling, causing the belt on it to slip from its initial position near the lip back towards the timing cover.

I remember changing the belts, and belt tensioner pulleys for both the supercharger and the accessories tensioner 2 years ago (about 8k miles). I didn’t change the tensioners themselves nor the idler belt pulley.

I’m thinking of buying the belt tensioners changing them and then using the newish pulley on the old tensioner for the idler pulley. Is that ok? I figure that way I only have to buy the tensioners and don’t have to throw away barely used parts.

Now, does anyone know if it’s possible to remove the radiator fans without disconnecting the radiator hoses?

 

This is for an XK8 but I think it should work.

 

GD,

In my 99 XK8, the upper radiator hose had to come off to wiggle the fan pack out. Plus I had weird non OEM AC pipes too that needed manoeuvring around.

No big deal, if you’re careful.

 

Unfortunately it is not that simple with an XKR. There is an a/c pipe to the right of the fans, and the upper and lower rad hoses to the left which make maneuvering the fan out more difficult.

I think I will have to drain the system coolant.

 

Why not just change the pulley bearings instead of the whole unit, I've just done all mine and it was a 10 minute job once the pulleys are off.

Mine needed the following bearings, I would assume your would be the same

1 x SKF 6303 2RS C3 - Idler pulley on supercharger belt
3 x SKF 6203 2RS C3 - Idler pulley on accessory belt & both tensioner pulleys

Whole job done for less than £15 and a couple of bleeding knuckles.

 

The pulley's are cheap enough as it is already. But the car still has the original tensioners but with new pulleys, only the idler pulleys are old. I was thinking that by getting new tensioners, I could get the whole lot refurbished and not have to go back in because the tensioner started failing some time in the future.