Ok so last year, when it was cooler, I changed out my radiator and serpentine belt on my 1997 xk8. When I started the car it started a rhythmic “click,click,click” sound from the front right side of the engine bay. Kinda reminds you of a stuck blend door trying to close. It goes away in a within a minute, and once the weather got warm, it never happened again. Until now. It started getting cold again and shure enough, my clicking is back! Exactly like before! Is there some kind of electric motor actuated coolant flap that could be causing this? I can’t see anything at all when looking around.

 

So I pulled my serpentine belt yesterday and started the car. No clicking. So I spun and wiggled all of my pulleys and they felt fine, so I thought I'd go ahead and pull my tensioner anyway and swap it with the one off of my spare engine. However, after looking at them, I found that the spare engine tensioner has the plastic pulley and my original has a metal one. I noticed that the part number was the same except for the one with the plastic pulley had a last letter in the part number that was 2 letters sooner than the metal one. I'm guessing the metal one is the more recent "update". I messed with my old one a little and decided that it didn't feel bad at all, and I'd prefer a metal pulley over the plastic one. I also figured it wasn't that hard to swap out again if I was still getting the clicking. I also shot some silicone spray in the spring just to give it a little love lol. I put everything back together and started the car and no clicking at all! I guess we'll see.

 

Well done....

 

Welp i guess I spoke too soon. Smh. Went out this morning and the click is back. Oh well i guess ill plan on trying to buy new pulleys and a tensioner

 

What about the actuators for the cam advance? My 2002 has a different setup for this actuator - honestly I'm not even sure (I guess I could go digging) that the 97 has the advance so slap me for being stupid.

 

Is it anything like this?:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...25/#post999756

 

Ok so yay! I popped the bonnet today and started it up and looked around. Sure enough the tensioner was pulling back and forth every second or so and slapping back in place! I decided to just try swapping twnsioners with the one from my spare engine and yeeha no more click! It see.s nice and smooth! I may still order a new one with a metal pulley, but at least now i know for certain what it was! Yay!

 

Nice!

 

Well crap. Went out this morning and sure enough the one from my spare engine is doing it now, although not for as long. I just ordered a brand new one, i guess we’ll see if it completely takes care of it. If not, i wonder if one of my other pulleys or powersteering pump or a/c compressor could be hanging up and causing it to pull then release. I guess we’ll see

 

Double-check the idler pulley near the alternator is aligned OK and free.
You can replace both it and the one on the tensioner with Dayco 89016, Gates 38028 or similar.

 

I realized I never updated this! I replaced the tensioner with a brand new one and it still made the noise. I then ordered another serpentine belt, and its been quiet ever since! The only thing I can think is that the other belt, when cold, kept its shape from one of the pulleys, until it went around a few times. Weird, but fixed!

 

still you got a spare fits fine around the spare wheel