Hi,

Re XK8 1997. Can anyone tell me what this is? I noticed it was hanging down a couple of months ago, then it fell off last week. I thought it was some sort of exhaust guard/bracket but now I’m not so sure. Will it affect MOT? Cheap fix? Comments welcome.

 

I can't be sure but I think I glimpsed one of these below my coil packs i.e between the side of the engine and the inside of the wing when I had all the air intake parts off my car today.. I just saw one edge and thought "hello what's that never noticed it before"... but I didn't follow it up.. not very helpful to you.. looking at it, it looks like its designed to channel water away from an area or if it was the other way up possibly heat. That is unless I've got the scale of your photo wrong, and you saw it hanging down centrally beneath your car in which case no idea.. handbrake / prop shaft channel perhaps.. If it is what I thought it was.. you'll have another one the other side to compare with... but either way it needs angle grinding back to bare metal round those two rusted out mounting holes and a couple of bits of decent new steel welding in and new holes drilled and it can go back on your car. I'm a rank amateur with a very cheap stick welder but if you find some donor 1.5 - 2mm steel and drive to North Wilts we can have a go at it :-)

 

Sorry I should have said it was on the underside, about where the gearchange is. It is about 18 inches long. Thanks for your thought Nick!

 

Is your car an import? I think that may be an extra heatsheild fitted in the Japanese market. Not required here.

 

Hi Robin, Yes it is a Japanese import. Thanks very much for the info!