Hi all

Beg your pardon if this topic was already discussed, my humble trials to find threads did not lead to any results. Probably because I did not use the correct English terms..

I’m finding rust on my XKR, not a big surprise as I went through the forums a bit before buying. The obvious place in front of the seats is easy to fix, same goes for the already repaired rear sills.
A bigger issue however, is the (somewhat unexpected) rust I discovered while replacing the auxiliary drive belt. The steel frame that holds the engine alloy frame is rusted through at its underside. Strange enough only on the right side. This is a potential MOT failure here in Switzerland… so need to look into fixing it.

I’m not sure what the part is called in English (I believe in JEPC it is called ‘Valance Reinforcement’).
Question: does anyone has experience repairing this? How much work is it (to me it looks like the engine has to come out…Outch!) Are repair panels available?
I add some pictures for clarification.

Thanks
Cheers
Chris

 

I may have found the culprit: My XKR is missing the Bulb Access Panel on the right side, maybe water made its way through there and caused the corrosion underneath....

Cheers
Chris

 

When I read your post yesterday, I thought it was an unusual place for serious rust and odd that it should only be on one side.

I agree the missing Access Panel must have contributed to it. This is unlikely to be available from Jaguar now but one of the specialist UK Jaguar breakers should have it and shipping to Switzerland on a relatively small, lightweight part won't be unreasonable.

Graham

 

They are still available from SNG Barratt or David Manners in the UK. I bought one recently for £14.22 Plus postage. I think there might be two types as the wheel arch liner is different on earlier and later models.

 

Just ordered replacement Panels from SNG Barrat for 18.96€.

I'm still not sure how to fix the main problem - the rust on the engine frame. Anyone has any experience with this?
Many thanks,
Chris

 

Those box sections should have been wax injected during build. Maybe the RH side of yours was "missed".

To repair it will probably need the aluminium cross member removing Big job but also allows a number of other things to be attended to.

As well as the problem you have spotted, the vertical section behind the spring may also have rotted away, which is a common problem.

Replacing the lower section should not be too bad as the repair panel is not complex. Access is IIRC OK as I cleaned up mine and repainted them while the cross member was off for other repairs.

Dropping off the cross member may also show up problems with the VEE mounts.