Hey Everyone,
Looking at a 01 XKR with the same tensioners that it left with at the factory. Car has less than 10K on it. When do they normally fail and how much do they normally cost to replace at a shop? How hard is it to change them yourself?
Thanks,
Mike

 

You can find a ton of info on this topic her and how to do it yourself. Look for the "ziptie" method as an easier process. A couple of short answers:

A) Failure seems to be a function of age, mileage, and care of vehicle, did it ever overheat, etc. Most here would probably agree that the ones on that '01 you refer to could fail at anytime now even though it only has 10K on the clock. (I bought my car with 34K and had them changed before I drove it 10 miles).

B) See #8 in the following link for a price I found in the fall. There is also some good info here on local mechanics. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/m...st-help-65606/

Good luck. Sounds like a "find"!

 

Did you do them yourself or did you have a shop do them?

 

It is definitely something you can do yourself if you have moderate experience working on your own cars.

Search the forum for tons of discussion about it.

 

I do these all the time, but I am a tech, not the man that bills you! I am told that this job retails out at around $3000 if our shop does it. The parts are available for less than $1000 retail. I hear some say that there are kits out there for around $400. I don't know if the quality is comparable, all parts are included, etc. And, yes... YOU can do it, it's not a difficult job. A few easily fabricated special tools needed, or you can rent/borrow them from forum members. Just time consuming. And, on an XKR, you don't have to deal with the VVT system. The car you found must be incredible with those few miles!

 

Hi,
I did my secondary tensioners, parts £80 ($120) on ebay. Took several days to read up and understand the easiest way to change them. 4-5 hours to actually change them, and then clean the oil pick up in the sump.

You will need to read the threads, then the top tips forum members will give you will make sence, such as rotating the camshafts so every valve is closed. This makes the camshaft very easy to lift up.(zip tie method).

Good Luck

Steveeasy

 

I bought the car in Maryland and had them done there (City Imports in Glen Burnie, MD) before I drove back to Chicago. It was $675 for the secondaries. I like working on the car but didn't have that option there: as soon as they were done I was on the road for 11 hours!

 

Are the secondary ones the only ones I have to worry about?
Thanks

 

I worry about everything! : )

But for the most part my view is "Yes" and my actions aligned with that. My guess is that 2 out of 3 people who have had tensioners replaced have only done the secondaries. Why? It's true that the primaries can also be problematic but barring the exceptional case, people tend to hear a lot of noise and you have to be almost neglectful to not address them when they are going. From what I have read almost every engine trashed by tensioner failure was the secondaries. It is not unusual for the secondaries to fail with little/no warning. Replacing the primaries is a much more involved job costing $3K+ to have done.

 

No, the primaries and guides should be inspected while you have the covers off. If the primaries fail they will not destroy the engine like the secondaries will. I did not change mine and will do so only when necessary since it's a lot more work, especially when you use the zip tie method for the secondaries.

 

Is there a very simple how to, with pictures, that someone has done?

 

There are a lot of guides on the forum. This one is pretty good:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ics-how-52653/

 

That thread linked by RJ237 is one that inspired me to change my own also. EZDriver did such an excellent job describing his experience, I posted my own experience.

Test_Point inserted a nice list of related materials on the subject in one of the posts here too. If you're the least bit handy with tools, and have patience to sort out issues, it's not hard at all, and there are plenty here who will respond to your questions.

Steve


https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...stalled-65491/

 

Thanks for the confidence. I should be able to handle it. I am only going on my third year as a mechanical engineering student! I have not done much with my own car except basic things but will diagrams and a lot of help, I am sure I can do it.
Thanks