Hello everyone.

I've been hearing some rattling from the front of the engine lately. My xkr was made on 01/2002 by the way. What are some of the symptoms that you face when the tensioners need replacing?

 

It is hard to tell. I lived with similar noises for way too long all caused by a failing idler pulley.

Easy and free to check. Losen belt. Spin pulley by hand. It must be a smooth effortless turn. My bad pulley had a stepped or ratchet feel.

Hope it's something cheap and easy mate. John

 

Thanks John, I'm gonna check that out too

 

Sounds like a pulley to me. Pull the belts and restart the car

 

Okay I will. Do you hear that small rattle though? Not so much as the ticking. The video doesn't capture it that clear but you can hear it if you put your ear to the speaker

 

Failed pulley makes a rattle too. If I hadn't replaced the tensioners a year before I would have been sure that's what it must be.

Funny sounding but I hope you have a bad pulley, it costs about $35 and 25 minutes to fix.

Let us know. John

 

Okay much appreciated John.

 

The symptoms are:

1. OLD TENSIONERS - increasing levels of concern each time you drive the vehicle
2. OLD TENSIONERS - desperation and remorse when they suddenly fail and wreck the engine
OR
3. NEW TENSIONERS - a warm, happy feeling when you drive the vehicle

You really want to go direct from 1 to 3. Too many reports on the forum of members who didn't.

This rattle may be the pulley (and the only way to be sure is run with the belts removed) but that doesn't take away the risk from failing tensioners.

Graham

 

I also have a 01/2002 build date. You may want to verify that you have the upgraded silent (and stronger) timing primary chain and pulleys in addition to the tensioners.
Reference my experience from about 5 years ago.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...nsioner-55895/

 

Thank you for that post! You've given me hope lol. Hopefully the issue is just the pulley then. I'll have to figure out how to take it apart today. It's my daily, bought it at 108k miles so I want to make sure I'm good to go. Makes a weird noise around 2800 rpms so maybe it IS the pulley like you guys said.

 

If your build date is 01/2002 you're most likely in the clear, if it's the first registered date then less so.

The serpentine belt pulleys (there are two) can be surprisingly noisy. My idler was on its way out after 33K, but the age won't have helped.

Obviously don't run the motor for long without the belt as you lose the water pump, but it's a cheap & easy fix. Worth replacing the belt along with both idler & tensioner pulleys in one go. Dayco do an exact replacement for the pulleys for around $20.

TBH I'd still pull the RHS cam cover unless I was 110% certain.

Good luck,

Mike

 

Much appreciated. I'm going to have a go at it soon. If it's the pulleys I'll go for a new one

 

If you take the belts off and run the engine briefly,
you can isolate the idlers from the equation.