Hi All,

Had the window doen the other day and noticed a constant high-pitched "squeal" sound coming from the front nearside wheel (I think). Checked the brake pads and there's plenty of life left in them,so was wondering if this could be the wheel bearing problem that is often mentioned in relation to XKs. I noticed a slight whirring sound at about 55mph (nothing hugely unpleasant) but am putting 2and 2 together here and thinking of wheel bearings... Does this sound right? Expensive / difficult job to do?

Thanks for advice.

 

Could be bearings, or it could just be the pad touching the rotor, and thus causing the sound. Does it go away when you apply some pressure to the brakes at that speed? If so, question answered. If not, could definitely be bearings.

 

Bearings. Jack it up on that corner and wrestle with the wheel top to bottom; and side to side. Any movement is Wheel Bearing time.

 

I had a u joint go bad left side on my 99 xk8, you may want to check it as well.
Gus

 

Well, I got Jaguar to check it out and it's not the wheel bearing. They thought it might be the drivebelt pulley bearing and tried replacing that, but to no avail - the noise is still there and it seems to be towards the nearside rear suspension. Bringing it back to the Jag garage tomorrow. I'm convinced it's a suspension issue.

I'm conscious that the car sometimes rubs against the kerb entering the driveway into my house (there is a steep dropped kerb for access).I normally take this extremely slowly and carfully but if the car is laden I sometimes here a bit of contact at the rear of the car - surely the engineering is strong enough to take this?? I can't see any obvious damage to the underside.

 

OK, so the drivebelt pulley did need replacing - that solved another strange sound. I brought the car back to Jag last week and they discovered it was, in fact, the rear nearside bearing. They said it's more usual for front bearings to go, but at least it seems to have solved the matter. Fingers crossed.

 

Glad you figured it out, and can we ask the year model of your XK8, and how much it cost at the dealer to replace the entire drivebelt pulley?

 

I spoke too soon!!! Went for a drive at the weekend (don't use the car for my daily commute) and the noise is still there; if anything, it's getting worse. Realy frustrating. I've done some more research online and it seems that it may well be the u-joint mentioned earlier. It sounds like a chirping, high-pitched squeal.

I haven't been charged yet by the dealer. They are replacing individual parts of the suspension bit by bit until the problem is fixed and told me they will only charge for the faulty part once sourced. I'll keep you posted.

 

P.S. The drivebelt idler pulley was EUR45 plus 30 minutes labour (EUR80) plus VAT. The car is a 2001 XK8.

 

Thought I'd update you on progress. After 4 visits to the Jag garage (including two overnights where technicians actually drove the car home with them!), it looks like we've possibly got to the bottom of the high-pitched squeal. The centre support bearing on the propshaft was realigned and the propshaft u-joints and bearings were lubricated. This seems to have cured the noise - fingers crossed. Apparently, X-Type propshafts commonly require lubrication, especially around the centre support bearing, but it's a less common issue for the XK8 judging by the lack of threads on the web.