I bought a XK8 about three weeks ago, read the threads and checked my tensioners, having already decided to change anyway. Three guesses and the first two don't count, split almost from top to bottom

 

A very lucky escape!

Good to hear you found the info on the forum to help avoid a catastrophe.

Graham

 

yes, all the old are by now, jag says WEAR/TEAR, they will not help you pay for nothing
then sell the stuff at a high price lol

 

I notice that you are missing the plastic slipper that should be on top of the tensioner. Some number of slipper failures ended in broken chains. Thankfully, yours only resulted in the oil pick up screen blocked with the pieces.

Sorry, dww, I associated the pic in post 3 with yours. How were your slippers?

 

Drivers side had collapsed but was still in place though not doing much in the way of tensioning the chain, lucky it all held together.

 

Good catch, glad we could help