Since I searched and didn't find a topic on this, I thought I'd start one and post my (hopefully) success.


After getting car back finally from the extended vacation where it was determined that I didn't, in fact, need a new engine for $22k, but instead a couple of cam gears, there's a pretty consistent squeak from the front end.

Having been around cars for a while, it sounds exactly like corrosion on a pulley, to me, and since I determined that, as much as I like my local shop, I really need a loaner while my car is down, I'm forced to go back to the dealer. Since they also waive my deductible on the extended warranty, I talked myself into it that they probably couldn't try to replace my engine for a squeaking pulley.

Instead, they told me my belts were glazed, and quoted me $940 to replace the two belts. Belts aren't covered by extended warranty.

So I checked for Jaguar parts online, and found the belts for $110 plus shipping, but had some issue with their website, so I thought "Well, if that's the price from Jaguar" and called the dealership that tried to sell me a new engine instead of replacing cam gears (the $940 belt change place) and they quoted me over $200 for the same two belts.

So i ordered from the first place, and now I'm tearing in.



These threads were helpful, because it's the same 4.2L supercharged engine. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...er-belt-41502/
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ne-belt-58232/

I also downloaded the shop manual, from a website in the UK for about $11 US (it was on sale). It's helpful, but not VERY helpful.


How I did:

1. Removed engine cover

2. Loosen the air ducting worm gears at the supercharger, and by the airboxes, and remove that ducting. Don't forget the 10mm bolt underneath.

3. Remove the radiator cover (8mm bolts) (left the air feeds connected rather than replace all those one time clips). Use a small screwdriver to very carefully release the clips on the passenger side air duct.

4. Removed flexible ducting to airbox

5. Removed passenger airbox

6. removed bolts from auxiliary cooling pump (it's bolted to the radiator) The bolt you can't see is the same T20 torx that the Airboxes use. Once the bolts are out, pull it away from the radiator (it kinda snaps in then bolts down, so with the bolts out you have to pop it off)

7. I removed the bolts from the fan shroud, but since I haven't been able to get it out, that may not be a necessary step.

Now, instead of having NO room to work, now you have ALMOST enough room to work.

8. If you put a regular 1/2" ratchet into the space where the passenger airbox used to be, you should have just enough clearance between the lower AC line to get the square drive into the hole on the Supercharger tensioner pulley. Reaching down and across from the top, you can grab that ratchet and pull it clockwise, which gives you enough slack to slip the supercharger belt off (outer belt). Unthread it from all the pulleys

9. When you get to the one pulley you can't unthread, the tensioner - refer to the first link for a picture of how the belt needs to move. Basically you should be able to stand the belt up on its side and squeeze it between the two pulleys.

If not, the official way is to jack up the car, remove the bottom pans and remove the tensioner itself from the car. That SHOULDN'T be necessary, but I've been wrestling that belt for about 20 minutes off and on and that's why I stopped to write this.

 

Nope, not necessary to remove the bottom pans, but sliding the belts out is, as they say in England, a bit of a faff, but possible without removing the bottom pans or any of the cooling hoses.

It wasn't terribly hard to get the belt started through the gap, but about halfway it got hung on the bolt that holds on the idler on the accessory belt. I managed to get my left arm down where the passenger airbox was, and slide a finger into the pocket of the supercharger tensioner, so I could control the belt a little better and guide it past the bolt head on the idler. With my right hand, I made a kind of sawing motion with the belt and cleared it.

If you only need to replace the supercharger belt, then you're done, just reverse everything to this point, and don't forget to reattach the auxiliary pump to the fan shroud.

If you're replacing both belts:

10. I didn't happen to have a wrench the right size for the inner tensioner, it's not the 15mm anymore. 21mm wasn't big enough, 7/8 wasn't big enough either. Even if I had found a wrench to fit, I don't know that you can turn it enough without removing the cooling hoses. What I did is, go in with a 3/8" drive ratchet (no socket, just the ratchet) and it has the same sort of square drive socket the supercharger had (only that was 1/2" drive). Going from the right and starting with the handle pointing upwards should give you enough slack to slip the belt off.

11. Fishing this belt off is easier than the supercharger belt, because it's much thinner, but the sticking point is the bottom of the crank pulley. I used a long screwdriver to push it down and slip it off.

Don't know if this is helpful, but I've been bitten before by taking the ratchets out of the tensioners after the belt was off, and having a horrible time getting them back (without the belt on, they may return too far to get the ratchet in in the same place. So leaving the ratchet handles in the tensioners may make it a little harder to work around, but may be much easier when it comes time to get the belt back on.

Anyway, it's just a matter of fishing everything back together now.

 

Don't need it yet, but I'm sure I will eventually. Thanks for doing the writeup!

 

No problem!

The last bit of tips here - the supercharger belt slid down INTO the groove easier than it came out, so if you're brave enough, and sure you have the right part number, you can probably cut it (once the tension's been removed) and save a lot of frustration.

Also, annoyingly, that does seem to fix the squeaking problem I had, so it turns out they were right. Still, as troublesome as these belts are, it's in no way a $930 job they were quoting.

 

Was it a cold startup squeaking in the morning, then ok when it warmed up? I've been thinking I have some pulleys going screwy, but maybe this is what I'm experiencing too.

 

How many miles on your car? I have 103k and my belts look at work fine, but I'm a little worried about them.

 

Yep, pretty much this - on short drives it wouldn't necessarily go away, but on longer ones it would.

I was positive it was corrosion on a pulley too. While I had the belts off, I gave the pulleys a spin by hand to see if I could feel any kind of irregularity, but I didn't feel anything out of the way (obviously you're not going to be able to spin the main crank pulley, but if that one's making noise, you're going to have worse problems.)

Usually if one is going to go out, it'll be an idler or tensioner, at least from experience with other cars. In this case they still felt tight.

Mine has less than 80k on it, but if they're not making noise and look fine, no cracking on the ribs, etc, then I'd leave them be. Even at 80k, the belts I took off looked brand new, no cracking and felt nice and pliable. The only way to tell the difference from the new belts I put on there was how bright the words stamped on the belt were.