engine squeal noise at startup now fixed.....

[Brakebuster]

for quite a while now, i have had an annoying intermittent ' squeal ' at startup.. which is worse if the car hasnt been used for a few days or weeks

i have long suspected the serpentine belt auto tensioner pulley wheel , but some peeps can mistake simple belt noises like this for serious problems or terminal failure ....

i went about getting a spare pulley wheel last year, but i had bought the wrong one, the one i got was the free-wheeling pulley wheel on the other side of the engine, and discovered the hard way that the mounting bolt has a left handed thread, lol, so i changed that

as a matter of interest, plastic and metal pulleys are mentioned, but all new ones are supplied as metal ones, and are a perfect swap for the older plastic ones......

so , after going to jaguar , i ordered the correct item, this turned out to be the whole tensioner that the pulley wheel goes on, this item was only £60 ( with discount )

its very easy to swap out this part,

you need a ' knuckle bar ' with a 15mm socket to move the adjuster and slip off the belt , ensure you know how its fitted first ,

then with a 13mm socket you remove the mounting bolt for the body of the tensioner, it simply falls away from the front of the engine block, offer up the new item and install the mounting bolt to the correct tightness ,

use the 15mm socket to take up the tension, slip on the belt and gently let the tension on ensuring the multi grove belt is sat in and on all the pulleys correctly

my belt was new two years ago at 20K miles , so a new one was not needed, Jaguar replace these belts at 100K miles, but are often required at around 80K or earlier, , if you see any cracking of the grooved side across the belt, it needs replacing, and is only £20

after double checking the alignment of the belt, and the tension, i started up the car, near silence under the V8 burble......luverley

on close inspection of the faulty unit, the pulley bearing was graunchy and sloppy, and did not free-wheel when spun......

another good job done

anti-roll bar links tomorrow...

BB

[joejag308]

Squealing at start up.........i had that a while back not on the 308 may i add but it turned out to be the alternator bearing at the rear of the alternator........but you seem to have the problem sorted .......thats another one out of the way..it just goes on.......ha ha.......Joe