Where is the oil leak coming from? X308 XJR pics...

[OneJag]

Hi folks,
noticed a fair few drops of oil under my X308 XJR, mostly as though its from near the alternator sort of area. But the dipstick is just under the max max (as expected), so what else could it be? Supercharger maybe? Or some leaky oil pipe???

OneJag

[OneJag]

No-one knows? Or am I too impatient???

OneJag

[NormanD]

OneJag said:

No-one knows? Or am I too impatient???

OneJag

Would thought not the supercharger, verry little oil in there.
Engine oil lines come out on the off side to the oil cooler

Gearbox oil line are on the nearside going to their oil cooler

[Jaguar steve]

Impossible to even hazard a guess from that picture. Time to have a crawl underneath - before the whole engine is covered in old oil which makes leak diagnosis much more difficult.

[Ecurie Ecosse]

They can leak from the cam cover gaskets if they have been tightened too much, which is an easy mistake to make.

[OneJag]

Yes I was impatient Thanks to all who replied!

I think its time to do as suggested and clean up the already leaked oil and look underneath to find the true source of the problem.

Cheers,
OneJag

[larrylamb11]

My vote goes to oil cooler or oil lines running to oil cooler.

[OneJag]

larrylamb11 said:

My vote goes to oil cooler or oil lines running to oil cooler.

Not crawled under it yet, but in my guts I feel you are probably right...

OneJag

[RedOctober]

I'd go with oil cooler or pipes too-the service history of my 2001 XJR showed that the oil cooler had been replaced by the previous owner...

[restoremgb1]

Is it definately engine oil,check the power steering resevoir level,its quite common for the power steering cooler to leak

[P700DEE]

Power steering oil is Red so unlikely. My money is also on the oil cooler.

[OneJag]

Hi folks,
Thanks for the replies, but it turned out in the end to be a leaking cyl head gasket, probably a result of earlier eyeballing of the timing gear. So, now suitably fixed and runs well again

OneJag

[LondonItalian]

OneJag said:

Hi folks,
Thanks for the replies, but it turned out in the end to be a leaking cyl head gasket, probably a result of earlier eyeballing of the timing gear. So, now suitably fixed and runs well again

OneJag

Dont you mean cam cover gasket?

Edited by LondonItalian on Tuesday 30th October 15:49

[Ecurie Ecosse]

Ecurie Ecosse said:

They can leak from the cam cover gaskets if they have been tightened too much, which is an easy mistake to make.

[OneJag]

LondonItalian said:

Dont you mean cam cover gasket?

Edited by LondonItalian on Tuesday 30th October 15:49

Errr. Yep

OneJag

[RedOctober]

Make sure your oil level hasn't dropped-these engines are apparently not very tolerant of low oil levels, & spirited cornering in hard-driven X308's has been known to cause brief oil pump starvation & the number 1 big-eng bearing is the first to suffer.

The best advice is to keep your oil level always at maximum-there's nothing to gain & everything to lose by running the oil level constantly around the minimum mark.

A number of AJV8's in X308's & XK's have featured on YouTube with ominous-sounding tapping noises from the engine. The owners can't trace the noise & they've checked the obvious stuff like secondary timing chain tensioners, cam lobe wear & VVT noises.

These engines don't have hydraulic tappets, using Jaguar's old method of buckets & shims. Therefore any tapping noises need to be treated with caution as the manufacturing tolerances on this engine are quite uniform & tight, so the valve clearances don't really change much throughout the service life & these engines are not known for wearing out the top-ends & valve gear.


Timing chain & tensioner problems produce more of a rattling sound, but a regular rhythmic tapping sound may well point to bottom-end problems if no faults are found in the top end.

So always keep your sump level full