Project X-Type

Part six sees us deal with a noisy propshaft centre bearing, re-gassing the air conditioning system and finally tracking down the oil leak

A new propshaft bearing brings peace and quite to our Jag’s cabin.

Our cheap-as-chips all-wheel drive Jaguar continues to eat up the miles and just before booking the car into Ridgewood Service Station in Cromford to get proprietor Chris Geadly and his team to fit a new propshaft centre bearing fitted, the Jaguar’s digital odometer flashed over to read 122,000 miles.

We’ve covered just over 4000 miles in our V6-powered £325 bargain since adding it to Classics Monthly’s fleet last August and although the large majority of these miles have been trouble-free, we’ve had a couple of odd noises that required investigating. The first turned out to be a sticking rear brake pad and we cured this problem by fitting a new set of discs and pads. The other noise was much harder to trace, as it was an odd whine that only started when the car hit 30mph and went away after 20 or 30 miles when everything warmed up.

At first we thought the noise could have been from the water pump, as the gland was leaking but this strange sound continued after we fitted a new pump. Stumped as to the cause, we resorted to trawling through the online Jaguar forums and discovered this is a common problem with X-Types, especially when the weather gets colder, and the whining noise comes from the centre bearing on the propshaft. The official Jaguar workshop solution is to fit an expensive replacement propshaft assembly but this seemed a bit over the top. One forum came up with the answer and suggested fitting a new centre bearing at a fraction of the cost of a propshaft.

Once the propshaft was off the car, removing the splined mounting at one end allowed the old bearing to be removed by sliding it down the shaft.

With the repaired propshaft back on the car, the next job was to recharge the air conditioning. While Chris was connecting the complex looking regassing machine up to the high and low pressure ports on our Jaguar’s air conditioning, he explained how the machine first sucks all the gas out and then vacuum tests the system before injecting a few grams of special oil and a dose of UV traceable leak detector, after which it recharges the system with the correct amount of refrigerant.

Our Jag’s air con was now blowing as cold as a butcher’s fridge, so Chris turned his attention to finally locating the source of the oil leak from the engine. After removing part of the plastic splash shield from under the front wheelarch, he immediately spotted where this annoying leak, which drips onto the exhaust, was coming from. Here’s what we’ve been up to this month:

1 Although we’d traced an odd whining noise to the centre bearing on the propshaft, there was no play in the assembly and the rear of the rubber mounting appeared sound.

2 First job was to mark the position of both the flanges to ensure the propshaft went on the same way before starting to undo the six bolts securing the assembly to the differential.

3 After the rear bolts were out, the front of the propshaft was disconnected from the transfer box. Prepare for a slight oil leak here as there’s a curious looking rubber ‘boot’ inside the flange that acts as a seal.

4 With the front and rear of the shaft supported by a single finger tight bolt, technician Nick slackened off both of the fixings securing the centre bearing assembly to the floorpan.

5 The propshaft is a heavy and awkward assembly to manoeuvre around and before finally dropping it down, each end of the shaft had to be supported while the final bolts were carefully removed.

6 As there wasn’t bolt close to the universal joint to split the propshaft, the splined mounting flange at the differential end of the shaft would have to be removed.

7 The centre bearing on our X-Type is an interference fit onto a machined part of the shaft adjoining the universal joint and had to be carefully hammered off its seating...

8 … before it could be slid along the length of the shaft together with the two pressed steel dust shields we’d previously prised out of the old bearing.

9 The circlip securing the splined mounting flange at the rear of the shaft had to be carefully teased out before the old centre bearing could be completely slid off the propshaft.

10 Once the circlip was out, the fastening securing the rubber boot on to the shaft was cut off. This clip would be replaced with a plastic cable tie when the end plate was refitted to the splines.

11 A closer examination of the old centre bearing showed how the front face of the rubber mounting had taken a hammering. The protecting shield had corroded and this had allowed road dirt to do its worst.

12 Comparing the new assembly with the worn one opposite showed the full state of the damage No wonder it was screaming out in protest.

13 After sliding the new bearing along the shaft, Chris carefully tapped it fully home using a drift. When doing this ensure the drift only hits the lower part of the bearing case.

14 It’s definitely a two-man job replacing a propshaft on an X-Type. It’s a heavy lump of metal and the first task was to loosely attach the centre bearing bolts…

15 … before moving to each end of the shaft and replacing the six bolts in each mounting plate, not forgetting to check the gaskets were still in place.