Unwanted noise
The usual purr of this Jaguar XKR 5.0 was being disturbed by a dry rumble from the front of the engine. The noise was diagnosed as the water pump bearing and, once the ancillaries were stripped off and the water pump drivebelt removed, this was confirmed.
With such a big engine squeezed into the engine bay, space is limited, but there is sufficient room to extract the water pump without the need to remove the radiator cooling fan unit. The worst part about the job is that, unless you remove the bonnet, it has to be tackled from the side.
The water pump is only held in place with four bolts and the new pump comes with replacements to secure the two new gaskets. Once the old pump and gaskets have been removed, bolting the new unit in place is fairly straightforward. With everything reassembled, it only remains to refill and bleed out the cooling system.