2001 Jaguar XK8 - Transmission Fluid Change

[@tarquineous]

The best video I have seen for the Jaguar automatic transmission! Now my problem is getting the vehicle high enough, and with safety precautions.

[@2001JaguarXK8]

Thank you kindly! In my experience, it is often the case that raising, levelling and securing the vehicle is often the hardest/least enjoyable part of many maintenance processes or repairs. Stay safe!

[@tarquineous]

@@2001JaguarXK8 You've been a great help. Today I visited three Auto Repair garages. One was very good and the other two unacceptable. So I recommend to all here, to actually go to the shop and see the place and the people. Tomorrow morning I will be taking the Jaguar and fluid, (Red Line D4) which meets the LT71141 spec, to the business and they will do the fluid exchange. Then depending on the fluid condition, plan to have the pan removed, and a new filter installed.

[@nathanlozada5469]

Waiting for your next projects! Have you thought of servicing the canister purge valve? Mine needs it as there is a strong fuel odor upon start up coming from the back of the vehicle.

[@2001JaguarXK8]

Hi Nathan, I don't have experience with the canister purge valve and luckily at the moment mine is operating fine. How many miles does your vehicle have, and does your dash show a specific error code / check engine light associated with the purge valve? There is some information about the valve in Gary's XK8 Bilbe, not sure if that is helpful: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E0cmV23FnCdgfHOvsjHwGb7AXHrQejwA

[@FirmCat]

Honestly, with the amount of hassle (and risk of getting this wrong) involved, just contact your local ZF authourized workshop and make an appointment to have them service your gearbox.

[@2001JaguarXK8]

I hear you, but for me personally a big part of the ownership experience is working on the car on my own. I have taken it in for new tire installation/balancing, laser four-wheel alignment - processes which require specialized tooling. For the rest of the maintenance work, I try to perform it myself by following the factory service manual and so far it's been ok :) Cheers!

[@tarquineous]

And the transmission. Check around for prices,and actually visit the shop first. I say this from living in California for 40 years. Some shops are terrible.

[@richardsutton01]

There's no point in leaving the fluid to drip out of the drain hole as the plug is installed in a boss which protrudes into the pan. This leaves about a litre of fluid in the bottom of the pan which you won't get out until you remove the pan so the few mls dripping out of the drain hole are irrelevant, even with the slight raising of the rear wheels. After the initial pan drain, if you are able to drop the rear wheels onto the ground, whilst leaving the front wheels raised, you will get another litre or two out of the torque converter as it will drain back into the pan. This will give you a much better exchange percentage than is normally possible without removing the torque converter. I discovered this by accident a few weeks ago and had to buy additional fluid as the standard pan/filter service kits don't usually come with enough fluid for such a thorough drain. Richard

[@2001JaguarXK8]

Hi Richard, very interesting tip about lowering the rear wheels to get more fluid out of the torque converter, thank you for sharing. I will definitely try this out the next time I perform this service. Just curious - which pan/filter service kit have you used in the past? Like I mentioned in the video, I will be changing the filter in a few months and will need to purchase a pan gasket/filter. Thanks!

[@richardsutton01]

@@2001JaguarXK8 Hi. I'm in the UK so it's not really relevant but I just go onto eBay and find the best value service kit. The one I bought for my XK a few weeks ago (I did the XK8 many years ago) came with the genuine ZF pan/filter (they are integrated in the newer ZF boxes), 7 litres of Lifeguard 6, a new set of pan bolts and a new Mechatronics sleeve. You don't get the new bolts or the sleeve but my sleeve was leaking anyway and it's simple to change once you have the pan off. The kit supplier expects that you are going to need about 6.5 litres of fluid so they include 7 but after I tipped the gearbox I realised that 7 litres was not going to be enough so I ordered another litre from a different supplier. After I had finished there was about a 100ml left in the final bottle so I got out about a litre and a half more than expected. I think that it's more unusual for the X100 kits to include new bolts and the sleeve but I think some of them do if you need to replace either of those. Richard

[@2001JaguarXK8]

Thank you, Richard! I just searched on ebay UK and I see that there are kit options for my 5HP24 transmission. My brother lives in London, I'll see if I can order a kit to his address and then have him ship it over the ocean to Canada :)