2000 S type 4.0 The car will engage Park but when I try to engage any other gear, no response. All gears act as if the vehicle is in Neutral. I can re-engage Park without any issue. I did recently have a low battery which caused some funny behavior. Other than that, the transmission has been performing very well.

Your thoughts?

Sincerely,
Grant

 

Broken peg in the selector housing from forcing the lever out of park? (park pawl problems with 5R55N gearboxes TSB S307-16)
Bolts on the left side of the gearbox fell out and the cable is loose?

Many TSBs for the car as Jaguar worked out the issues.

 

Does the shift lever seem to move more freely that normal, with little resistance? On the early models, there's a plastic block inside the J-gate mechanism that is prone to breakage. It's not difficult to diagnose or replace.

To confirm, remove the center console as described here:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...install-93398/

To remove the shift knob, the wrench flats at the base of the knob are actually a separate lock nut. You have to turn the lock nut down, away from the knob. Then the knob will unthread by hand. If you turn the wrench flats the wrong way, thinking it's all part of the knob, the lock nut just gets tighter and the knob doesn't budge. I do not care to discuss how I know this...

Once you have the console removed, look at the big push-pull cable on the right side of the J-gate mechanism. You can see some pictures at the link above. Move the shift lever and see if the cable end moves. If not, the most likely fault is that plastic block has failed. This is a very common problem on the early models, and an upgraded metal replacement is available.

Edit: I think you could lift the console up a couple of inches without undoing the electrical connectors. That should be enough room to see the movement of the shift cable. I played around on my '02 and removed the cupholder, hoping you could sneak a peek that way, but no joy.

 

Thank you Motorcarman and KR98664.

Neither of the above suggestions seem to be the problem. From underneath the car, I can see the linkage moving between the gear stops. 2 mounting bolts are tight. Inside, I removed the top of the console and I can too see that the shifter is moving the cable as expected. Whit plastic block seems to be OK. I did try to adjust the shifter cable a little bit in both directions, no effect.

I wonder if a low battery could be causing some module to go into an idle mode?
What does the transmission rotary switch do?

What I did note on Sunday, I drove the car for 2.5 hours. At the start of my trip, no transmission shifting issues at all, only a low battery causing a "tail light bulb" fault on the screen. I drove the car for about 1 hour and stopped for gas. Upon restarting, it had a sluggish start due to low battery. When I put the car into D there was a noticeable delay for the transmission to engage which I had never experienced before. I continued to drive for another 1.5hrs with out stopping (or shifting out of D) until I pulled into my driveway. 10 minutes later I decided to restart the Jag and go for a drive again. That's when I discovered the transmission not engaging issue.

 

Low battery can cause many spurious faults.

 

Have you charged that poor battery yet? It was REALLY low if you had a sluggish start. Did it cause the transmission problem? Maybe, but who knows for sure. Seems very likely. Even if not, you'll want to correct any known faults (undercharged battery) before digging deeper anywhere else.

I suggest an automatic charger with at least a ten amp output. Don't waste your time with a trickle charger, it won't cut it. Once you know the battery is fully charged (very important step for troubleshooting, please don't rely on just the alternator), you'll want to check your charging system. Connect a voltmeter to the battery terminals. On an early model, engine at idle, you should see approximately 13.7 volts. If significantly lower, the battery and/or charging system may not be up to snuff.

These cars aren't very good at annunciating faults with the charging system. The little red battery light may come on, but often too late. In some cases, not at all. Check your charging system with a voltmeter to be sure.

 

HI, will buy a new battery today.

What is the general opinion of a "hard reset" but touching the positive and ground cables together (not while they are connected to the battery)?

Regards,

 

Changing the battery will in effect do that unless you are very fast - and it's not something to rush!

 

Changed the battery, no improvement.
I also replaced the shifter assy from a wrecked S Type, no improvement.
I disconnected the cable from the shifter while the engine was running, manually shifted through the gears, still no engagement, except Park.

I found this discussion, I may need to pull the pan and see if my gearlever mechanism. See post #19.

Ford 5R55N Refuses to engage - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

 

Grant that is possible but I did not see where you had removed the valve body? That's how the lever got put in the wrong position. It won't do that by itself?
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+1 on that! Investigating that specific issue would only make sense if this was a new problem that only began immediately after some other in-depth transmission work.

Back to some basics: Not to beleaguer the point, but did you charge that poor battery? Have you checked the alternator output? Most new batteries are not fully charged at the time of sale. I think it's kind of a Hail Mary at this point, but looking at the timeline, your transmission troubles started out of the blue immediately after some electrical trouble. As lazy as I am, I'd sure want to verify some basics before grabbing my shovel. Spend the 5 minutes with a voltmeter, and then you can knock me off my soapbox.