Bill3, yes, Bill from England is correct. A pressure valve in the valve body of the ZF 5hp-24 trans has a tight fit in the body which causes it to stick. Once done, the fluid burns which magnifies the problem. Most times the stuck valve causes excess pressure. The front drum explodes and times cracks the valve body itself. Changing the fluid helps for awhile. I recently replaced the valve in my '99 XK8 w 55k, fluid and filter with a valve from Trans Go. I have around 300 miles thus far and seems the repair worked. If ignored, trans replacement is in order. Good Luck. Rich

 

Thanks for the advice. Replacing a valve is certainly cheaper than replacing the whole tranny. I will check with my mechanic and see what he wants for the job. I was hoping to sell the car this spring and at the rate I'm going I believe I would have been better off driving the car from the fellow I purchased it from 2 years ago directly to the junkyard as that would have minimized my losses.

Live and learn I guess.

 

The bill is that if it's the valve it'll be about $1500. If it's the drum, it'll be about $3500.

I think I'll post the car as "needing work" for $4000.

Any takers?

 

Don't panic. The valve isn't expensive, about 70 dollars I think. and the job is straight forward. Even if you're not up to doing the job yourself, which would involve lifting the car enough to slide yourself under, I can't see that it would take a decent independent mechanic more than a couple of hours to do, and that would include the job of refilling the box with the correct amount of oil, which can be a bit of a chore. The 1500 dollars you were quoted is ridiculous.

 

Both the Jag shop and the tranny place quoted the valve at $900 with $600 being synthetic tranny fluid and labor. What I was shown was an aluminum casting about 10" x 3" x 1", heavily finned.

The other bit of advice I got was that while the ZF trans was used in Jag, Rover, and BMW, the drum only broke in Jags. When you pull up in a Jag, they can see you coming. I'll talk to another tranny shop today.

 

What's the part number for the valve in question?

 

Here's a link to the part on Ebay in the US, hopefully it works for you. I just typed in 'ZF5HP24 valve', and this one is $39:

ZF5HP24 Valve Body Pressure Regulator Valve Repair Kit Audi BMW Jaguar 5HP24A | eBay

 

And here's a link to the oil I used, which was £39 pounds for 10 litres:

10 Litre MannolAutomatik Transmission Oil AG52 Automatic / ATF Oil/ ZF 5/4 | eBay

 

Yes, Billll, the Ebay site Bill Swift pointed to is a Trans Go product which I used in my '99 Xk8. You can pull up Trans Go on line, or call. They are very helpful and have been producing products for a long time. I used them in 1972 and still own that car. Seems the valve sticking causes the drum to fail. So , if you can catch it early enough you may be able to save the transmission for a bit. I am over 600 miles thus far on my valve replacement and so far its working. I am hopeful for the future. Ck the site. Great instructions which will give you an idea of the task. I'll repeat, proper fluid fill is imperative. Rich

 

I pulled that part up and yes, it's not expensive. I also pulled up a You Tube video ( http://tinyurl.com/jozt8ed ) on rebuilding the 5HP24 trans which went into some detail on how it's done. At the 11:30 mark he goes into the OEM filter issue. Be sure to catch that part.

The key to this is that if the tranny fluid was ever changed, the filter was probably replaced with an aftermarket filter. The builders say that none of these work very well, and the increased resistance to fluid flow causes the valve body ($900) to develop a crack. Caught early enough I suppose this can be fixed with a pressure regulator valve, but in addition, you will want an OEM filter and probably a gasket set. Here's one on the valve body itself:

General consensus of opinion is that the A-drum is not as robust as it should be either so catching this as early as possible is key to a successful repair.

Also good to know that the tranny takes 10 quarts of fluid before you try to drain it into an undersized catch pan.

 

dipstick showed up, looks like a pretty nice part. I'll be out of town for 3 weeks so I won't know how hard it is to install for a while.

 

The fellow in the video nailed it. My valve body had a "big crack" in it which he deals with by having it welded up and the mating surface buffed flat. Driving the car like the proverbial little old lady mitigates or delays damage to the "A" wheel which is very expen$ive to replace. At this point it looks like I won't have to buy a new valve body or an "A" wheel. Yay!

Next step will be to sell the car. I wanted a nice car to drive but the Jag turned out to be Ford's Beta test model of everything. Is there something between a Jag and a Miata? The slot formerly filled by the Triumph and Austin Healy?

 

Very happy with the installation of the M Euro Sport dipstick. Not too difficult to install and it's so easy to check the trans oil level. Trans works very well.

 

Glad to hear that the ZF 5HP24 dipstick kit is working out well for those of you who have installed it....

Does this supplier have any plans to create a ZF 6HP26 dipstick kit?

 

So, as I said I'm a happy camper with this bit of kit. But, how much transmission oil is represented by each mark? I've got 4 marks on the stick.

 

I haven't installed mine yet (couldn't get the fill plug out) but steps 9, 10, & 11 has the fluid level check instructions. My guess is each notch is not more than 1/2 liter.

 

So i can fiill up my transmission on my 2003 xk8 a different way other than the fill plug?

 

Allblackjags,

As detailed in this thread, filling up can be done through the transmission cooler line, as a top up (temporary fix to get you out of trouble). The trouble is you can't tell what level ATF you have and having too much could also be a problem. Also I think mixing dissimilar old/new ATF fluids would be a bad idea.

The ATF & filter & gasket change work is done at about 80,000miles intervals (for "Good for Life" read "Good for warranty period" - think Iater there was actually a service interval on a ZF transmission on another car).

From my own experiences, as soon as I had gear changing problems, I did the job in full from below. My symptoms were after a long hot drive, I had stuttering downshifts on freeway from 5 to 4, and 2-1-stop when uphill. My old ATF fluid was dark brown/black (scorched) so I was overdue and the previous uphill jolt to stop was probably low level ATF. I also checked the PR valve body bore, which seemed fine, and put in the upgraded Transgo PR valve. Note that the torque converter holds fluid, so you need to repeat the exercise to completely change the ATF fluid. First cycle I put 6.5L ATF in, and second 7.5-8.0L (hard to tell exactly due to drips).

This thread's installation of a dip stick/filler tube seems a good idea if you have a ATF leak somewhere, and you want to regularly check and top up.

 

Keep in mind that this dipstick kit is only for the ZF 5-speed transmissions, NOT the later ZF 6-speed transmissions in the 2003 to 2006 cars....

 

Is the dipstick still available for 2002 XJ8? Please respond. I am retired and have to save for a couple of months to afford.