Hi all,



Bit of a strange one. I bought an X Type Estate circa March from a 'reputable' Jaguar dealer, family run business in Upminster, Essex with written assurances of a full service including spark plugs and oil changes on both boxes. I don't normally buy from traders and these guys have reminded me why! Long story short I did some work on it last month, basically taking the inlet manifold off to change the seals, clean the fuel injectors etc. During the work it became blindingly obvious that it had the original spark plugs and the fuel and air filters were not 3 months old! Given that the air filter takes 20mins max to change and costs £24 it didn't give me any faith that they would have changed the oils underneath or indeed the engine.



They're currently ignoring me and if I'm going to get any money back for what I've spent on parts and time it will probably be a small claims process. I'm hoping it's fairly open and shut to my benefit as I have a clear invoice outlining the work supposedly done and very old and manky service parts photographed and sent to them by email etc. It's beyond the 3 month warranty but a) I told them before the 3 months and b) this is about work they were meant to have done on sale not a failing post sale. Fingers crossed.



What I don't know for sure though is whether they changed the oils. Is there an easy way to find out without draining both boxes? I'm fairly handy in DIY terms but the cost of the oil for the auto box looks breathtakingly expensive at circa £50-£60 for 5 litres and the suggestion that it takes 3 refills of roughly that to clean it up. I have a quote of circa £210 for a local gearbox specialist to do it, £260 including the transfer box.



I'm just worried that I do one of the above options then it turns out it was actually changed and I've done it for nothing and I'm even more out of pocket for no reason. From threads I've seen the old oil should be easy to identify for the auto box at least as in being burnt in colour and smell. A less expensive option could be to fork out for 5 litres and empty and fill the once, check the oil and if obviously burnt just order the remaining 10 litres to do 2 more changes at a later day.



Symptoms wise the box is fairly ok with the occasional hesitation on some gear changes and sometimes feeling like it's not getting into the right gears almost like slipping but nothing horrendous. That said I want the piece of mind to know it's been done so if there are issues or it gets worse I know it's not the oil...



Any suggestions on this? The transfer box looks particularly challenging for a DIY'er particularly as I don't have a garage or drive and do all my work on the street. Also, do garages just empty and refill the once or do they also do the 3 refill and run method? I had a much more expensive quote for a complete flush but then read up that this can sometimes make things worse particularly for such an old transmission box so I'm not going down that route.



Any help would be appreciated!

 

lilmountain, do some looking around these parts, there are tons of write ups on both of these topics. The big thing that I would make sure you pay attention to is what transfer case they are working on. The X-Type had 2 transfer cases. There was one that had a viscous coupler in it that was used from 2001 to 2004.25 (ie, March 2004). After that, a new style transfer case was used that was more of an open differential style. I mention this as it is not uncommon to find the earlier style completely EMPTY!!!!! It seems to run fine this way as long as you are not driving the car like you stole it. To check the level in the transfer case, you simply need a 3/8" drive wrench (no socket). You can get under the car and on the back side of the transfer case, you will see between the fins a 1/2" NPT plug with a 3/8" square indent. Slide the wrench on to the recess and remove the plug. If the transfer case is properly filled, the fluid should be right at the edge of the lip. You can use say a popsicle stick to put it in the opening to see where level actually is.

To drain, well, this involves tilting the car using jacks to the passenger side (as I recall for your RHD car). There is only like 600 ml of fluid at best in the transfer case. Odds are, you will only get out about 450 ml (the other 150ish ml is still in the transfer case). As for getting the fluid back in, you now have to lean the car to the other side and put in about 500 ml of fluid. Before you put the car down, you put in the plug. If you look up my name and transfer case plug, you will see where I tell you how to fill the transfer case with the car sitting level. It involves getting a 1/2" NPT to 1/4" NPT adapter and then getting a radiator drain valve that has a cap around where the fluid would drain out. You can then install this valve into the transfer case with a tube running up to the intake. From there, you attach the tube to the gear lube bottle and fill the transfer case that way with the necessary amount of fluid. Then you can climb under the car, shut the valve and lock the fluid into the transfer case. There was also a member that came up with a check valve set up, but not sure if he is selling them any more.

As for the transmission, tons of write ups. The big thing to keep in mind is making sure you remove the correct plugs. The write ups will give you lots of good information. I will default to those as there was a lot of better information obtained as of late than I can say from personal experience.

 

Thanks Thermo, you're a legend! Sorry to be thick but I just cannot find your post. I've seen one where the guy makes up his own valve and also drills into the bottom of his TC so I guess that combined with your valve design will do the trick. Apologies do you mind giving me a specific link to the thread, also I'm assuming the 1/2 to 1/4 adapter is male 1/2 with female 1/4 as per photo? As for the radiator valve I'm not sure I know what you mean. Here in England a basic radiator valve looks like the one below. Also all of this (once I confirm the correct parts) can fit? As I've hear that the space between the TC and Auto box is very tight.

 

lilmountain, as for what I used, you have the right idea for the reducer. If you want to see my write up, take a look at So I did my transfer case oil today.. - Page 3 - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum, specifically post 44. That will give you part numbers and the whole 9 yards. Follow this link and it will show you what I mean by a collared drain valve (Dorman - Help Drain ****-Brass-1/4 In. NPT 61106 - Advance Auto Parts). It will take a little bit of grinding down and I recommend using red loctite to put the reducer on to the drain valve. That way, later on when you need to remove the valve and reducer, it will all come out as 1 piece.

As for fit, yes, this just fits. The 5/16" clear tygon tubing makes a bit of a bend when adding fluid, but it is only used for filling. The trick is screwing everything together as much as you can. Kinda like when you are removing the flats off of the 1/2 to 1/4 adapter, you need to take it all the way down to where the flat section is the same diameter (if not slightly smaller) than the threads. This way you can screw in the adapter as far as possible before it makes its own seal.

 

Here is a picture of the final product when I was done. You can see how the flats of the reducer have been removed and things are put together pretty well.


Here is what it looks like installed on an 03 transfer case:

 

Thanks Thermo that's really helpful. I think I'll take the plunge and try and tap the case for a drain plug as per various threads but I'll admit I'm nervous! I've gone for a barbed hose connector single piece as I think there's space and I'll jubilee clip a silicone cap on it when not in use.

Another stupid question. When checking the auto box oil level there's talk of bringing up the temperature of the box to 40 degrees (Centigrade or Farenheight?) and is this the temp of the engine or are we talking using temperature gun on the actual autobox casing? I do have a scanner so not sure if the autobox temperature is picked up on that somewhere?

 

liilmountain, that is the tranny temp, not the engine temp. THe tranny fluid expands some as it gets warmer. Hence why they specify a temp. IT isn't a lot. So, if you start the car and check is right away and it is near the top, call it good. What you do not want is the level high enough that it starts hitting some of the rotating things in the very top of the tranny, getting air into the fluid. This can lead to the car shifting funny and potential loss of complete lubrication to key parts.

 

I am picturing something like this to be tried: FRAM SD-1 Sure Drain SureDrain No Tool Oil Drain System Thread Size 1/2"x20 NEW | eBay

Might take a little bit of modifying to extend it out say a 1/4" or so. BUt, there is a cap that goes on the end and when you want to drain the fluid, you screw on the orange hose. I have used this on my truck to drain the engine oil as I had a pipe that was run right under the oil drain (gotta love lift kits) and I used this to run the oil around the tubing so it didnt spray everywhere. IT is a nice device and would make it easy to get fluid back into the transfer case too.

Here is a 1/4" valve that may do the trick. Seeing the 1/2 to 1/4 adapter modified like I did, then you can use a short 1/4" pipe nipple to screw the valve right up to the adapter. Then that should leave you enough room to put in an angled 1/4" NPT to barbed fitting. Check this out: Barrow G1/4" Mini Water Valve Drain + Male to Male Fitting Stop Plug Black | eBay. This would even allow you to put a cap on the end to be a second seal. Then you just have to screw the barbed fitting in each time you go to do the refill. Do not need the barbed fitting for the draining.

 

Thanks Thermo that's helpful, I have a infra red temperature gun so I'll aim into the tranny to make double sure it's warm enough in there. I'll start by filling it up with whatever I drain out, run to temperature again then fill accordingly if needed. I plan to wash it through 3 times as advised by others.

 

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...w-pics-183620/

 

Just a quick update, only got as far as changing my gearbox oil so far. The fluid didn't look original to be fair to the garage but when I first drained it at least 7-8 UK litres poured out, way more than the usual circa 4 litres that others have recorded. Absolutely flooded out. But when I topped it up and emptied over 4 times it was only ever circa 4 litres that went back in before it started dribbling out of the fill indicator hole. Then on driving the car felt 'lighter' pushing through the gears, as if a veil had been lifted. Reading up on it overfilling an auto box means the oil goes where it shouldn't and literally slows things down, foams up etc so basically it looks like when the garage did do the oil they completely overfilled it. A so called Jaguar expert, absolutely worst car buying experience I've ever had, just as well they've ignored me in terms of asking for them to change the oil as I seriously don't trust the car with them, best I never deal with them again!

Hoping to do the transfer box (which I'm a bit nervous about with the drilling and tapping) and rear diff in the next few weeks or so.

 

FWIW - Use the "Tip & Drain /Tip & Fill" method. I use hydraulic jack ramps to do this - works great.

Coincidentally the ramps have four holes for the safety bar. The 2nd hole is exactly the right place to get the car at the required angle. (Lowest part of sill 540mm high)


Tip to Drain



Tip to Fill



Fill access is reasonable

The lean angle looks a bit alarming first time you do it, but I I'd prefer this rather than risk swarf and such the in the transfer case from the drilling / tapping.

HTH, Dave