Well, I've had a bit of whining in the car for a little while ( no, the wife is not in the passenger seat...lol ) and seems to be the rear diff.

Hard to tell, could be wheel bearings, but pretty sure its the diff tbh.

Anyhow, decided to look at this today and took it to my friendly mechanic to have a look at.

Pulled the fill plug and it looks messy in there, smelly too!!

Looks like its congealed, black n sticky tar with some metallic flakes in it, so not good!

Anyway, drained what we could, which wasn't much and cleaned the fill plug which was full of crap and then added 75W140 Synthetic gear oil till she was driping just nicely, then replaced the plug and wiped it off.

Definitely seems smoother and a little quieter for the moment.....I'm going to run it for a while, then look at perhaps a diff rebuild via Mackies Transmissions, who've quoted a very fair price to remove, strip and replace as necessary.

I have a warranty with the car and will be trying my luck with that first top see how taht goes, although I don't hold out a lot of hope.

In tomorrow for front suspension bushes to be done, then rear suspension bushes / wishbones and cat flexi pipe repair Monday next week

Going to be getting the bonnet switch bypassed for the alarm issues too, perhaps the keyfob reprogrammed for the headlights / panic alarm and any codes read / cleared.

 

perhaps exchanging the differential lubricant after a few long runs would help to clean things up a bit?

 

Jim,

I haven't investigated the rear end of our X350, but looking at the parts diagram for the rear suspension there are four large rubber bushes that isolate the suspension subframe from the body. On the XJ40/X300/X308 there were only two bushes. As those bushes age and sag, they allow metal-to-metal contact between the subframe and body, which transmits normal differential gear noise directly into the passenger cabin. So you might want to have those bushes carefully inspected while the suspension is loaded with the full weight of the car to see if the clearance between the subframe and body is adequate to isolate them from one another.

A small amount of tiny metal particles in your diff oil isn't unusual, especially if its the original oil. But if the metal particles were large, you'd be wise to have an expert open it up for a look. Let us know how it goes.

Cheers,

Don

 

Does the plug have a magnet?

 

Does anybody know if the rear end is a Jag design or some other common corporate design, I.e. Dana, Spicer, Eaton, etc.?

Also in the R models, are they limited-slip?

 

Thanks Plums, thats exactly what I was thinking!

I have some miles to do the next week or so, probably around 700 or thereabouts. I'm considering leaving this oil in and then going back for another flush / change and see how that goes.

Thanks Don, it'll be up on ramps tomorrow and early next week so should have a chance to check then, much appreciated.

It was tiny metal particles, more like glitter I guess, but the original oil was a dark burned gungy mess, well overdue.

Yes, it was covered in thick gungy oil with a tiny smattering of glitter like particles.

It really does seem that much quieter at the moment though, but obviously i'll keep an eye on it.

 

No LSD from the factory even in the R models.

The diff itself is a Ford 8" unit, which is only shared with the Lincoln LS, as well as the S-Type and the 4.2L X150 XK's.

The 8" has a unique ring & pinion, which has the Ford 8.8" bolt pattern, but the outside diameter of the ring gear is 0.8" smaller than the 8.8"

The bearings are all standard Ford items.

There are two versions of the diff, typically called Gen 1 (LS & S-Type pre-2003) and Gen 2 (LS & S-Type 2003 onwards, X350 XJ, X150 XK up to 2010)

Gen 1 used a standard Ford 8.8" centre, and the housing was quite large with capped bearings on both sides.

Gen 2 is a more compact design, has a unique centre, with a capped bearing on one side only. This is why only the Quaife QDF3W LSD will fit our cars...

Lots more info in this thread https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...e8/#post706083

 

When I did the front and rear diff's on my wife's Jeep GC at 200,000 k,s I took the covers off and washed the diff out with diesel then used a couple cans of brake clean spray then then let it all dry then used polyurethane type sealer instead of gaskets the gaskets always seemed to leak then filled it with redline shockproof heavy
While it was open I replaced the electronic LSD actuators and harnesses its now done 298,000 k,s and quiet as a mouse still

So many people never change diff oil till its making a noise that usually means its to late

On my 165,000K XJ8X350 with full dealer service history we used a huge metal syringe to suck out the old oil (no drain plug mr jaguar what the) and it was putrid and horrible looking stuff I used amsoil AMSOIL Severe GearŽ 75W-140
The redline shockproof heavy which I normally use was not in stock and the Amsoil distributor is a mate and next suburb so gave his product a try didn't bother with cleaning the internal parts of the diff as I intend to fit different gears as soon as I can find a set while its gettting the gear change Ill drill and tap a drain plug at the same time

My nephew has a Mitsubishi evo and the gearbox was starting to get a whine he wanted to sell it and was worried about the gearbox whine

I bought him a bottle of this stuff[Xado Australia] [Independent Australian Xado Distributor] after reading about a few guys that tried it thought it couldn't hurt the whine is gone and he is keeping the car and it only cost $16 seen it on fleabay as well
Just another thought if you are worried
A diff rebuild will be expensive I know did one with gear change on my XJR6 in no hurry to do my XJ8 just waiting to get the right gears first LOL

 

so the rear diff is another 'filled for life' part? I don't see any change schedule listed on the maint log.

 

I don't know about the Jag/Ford, but usually whining from the back is worn-out bearings.

 

...or the kids.

 

Thanks Cambo351 for the information on LSD conversions. Unfortunate that this is such a difficult operation for the Gen II XJRs.

 

Hi,

All your theads are very interesting; I'm thinking of changeing my noisy diff myself. Does anyone have a helpful discription (pics) of what this entails, please?

Regards
John

 

+1. I think mine might be whining also.

 

whining is indicative of a bad wheel bearing or one on it's way out...

 

Depends on "which" whine, it was actually the pinion bearing in mine which was making the noise.

 

White or Red (LOL)

Jaguar diff's seem to have a problem with the pinion bearings that can also be related to the crush tube they use for pinion pre-load
I had a solid steel one made for my XJR6 so it could handle be thrashed when I did the gear change and rebuild

I was told the overheating occurs due to the diff being out of the air flow so the oil but with today's synthetic oils Hmm

Although they say sealed for life my experience is sealed for life means they don't service it so you buy a new car
my philosophy would you leave the oil in your chip fryer forever answer no

I chnge my diff oilas soon as I buy a car in the X350 I used a amsoil AMSOIL Severe GearŽ 75W-110 when I did the oil
I usually use redline shockproof heavy even though it states heavy its very light weight oil so was the amsoil is was very easy to pour again modern synthetics have changed the way we look at oils

 

Hi again,
I seem to have been gifted with a really good garage! Rep Auto 2000 at La Farlede, Toulon, France had a good test run and finally re-diagnosed the whine to be coming from the rear passenger side wheel bearing and they fixed it. I was facing a mega repair had it been the diif - the diesel model diff has been discontinued so you have to buy a prop shaft kit to fit the diff now supplied. This would have been 2700 Euros just for the parts. My bill this morning of 260 Euros including labour was a dream to pay.
John

 

I know generally the MOT here in the UK can be looked on as something that makes money for garages and the Government but every car over 3 years old has all the bushes and safety equipment checked and tested, get a good garage and they instead of failing your car and as long as it's not dangerous they give you an advisory which allows time to plan work.
They just found a split gaiter on my steering rack on the E-Type, luckily the Jag spares day is tomorrow so I now have a longer shopping list than I thought.

Dave

 

A nice warm sunny day; time for that diff oil change. Mine has the plug (red thread lock), you will need a 3/8 drive. Off came the plug with gunge (I think a UK tech term) on it, but no metal particles. My cat has 38k miles. The plug looked magnetic but I forgot to check it in all the excitement. I used the $6 HF extraction pump with no probs, and had 1.3 liters when I sucked air. You will a warm diff in colder climes. You can see that the diff oil is decidedly black; glad I did this. I dropped the car to level once it started to weep during the fill (75W140 full syn). Jacked it backup and replaced plug with thread lock. Oh, you will need a 3/8 torque wrench, 34Nm or 25ft/lbs. About 30 mins if you don't spend time gawking under there.: