Hello Friends,
Car has been running fine with 130,000 on my 96 Vanden Plas normal aspiration I-6. Tonight my Auto Trans Failure Secondary Warning light came on and engine stalled in a parking lot. It stalled two or three more times right there before it restarted fine and I was able to drive the remaining two miles home to the safety of my driveway. It did not enter Limp Mode, and there seemed to be no issues with gear changes, though I never exceeded 30 mph and was in Sport mode which is where I normally leave it unless I have to creep along under 20 mph.
It is just over two miles to my shop. Can anyone say if it likely I can drive it there? Would low fluid cause the light to come on? Or stall?! If so, how does one top off the trans fluid? I can find nothing in the owner's manuals or on-line.
I am grateful for any suggestions.
Tom Martin

 

Did the transmission light precede the stall? It is normal enough to experience the transmission warning light if your engine stalls while rolling.

Someone posted the xmsn fill procedure from the manual not too long ago, probably still in the top five pages here, though I forget the thread title. Car should be level, up to operating temp and idling in Park. Xmsn dipstick is located right next to engine oil dipstick, and you fill through the dipstick tube.

 

Like the ahol says, the transmission fault is almost certainly "engine vs transmission shaft speed discrepancy" or similiar and is a result of the engine stall. That is a well known red herring in an X-300!

 

Found it! See Don's post #2: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-light-150788/

 

Thank you both very much for this. Very helpful and encouraging. Aholbro1: I couldn't tell you if the light preceded the stall since I didn't notice it until after the third restart. I can say that after sitting overnight, the car started normally and the A/T Failure light did not come on. I have only driven it sparingly and not over 35 mph.
I took it to my local (non-Jag specific) garage - a 3 mile drive - and when he checked the TR fluid there were bubbles in it - lots, though short of what I would call foamy. He said that would occur because there was either too much fluid or it was low. I checked it about 3 or 4 months ago and it was just a fraction below the hatch mark so I left it alone. I have an appointment with his luxury car mechanic Monday morning to look at it again.

The car has been making a tinny grinding-gear like sound in the engine area which occurs upon acceleration in the first two gears. (the sound mimics, in my mind, what two heavy aluminum plates vibrating together would sound like). Still no issues shifting at all. The mechanic made a guess it was a pulley, but we really don't know yet. May or may not be related.
Oh, and I park in the same spot in the driveway and other than the usual A/C drips, the car has never leaked a drop of anything.

 

The tinny sound is first two gears is timing sounds, mine does this and has for some time, I've gone the new tensioner route and better oil change helps some. Trans light is engine stall related not trans. The X300 has occasional stall fits, mine does it for no reason about every 6 months. 6 years and 50 k later, tinny noise, occasional blue moon stall, no worse for wear.

 

JT: Tensioner makes sense. I just didn't think it was directly a trans issue. If so, I was getting prepared to say good bye to her. Stalling is a new thing though. Might that just be a by-product of a faulty tensioner?

 

no, stalling is not tensioner related, jaguar could never figure out the random stalling issues in the x300, mine does it three days in a row about every 6 to 8 months then works fine. I just let it have its moments as long as it gives me 6 good months in between.😀