I bought my Jag between a month and a half and two months ago. Twice, for about 24 hours each time, there would be a bit of a jolt when down-shifting. There was no grinding or a clunk sound, and there was no problems during up-shifting, like high-rpm+clunk.

The service manual says that there can be some weirdness with shifting for several drives after doing a hard reset of the computer. The first time it happened, about a month ago, I had just done a reset the day prior. After about 24 hours, the problem seemed to completely go away. Then, last week, my wife and I took a 5 day trip, first from Portland to Seattle for one night, and then down the coast to Lincoln City for 3 nights.

During the trip to Seattle, it was having the same down-shifting issue, but by the next day, it seemed fine again. Then, on the very last night in Lincoln City, we were leaving a restaurant out a steep parking lot driveway, and there was a definite clunk. At that point, the "Transmission Fault" warning light came on, and a little later the Check Engine light.

Long story short, we got the car towed back to Portland, and it is now at an Automatic Transmission shop with a mechanic very familiar with Jaguar transmissions. I had already checked the code, and when I told him it was the "Transmission stall speed" code, he was pretty confident that it will need a rebuild... which will cost me between $3500 and $4000. Ouch.

He came highly recommended as somebody who not only knows Jaguars, but will not take advantage and "over-fix".

So... I had considered taking the money that I would spend on the transmission, plus whatever I could get for my Jag, and buying a different Jag...but I feel that I've really gotten to know this one, and buying a different one is going to have its own surprises. Any thoughts?

 

Find a used replacement at a reliable breaker in SOCAL. See DanielSand's post on this subject. Still, a grand or two for a used unit, plus shipping, labor to pull the old, service the new, and install -- with obvious risk of the unknown -- rebuild may be the least cost, best answer. . . .

 

Hmm. A steep incline might starve it for fluid- maybe it was low in the first place....

Have they checked the transmission fluid level yet?

I am not a fan of spending $4k (ever) so I would also recommend a good used for maybe $1500-$2000 (if you in fact need one) and maybe 500-700 to install? That is still way below $4k.

The last transmission I bought (I was patient and looked for awhile) was $500.

Incidentally, I lived in Vancouver across the river from you for a couple years in the 80s.

 

The A drum cracked in my 2000 VDP last year.....just made me sick. I researched for a while, and was pretty certain it was the A drum. Went and talked to a transmission man and explained to him what had happened, and what I felt it was, but really wasn't interested in spending the 3000.00 to 4000.00 that I had read it would probably cost. He said he could do it for 1300.00 if indeed that was the problem and the drum hadn't come to pieces. I guess I got lucky because the drum had cracked, but was still in one piece. He replaced with upgraded, reinforced drum he ordered from Cali and all is good. He had the car for 2 days, honored the 1300.00 quote and all is good, so far. The only concern I had was what fluids he refilled the tranny with. I had assumed(shame on me) that he would refill with OEM fluids, but after talking to him when I picked the car up, that he did not. He refilled with Dexron XI and LubeGard mix. This did concern me, and I asked him if he would refill with the Pentosin if I paid him some extra. But he had given me a 2 year warranty and assured me I would have no problem with the fluids. I reluctantly took his word for it, only because of the warranty and the fact that he knew that I knew the difference. So far I've put about 5000 miles on the transmission with no problems. Shifts like new....no noises or odd behavior, other than one thing. It does engage into drive a little hard the first time you shift into drive before reaching operating temp. But only once a day, and does seem to softened a bit over time. Who knows, but blow up next time I drive it....but I'm feeling pretty good about it.

 

Rebuild it. The car is worth less than $1,000 not running. Update the A drum and get a remanufactured valve body. The solenoids will give you grief later if not. Spend a little more $$ now so it won't have trouble later. Some of the junkyard parts are close to the
end of their lives. My car is my daily transportation and I don't want it to break. I don't
regret spending too much on maintenance, I enjoy driving way too much.

 

Just drive it. On this forum, we sound like a batch of hypochondriacs . . .

 

It's inevitable! We all like them too much, and just like a mother with a new baby, we constantly listen and watch for "sneezing", "caughing", looking for infections....etc. Sometimes too much knowledge is not good. Just yesterday, I am driving my VDP, and I hear SOMETHING (some clunk that was not there before!!!?),.....WTF was THAT!?

Turns out I ran over a plastic cup some idiot dumpped on the road, and the thing hit the undercarriage,......total paranoia! It's amazing,.....I have vehicles I paid over 100K for, and I NEVER listen for "problems". Only on this one (and I'm less than 7K in it!),....go figure.

 

My advice:

Get a used, low mileage tranny from the junkyard. Get the reinforced A drum, valve body, and the harness, plus plenty of OEM fluid. Put the thing on your bench, and play with it (nice project). All info is available on the web.

Drive your car until it can't drive any more! Call AAA, tow it to the shop (ANY shop), and let them do the swap. Learn the procedure of filling the tranny (they will most likely not know it), and SUPERVISE EVERYTHING. Tell them what to do (in what sequence), and personally observe every step (torque values, etc.). Pay them their hourly rate, and you are done. Tranny like that will outlive the rest of the car. Total cost should be under 2k.

The shop may not be agreeable to your request, but YOU are the guy that pays their salaries, and YOU say what you want. If one balks on your request, go elsewhere. Of course, you need to line up the shop before you tow the car! It always amazes me how people (like sheep) let the shops "call the shots", and go with whatever the shop wants.

I had a situation (before I found my current mechanic), where the shop owner stated "no clients allowed in the bay,.....insurance demands it". So I told him I will sign a waiver, releasing him and his insurance carrier from ANY liability concerning personal injury, and pay him bonus if they can do EXACTLY as I say, and "beat the book". (the "book" that tells them how much time the work should take) They did the work under the "book", I paid the book, he had the waiver in hand if I die in there, and we were all happy.

For them, working like this is "gravy". No warranties on their part, straight labor (no tax for you!), and they pick the day, and the time when it will be done (their dead/after hours time). Extra money. I still haven't heard of the shop that will not take the job like that.