HOW TO: Change the transmission pan/fluid for 6HP26 (Video) FAQ
#41
03-06-2014, 08:55 AM
Senior Member
A Jaguar dealer ? I think that's a hell of a deal for what I was quoted at a small auto shop...$570 ! If I brought in the parts/fluid it would be $450...and I still don't know if they know the proper filling procedure.
#42
04-19-2014, 09:53 AM
'05 XJ VDP: My Turn in the Barrel
My wife and I returned from a two week trip to HI to find a large oil spot under the Jag too far back to have come from the engine and of which the oil was too thin to be from the crankcase. It was also offset to the passenger side of the car. I found this forum thread and after raising the car and propping with jack stands, I determined the 6HP26 connector sleeve seal had failed. I ordered a pan p/n 1068-298-075 ($104.90) and sleeve p/n 0501-216-272 ($16.45) from John at Eriksson in Old Saybrook, CT. Shipping cost was $12. Total cost was $133.35. The parts arrived six days later. This gave me plenty of time to study up on how to do this messy job right.
I removed the underbelly pan and dumped the transmission and got maybe three or four liters. I left it to drain for several days while consulting with a friend who works at the local Land Rover dealership about it. He confirmed how common this problem is and what to do about it. I bought a hand held hammer impact driver and a hand pump from Harbor Freight on sale, of course, and crept under the car again to remove the transmission pan. I noticed much more fluid had drained from the box consistent with others' experience. I was glad that I could do a full replacement of the fluid. It was clear, but deep brown in color. It stank so I thought it was at least was partly oxidized, but found the fresh fluid stank, too. I think it contains a sulfurous anti-wear additive like gear lube does. The transmission also whooped on downshifts when very hot.
I contacted the ATF formulator at Phillips and he confirmed that Motorcraft Mercon SP would be satisfactory. The base oil is PAO (poly alpha olefin) meaning it's a synthetic product. I bought eight quarts at O'Reilly for $5.99 each. I depleted their inventory.
I loosened the bolts using the impact driver and a hammer with only two giving me a hard time. They all screwed out easily with a Torx 40 bit in a battery powered drill. More fluid drained out into my bucket, maybe a cup or two more. Only two of the bolts showed some corrosion. I undid the two oxygen sensor cable clips that bite the edge of the pan at the front corners.
I had to use a long flat screwdriver as a lever to start the spin-off wire harness connector. Once loosened it turned the rest of the way easily. I did not have to remove the rear crossmember to get my hands up to the two harnesses. There was just enough room to jimmy a regular 8mm hex key into the hole in the filler plug. I slipped a small pipe over the long part as a cheater bar to crack it loose. Once free it spun out easily with fingertips. I cleaned the metal filings off its magnet.
It took a bit of wiggling and convincing to get the white retainer inside the transmission to pull down. It took more than pressing the release tab and pulling downward. Once released the old sleeve then slid out easily. I applied a light coating of wheel bearing grease to the three elastomeric sealing rings of the new one, but I couldn't get it to seat properly, so I applied a copious coating of vaseline. Petroleum jelly is a lower molecular weight paraffin mixture (wax) and while it is slippery, it has no anti-oxidative or anti-wear capability. Although very little would get into the transmission, it is a terrible lubricant for any high shear and hot application. Desperate to get the seal to seat properly, I acquiesced and used the Vaseline. Of course it worked. I used a mirror and some gentle turning and feeling to locate the key into the slot of the end with the pins that is part of the valve assembly inside the gearbox and a lot of pressure to push the sleeve into place. The retainer wouldn't slip up easily either. After several more pushes on the sleeve the retainer finally slipped up into place. (Nothing is simple.)
I put a light coating of wheel bearing grease on the threads near the head and on the underside surface of the head of each bolt and some anti-seize compound on the tip threads, too. I put the pan on loosely first, then torqued the bolts using the crisscross pattern to 60 in-lbs. Then I repeated the pattern to 88 in-lbs. (Notice this is NOT ft-lbs.) It is equivalent to 7.8 nt-m which is not much torque. I used a 1/4 inch drive torque wrench, the smallest available at HFT which I bought on for $10 on sale, of course. (One need never pay full price at HFT. Their prices are phony. Their quality has improved a lot from a decade ago.) Press the spring clips for the O2 sensor cables back on the tangs at the front of the pan now so you won't have to crawl under again to do it like I did. Silly me.
This is the part that tooksome guesswork. The instructions from Reverend were to get the car level. If you do, the transmission isn't. To get the transmission level (as measured at the pan sealing surface) you have to raise the rear of the car a lot. It took several layers of 2x4s and extending the jack stands to a scary height to get even close to the transmission being flat. The car was tipped forward almost like a '60s dragster. Rather than raising the rear even more, I split the difference hoping that I could still get a sufficient charge of fluid into the transmission.
I pumped three qts in and started the engine. I used a new HFT hand pump to make certain that the fluid was uncontaminated. Support the ATF bottle you are pumping from with three full motor oil bottles because the almost empty ATF ones will tip over and spill the remaining fluid on the floor instead of getting into the gearbox. After adding two or three more qts I shifted the gears a couple of times. The display showed DCS and ABS errors. After a total of 7 1/2 qts of fluid it started to drain out of the filler hole. (More mess. This whole job is oily. Have plenty of newspaper and rags available.) I had trouble sticking my temperature probe into the filler hole and getting a reading, so I gave up letting all of the warming fluid expand and overflow when the temp reached 83°F. This was well below the recommended 104°F (40°C), but the few dozen mls of fluid is less than the error in having the transmission not perfectly flat. I got the plug started without burning myself on the exhaust pipes, but not without getting fluid all over my nitrile glove. Only a handy rag kept it from running down my arm. I tightened the plug with the 8mm key and little cheater bar.
I shut off the engine, replaced the underbelly pan, and jacked the car down again. This took forever as the chassis is so stiff and balanced such that I could only remove one block layer at a time from each side at the back of the car at a time. It's pretty exciting to jack from just in front of the rear wheel to have the car tip across the diagonal stands and pick the front of the same side up instead of the back. You have to have the stand one block shorter at the opposite rear side to force the car up near the jacked corner. This meant that I had to roll the jack back and forth from side to side about ten times to let the rear back down, The solution is to use two jacks.
After cleaning up the mess and tools, the car runs perfectly well and with no further leaks. I'll make a run to the auto parts store to dump the approximately two gallons of old ATF the next time I run errands. I think I'll be in good shape for another 89000 miles. Make sure to make a note in the maintenance book or owners manual of what you did.
I removed the underbelly pan and dumped the transmission and got maybe three or four liters. I left it to drain for several days while consulting with a friend who works at the local Land Rover dealership about it. He confirmed how common this problem is and what to do about it. I bought a hand held hammer impact driver and a hand pump from Harbor Freight on sale, of course, and crept under the car again to remove the transmission pan. I noticed much more fluid had drained from the box consistent with others' experience. I was glad that I could do a full replacement of the fluid. It was clear, but deep brown in color. It stank so I thought it was at least was partly oxidized, but found the fresh fluid stank, too. I think it contains a sulfurous anti-wear additive like gear lube does. The transmission also whooped on downshifts when very hot.
I contacted the ATF formulator at Phillips and he confirmed that Motorcraft Mercon SP would be satisfactory. The base oil is PAO (poly alpha olefin) meaning it's a synthetic product. I bought eight quarts at O'Reilly for $5.99 each. I depleted their inventory.
I loosened the bolts using the impact driver and a hammer with only two giving me a hard time. They all screwed out easily with a Torx 40 bit in a battery powered drill. More fluid drained out into my bucket, maybe a cup or two more. Only two of the bolts showed some corrosion. I undid the two oxygen sensor cable clips that bite the edge of the pan at the front corners.
I had to use a long flat screwdriver as a lever to start the spin-off wire harness connector. Once loosened it turned the rest of the way easily. I did not have to remove the rear crossmember to get my hands up to the two harnesses. There was just enough room to jimmy a regular 8mm hex key into the hole in the filler plug. I slipped a small pipe over the long part as a cheater bar to crack it loose. Once free it spun out easily with fingertips. I cleaned the metal filings off its magnet.
It took a bit of wiggling and convincing to get the white retainer inside the transmission to pull down. It took more than pressing the release tab and pulling downward. Once released the old sleeve then slid out easily. I applied a light coating of wheel bearing grease to the three elastomeric sealing rings of the new one, but I couldn't get it to seat properly, so I applied a copious coating of vaseline. Petroleum jelly is a lower molecular weight paraffin mixture (wax) and while it is slippery, it has no anti-oxidative or anti-wear capability. Although very little would get into the transmission, it is a terrible lubricant for any high shear and hot application. Desperate to get the seal to seat properly, I acquiesced and used the Vaseline. Of course it worked. I used a mirror and some gentle turning and feeling to locate the key into the slot of the end with the pins that is part of the valve assembly inside the gearbox and a lot of pressure to push the sleeve into place. The retainer wouldn't slip up easily either. After several more pushes on the sleeve the retainer finally slipped up into place. (Nothing is simple.)
I put a light coating of wheel bearing grease on the threads near the head and on the underside surface of the head of each bolt and some anti-seize compound on the tip threads, too. I put the pan on loosely first, then torqued the bolts using the crisscross pattern to 60 in-lbs. Then I repeated the pattern to 88 in-lbs. (Notice this is NOT ft-lbs.) It is equivalent to 7.8 nt-m which is not much torque. I used a 1/4 inch drive torque wrench, the smallest available at HFT which I bought on for $10 on sale, of course. (One need never pay full price at HFT. Their prices are phony. Their quality has improved a lot from a decade ago.) Press the spring clips for the O2 sensor cables back on the tangs at the front of the pan now so you won't have to crawl under again to do it like I did. Silly me.
This is the part that tooksome guesswork. The instructions from Reverend were to get the car level. If you do, the transmission isn't. To get the transmission level (as measured at the pan sealing surface) you have to raise the rear of the car a lot. It took several layers of 2x4s and extending the jack stands to a scary height to get even close to the transmission being flat. The car was tipped forward almost like a '60s dragster. Rather than raising the rear even more, I split the difference hoping that I could still get a sufficient charge of fluid into the transmission.
I pumped three qts in and started the engine. I used a new HFT hand pump to make certain that the fluid was uncontaminated. Support the ATF bottle you are pumping from with three full motor oil bottles because the almost empty ATF ones will tip over and spill the remaining fluid on the floor instead of getting into the gearbox. After adding two or three more qts I shifted the gears a couple of times. The display showed DCS and ABS errors. After a total of 7 1/2 qts of fluid it started to drain out of the filler hole. (More mess. This whole job is oily. Have plenty of newspaper and rags available.) I had trouble sticking my temperature probe into the filler hole and getting a reading, so I gave up letting all of the warming fluid expand and overflow when the temp reached 83°F. This was well below the recommended 104°F (40°C), but the few dozen mls of fluid is less than the error in having the transmission not perfectly flat. I got the plug started without burning myself on the exhaust pipes, but not without getting fluid all over my nitrile glove. Only a handy rag kept it from running down my arm. I tightened the plug with the 8mm key and little cheater bar.
I shut off the engine, replaced the underbelly pan, and jacked the car down again. This took forever as the chassis is so stiff and balanced such that I could only remove one block layer at a time from each side at the back of the car at a time. It's pretty exciting to jack from just in front of the rear wheel to have the car tip across the diagonal stands and pick the front of the same side up instead of the back. You have to have the stand one block shorter at the opposite rear side to force the car up near the jacked corner. This meant that I had to roll the jack back and forth from side to side about ten times to let the rear back down, The solution is to use two jacks.
After cleaning up the mess and tools, the car runs perfectly well and with no further leaks. I'll make a run to the auto parts store to dump the approximately two gallons of old ATF the next time I run errands. I think I'll be in good shape for another 89000 miles. Make sure to make a note in the maintenance book or owners manual of what you did.
Last edited by Lotusyank; 04-20-2014 at 09:50 AM. Reason: correct spelling, remove spaces, clarify meaning
#43
04-19-2014, 11:34 AM
Veteran Member
Good job. I can relate to the sleeve being cantankerous and not wanting to fit properly into place. My forum buddy Rick and I struggled with that issue last July on my wife's 2006 XK8....
Glad to read yet another confirmation that Mercon SP is an appropriate ATF choice in these ZF six-speed units. When I change the factory fluid in my 2005 S-Type at around 85,000 miles later this year, I'm going with Mercon SP as well. If my factory sleeve continues to hold up with no leaks, I'm just going to do a drain-and-fill and keep the under-the-car mess to a minimum. If the sleeve begins to leak prior to drain-and-fill time, I'll replace the sleeve and install a new pan/filter as well....
Glad to read yet another confirmation that Mercon SP is an appropriate ATF choice in these ZF six-speed units. When I change the factory fluid in my 2005 S-Type at around 85,000 miles later this year, I'm going with Mercon SP as well. If my factory sleeve continues to hold up with no leaks, I'm just going to do a drain-and-fill and keep the under-the-car mess to a minimum. If the sleeve begins to leak prior to drain-and-fill time, I'll replace the sleeve and install a new pan/filter as well....
Last edited by Jon89; 04-19-2014 at 11:41 AM.
#44
11-03-2014, 02:00 PM
Veteran Member
Rick (joycesjag), Wayne (cjd777), and I will be changing the ATF in my 2005 S-Type this coming Wednesday morning at Rick's house near Charlotte. No shift issues, no sleeve leak, it's just that I feel the time has come to perform this service since the vehicle is now about to cross 85,000 miles on its original fluid (the car was built in May 2005). We'll be doing just a drain-and-fill, and we'll be using Mercon SP. My years of research have convinced me that Mercon SP and Lifeguard 6 liquid gold are essentially the same fluid except for the color (Mercon SP is red)....
I look forward to getting together with Rick and Wayne again and I know we'll have an enjoyable day under the S-Type as long as we can break that damn fill plug loose without stripping it and we don't burn our hands and arms on the exhaust pipes while pumping the new fluid into the ZF pan with the engine running as required....
I look forward to getting together with Rick and Wayne again and I know we'll have an enjoyable day under the S-Type as long as we can break that damn fill plug loose without stripping it and we don't burn our hands and arms on the exhaust pipes while pumping the new fluid into the ZF pan with the engine running as required....
Last edited by Jon89; 11-03-2014 at 02:03 PM.
#45
11-03-2014, 02:55 PM
Veteran Member
The following users liked this post:
Jon89 (11-04-2014)
#46
11-04-2014, 12:25 PM
Veteran Member
#47
11-04-2014, 12:41 PM
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: PHX some of the time
Posts: 117,404
Received 6,320 Likes
on
5,507 Posts
The following users liked this post:
joycesjag (11-05-2014)
#48
11-04-2014, 02:27 PM
Veteran Member
The following users liked this post:
joycesjag (11-05-2014)
#49
11-05-2014, 01:29 PM
Having done this to my wife's '05 XJ a few months ago, I can report that the Motorcraft Mercon SP works fine. The transmission "whoops" are gone. The downshift from 6th to 5th seems a little snappy when in S mode and it's been really hot. Most of the time it's unnoticeable and all other shifts are prefectly smooth.
The following users liked this post:
Jon89 (11-06-2014)
#50
11-05-2014, 03:44 PM
Veteran Member
#51
11-05-2014, 08:16 PM
Veteran Member
The following users liked this post:
Jon89 (11-06-2014)
#52
11-06-2014, 07:15 AM
Veteran Member
Rick, Wayne, and I had a great day at Rick's lovely home yesterday. Gorgeous autumn weather in a beautiful autumn setting, Rick's Zen-Master skills with these quirky ZF transmissions, Wayne's eagerness to pitch in and learn, and Bruno the dog supervising all of us through every step of the process. It just doesn't get any better than this....
Thanks again, guys. I had a blast with both of you and my S-Type continued to run like a top all the way home yesterday afternoon. I hope we can all rendezvous at Wayne's house in a couple of weeks for the XK8 tensioner replacement job he's planning with another forum member....
Thanks again, guys. I had a blast with both of you and my S-Type continued to run like a top all the way home yesterday afternoon. I hope we can all rendezvous at Wayne's house in a couple of weeks for the XK8 tensioner replacement job he's planning with another forum member....
#53
11-06-2014, 07:44 AM
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: PHX some of the time
Posts: 117,404
Received 6,320 Likes
on
5,507 Posts
The following users liked this post:
Jon89 (11-06-2014)
#54
11-06-2014, 10:49 PM
Veteran Member
#55
07-05-2017, 11:40 PM
Senior Member
#56
07-06-2017, 12:05 AM
i switched to mercon sp, mostly because it is exactly what's in my ford 5r100 (2003 6.0 diesel excursion)
i just oust emptied the fluid from drain in pan and refilled using heat gun method under the car while running. I think I may be a bit high on my level. So I am running a blend of old and new
i intend to do (1) more swap in about a 1k or so miles to dilute it a bit nire
When I did mine I never even looked at a TQ conv bolt
I left my original pan (and filter) in place as was .car feels fine , car has 500 miles so far after the swap and a total of 76k
#57
07-06-2017, 06:58 AM
Veteran Member
Mercon SP is the ATF of choice in these out-of-warranty ZF 6HP26 units for those who have done their research. I have been running it in both of our Jaguars for several years now. Rick (joycesjag), Wayne (cjd777), and I did two drain-and-fills six to eight months apart on each vehicle to ensure that 85% to 90% of the fluid is indeed Mercon SP. Absolutely no ZF issues on either vehicle, period. My S-Type will turn 102,000 miles today while my wife's XK8 is now approaching 111,000 miles....
#58
07-06-2017, 01:52 PM
Senior Member
Thanks and that is good to know. I'm on the job and got all parts and oil at Amazon for $135. But I must ask again about the torque converter drain plug as someone told me after removing the pan to drain the TC but I see no instructions on how to do this so I don't know if I was given good info or bad. Appreciate to know this before I start the job.
#60
07-06-2017, 03:44 PM
Veteran Member