THE DAY WENT BADLY, AND THEN THE FOLLOWING WEEK GOT WORSE!!

[robv12]

my trusty 350 devil juice car has gone pop!!, at 145K miles, with 25K of those in the last six months something had to give I guess

with a long week away, everything was checked and pronounced good, tyres, levels all good, snow kit etc all loaded, however my first overnight for the launch of the Chateau Impney hill climb last Wednesday night revealed a HUGE oil slick in the rain on the car park, massive, what levels that could be checked were checked as all good, except for a slight coolant loss, but very minor

Thursday at Jaguar Heritage again a small pool of engine oil, nasty and black, but XJK were to service the car today in fact, so no worries on the colour, however a check on the stick revealed an increase in level, not good on one of these cars, but as XJK tell me quite common as they come up to service time

Friday a board meeting at Flore, no oil of any sort on the car park, and the car is running fine

Saturday night our racing dinner and prize giving in Stratford upon Avon, car park clean and pristine in the morning, car running well, all levels all good

So, off I set for St Agnes in Cornwall in readiness to present out charity cheque on Monday afternoon, all goo for a short while, and then the odd gear changes start, clunky and slow
10.00pm on Bodmin Moor in torrential rain the dreaded "gearbox fault" and into limp home, so a quick stop, reset, and away again, but the box is most unhappy, slipping and dropping out of gear. On arrival at the hotel, again we have an oil slick under the car, little or no drive, so AA called, car lifted at midnight and shipped to XJK

Monday I spent two hours in "negotiation" with Europcar in an attempt to hire a car without my photo ID, got there in the end, but my god do they have a sales prevention dept, any way cheque presented, a good day, lovely people

On arrival at XJK on Tuesday, the XJ has been delivered, complete with oil slick on the truck and all down Albany Road, XJK's neighbours will love me

The initial diagnosis is a blown transmission cooler, allowing water and antifreeze to mix with the gearbox oil, remember the slight coolant loss I had noticed, the levels have increased inside the box and finally found a way out at the weakest point

XJK will have a better look when time allows, but the general consensus is that it will be a replacement box and all that goes with it cost wise

Shame but hey ho all in the cause of the JEC!!

[J44EAG]

Most unfortunate, Rob and so far from home.

I seem to remember Nigel used virtually the same wording ie "Went the day badly" as the header in the magazine for my article when the 5R55N gave up in J44 some years back. Cost me around £1650 at Bristol Transmissions to sort out at the time. Included a box rebuild, oil cooler clean out and a torque converter cut open, flushed out, rewelded and rebalanced. The same job done last year by one of our Region guys at Express Gearbox in Portsmouth cost £2200. Inflation obviously.

As always, a failed gearbox causes inconvenience and heavy cost. Failures of "capital" items such as engines and gearboxes bite deep when they give up the fight and serious thought has to be given to whether one repairs or scraps. At least your car is in good hands for the repair.

Best of luck old pal.

Mike

[ptjs1]

Rob,

Sorry to hear of the problem. I guess it depends on the level of possible damage already occasioned but, if not thought to be serious, XJK may be able to use the Volvo method of fluid flushing the box. This involves disconnecting the cooler pipes (at the cooler end) and running the engine after filling with clean fluid, decant a few lires out via the disconnected cooler pipe, stopping, refilling the box, doing it again, etc etc. I guess it might also be possible to get it to refill whilst running, by it siphoning from a supply of clean fluid via the return pipe from the cooler. By doing this, i think you could also flush the torque converter and, with enough fluid cycled, it could ensure that all contaminated fluid had been washed from the box.

I'm sure its worth chatting to XJK about this rather than just assuming that a new box is the only answer.

Good luck

Paul

[robv12]

well XJK have been on, the box appears to be good, but we have new cooler pipes, new cooler, new oil of course and a new sump and gasket, plus a full car service was due , so a chunky bill on the way, BUT it could have been worse I guess

here are some pics outside XJK the day after the car arrived with them and two days after the failure, and still dropping oil everywhere, apparently the workshop clean up did not go down well!!

[robv12]

while the 350 TDVi is out of my hands and away in Stoke, I have pressed another 350 into service, one of the cars I have for sale, but hey ho needs must and a visit to our region in Fife and Tayside for their annual dinner was a good excuse to take some gratuitous shots of a travel stained 350 R under the Forth Bridge on the return journey

[ptjs1]

Rob,

Good to hear that, although there's a bill coming, it's going to be less than the cost of a new box! And with new fluid and and reset adapations, I'm sure it will drive beautifully now!

Paul

[robv12]

So, this was my weekend!, the XJ is done ready to go, new trans cooler, trans cooler pipes, sump and oil, full service, new wiper motor and a new brake light switch fitted as the brake lights were on all of the time, something picked up at XJK while they were test driving the car

as I now qualify for a senior railcard!!!, two tickets were purchased for our wonderful railway system, Berwick, York, Manchester, Stoke, £163 on 'tinterweb, BUT, just buying three separate sectors at Berwick station dropped this to £83 and some of it First Class to boot, bargain, off we go, an hours stop in York enabled me to have a mid morning beer and pie in the wonderful pub that is The York Tap, it's a good day so far, made better by the trains working and a spot on time arrival in Stoke. Taxi to XJK, unlock the XJ with the spare key, set the alarm off!!!, retrieve keys from the boot that Gavin had locked on for me and away we go en route to Dewsbury to look at a 350 XJR. As I turn onto the M6 I get "park brake failure, cruise not available", marvellous, but not a huge issue on a 350, so a quick hard shoulder stop to reset just to see what I had or had not got and away again, OH NO!!!, car is locked in bloody park. Now on a 350 there is no easy manual override as in 40, 300 and 308, damn and blast, quick call to XJK and as soon as you like they are on the way, while waiting on the hard shoulder the car reset itself, came out of park, started in N and away we went, but 10 minutes later the same error massage, calls back and for to XJK and we have decided that the new brake light switch has to be faulty, a new one is on the post!!

after a long drive back to Jenner Towers in the snow and wind, and oh yes it was a rough night, so concentration levels were high and a late arrival back in Reston with the thought of a warm bed and a good sleep were soon removed from the mind as we realised that the car we went to Berwick station in was STILL at the station car park, hey ho, so a 30 mile round trip back to Berwick to collect the X Type was the end of a not so good day, and no I didn't buy the XJR in Dewsbury!!

[ptjs1]

Rob,

Sorry to hear of your day, BUT...glass half full says, An enjoyable run out in 1st class train, followed by beer and pint, followed by return journey in leather-clad luxury car (albeit with a few Jaguar foibles to give your back an occasional rest from driving!) coupled with safe arrival home and time for a last drink = Not a bad day! You know you've had worse days!

Paul

[robv12]

I know!!!!

spent Sunday morning removing cruise and brake light switches, a dead easy job, once you have worked out how they are mounted, both appear good , but how can you tell?? so now awaiting replacement ones to arrive in the week, so back to the joys of an old X Type

[robv12]

new brake light and cruise control switches arrived and fitted to the 350 TDVi, a 10 minute test drive yesterday and all seems good and back to normal, so a new faulty new switch supplied in the first place!!, fingers crossed. So onto the next problem a 350 Super 8 with restricted performance, code says knock sensors, further investigation needed here!!

[robv12]

Just thought I would update on this, the box in the 358 Diesel finally died, EuroJag supplied one, XJK fitted it and it failed within 60 miles in Jan 2016. Eurojag were brilliant they supplied another box, XJK recovered the car and fitted the box, EuroJag even gave me some credit against the second XJK labour charge, which was soon used up!!

During 2017 that gearbox started to "cattle grid", so I was prepared for another box swap, but I took the gamble and had another fluid and filter change, BINGO, all good again, 12 K miles in still all good, total mileage now 202K

[J44EAG]

I`d have lost the will to live with that load of issues. The perils of running high mileage cars. But the saving grace is that the X350 is such a wonderful machine that we would all do almost anything to keep driving one.

Mine has become an essential tool transporting me weekly between Caterham in Surrey and my new bolt hole at a muddy creek in Faversham, Kent. Life without the XJR would be a definate retro-grade step. Rob always encouraged me to get into one. That is probably some of the best advice ever offered to me. These cars do what it says on the box although suffing the odd glitch from time to time. We all accept that because any car ever made will suffer occasional malfunctions and require servicing or repairs. Two years after buying my car, I`m still just as taken with it as when I bought it.

Mike

[naki]

I just read this story with interest.
How many gearboxes Rob! Was that just “unlucky” because of the cooler failure, or do they not really last that long, even with correct interval fluid changes?

[J44EAG]

Each case has its own history, Naki. No two cars are ever the same or have identical use or maintenance applied.

The bottom line is that the 60k recommendation for gearbox oil and filter service is what is required. I intend to have mine done again at 50k intervals. I don`t mind paying a few quid for maintenance. What I don`t like is paying out substantial figures for overhaul of major components. A stitch in time saves nine applies.

Cars bought without substantive evidence of regular gearbox 60k oil and filter changes are likely to become a liability and purchase of a prospective vehicle that cannot show that maintenance regularity should be avoided like the Plague!...... unless of course you don`t mind taking on a potential wallet busting pile of trouble!

The ZF unit is pretty reliable provided that oil and filters are changed on time. Like any machinery that is neglected, one can easily find that component failure is an almost certain occurrence probably sooner rather than later.

Mike

[robv12]

update I'm now at 208K, so that's 14K miles in , on a fluid change into a box that we all though was goosed, and pretty much undrivaeable before the fluid change, touch wood the box is quiet and smooth