Gearbox jumping out of gear

[Hovhaness]

Hello everybody,

Hopefully you can give me some advise. I have recently bought a '99 X100 XKR, the car of my childhood dreams. I bought it fairly cheap and expected having to throw some money at it at a later stage. I think I have arrived at that stage now: sometimes when driving the car in higher revs or doing an acceleration and then releasing the throttle, I hear a "thomp" from the gear box. The car has then sprung in neutral (at speed!) and it won't shift back into gear until after I break to about 10-15mph. Then it shifts back into gear and acts as if nothing ever happened.
Last time this happened on a 70mph road with no hard shoulder. I really don't want to go through that experience too often anymore.
In the beginning the onboard system sometimes showed "gearbox fault" and be stuck in 2nd gear, but that hasn't happened anymore lately.
Any ideas??

Thanks!

Hans

[FrankC]

Shame your so far away. I have used, and can recommend, this guy http://www.autotransgloucester.co.uk/index.html his name is Doug. Knows his stuff. Perhaps you could have a word and see if they do any work down your way?

[J44EAG]

Rather closer to Farnborough, Hans, is Tom Lenthall, Jaguar at Finchampstead.

Tom has the staff and experience to advise you. His work is top quality. Take a look at his web site for contact details.

Mike K

[Hovhaness]

Thanks, Mike for the advice!
I have booked in a full inspection with Tom, as you said. He sounded very professional on the phone and he is a busy man (appointment first week of June), which is a good sign. Let's hope he can set a priority list for what to do with the car at what times. No matter what the paperwork suggested, I'm getting the sickening feeling that I'm catching up with the last owner's neglect.

[J44EAG]

The problem is that age catches up with a car, Hans.

Most car buying criteria will tend to focus on visual appearance which if acceptable to a buyer and if the vehicle fits his dreams, he may well buy it on just those two emotional levels. If not an experienced buyer, he will sadly take the car and vendor at face value if a test drive seems positive. The slightly more experienced man might also look at mileage and whether the vehicle has a fully stamped or otherwise documented service history. That at least means a car has been oil changed from time to time.

Fully experienced buyers will be vastly more demanding with their buying criteria. They will look through all service history and expect to see a full file of invoices for work done over and above the scheduled service stamps. They will look for documented proof of gearbox, diff and supercharger oil changes, for suspension bush and wheel bearing replacements, for drive belt changes, deep strip work and certainly on a four litre V8, for evidence that the engine has had metal timing chain tensioners fitted. If that is lacking, then they will attempt a serious price drop or walk away.

The secret with buying a car is to know the model and its deficiencies well before attempting a purchase. This is why this JEC site is so valuable. One only has to ask about potential issues and you will get a flood of good opinion. At Regional level, we had one guy who joined the JEC but remained Jaguar-less for around 18 months before buying his chosen XK8. He did his homework, asked loads of questions and formed his buying plan. He ended up with a decent car after viewing 21 separate vehicles. His diligence paid off.

You are in excellent hands with Tom Lenthall. Tom has a hand picked team of engineers, all of whom deserve that accolade....not a fitter or mechanic in sight! Give Tom and the guys my best wishes...you won`t find better.

Mike K