GEARBOX OIL & FILTER CHANGE

[lovejags]

Hi I have a 2007 xkr and was wondering if anybody has had an gearbox oil & filter change. Reading some posts some people say was worth doing and some say leave alone, any advice much appreciated.

[J44EAG]

The manufacturer, ZF, recommend oil changes every sixty thousand miles. It now figures also in some more recent Jaguar Service Schedules. This after so many tragic transmission failures caused by running on ancient burnt out and thoughly degraded oil. The causes and reasons are well documented.

You have two choices. Run the car until the gearbox expires and then wear the costs of transmission rebuild at well over £3K, or do the manufacturers recommended oil service with new oil sump filter and cable sleeve connector at around £350. An oil service will change around seven of the nine litres of transmission oil. That is a lot better than no oil change at all. Having had my gearbox oil serviced in this way a year and a half ago, my plan is to drop that oil out again next year and have another lot put back in. Over serviced it may be, but I don`t have the available funds around to cope with a major gearbox blow up.

With high mileage gearboxes that have never received regular oil changes, then there may be some reason for not changing the oil. That reason is that the used oil will be heavily contaminated with bearing and clutch wear particulate and at that point an oil change would be frankly pointless. The wear will have been done and the gearbox probably nearly at the Gates of Heaven.

If I were to view a modern Jaguar that had a covered mileage of say 130K miles and I could not find hard evidence of payment of gearbox oil changes at 60K miles and 120K miles, I would either walk away from the car ........or offer £5000 less than the asking price. I don`t need to buy someones neglected pile of trouble!

Mike K

[oldtimer]

Well Mike ,
You can't be more specific than that !

[Zennan101]

Hi Mike,

I'm a convert as I had the gearbox oil and filters changed before I took delivery of my XF @ 52k miles just for the
peace of mind. What's your recommendation for diff oil replenishment? (Apologies for stretching the envelope on this thread but it is closely related)

Rod

[J44EAG]

Hi Rod,

Judging from the oil quality taken from the diff of my 350R at 80K, I`d say that a change at 40-50K would be a very wise action! In my opinion 90K is far too late in the day.

I`ve just been writing an article about servicing modern Jags and diff oil change intervals figure. In that text, I wrote just what I`ve written above. Prevention is far better than cure. This is an extract from that article which defines my views relating to buying a car with a decent history or one without...

"Sadly, vehicle Service Record details may become incomplete or none existent given the passage of time and several changes of vehicle ownership. If you were to attempt to buy an aged car and examine its records, you are more than likely to note gaping holes in service history records. This might lead a canny prospective buyer to surmise that the car in question could have missed out on some regular basic scheduled servicing. Poor service history records impact heavily and negatively upon future selling prices and desirability when viewed from a knowledgable potential buyers perspective.

Ask yourself this question. Which would you prefer to buy? A shiny car with a fully signed, stamped and complete service history detailing maintenance at each and every ten thousand mile service event, together with a sizeable sheath of additional invoices which list and fully describe work carried out over and above basic oil change and inspection actions. Or would you prefer to take on a doggy, down at heal car offered with little or no service history and a complete lack of any other comforting additional work confirmation? The conclusion is obvious. A car with a documented history acquires bullet proof provenance and makes the used vehicle a plausible second hand sales and purchase possibility. That's the academic side of servicing records and history."

As a Co-ordinator, I requently receive email and phone comments about some of my articles in the magazine. In addition, I get asked for best advice on various technical aspects of running modern Jags. What has recently become apparent is the number of X350 owners who have experienced diff failures. Those failures appear very common on the first year of production of the 350models, but not exclusively so. I also learned from one member with an 07 plate XJR with 46k miles covered, that he also needed a diff rebuild. Perhaps the most worrying aspect is that it has been found that many diffs upon examination were found to have machining swarf left in the casing and that the oil had been contaminated with cleaning fluid of some kind which caused the disitigration of the oil. That is of course an anecdotal story and may or may not be true.

Not much more I can say on that subject, is there?

Mike K

[lovejags]

Thanks for the reply,you mention a cable sleeve connector, is this essential as the company's I've been in touch with have not mentioned it in their pricing. also is it a straight forward job, is there anything I need to know. Have you a part number for the cable.

[J44EAG]

The connector is a seal sleeve through which a gearbox cable passes. The sleeve is usually part of a genuine ZF filter and oil kit. Go to the Berkshire Jaguar Components site to see an example of the kit.

You have a car which is fitted with a sensitive modern electronically controlled gearbox which needs specialist attention with appropriate diagnostic and re-flash capabilities. You could change the sump and some of the oil yourself but I would say why risk your expensive gearbox for the sake of a professional oil service which is likely to only cost around £350. Professionally carried out, you have a degree of protection if something were later to go wrong. Gearboxes of this type must be refilled at a particular temperature and unless you have diagnostic equipment, you will be unable to access that information from the car. This gearbox is designed to be Dealer serviced not tinkered with even by a knowledgable DIY enthusiast. The capital cost of a new gearbox demands that best advice would be to seek professional attention and experience. It is all to easy to ruin a gearbox. I have a rule which I try never to break. I will not open up any unit I do not fully understand.

There is also another very definate reason why you should avoid changing gearbox oil yourself. Any potential future owners of your car will expect to see a suitable dealer invoice for gearbox oil servicing every 60k miles. That gives the work a quality that a DIY owner cannot achieve or compete with. Paperwork means all. If I were to look at a car with a view to purchase and I found that some form of DIY oil change attempt had taken place, I would be asking the seller very interogative questions as to methodology employed. That might cause me to walk away from the car in favour of another car which might have the provinence I demand.

Mike K