Transmission light on

[happycat]

I'm suffering a intermittent fault with my gearbox,last year the transmission light came on and the gearbox seem to be stuck in 2nd gear, after turning the engine off and then back on a while later everything was ok no light or fault code on trip computer, now this weekend 3 months later I had the same problem again! While I was driving the orange transmission light came on and would not change up or down, I turned off engine waited a minute and restarted and all back to normal! Any ideas what's going on?
Any advice would be appreciated thanks Cliff

[davidr]

Sounds to me like possibly an alectrical glitch. Possibly a poor connection or a break in a wire?
I think your car is probably too old for plug in diagnostics of the OBD2 type but there may be a specialist with the older Jaguar- specific kind.
I'd usually say that with an auto gearbox fault a fluid and filter change is a good start as if can cure all sorts of funny symptoms.

[ptjs1]

Cliff,

First of all, when was the fluid and filter last changed? As David mentioned, an oil change on these ZF 4-speed boxes can cure a lot of problems. Secondly, see if you can have a look at the wiring switch on the side of the box. The wiring can become both brittle and oil-soakd on these models which can give rise to intermittent problems.

Good luck

Paul

[happycat]

Hi
Thanks for replys

Fluid and filter were changed about 2 years ago and only covered about 5000 Miles since, I'll check wiring at the weekend, some one mentioned a transmission relay which I should find in the boot, but cannot seem to find it,maybe that's the problem,it's not there!

Regards Cliff

[matthew@calvertarchitect.co.uk]

I have exactly the same issue with my 1992 XJS 4.0. It seems to be getting worse with the orange light coming on more often though sometimes a stop, switch off and re-start cures the problem. I will look into a ATF fluid change first.

[BigCatXJS]

Bit of a long shot - but could it be an intermittent speed sensor issue? On my X300 Daimler Six I had issues after a non -jaguar garage replaced some wheel hubs. That was a mistake - they damaged one of the wheel speed sensors used by the ABS and ECU - caused the car to go into limp-home mode randomly until replaced. Corroded sensors can do the same. I appreciate that most XJ-S use a speed pick-up from the transmission or rear-diff - but was not sure about late XJS.