Thought I writeup my experience changing the fluid, pan, and the valve body electrical connector for a ZF 6HP26 transmission in a 04 STR.

#1 Parts: Instead of the dealer, you can get parts from ZF distributor for less $$$. Our ZF transmission model is 1068-101-0176 (last for digits is the key)

1x Oil Pan/filter/gasket Jag #C2C38963 @ $234 = ZF# 1068-298-033 for $134
21x Oil pan bolts #C2C 6726 @ $2.46 = ZF# 0736-101-486 @ $0.39
1x Valve body sleeve #C2C 39599 @ $13.38 is ZF# 0501-216-272 @ $12.10
Optional: Jag fluid #C2C 8432 @ $59 = ZF# 5671-090-255 @ $30-40/liter or 5671-090-253 or 255 for 1 or 20 liter bottle (need 6 to 7 liters)
Optional: Redline D4ATF – $10-12/liter
Optional: new fill oil plug #C2C6729 @ $16.8

A site with price and ability to order on line
http://www.zftranspart.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=2&pg=1

The right fluid is subject to debate but I went with redline after the ZF distributor didn’t have it in stock when I drove there.

From dealer with 6 qt: $670, from ZF with redline ATF: $230, from ZF with ZF fluid (6 qt at 20 liter pricing) = $351

#2 Jack up and level car: use jack stands at the front on the two “beams” that run from the engine to the transmission. Used the metal “triangle” where the rear sub-frame attaches to (points suggested by JTIS). I used standard jack stands up front and sears lift and secure on the back which has a screw top so I can adjust the height to make it level. Measured with a gravity angle indicator on the driver door still (with the silver Jaguar logo) and on top of the firewall under the hood.

#3 Cut approx 1-1.25” from a 8 mm allen wrench with a grinder to make the fill removal tool. Used two 8mm wrenches in parallel (see photo) and pushed on it with my feet while holding on to the exhaust on the ground (its pretty tight). I did bend and break a single 8 mm wrench.

#4 Drain fluid using a 10 mm hex bit to remove drain bolt on bottom of plastic cover. I had a leak in my valve connector sleeve so I don’t know how much fluid should have been in there but I drained approx 1.3 gallons.

#5 Remove the pan bolts and pan. I had the old torx 27. Most sets come with torx 30 and 25. The torx30 doesn’t fit and the torx 25 is pretty loose and easily strips out the bolt. I didn’t realize I had a torx27 in my old cheap set till cleanup. Even in California, the bolts are pretty tight. I believe the new ones are torx 40 but if you have the 27, I would not even bother to use the torx. Just use a pair of lockjaws around the head to break the bolt. On some, you may have to use a pair of diag. Cutters to remove part of the fin to gain access (I think this tip comes from someone on the board). On the two that I stripped, I used the grinder to cut a screw slot for temp reassembly until the new ones arrive. As other have suggested, use plenty of anti-seize upon reassembly

#6 Replace connector sleeve. This parts seems to be prone to leaking and should be replaced proactively. The three dealers around my house stock them but only 1 had it in stock. They get a few of these in each day. Disconnect the cable connector buy twisting and pull out (there is another wire that goes to some other connector that should be removed so you can move the harness out of the way. See photo but there is a white release slide, push in the release pin and pull down. Reach the sleeve from the outside and pull out. Lube up the seals on the new one and slide in. May have to rotate it around a bit but when you get it lined up, it should slide in with a pretty snug fit. When is in, push up the white disconnect until it clicks. Connect the connector and rotate until it clicks and reconnect the other connector on the harness

#7 Clean gasket surface and install pan – torque each bolt to 8 nm or 53 in-lb

#8 Remove the fill bolt and pump in approx 3 to 4 qts before it leaks. The opening is approx ½ in diameter. I used the generic orange hand pump found at kragens or walmart. It fits and it is smaller then the opening but a bit restrictive. When I started to get fluid coming out and removed the pipe, an additional ¼ liter came out. I would suggest finding a smaller diameter hose if you are using $30-60/liter fluid. Temp insert the drain bolt and start the car and leave it running. Remove the drain bolt, fill (takes an additional 2.5 to 3 quarts) until it leaks and temp insert drain bolt. Move the car through each gear from D, R, 5, 4, 3 and back into park (ZF says just to go to gear 3). If you let the wheels spin, make sure you stop the wheels before going into park – trust me on this one.

#9. Monitor the temperature. I used a fluke IR gauge at the bottom of the pan to start with. When the fluid starts to drip out, you can monitor the temp directly. I get about a 5 degree F difference between the two measurements on a 45F evening. The dealer will use the fluid temp sensor and their computer but we have to wing it.

#10, When the cover is between 30 (86F) and 35 (95) C, go through the gears again, remove the drain bolt if the fluid drains out then go to #11, if not, add more fluid

#11. If fluid drips out between 30 and 35C, wait till the tem goes between 40 (105F) to 50C (122F) (can’t exceed 50C). Add fluid when temp is >= 40 C until it drips out. Wait till the fluid drip is pretty slow and then cap the transmission for good and torque to 32 nm. While doing this, you can monitor the temp of the fluid dripping out, if its greater then 50C (122F), you need to put the plug to stop it from leaking and wait for the car to cool to between 30-35C, go through the gears, wait till temp exceeds 40C and wait for the dripping to slow.

#12. I just tighten it as much as I could, tried to use a torque wrench with a 8 mm wrench as an extension but the open end opened up before the torque wrench clicked. Without the special tool, I would just use two wrenches and eye ball it.

The process was a bit easier then I imagined once I got the drain bolt and pan bolts off. I think everything is pretty much by to book except for 1) choice of fluid, 2) swag on the temperature, and 3) The torque on closing the fill bolt. Anyway, thats what I did and summarizes some of the lessons learned. Overall I added 6 qts but drained out a addtional 1/2 qt. I think with experience you can get by with 6 qts but nice to have 6 liters or 7 qts.

 

Some additional pictures comparing the old and new sleeve (the old red one came out without any friction, the new one had to be pressed hard to replace. Another photo showing the difference between the old jaguar pan and the new zf part. One showing what the transmission looks like with the sleeve removed. Last two just shows where to jack up the car. The second pair in the photo is just a backup and doesn't touch the car.

 

Guess you can't change the pics. Here are the correct ones showing the connectors connected and the sleeve connector closed

 

Great detail. I'm hoping I never have to do this but if I do I have the greatest confidence to do so, thanks to you.

Best of the New Year to You and Yours!!!!!

O4 STR at 41K

 

I second that - fantastic detail and photos. This thread should be stickied by the forum moderators....

Best of luck with the car and keep us posted on how your ZF is performing in the days, weeks, and months ahead....

 

Brilliant! Many thanks.

 

ccc, first AWESOME thread. second I will say thank you inadvance because I am going to embark on this project next weekend. Joyces just started an occasional dime sized drip.

 

Nice write-up.

I just did another flush on my XJ today. I got about 5 qts out and it took the same amount in.

 

Good to know, between having too fat of a pipe on the inital fill, I drained out and wasted quite a bit of the new fluid so I don't know how much really when back in. Would be great if others could chime in.

What may not be clear from the inital post is that when you first fill it back up with a cold transmission, more fluid will go in and as you bring it up to temp, some of the fluid will drain out so the full level is really when it stops draining at temp. I think if it gets too hot then too much fluid will drain out. Per ZF's instruction is to fill at cold, bring to temp X and make sure there is fluid draining out. If not, add until it does. If it drains at X, then wait till temp Y but not higher then temp Z. When it stops draining between Y and Z but does so between cold and X, its considered full. If you take too long and it goes above Z, then its like getting the go to jail card from Monopoly and you have to wait a long long time and start again between cold and X.

 

ZF says that at x temp once it dribbles out is the maximum, and at y temp once it dribbles out is the minimum.

Y's temp being higher then X's. I have the ZF instruction sheet for this and Im currently looking for the exact temperatures.

 

I used the ZF sheet with the flow chart on it. I think X is between 30-35C, Y is 40C and Z is 50C. I read the sheet as fill cold, make sure fluid starts to drip out around 30-35C. Full is when it it stops (or min. dripping) between 40-50C. Exceed 50C and you have to wait till it cools between 30-35C.

 

yes thats the chart.

I plugged it once it starting flowing out at 65f. the difference between drip and no drip was only a few oz's worth around less then a half cups worth ( just two pumps on my fluid transfer tools) I let some drip out then I plugged it. Let me stop here since I think Im only adding confusing to such a detailed thread. Might be a little overfill but the last time I waited untill it was 100f and when i went to check it the next morning after been driven, it was a little low.

 

I think your right, at the end of the day, there isn't too much of a difference and for us doing it at home, do matter how we do it, the temp is not measured at the internal sensor as required by ZF and jaguar. Either way its a SWAG.

I think the important thing here is that after you fill it, you need to start the car and have it running then fill it until it leaks out (this makes sure that you don't under fill it) and the transmsision will be slightly overfilled.

The temp thing is just ZF's way of minimzing the overfill. Somewhere they claim that under fill is bad and overfill may result in the moving parts churning air into oil resulting in inconsistant behavior. I have seen people measuring the fluid with an IR temp meter at the pan, on the tranmission case, and in my case, the fluid driping out. I used a Fluke IR meter with a laser since I happen to have one, but I think a $15 IR temp meter sold at a hobby store for use with RC nitro engines would work as well for anyone.

It would be interesting for someone with access to the proper diag. equipment to do the inital fill (fill, run engine, and fill till it leaks) and measure the amount of fluid that comes out. In the future, one could just do the inital fill and suck out an approx amount and skip the PIA temp process.

 

Well starting the car allows the trans to take in more fluid then with the motor off. and moving the sift lever through the gears also takes in more fluid.

what I noticed everytime Ive done this ( 3 so far ) is that when filled cold with motor off, after starting the motor and moving the shift selector. the transmission takes roughly 1 more quart.

either way it wont be perfect but as long as it shifts fine and isnt underfilled all will be well. It wont blow a seal as there is still empty space above the fill hole to the actually moving parts. I may be completely wrong though but this has been working for me for about 4 months already with no problems.

today I actually wanted to use Mobil1 atf but all that was available to me was the Mercon V spec and not their all around synthetic formula, so I passed on that and went with the bottle that says it meets shells spec.

 

So what fluids have you used the in the last three times and how many miles have you done with each fluid? It would be great to get some feedback that the ZF fluid isn't that critical to the reliablity of the transmission. Are you changing the fluid that frequently as part of a schedule maint. or as part of a unscheduled repair?

 

I used Castrol Multi Import all 3 times.

Its basicly a scheduled maintenance, at 70k miles I decided it needed an oil change. After much much research through mfr sites, and bimmer and jaguar and benz forums I settled on the castrol.

The first time was just to swap all the fluid out, so that took about 4 or 5 drains and refills. The second time was just 300 miles after that and it was a preventative measure to clear all mixed fluid. This time around was also a preventative maintenance.

After 3600 miles ,1000 of them being a road trip I figured the new batch of oil did some nice cleaning and clearing of w/e was in the transmission ( probably nothing).
After reading on oil forums that trans fluid may loose alot of its additives and friction modifiers early on a trans that hasnt had proper fluid changes ( in my case 70k )

So I did this final one and will continue to do 1 drain and fill every 10k miles or so from here on it. This particular trans fluid is mineral based not synthetic as yours is, and its life span is 30k miles, then it needs a full fluid swap. A drain and fill only changes half the fluid, so every 10k seems way into the safe zone for me.

Keep in mind this takes me an hour, and the fluid at most costs $25 so to do this once every 10k is hardly an expense. I have the car since july and only put 4.5k miles on it, 1000 of which was just a weekend getaway.

 

ccc how long did the job take you from jacking up to jacking down?

 

For doing it the first time, it was about 3.5 to 4 hrs but here is where I wasted quite a bit of time.

#1: Getting the fill bolt off - cutting off the allen wrench with a grinder was about 5 min. Getting the bolt off the first time bent my 8 mm wrench after trying for about 20 min with soft mallet, the easy way is to put two 8 mm wrenches on the allen key, slide back and grab the cold exhaust and push the wrench with your feet. (I'm always hesistant to put as max force with hands - like my knuckles too much). Also, 32nm to torque it back up using a 8 mm wrench as a lever won't work (the open end will flex and slip). I don't have a solution for this - I just SWAG it.

#2: If you have the old bolts, make sure you use a torx 27 that isn't included with most kits (HD has it in its kit for #16, but not in the sears kit for much more). I didn't find my torx 27 till afterwards and used a torx 25. With that, 75% of the bolts were likely to strip (after striping two of them). It goes in with a light 8 nm but they are damm hard to remove. I had to get them off with a pair of lock jaws and required breaking some of the plastic cooling fins to get access. Later I had to fix two of the striped bolts by grinding slots in them until the new bolts arrived. This added about 2 hr to the job.

#3: Depending on your thoughts of temp, that took about a additional 15 to 30 min - part of that was finding my son that was playing laser tag with my IR temp meter down the street

#4: Taking pictures - additional 15 min.

On the other hand, I have two of the lift-n-secure lifts + 1 other standard jack so it took about 10 min to get in up on the stand (with two people, front to target height in one shot then back to target height in one shot). I also have a large piece of rubber sheet left from building my pond that made clean up a bit easier - transmission will drip for a while with pan removed - I don't have a bucket that fits under then entire area.

So 1st time without those issues - perhaps 2 to 2.5 hrs. To do this again, perhaps 1.5 hrs. The thing that sucks is the $12 sleeve takes about 30 sec to remove about about 1min to clean and pop in the new one. As StrateLoss has demonstrated - its a pretty simple job to do once you have done it before so I'm less worried about putting the ZF fluid in - will just change it more often

 

Strateloss, just wanted to confirm, was that 5 qts with existing pan and filter? I was double checking my memory and I still think I was closer to 6 qts with a new pan.

 

I didnt remove the pan at all. So 5 quarts came out, and I only let it drip for about 10 minutes.