Hello all,

My X-Type has been very noisy lately and I figured I was stuck with the whining prop-shaft a lot of people seem to have. Symptoms are very loud noise, which sounds like a whine between 40 and 70 km/h, and a lot of vibration.

The car is not 4 years old yet because it was bought in June 2005, but its warranty has expired because it has 89,000km.

So I took the car to the local Jag dealer in the morning for a check up. They called me back early this afternoon and told me I had a problem with my transfer case and it would cost me +/- $5000 CDN (+/- 4000$ US) to get it replaced.

After freaking out for a few minutes, I went to the dealer and asked for a better explanation of the problem. They said the car could be driven without fear of being let down suddenly at 100km/h+ on the highway. Now I'm not very technical so I may not be saying it correctly, but they said something about the transfer case not transferring its movement to the transmission or prop-shaft correctly, and that was the cause of the whining noise. I specifically asked them if it wasn't the well-known whining prop-shaft issue, and the guy I talked to said the mechanic had some 25+ year experience working on Jags and he was sure the problem was coming from the transfer box, not the prop-shaft itself.

Costs of transfer case from my dealer is $3,200 CDN, plus $1,600$ CDN or so for labor.

I called Jaguar Canada to let them know that despite my warranty being expired, it was unacceptable that I had to pay 5 freaking grand for a car that is not even 4 years old yet. They told me they could call my dealer and pay a certain % of the bill, although how much is not yet known.

So here I am, begging for your help. First of all, I know it may be hard to tell without actually being in my car, but is a whining noise caused by transfer case something that could happen on a X-Type? Or could the mechanic be wrong? Could it be the whining prop-shaft issue instead? And if I need to replace the transfer case, how should I proceed? Get a new one and try to get Jag to pay for part of it, or should I look for a used one on eBay? Is the X-Type transfer case very specific or can I use a Ford compatible one?

Thanks in advance :-)

 

Hey sevren, dunno if you've checked out the x type quick faq links or not....this is well documented by various members and gives advice on same.
Failing that I'm sure some techs / members will drop in soon and offer their 0.2c worth.
Jfenly and 310 would also be a good source of info

Good luck

 

Hello Jim! :-)

Thanks for the reply. I don't see a link in the stickied FAQ that talks about a whining transfer case. However I've seen enough posts here after a few searches to realize that the mechanics might be right because this problem does not seem very uncommon.

There are a few transfer cases on eBay, would you happen to now if any TC will do? Does it matter if it comes from a manual/automatic car, 2.5L or 3.0L engine, etc?