I took a gander at a 1999 XJ8 today. The current owner has only had it for about 8 months and 2000 miles, and has no service records. That's the worst part. The car looks great 8.5-9/10 condition and everything works on it. Interior is next to perfect. guy is willing ot sell for 3400 and the car fax shows plenty of "vehicle serviced" on it, but I don't know what that means. Some places on the car fax show oil and filter change, alinement etc, but some just say serviced.

Anyways, I'm not concerned about replacing the timing tensioners as it seems like a pretty easy job if they haven't, but I have never touched a transmission. How likely are these transmissions to go bad? Is there any way to know if it will become faulty or not? How many XJ8 trans fail from 1999 or at what mileage?

 

The tranny will be your only concern other than the tensioners assuming you do not have excessive blowby. Quick check- remove the oil cap and rev to about 1500 rpm. You should not have oil "blowing" out the filler port. Nor should the exhaust smoke.

Unless you take it to the dealer, the transmission rebuild will be about $2500 if the worst happens, then you have spent less than $6K for a fancy european sports car that will give more than 100,000 or more additional miles.

 

right, which isn't a bad thing, but how long do these trans usually last?

 

My MY 02 XJ8 is fine on the original transmission after 180,000 miles. One fluid change at 100,000 miles. Others report failures of the A drum after 100,000 miles. I believe they might have done a design change because it seems the later years do not have as many failures reported. Relatively, you hear of many transmission failures because they are so expensive, but I think many folks have high mileage without problems.

BTW, the XJR uses a different transmission, so i can only give the one example. I am sure others will chime in.

 

I tend to agree with Parkenzap's appraisal....suffice to say that at 118k it's historically around this time that the ZF 5Hp24 'pops it's clogs' but before you hit the panic button, I would have the trans serviced (assuming you intend buying it)....also have the well documented ZF upgrade done and you may be surprised to find that it will soldier on.
Be a good idea to check the build date of the car and if it's before Oct. '98, it will have the suspect 'A' drum which after this point was upgraded.
There were further upgrades tot he drum design and bearings arrangement
during '99.

 

is the XJR transmission compatible with an xj8? I'm also learning about this nikasil engine lining issue which is what I assume you were referring to check with the oil cap removed and 1500 rpm?

how do I check the build date? i have a VIN SAJHX104XXC855712

 

Actually my autocheck report shows:

09/01/1998 Independent Source VEHICLE MANUFACTURED AND SHIPPED TO
DEALER

So it indeed has the older drum. hmmm

 

drive the car for 35miles. most resellers have learned that by taking the battery cable off a Jag it resets the codes and or a cheap OBDII reader will do so. ( the it looks great is why people buy Jags, but make no mistake if it ran well he would not be selling it).
buy yourself a dip stick from eurotoyz. buy a case of shell 134. drain plug on AT lets out 3quarts. empty refill, empty refill etc. last two quarts place Lucas Transmission fix.
remove airbox to see how much oil is blowing
idle car, remove oil cap. should be no smoke. if you have a chitty bang bang coming out of the oil cap adjust price down.
by 4 V8 engine restore if it is smoking and place them ALL in, then add 4quarts of Lucas Engine reseal top off with 3 quarts of royal purple 20/50. don't worry about the over fill.
BTW the tensioners are NOT easy. the dealers charges $5800 and a skilled mechanic that has done them 30times before will take almost two full days. the tools however make it easy. but it is time and patience and knowing what to do.

 

I assume Rlover's times refer to doing the primary as well as the secondary tensioners. Most of us think the secondary tensioners are much more important to do because when they fail it is usually a engine piston/ valve crash. The primaries raise a racket, but few (if any) valve crashes have been blamed on the primary tensioners failing.

 

that is a lot to do to a car that i'm thinking about buying LOL. He just bought a new truck and came from a BMW to a jaguar and claims he just likes the BMWs better. He's an older guy and seems pretty honest, but he's only had the car 8 months and doesn't drive it much. He's buying new cars for his kids and decided to get rid of it since he doesn't use it. I'm going to see if the places down in mass (wagner motor sales) have any service records on the vehicle. I've done a couple timing belt/water pump jobs on the mitsubishi 3000gt twin turbo which is not a walk in the park either. After looking over the walkthroughs for the 2ndary tensioners i'm fairly certain I could get it done in a days work. Dealer prices are ridiculous especially with luxury brands/vehicles. Just because it's a jaguar or a audi, doesn't necessarily make it more expensive to work on unless you are a dealer

thanks for clarifying

 

Note - The Dipstick and ATF134 are R related; if he's talking an XJ8 it has a ZF 5HP24 NOT a Mercedes 722.6/W5A580. They fill through the pan and there is no dipstick tube even. They use a different fluid too.

 

Don't let the tranny scare you just get it serviced right away. Also, the tensioners are not easy, but you can do it. Take your time and do the primaries too. You'll have a kitten that purrs.

 

What do you mean by serviced? If they are upgrading/replacing the drum I'm out more money than I want to be right after purchasing the vehicle. Fluid change is easy, but yes the cost of servicing/replacing the trans is my main concern.

I already have one car that I dump my money into so maybe the xj8 is not the daily driver I should be looking for? If it's going to require costly service/repairs such as the trans. If the trans failure didn't seem as common as depicted by a few forum searches, I wouldn't be so concerned lol. Then again most people turn to the forum with problems so it may not be an accurate picture of what % of owners have a major trans failure. I do pretty much all my own work on cars except transmissions

 

vsol:
I think you have it figured about right! These cars can be a real deal IF you do the maintenance yourself. Only problem for a daily driver is you have pressure to get it fixed when you need it, so parts procurement gets more expensive. Thats why you need several of them!

 

The ZF 5HP24 is far from my favorite gearbox. I owned a 1997 A4 with 240k on it when the 5HP24A(AWD variant) finally gave up the ghost; but it had been serviced (fluid, filter, pan gasket change) every 60k on the button. Note that car had only a 12V 2.8L V6 with 170HP; the XJ8 has a wee bit more power and is driven a little more aggressively.

I daily drive my XJR year round and my XKR is daily driven in the summer (rain or shine). I much prefer the Mercedes 722.6/W5A580 the R models (all X308 XJRs had Mercedes unit, all pre-03[US year system] XKRs had this unit too). The R Models have the aluminum thermostat housing (common retrofit on plastic housing 8 models). Really all the R related stuff is stone dead reliable, and the transmission among other parts is much more robust, so I think they're a better daily driver than the base 8s(comparing early 8s to early Rs).

S/C Oil Change - 30-60 minutes and $20-30 worth of syringe and oil.
Trans Oil Change - 2 hours and $70 worth of parts and fluids (I used the Valvoline NAG1 Max Life ATF; Duralast Filter and Pan Gasket, ebay dipstick tool and a borrowed IR thermometer[$30 at Harbor Freight if you need to buy a cheapy])

SOME cars have brembo brakes and CATS suspension; my 98 XJR has the non-CATS suspension and non-Brembo brakes. My 2000 XKR has the CATS system and non-brembo brakes (and the 3 gauges instead of Nav unit!). Not surprisingly the Brembo brakes and CATS shocks are much more expensive than the base units, but shop accordingly if this is a concern.

The Rs get worse gas mileage. My cars are in excellent mechanical condition and they get about mid teens on premium. Highway is twenty at best. Later when the XJ (X350) and XK(03+) went to the ZF 6sp auto, the 6HP26, they got better gas mileage. I have a 6HP26A in my Audi A8 and it's been no trouble at 140k (fluid changed every 60k), and that 4300lb AWD 335HP V8 large car gets 25mpg at 80mph.

 

What exactly does this procedure reveal about the car?

 

I'm not afraid of most self maintenance as I work on cars almost every weekend. Then again I don't have a lift or any experience with transmissions! so that is the scary part for me here as I would not want to purchase the vehicle if I knew I would have to pay someone to fix/service the trans with new internal parts. I wish i had the service records for the car. The looks are just killer in black and the thought of all the luxury is very enticing

 

see my post
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ng-kit-146100/

 

i looked through that thank you.

is this a fix for why they commonly fail?

 

It may be, but I don't see a guarantee that it won't fail. ZF supposedly changed the valve design at some point, maybe around '01, and also beefed up the A drum. So changing the valve out may protect the A drum from pressure spikes, but it's still the same weaker drum.

I put the upgraded valve in my '97 but am still careful with first gear. It's important to be sure the transmission is in gear before hitting the gas when shifting from P or R. The same when stopping at an intersection and giving the transmission time to downshift to first.