This is my 6th Jag and the one I love 2nd most behind the 03 XJ8 with the Soverign Pkg. This is an S-Type 05, 4.2 w/Sport Pkg and XK8 interior with the burnt metal dash & trim. Pictures will be up tomorrow. My next Jag will be an XJR or an XKR Coupe. Have 69k miles and the one thing all Jag owners (03-09) need to watch for is the whooping tranny noise, all 3 of my S-Types had to have the dealer service done for this to correct the problem. I would not recommend changing the tranny oil ever unless you are driving it real hard, then do it before 50k miles. The S-Type I believe is becoming more popular now that they are a few yrs out of production.

Keep an eye on your heat exchanger if your tranny starts making noise, unfortunately mine went south and coolant got into the tranny fluid, never heard of such a thing until they flew a new tranny in from UK to replace mine at 40k miles along with a new radiator. I would never buy a Jag without an extended warranty.

Woodstock Georgia...birth place of REM. Did my doctorate in Atlanta (lived in Marietta and Smyrna). Enjoy the cat fella. Looking forward to her pics.

I'm a fellow Georgian and look forward to your pics. I like debate and everything I'm about to say is meant in the most respectful way. Care to elaborate on why not to change the fluid? Care to elaborate on what "real hard" means? Why 50k vs 25k or 100k? Are you aware a dealer now changes the fluid when you get that "whooping" noise? Before, the dealer used to add a ZF friction modifier, but it no longer exists and now the fiction modifier is added to the OEM trans fluid so they have to do a fluid exchange. The overwhelming majority of OTHER car manufactures recommend changing the trans fluid between 25k-50k, why is the S-Type exempt? Whenever anyone changes the fluid, I always hear them say fluid is "nasty", haven't heard anyone say "it looks good, maybe I shouldn't of done it". Many shops that specialize in the ZF recommend a fluid change, while they do work off profit, they make more money replacing a broken ZFs than they would on doing several fluid exchanges...It makes more sense for them to tell you not to replace the fluid in hopes that your tranny breaks, you pay the big bucks replacing the trans.

If a STR owner googles tranny fluid, I just want to be sure they see both sides of the debate...

X2 to Bacardi.

my suggestion is simply based on what all three dealers in Atlanta recommended to me and the two dealers I dealt with in Florida with my other Jags. I had the ZF lubricant added to the S-Type I am driving right now one year ago, so if it is discontinued it is within the last 12 months. They said if they owned the car and it had more than 50K miles on it without any tranny oil changes to let it alone, they actually emphasized not to do it, especially when under the Select Edition warranties. After the warranty is up I would be open to looking into anything, like a newer Jag.

fluid change is very necessary , which lubrication fluid isnt changed in the world ?

dont understand why someone in right mind wud believe we dont need to change it ?
its a transmission with filter , torque convertor , and all the moving parts like other , zf is just oil like all others , the only debate i feel is zf or some other fluid ?
i will go with zf only cause my research says its the only fluid tested on it for long time and has same viscosity required by the way jaguar transmission ecm operates and shifts gears

Correct except it's ZF's trans ecm (TCM, made by Bosch), not Jaguar's.

i meant the way jaguar spec programming

I don't see the relevance. Jag's fluid is ZF's fluid and is that because it's ZF's TCM and contains ZF's program.

Foreign concept to my godfatty, no idea why dealer tech's are buying into this sealed for life BS...The answer must be, because the ZF is so "needy", it wants an exact level of fluid...The Jag way to do the fluid exchange is to messure the exact amount extracted and replace it with a half quart more. If you went to Slippery Pete's discount $69 tranny change, they may not take the time to get the amount of fluid right...

It was new to me as well that the ZF FM was discounted in favor of adding it to the ZF fluid...But again, there is a TSB that if there's a "whooping" noise, they are to replace the fluid. Someone recently whined on here that they had the select edition warranty and they would not cover the dealers tranny fluid change bill. Also your original post wasn't clear in that you would indeed be open to a fluid change after the warranty runs out...The select editions S-Types are already few and far between...

Still waiting for the pictures.

Limited 4.2 Special Sport Edition, in service date of 4/30/06

I just called Nelley Jag of Roswell GA and inquired about transmission change...The gentleman I spoke to predictively stated Jag recommends not replacing the fluid...I said "oh really, why is that?" Had about a three minute chat, what he ultimate said he charges $800 to change fluid and for preventative maintenance, Jag feels it's a waste unless you're having shifting problems. I then asked if he's seen ZF failures below 100k and he said "many"...Obviously, there's no way to know for sure if a fluid change would of prevented a trans failure...