While my mechanic was trying to determine source of a squeaky belt or pulley, he stumbled upon something...As I went to pick up the car, to my surprise was still on the lift...He calls me over and says "check this out"...Pulls a tranny line from the cooler and dribbles a few drops on his finger tips...The first thing I notice is is while I'm still about 5' away from the mechanic / fluid, I can smelt burning...The color of the fluid was matte black...He then rubs his finger tip and thumb tip together and while almost of the fluid disappears, black specs are left behind on the ridges of his fingers...The fluid clearly has repeatedly been heated beyond what it was designed for...

The mechanic and I chat about the fluid exchange process with it being left overnight all the parts and what not, said he'd do it for $200 labor...Start piecing together an order from the highly recommended CTSC company, between the kit, sleeve, 21 bolts and 2 extra liters of fluid grand total was $371.46 shipped or $571.46 will be the grand total to exchange the trans fluid...I chatted with the mechanic some more, looking for validation that it's a good investment, the mechanic said in his opinion, no...He said the fluid was so bad that he believes this wasn't a recent thing...With various other annoying gremlins, a squeak that the mechanic and I can't seem to correct possibly due to a misaligned pulley and the issue where my car often thinks the driverside door is open, I decided to trade it in...

 

Trade her in for a 2007-2009 XKR.

 

Traded in for what???

Sorry to hear of your troubles....

 

How many miles were on the STR?

 

83000, if one is looking to avoid buying my car, I assume it's the only STR with red painted calipers w/silver Jaguar lettering...

I'm going to be moving between now and the new year so I went from wild to mild with an '10 Accord...The beauty is I'll be able to sell it for what I paid for it in the next 12 months...I will go "wild" again in the next year...

 

Damm...I'm sorry you going thru all the trouble with your STR. YOu will definitely miss driving her as compared to the Honda Accord. But hey at least with Hondas you will be trouble free IF I may ask, how much you willing to sell her for AS IS?

 

Got $11500 for my one accident but no reported frame damage STR, put down $2550 cash = $14050...That's the out the door carfax perfect 45k/mile Accord...

For the record I went carmax just to see what they'd give me, and if good use it as leverage...I got offered $6000 from them, they claim they saw "clamp marks" on the frame which they conclude is often associated with frame pulling...They said this may not be the case but they don't any take chances when it comes to any marks on the frame...Interesting info I'll use in future purchases...