I was driving n the snow today, back end was all over the place. Tried to drive up my driveway only the rear wheels would spin. Could not make it up my driveway. Front wheels are not pulling. I have changed the transfer case fluid earlier n the summer. It had little to none n it. Filled it with synthetic fluid per a tread in this forum. It make no funny noises. I'm assuming the transfer case is bad. Very disappointed, couldn't wait for the first snow to try it on out. Any thoughts or suggestions much appreciated. It doesn't have traction control. Thanks Chris

 

Unfortunately it sounds like you have one of the few X-Types that have neither the viscous coupling in the transfer case nor traction control.

The viscous coupling, which stops the speed difference between front and rear axles from growing/happening, was removed in 2004. Fairly soon afterwards Jaguar wisely made traction control standard, as they presumably found out that the non-VC non-TC X-Types have very poor AWD performance, as getting even one of four wheels to spin can get you stuck.

There is a trick I've heard of that should help in your case; light use of handbrake. As handbrake only affects the rear wheels, it will do the same thing basically as the traction control, which uses ABS to brake spinning wheels thus forcing torque to go to the wheels that are not being braked. In other words, with the handbrake you can send power to the front.

 

I will give that a try. I suppose without changing the tc it's something I will have to deal with. Still disappointed with the car or jaguar engineers. Thank you 4 the suggestion. Sounds like I need to drive around with the parking brake half on to make it AWD.

 

Indeed, it's fairly amazing that such a mistake can happen.

I think the handbrake-fix is only intended for situational use, such as getting the car moving if it doesn't otherwise, or making it up the driveway. Driving with the handbrake partly engaged all the time would probably lead to some issues with it.

 

Harley, silly question. If you look on the center console, you should see a button with an "S" on it. Next to it, do you have a button that says "DSC"? If no, then you most likely fall into a minority of cars like was mentioned above where Jaguar installed the new non-VC transfer case and didn't install the DSC portion too.

Also, like was mentioned, you can use the e-brake to help improve traction, but it should be only done as the wheels are slipping. DO NOT!!!!! drive around with it engaged all the time. You are going to do more harm then good. You can get the same sort of thing by gently applying the brake and going that way. But, the e-brake is going to be a bit more effective due to the biasing of power that occurs in the transfer case.

 

Another thing is what kind of tires you have and what condition are they in. If you have high performance summer tires even if you had the viscous coupling you would struggle. And if your tires are worn that would make it even worse. A set of dedicated snow tires would definitely help, although not having the DSC really sucks. Mine is a 2005, so it has the open differential design and I have DSC. I have good all season tires (Conti DWS) and I make it through Wisconsin winters quite well. However, having the DSC intervene when there is slippage is far from the best design. It works well enough I guess. The other attributes of the car more than make up for it though.

 

I also have a later style transfer case with no VCR and no dsc. What is the verdict here? Is his transfer case fried or is this just what they do?

 

Guys, I understand snow tires would help, don't plan on driving around with the e-brake on all the time. It really wasn't a question more of a comment made in disgust. I should have done a little more research before buying a substandard x-type. More disgust. I really do like the car just not happy with its winter condition driving. I thought when I bought an AWD I was getting a car for just those driving conditions. Thermo I've read several of your replies I believe u 2 b very knowledgable on the x-type. I have question 4 u. Do think there is something wrong, broken n the TC or low fluid? Once again I DO APPRECIATE ALL your feed back. I'm glad this forum exist. It's helped me to learn my Jag's mechanical do's & don'ts. Keep up the good work gentlemen. Thank u Chris

 

unfortunately it sounds like it is working just fine. If there would be a problem with the transfer case you probably would be hearing some unpleasant noises and you would have drivability issues. If it is otherwise driving well I don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

harley, from what you are describing, it is just how the car works in the configuration that you have. I wish I could say that XXX is broken and you need to fix it. But, that is not the case.

 

Yup. I have a -04 without DSC. Handbrake is useful trick and an easy way to check that your TC works properly.

 

Is it possible to put an early model transfer case in to a 2005.5 MY to fix this problem?

 

GLH, yes, you can do that. But, before you just drop a used transfer case into your car, I would have the transfer case rebuilt and tell the shop to look into the proper pre-loading of the bearings. The earlier (ie, 02-early 04) transfer cases were built with too much pre-load on the bearings from the reports that I have seen. This results in the bearings being overloaded during normal hard driving, resulting in the bearings getting trashed. You get the proper pre-load, should be able to drive as you see fit and not have to worry about the transfer case.