Hello guys,

Quick question/curiosity about the Jatco box in our cars:

I was speaking to someone who claims to have some knowledge on taking these apart, and he was telling me that its a good idea to change the fluid on these as little as every 5-10k miles because the valves inside tend to get gummed up and mechanically fail. He said that even though most modern gearboxes have several valves, the one on this tranny have a bad habit of getting stuck open or closed.

I do know that transmission fluid Has a lot of detergents, and I know these transmissions suffer from failures, but 5k miles just seems a little crazy.

Is this just an exaggeration, or is this deal with the valves true? Someone who knows about this please chime in.


Thanks !

 

I see alot more VW Jetta 09A (JF506E) solenoid valve failures than Jaguar X-Type, but there are more Jettas than X-Types.

There is no filter that is easily accessible/replaceable so changing the fluid on a regular basis is good advise. I think changing the ATF every time the engine oil is renewed is a little excessive.

Changing the ATF is not difficult if you have a lift, but the car must be level.

Castrol Import Muti-Vehicle ATF meets the gearbox specs.

bob gauff

 

I think every 25k is good enough but hell like my ex wifes say..."what the hell do you know"... I was smart enough to leave...Enough said.

 

My Jag dealer offers a JATCO approved, X-type transmission service that involves, Flushing, Conditioning and Refill..it is a BG service and they even warranty the transmission for failures up to $2000.00 of costs....they recommend it every 30,000 miles...I think the cost is around $300.00 for the service...I had it done at 30,000 and the tranny was rock solid and running strong when I sold it with 58,000 miles.

 

Thanks all for the replies. I was just wondering how much truth there was about these valves being the main culprits of the transmission failures and if constantly draining and filling fresh fluid as often as it was suggested to me is really needed. I suppose that if the problem is that valves are gumming u from dirty fluid then it makes sense .

I have had a dialysis type flush done with the Castrol import, and after that I have drained and refilled 4 times just to be on the safe side. Since I am a paranoid owner, I went down to the auto store and got 4 more bottles of the Castrol today just to see what the fluid looked like since my last drain and fill just 2k miles ago; and what I drained out was identical to what I put in. Basically just wasted some perfectly good fluid.

 

@Mark, I know in my experiences with my Jag so far makes me wonder the same question, "is the transmissions in our cars dying because of sticky valves?" Let me tell you what happened to me.
I had some problems with the car shifting incorrectly and storing codes, P0748, P0758. I pulled the valve body out, replaced all the shift solenoids, and tore it down for a cleaning / greasing. This is where my problems started, I found 2 valves that were completely stuck, and the body was missing 2 ball valves. I'm not sure if someone else had been in it, but as it sat there was no way of it operating properly. I was able to get replacement ball valves, .218 size, and free the sticking valves. I'm down right now with a MS exaserbation so when I get feeling better I'll get it installed and tell everyone how it works.
But, if this is the culprit on our cars dying it's an easy fix.

I thought several months ago that the valves were sticking, so I poured some Trans-Tune in it. I think this is the main reason I was able to drive it a few thousand more miles.

 

If the trans-tune is cleaning up stuck valves then fresh fluid can probably do the same. What a recipe for disaster: a "sealed for life" transmission with valves that have a tendency to gum up from dirty fluid. I will probably be doing a drain and fill every 5 to 10k miles. It's simple enough to do and that castrol import is cheap enough

 

@Mark

Way good thinking. I've always thought our cars, being the amazing vehicles they are, are very high maintenance.

Because the Jatcos in our cars have a non-serviceable transmission I bought an external transmission filter kit, shown here: , tapped into the coolant feed line and installed it. What do you think of that?

 

I think that was the smartest thing anyone could do..Kudos!