Thermo,

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This is exactly the kind of info I'm looking for!

I'll get out to the car and check the build date although I don't recall seeing a 'DSC' button but I'll look again.

The biggest problem I've experienced thus far is the mouse nest under the cowl and up against the pollen/cabin filter. Terrible odor! But removed wipers, cowl cover (? Plastic cover over the filter) and cleaned it all out...seemed at least a twelve family unit. Replaced the filter-60+ bucks at Jag thank you very much- and the odor slowly fading.

Again, thanks for the info. I'm a bit of a gear head and what you've offered is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

 

Thermo,

Sounds as though you've done a lot of digging into the what fors and whys of the Jag as well as experience with them. I take it from your dialogue you know which end of the hammer to hold.

Couple of questions about our car; mfg'd 11/03, which, if I read you correctly, has the old style transfer case WITH a viscous coupling. Is this the better system in winter-we line in the Great Lakes snow belt?

I have other vehicles for fun, the Jag for traveling in a more sedate manner so stop light drag racing is not a part of its' regimen. It sounds as though the transfer case should be relatively free of issues under these conditions if I've understood you correctly.

Kind of a quirky thing-if the cabin doors are not locked, I can open the trunk/boot without a key by simply pressing up on the external release button. Is this how it is intended or have I missed a key point in the manual?

Again, thanks for the info

 

Joe, yes, you should have the viscous coupled transfer case. So, driving in the winter will be easier (I grew up in Toledo, so I know your "troubles"). So, as long as you listen to what the car is telling you (ie, wheel slippage), you will get quite far with the car in the winter and it will drive circles around most of the vehicles around you.

As for the trunk, yes, you should be able to push the button and open the trunk if you have the doors unlocked. If you lock the doors, then the button is disabled and the trunk will not open unless you use the keyfob to open the trunk.

As for knowing the correct end of a hammer, you can say I know more than the average monkey. Having a dangerous mix of mechanical ability and knowledge of electronics, there isn't much I can't fix on modern day cars. Then toss in some adventurousness into the mix and there isn't much that I am not willing to try. If you saw my Expedition, you would laugh. Lots of pushing the limits of what the truck will handle. But then, I have something that no one else has. So, all is good.

 

Hmmm. Submitted a post earlier today with a couple of questions for Thermo but it isn't showing up.

Try again.

Our '04 was built in November '03. Does this mean we have the early transfer case WITH the viscous coupling? And since we live in the Great Lakes snow belt, winter drivability is important. Does this transfer case provide the better AWD? We do not have a DSC button on the console.

I did comment, Thermostat, that you seem to have a pretty good handle on the Jag, apparently due to research and experience and have a fair idea of which end of the hammer to hold. Your insights and info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to help us newbies along.

As far as abusing the transfer case, we have other vehicles the 'fun' pedal is better suited to. The Jag is intended for travel and more sedate adventures rather than stop light drag events. I'm trusting this attitude will provide longer life from the transfer case.

As always, your thoughts and comments are most welcome. Thanks again.

 

Oops, spellcheck or auto spell or whatever it is on an iPad filled in Thermostat instead of Thermo.

Sorry.

 

Thermo,

Please disregard last couple of posts. Didn't notice there were additional pages thus didn't see my questions nor your response.

Crimey, can fly a jet plane but haven't figured out an iPad yet!

The car I bought came out of Chicago with 68,600 miles on it. Found a receipt in the glove box for $1,500+ to replace some rear driveline parts due to corrosion and naturally wonder-lots of salt used in my neighborhood thru the winter-is corrosion a big issue with the Jag? Was owned by an elderly lady and I suspect she didn't drive much when roads were slick so the car may not have been exposed to salted roads as much as my vehicle would be.

Neighbor has a full size sedan for sale, late '90's vintage, lower fenders behind front wheels completely rusted away. Rear quarters and lower doors with visible rust holes as well. Beautiful wire wheels, however.

When was the last visit to Tony Packos?

 

Nova Joe, The biggest problem I have been having is getting say the bolts for the rear shocks out. The bigger bolts will get bound up pretty good. So, a product like PB Blaster and a torch to heat things up are going to become your best friends. But, that can be said of any car in your area. It isn't a Jaguar thing.

As for Tony Packos, I had their MOAD just a few weeks ago as I had to go back to Toledo for a funeral and I brought back with me 2 cases of the hot dog sauce and a case of the hot dill pickles. So, last nights supper was home made super dogs with the Packos sauce. Mmmmmmmm.

 

Wow Thermo thanks for all that info it sounds like you know this car inside and out. I'll have to keep an eye on tire wear these tires on the 18 inch rims don't look cheap. So far they look really good though I don't think they are original though looks like too much tread left for 60,000 miles.


I always baby a car right off the line too its when components first engage that is when you will do lots of damage to transmission line. Although I feel like my maxima could be really abused something tells me otherwise with AWD cars, especially a jaguar ...


I noticed a clunking sound shifting into reverse its not having any trouble shifting or anything reverse itself works fine, maybe its just how it is, or maybe its that the rear transfer engaging in the opposite direction? I noticed this on my wife's Passat too that she used to drive and on our 4runner 4wd cars shift oddly vs fwd, I think I remember in my rear wheel drive 79 oldsmobile the driveshaft clunked going into reverse, that thing was a brute though you could hammer the accelerator all day that car would take the abuse. The maxima was pretty silky smooth going into reverse, I really think its hard to beat maxima for reliability engine transmission and all that, just the jaguar has styling that can't be matched. The forward gears themselves feel ok its really smooth. Maybe this is the transfer case getting ready to go or something. It seems this doesn't look like a complex part even if it does go out to rebuild yourself?


So far I'm really happy with this car the headlights are a pain in the ***. I'm not sure how to actually replace the adjusters. I ordered a complete right headlight on ebay and it was busted just sending through the mail! lol she has said she just replaced the adjusters.. horrible design. Anyways rather then send back and replace for them to get busted again in the mail they sent me out the adjuster repair kit, it looks like you have to separate the front plastic from the casing somehow? this looks like a real fun job I'm almost ready to just leave my zip tie solution in place (one headlight moves up and down at least) not sure what the purpose of that feature is anyways? Does the headlight move to some gyro or something, or is it just a cute feature when you start the car up, or does it auto adjust?

 

jagxtype76, as for rebuilding the transfer case, the hardest part is probably just getting the bearings. But, if you do some looking around, the part numbers are posted here and where to get them. Rebuilding shouldn't be all that tough. Granted, you will need to do some research as it appears that what lead to the early demise of the 02-03 transfer cases was simply too much pre-load on some of the bearings. So, you may need to adjust that slightly to make sure that you are not re-creating what the factory did and have it fail on your again. I am tempted on rebuilding mine just to see if you could then build up the motor and go hog wild with the power.

As for the headlights, they are meant to change their angle. If you look at the front and rear suspension, there are height sensors that will look at how far the car is loaded and adjust the position of the headlights to make sure that they are still pointing in the correct location. The fear is that if you were to put say a lot of weight in the trunk of the car, it could possibly raise the headlights to the point that the HID bulbs could momentarily blind oncoming drivers.

 

I guess its good its my "left" light that still works with the motor Its the right passenger that is busted, so my zip tie solution is on the right light


I will take the light apart, it looks like I have to put it in the oven or something to get the lens off... What a pain in the rear, why can't they use screws to remove it. I'll tell you this, the adjusters I got to replace the originals though are strong little buggers, they encased metal into the plastic, they aren't going to bust...

 

There was a previous post regarding alternate procedures for replacing oil pan gaskets without removing the transfer case. Could you expound on that?

 

Do you know when this improvement was made? The date on my tag is 04-05 assuming thats May 4th as Europe swap days and months from what we have here in US. Just wondering if I have the redesigned TC. or a way to look it up to see

Thanks

 

What was the gist of the 'improvements'? I understand the viscous coupling was eliminated which I don't feel improved the AWD.

 

On Saturday I finally got around to fixing the headlight issue once and for all, removed the headlight out a "second" time this time did the proper fix (removing my zip tie temp solution) by installing the arms from an arm kit... Long story short, I ordered a light from Ebay advertised as all adjusters replaced and fixed, it came damaged all 3 arms were all busted in it on arrival so I had two passenger light assemblies with busted adjusters lol, I disputed it and she sent me out a repair kit for free, I was like ok send it I didn't want to send back the entire light assembly (my rear cover was missing anyways) so I needed to replace that and needed that part anyways, it turned out to be a 3 hour job to replace. The replacements they sent me were awesome much stronger plastic and steel ball. (btw these original plastic arms they come with turn to dust with just slight pressure of pliers) that is why all our x type lights are breaking, IMHO this should be a recall adjusters busing can be a hazard to oncoming drivers or cause loss of lights the HId bulbs are delicate you can't stare at them even when installing or they'll bust and they are 100 bucks a pop, when the last adjuster snaps and it will it will cause the light to flop and the light to burn out, I find this really surprising because they are from Germany and they make it well advertised these Hella lights are from Germany lol


I took a bunch of photos of the entire operation from removing the plastic cover I'll call the tongue and the bumper and how to take the light out and how to separate the clear "lens" from the nasty glue they used to "seal" it with a heat gun. If anyone wants me to post how to fix these lights its really not that hard of a job just takes patience. maybe it was already posted I didn't look let me know I can post the photos of the job. I replaced them with adjusters that can take 20lbs of force and have metal arms and ***** vs. the plastic crap plastic the originals had.


BTW DO not use windex on the chrome part of the inside of the light I used windex to remove my finger prints, it turned the chrome reflector part to charcoal black for whatever reason. So good thing I had that second set


Jeff

 

Nova Joe/Joec, in early 2004, Jaguar went to a redesigned transfer case. The gist of what changed was the fact that they removed the viscous coupling in the transfer case (believed to be the root of the weak transfer case issue). So, instead, they put another differential in its place. While this helps with transferring power front and rear, when one wheel looses traction the transfer case itself will allow all the power to go to that one wheel (hence you are down to 1 wheel drive again). Where the earlier cars, the viscous coupling would help to ensure that the front and rear driveshafts remained spinning at roughly the same speed (keeping a front and rear tire both with power at all times). The "fix" for the later transfer cases was to equip the cars with "DSC". This would sense the wheels starting to loose traction and the car would apply the brake to that one wheel and slow it back down, allowing power to be re-established to the other 3 wheels. But, if your car wasn't equipped with the DSC, then you are kinda SOL.

if you have more questions about the transfer case, let me know. I will attempt to answer them.

 

So its safe to say if I don't have the DSC button I have the earlier version?

 

>So its safe to say if I don't have the DSC button I have the earlier version?

Not necessarily... :-(

You could have a new one with the "open" design where you have no anti-lock sensors that would apply the brake to any spinning wheel thus transferring torque to a non-spinning wheel.

That would be unfortunate since the car would have 1-wheel drive (or spin) if you will.
==================================================
Jaguar: Grace, Pace, and Space - Sir William Lyons

 

Is the dsc button the rectangular button with the car with the swishes representing what looks like slippy road below the tires button behind the shifter on the console? it doesn't say dsc at least on my car? btw what is the 'S' button do above left of the stickshift? is it to stifen the suspension? feels like it doesnt do anything

 

joec, the DSC function and the new/old transfer case have nothing to do with each other except for the fact that in 2005, Jaguar figured out that it was silly to have an AWD car with the open differentials and they pretty much made the DSC system a standard item on the cars.

jagxtype76, yes, the fishtailing car symbol is the DSC button. As for the S button. That is the sport mode button. Unless you are getting on the gas really hard, you won't notice much difference. IN short, the sport mode increases the shift point by up to a few hundred RPMs (scaled based on how hard you are on the gas). So, if you are letting the car shift at say 3,000 RPM, in sport mode it may shift at say 3,100 RPM. If you are having the car shift at say 6,300 RPM, in sport mode it will shift at say 6,600 RPM. These are just numbers to show the difference. Not meant to be taken as Jaguar proven numbers.

 

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Interesting I'll have to try it out seems something you want for passing. I took the car for a 200 mile drive through wa state mountains on Sunday I'm impressed with this cars gas milage it's not too thirsty. Really corners fantastic not much roll in this car. I'm liking it so far.