hi all,im a new member and love jaguars to bits,i,ve always wanted one and now i have a lovely x type which i adore,she drive,s A1 and looks really stunning,i,ve had my jag for about 6 months and since owning her every morning its stiff to get into 1st gear(it goes in with a push)and then its slips into gear all day long with ease,its the same every day,please help because i love my jaguar and enjoy driving her(she,s my best mate)

 

What year, how many miles, what X type?

Could be that the tranny oil needs changing.

 

2002 x type 104.000 2000cc

 

If that's 104,000 miles you need to see if the transmission fluid has EVER been changed. I would start there first, but could be a myriad of reasons.

 

thanks for your advice im very greatfull

 

Hello there jag man!
When i first got my x type i was concerned about stiff 1st gear in cold
too....but!! After asking about with other owners they all said they had
experienced this too....also local jaguar specialist confirmed this after
some work i got carried out....saying that....i also have not changed transmission fluid but i have only 50000 miles,40000 miles when i first
got it .....i do not even notice it now....probably would not do ant harm
to change fluid though..

 

Same here, first and second gear are somewhat stiff and sometimes (rarely) take effort to engage. When I once drove the Mazda 626 manual my sister has, I thought something was wrong with my car as in the Mazda you could move the gear stick with boiled spaghetti. The local shop however told me that it's normal, and that usually cars with more larger engines have a stiffer feel to their gearboxes.

I've had the oil changed and topped off with the X1R-additive the shop always recommends for the drivetrain (I now have the stuff in gearbox, transfer case and rear diff). I don't even know what it is nor whether it's sold anywhere with that name anyone heard of it?

 

Those Jag manuals can feel a little robust, especially to those more used to lighter, smaller cars. Tip: next time she's a little reluctant to slip into first after cold-start, pop back to neutral and release the clutch for a second. Then clutch-down and go again. Same with reverse.

 

I often find the Jaguar manual box a little unusual.. sometimes as you say it is as if the gate is quite tight and you are pushing past a very tight spot to put it into gear, sometimes it just wont find the gear at all.. in which case just let the gearstick centre itself and then raise and relower the clutch pedal and it will be fine. They aren't really what I call problems just oddities with this particular box. The other thing is if you are in heavy traffic using the clutch quite a bit.. unless you completely release the pedal the biting point gradually moves grin.. causing you to over-rev as where the biting point was it is further up now lol.. but all said.. every type of car I have had has always had things specific to it that you learn to deal with.. even the auto on my old XJ had oddities to it :-) so you may be best just learning how to work around these things ...

 

Many moons ago my father had a deeply horrible Seddon Atkinson low-loader truck with an Eaton Twin-Split gearbox. I probably don't notice the slight oddness of the Jag 'box quite as much as normal people... ;o)

 

By raising/lowering the clutch pedal briefly you give the transmission shafts a quick spin, thus repositioning them in such a way that the little locking-dogs within are better positioned to engage the gear. All manual 'boxes have a touch of this - it's somewhat more noticeable on larger ones.

 

After reading your post guys it got me thinking about the last long road trip I took to
Dublin.Usually it is all short journeys for me as I live in Belfast,the city center is 5 min drive away,work is 15, even local city airport is 10 minutes away...now Dublin took me from memory around,maybe just over an hour and I was sitting at 120mph for a good bit..... don't tell the cops....lol!..jokes! Well anyway,I remember after coming into city area of Dublin,after sitting in 5th gear for a good 40 mins say,the car would not go into gear until I pumped the clutch a few times,I remember at the time thinking it could be a possible clutch master cylinder on its way out,you know losing pressure though slight leaking seal maybe,is that a possibility?
The same happened on way home too but after a few weeks,that was a year ago I have sort of forgot about it until reading this post.As I said earlier all my journeys though Belfast are very short as I live in the city area,so I am constantly changing gears and therefore pumping clutch constantly so I do not give clutch chance to leak past seals...I dont know if i am right here but it is just a guess .

 

There is a Technical Bulletin on this, Xt308-06. Quick summary of what it says.

Issue: Some X-TYPE vehicles may exhibit difficulty engaging first or reverse gear, especially when the vehicle is cold. This can be caused by the clutch disc sticking on the transmission input shaft splines.

Action: In case of a verified complaint having confirmed the cause as being the clutch disc sticking on the transmission input shaft splines, apply grease to splines.

Fixing it requires removing the transmission, a 9 hour job for a well equipped shop.

 

The difficulty in selecting first gear in cold conditions is indeed covered by the service bulletin - I had this some years ago in my 2002 2.5. My dealer performed the specified cleaning and lubrication of the shaft and while we were in that far I asked to have the revised clutch pack installed (C2S33393). If you have a 2004 or earlier car and find the shift a bit "notchy" with too great a gulf between first and second, you WILL NOT BELIEVE the difference this revised clutch makes. The gear selection can be done with one finger - it is silky smooth and feels as though the entire transmission has been replaced. Yes, I know this sounds too good to be true, but it is true. So different in feel, that when I picked the car up I stepped on the clutch and started the engine, shifted into first, shut the engine off and went back to the service dept. to tell them something was wrong! the clutch was so light that I was sure they had left something disconnected. The service tech told me to drive two blocks...well, within a single first/second/third/fourth shift sequence I was simply amazed at the difference. This was done 5 years ago and the shift continues to be feather light - oh, and no problem at all getting into first in cold conditions. These cars are a delight.