It's $1k at an indie. $250ish for the pan/filter, another $250 in fluid and about 5 hours labor at $90/hr.

 

??? $258. for both pan/filter and fluid.

Oil change kit for 6HP26/28/32

Five hours labour sounds excessive.

 

Nice find.

 

>Five hours labour sounds excessive.

Maybe for a pro, but for a "do it your selfer" it's kind of a nasty job if it is anything like my S-Type (and I assume it would be).

To do the job you must drain it and then remove pan. Most drain/fill kits come with a new plastic pan cover that includes new filter. Do XFs have the plastic belly pan? I always assumed that, on an S-Type, they were there to protect the plastic tranny pan as for air flow purposes.

After you replace the pan the fun begins. There is no fluid fill-hole or dip stick. You must pump the fluid in from the bottom. To check the level you must start the engine and allow it to warm up. You must also use a hand-held temp-gauge to check and only when it is in precise range "top up" the fluid level. Again from the bottom with a pump.

The challenge in all of this is that the exhaust head pipe is only about 3" from the drain/fill hole and when this is being done it will be HOT-HOT-HOT!!!

So ya, imagine trying to reach into a very small space with something RED-HOT just inches away.

And oh, you measure the fluid level by adding fluid and then seeing if any runs out. That means you have to connect, disconnect, re-connect the fluid pump while adding fluid and checking to see if any runs back out.

I was very happy to buy my kit and then bring it to an experience Jaguar repair shop and pay the price.

Oh, I did that at 60k miles and while there had them flush the coolant, replace the brake fluid, replace filters, etc.

Now I don't have to worry about any of that for the rest of the time I'll probably own this car.
==================================================
Jaguar: Grace, Pace, and Space - Sir William Lyons
Current Hers: '13 Lexus ES350
Current Mine: '08 Jaguar S-Type 4.2 "Satin Edition" (250.06 whp / 259.67 torque)
Past Ours: '05 X-Type 3.0/auto Jaguar Racing Green

 

Yup I've talked with the owner of this shop. With the fx conversion and $80 shipping to Canada it's almost the same price as buying the stuff locally (for me anyway)

 

FYI there are a lot of arguments all over the web about Motorcraft Mercon SP being identical to Lifegaurd 6 at less than half the cost. It's the fluid that Ford recommends for the same ZF 6 speed in their vehicles. There was independent testing done on both fluids and the results stated that the they were so close that the slight differences could be due to them being from different batches. The rumor is that Ford hired Shell (who makes Lifegaurd 6) to make the fluid in the US at reduced costs and they named it Motorcraft Mercon SP. So if you want to save some cash on the fluid do some research on it and draw your own conclusions. Run a google search on it and you'll see what I mean.

I picked a pan up on Ebay and the sealing sleeve. They are kind of a pain to track down because they have gone through a few different revisions or at least the part number has changed quite a bit.

Pan ($99): http://www.ebay.com/itm/360731088932...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Sleeve ($19): http://www.ebay.com/itm/151629952421...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I plan on changing mine this weekend. I have had a cold shift issue with my ZF 6 speed since I bought the car when it had 27k miles on it. It clunks into gear pretty hard on the first cold shift. If I baby it for the first 20 seconds you don't notice it. The dealer never noticed it when I brought it to them, what a surprise... Now it's out of warranty and it seems to be getting worse so hopefully new fluid helps.

 

Since I just did mine, I will give a few pointers. If your bolts are a little rusty spray wd40 on them the night before. Not the on the bolt heads, but the threads that are exposed thru the top of the trans. You can also put your torx head tool on the bolts and hit it lightly with a small hammer to shock the bolts, then remove them. Mine came out with no issues. I ended up having the larger torx heads. The toughest part of the job was replacing the sleeve. After removing the electrical connector (don't touch the inside of the connector/trans with your fingers due to possible electrical discharge), remove the pan and pull down the sleeve tang. Then remove the sleeve, I had to use pliers to get the sleeve off. DO NOT twist the sleeve off, just pull straight out. Remember its orientation, there is a slot. Put the new sleeve back on with a little tranny oil on the o-rings. This sounds easier than it is, I had to tap the sleeve in the last bit, so the locking tang would go back in. Torque the pan correctly or you will have a leak. Follow the fill instructions on the CTSC website -- if you overshoot the temperature when filling, it will take hours to cool down. The transmission heats up FAST!!! Hope this helps

6 Speed Transmission with plastic oil pan fluid change procedure: Genuine ZF Parts

Jaguar 6HP26 - 6HP28 Transmission fluid level procedures: Genuine ZF Parts

 

Topped up oil in transmission and tested it today, no issues, hopefully it helped. Still needs new pan+oil.

 

Good to hear. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

Good news..I was pretty sure that was the problem...hopefully is all it was.

 

I swapped my pan/filter/sleeve and re-filled with Motorcraft Mercon SP. The vertical tube on the old filter was cracked at the base and the fluid did have a some very fine metal flakes (seemed normal). The magnets had a small amount of build up on them. The old sleeve was a pain to get out. My hand was bloody by the time the new one was installed. There isn't a ton of room to get your hand in there.

My car shifts like a dream now! No more hard shift issues. I plan on draining and refilling with Mercon SP again in the near future to try and get out more of the old fluid. I'm guessing the crack in the filter tube was causing the issues. I'm not sure how that would have happened. Car has 65k on it now. I purchased at 27k and the trans hasn't been touched since.

 

Any source for the mercon SP? Thanks.

Also, how many liters of fluid did you use? I see that the kit from ctsc comes with 6L but my mechanic has told me that the procedure calls for 10L so I'm a bit confused.

 

I purchased the fluid locally from O'reilly Auto Parts for about $9/qt. It takes 6qts when you swap the pan/filter. There will still be fluid in the torque converter so your mechanic might be looking at how much fluid the trans holds not how much you'd use when swapping the pan/filter. You'd need to hook the trans up to a machine and flush it if you wanted to get all the fluid out.

 

Yes I think he quoted me 3 hours for just a normal drain and fill (6 qts) and another 2 hours to drain the fluid out of the torque converter (4 qts). I wonder if it's necessary to drain all the fluid out.

 

Initially I would drain/flush ALL the fluid...Especially If you do it every 40K to 50K miles...I wouldn't want to contaminate the new fluid with what's left in the TC and cooler lines to the radiator. Unless I were to do the 6 qt drain and fill a few times every few miles over a period of a week say.

Does the pan have a drain plug?

 

Yup the pan does have a drain plug. I'm a bit weary of a full flush as id hate to stir up things like metal shavings that might be present in the transmission. Although maybe I'm being a bit too paranoid.

 

I agree..that's why I stated every 40k to 50K miles..any more than that, say around 80K to 90K plus you'd risk stirring up some sludge

 

No joke Jag dealer quoted me $700 and the service writer and I are friends..LOL, I used Redline D6 it's a little cheaper and FULL synthetic, There is a Mercon (Ford) version that goes for less $$$ also.

 

If the gearbox is leaking at the sump, the pan is most likely cracked. Continuing to drive the vehicle is going to lead to further damage, so have the filter/pan replaced and the gearbox refilled with fluid meeting the correct specification.

The ZF gearboxes also have a tendency to leak, or seep, from around the electrical connector, which requires the sump to be removed to replace the sleeve containing the seal.

 

Unfortunately my gearbox still slipping on gears sometimes, it is better than before top up. Today I took the car dealer to fix the leak from the pan on warranty, I left the car for a week. It is 60 miles from where I live, first 10 miles slipped 3-4 times but after that it was perfect. I hope they will find gearbox faults on the memory and warranty company will have to repair my gearbox, otherwise it will be impossible to prove my problem and I will have to use the car until the gearbox definitely goes bad.