Hi everyone, I've just joined today and completely new to
any car forums. This has most likely already been covered on here but I accidentally removed the gearbox sump plug thinking it was the engine oil plug. It drained around 4ltrs of fluid, which looked fairly dirty tbh. I've purchased 20ltrs of lifeguard 8 TF and a new sump pan and filter. The problem i have is, I can't see where about the fill hole is and how to go about filling it when I do. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

Hunch, welcome to the forums. I think you will find a lot of good information and people here. We pride ourselves in being a better car group. But, we do ask one thing from you. Please stop by the New Member section and give a little intro. This will help you learn who the people are here and we get to introduce you to our little family.

As for your question, there is a fill plug on the passenger side of the tranny. You need to slide your hand between the exhaust pipe and the tranny. You will then see a plug with a hex end on it near the tail piece of the tranny. The hard part of this will be geting your hands up there when the exhaust is warm. It is going to take a larger allen to remove the plug (6mm?). You wlil then also need a little pump of some sort to suck the oil out of the bottles to be then pushed into the tranny. If you watch this video ( ), that will give you an idea of how to check the fluid and how to add fluid. Doing the rest of the tranny maintenance is pretty straight forward. You have to remove the pan and throw out the old one and then there is a coupling that you need to remove and replace. But, you can find some videos on the ZF 8HP tranny and those should show you that step.

 

If you don't have access to a lift I would take it somewhere. I have changed 5 or 6 cars that use the 6 and 8 speed ZF and they are all fiddly and a pain to do.
Even with a lift!

One BIG suggestion is to make SURE you can break loose the fill plug BEFORE you drop the oil from the drain plug!! Do NOT remove it yet just break it loose and re-tighten it until you have all your stuff.
I see you are past that point now but it has to get broken loose.

It's very tight and uses a stubby 8mm Allen wrench. Normal wrench won't work it's too long but they can be cut down in a pinch. I had to use a 2 foot cheater pipe on that small 8mm wrench the fill plug was so tight. So far every single one I have done is way tight! Jaguar or MB which are the two brands I have changed transmission fluid on.

Also please wear gloves as posted above the car has to be running and the oil the correct temperature when you thread the fill plug back in. It's messy and hot plus you can't screw around because the temperature has to be within the range specified.

I also had to purchased a special fluid pump with an adapter that threads into the pan or in the case of Jaguars has a hooked tube so you can pump the fluid into the transmission.
Here is the one I got.

You can use the hand pump method but beyond one container of oil it gets real tedious to pump it in by hand!.
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Thank you very much for all that information. I'm going to get a mechanic to do the refill hopefully. I'll give him this information first to help him. 👍

 

You are most welcome but I do ask that you come back and finish this thread off with what the end results was?
It's a real help to others in the same position.
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sorry for the massive delay in replying. So a local garage completed the transmission fluid change at the end of 2020. I've been driving the car since then with no problems at all. Gear changes just as smooth as before, however, around 3 weeks ago the car stuttered for a couple of seconds then threw up a gearbox fault on the screen. It seemed to go into limp mode and I rolled down a hill and managed to park it. Restarted it but the fault was still there. The engine runs fine and I can select different gears but the car won't move, only revs. I got it recovered back to the garage and their computer registers this fault.

P0977-12
Shift solenoid B control, circuit high, circuit short to battery.

I understand this could be a number of different things but just wondered if anyone has had this before.

Thanks.

 

No it's a very rare code and I have not seen it before on a Jaguar.

It looks like low fluid level is one possible answer so maybe check the level first?
Shift solenoids do go out and need to be replaced.
The CTSC store does carry the 8 speed solenoids as a kit. Maybe a call to them as I am sure they would also just sell the "B" solenoid if that's what you need.
ZF Parts

My bet is a bad solenoid.
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The level is fine and no sign of any leaks.
I'll get them to change the solenoid.

Thanks very much.

 

O/s/r of the gearbox just above the sump/filter, 8mm allan key is required also a tool to add the oil, I used a pump type that I saved from a 5 litre swarfega bottle which I throughly cleaned it was the perfect size and simple.