I am not quite done with this exercise yet but I am impressed at how such a simple undertaking is actually quite painful even with the benefit of a lift.

There is absolutely no way you can remove the transmission cooler lines as a pair. You have to remove the 3 plastic holders and fish them out one by one rearwards. The oxygen sensor near the cooler lines will need to be removed to improve the wiggle room.

After I replaced the radiator, this leak appeared which seems to be coming from the metal to hose connection. The leak was quite substantial. The manufactured date on the cooler line was July, 2003 with 118K miles on the odometer. It looks like it lasted more than it should.

I have not put the new lines in yet. I have to disassemble them first and fish then in one at a time. Not looking forward to doing this. My fear is bending them unnaturally and destroying them. We shall find out this coming weekend.

Any words of wisdom out there?

New Transmission Cooler lines


Removed Transmission Cooler Lines

 

No words of wisdom, but I'm looking forward to your update when completed. Last time I had my XJR in for service, they indicated that my trans cooler lines had developed a slight leak. Quoted me $334 for parts and $775 for labor. I decided to postpone that repair. Based on the number of hours, I'm guessing it's not an easy job. Good luck and I hope things go well!

 

What a PITA! but you are half way there having taken the old lines out.

You might want to get something like this for the o2 sensor.

Lambda Sensor Tool | eBay.

 

Just did this job a few months ago, and you can do this! You don't need to remove the O2 sensor. Here is a cut and paste from my thread on these forums:

1 - Hampton Jaguar had the best pricing for the lines. $220 when I got mine a few months ago.

2 - I started with 4 ramps, then elevated the front on up with some 6-ton 24" lift jack stands. The back wheels remained on the ramps to keep the angle from being too extreme. A lift would have been much better, but this was sturdy and provided just enough room.

3 - Take photos or a video of the new lines, noting where the 3 plastic clamp/ties are and their orientation. Sort out how the lines go on your car to determine which line is on top, and scribe a "T" on its plugin fitting. It is possible to swap these.

4 - Remove all the clamps to separate the lines, it will be practically impossible to snake them through as a pair and they are easy to rejoin and clamp once on the car.

5 - Invite a buddy over. It went much easier with one of us on each end of the line to feed it through. Do the top one first, then the bottom. Leave the lines loose until they are both in place on the car, then connect the ends.

6 - Don't fear the steering rack. I read a few comments about "dropping" the steering rack and got the impression it was some major ordeal. It is held on by 3 bolts and once those are pulled it stays on the car but simply drops down about 3-4" and out of the way. Took all of 3 minutes to do and made all the difference...it's tight in there. No adjustments are disturbed, and the rack simply bolts back up when done.

7 - The lines go in from rear to front. Take your time, flex the aluminum SLIGHTLY when you have to and take care of the crimped joints. Technically they do rotate but this is where the leaks eventually form. Why speed the process.

8 - Hook the rear plug-ins up first, then the front. Last, put the clamps back on.

----------------------------------------------

That was a few months ago and the lines remain bone dry, and the transmission shifts like a dream with the new fluid.

Feel free to PM me for an email or phone exchange, I'd be glad to help you through it.

 

Awesome! Thanx for the tips! Now, the steering rack.... that is one part I did not think of doing. Did it make a difference?

It will be next Saturday before I get my hands on it again....

 

See, all OU fans aren't bad!

Again, no need to remove the O2 sensor. Regarding the steering rack, I don't think the lines would have ever gone in without dropping it down. It's a must when you don't have a lift. It only moved 3-4" but it made all the difference. Very tight quarters in there, no wonder even the indie shops score some bucks to do it.

Again, you're welcome to PM me if you need help once you get underway.

 

So, I was able to put the new transmission cooler lines in. You have to remove the clamps and feed them one at a time. I noticed that if you start diagonally from the rear of the car (passenger side) feeding them through the driver's side and then working with them ended-up being the approach that worked for me.

Also, removing the 3 bolts that hold the steering rack on the subframe gives you a few more inches wiggle room to play with.

Now, once I went through this exercise, one of the 3 clamps would not fit in the original location (clamps that hold both the transmission lines together). I simply found another spot here I could clamp it on.

Now more transmission leaks, hurray! I saved the liquid gold and reused since I changed it about 2000 miles ago. This cost me one additional quart of liquid gold (ZF Lifeguard transmission fluid).

 

Good deal, that's a nice job to have in your rear view mirror. I know what you mean about the ZF, I watched about a 1/2 quart hit the garage floor when I goofed up during my session.

 

How do you know how much transmission fluid to put in? According to the tech, mine has been leaking for some time. Once I replace the lines, I'll need to top off the trans. Is there a DIY procedure to make sure you have the right amount of fluid in the transmission?

 

Lots of info here www.thectsc.com

 

This leak is also very common on the S Types with the 6 speed ZF transmission.
The problem as was posted above is the crimped connection between the metal lines and the rubber hose. You can replace the lines and they will leak again but hopefully not for another 100K miles or so!!

An alternative repair that several S type guys have done is to cut the rubber hose and metal ferule off the metal lines and replace the rubber hoses and use double worm drive clamps. No leaks reported yet with this repair method. Much cheaper and you really need a lift for this job if possible.

On the S Type if replacing the entire hose/tube assembly it requires gently bending the metal lines to get them in place and then try to straighten them after you get them in. Seems like the XJ might be easier than the S Type when it comes to replacing these lines?
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I actually tried the clamp method on my first attempt, and yes it sure would have been cheaper. I even rented a flare kit and flared all the ends of the aluminum pipe, then used two heavy stainless steel worm clamps.

As soon as I began filling the transmission some large leak developed over in the area of the clamps. I was sufficiently freaked out that I simply gave up on the idea and bought the new ones. Looking back, I think where I went wrong was trying to assemble the lines while under the car, instead of completing them out in plain sight and then putting them in.

We got 160k out of the first set of lines, I think the new set can hold on for 30k or so while we still own it.

 

meirion1 has posted a great link there.

The basics of it are as follows:

• Get a hand held infrared thermometer (Harbor Freight sells a decent one for under $40)

• Begin filling with the car off, until it will hold no more

• Start the car and begin the warm up. Add fluid, then get inside and run through all the gears, pausing at each one momentarily. Go back under, add more fluid. Lather, rinse and repeat

• At some point begin taking temp readings. Point the thermometer at the flat area surrounding the drain plug.

• The kicker: Once your thermo readings are between 35 and 50 degrees Celsius, you should see a small, steady trickle of fluid coming out the fill plug.

That's it. For me, it all seemed so vague and unsatisfying. Why on God's earth they couldn't just put a $5 wire cable dipstick on the thing is beyond me. I'd even climb under the car to give it a looksee if they didn't feel like they could plumb it up to the engine compartment.

 

My two cents:
1) You can do this. I was really dreading this project, but it wasn't terrible - about a 3/5 in the PITA scale (as compared to 5/5 doing a timing belt job on my wife's Volvo). Took me about 4 hours using ramps, not a lift.
2) One thing I did that wasn't previously mentioned was disconnect one screw and move the airbox out of the way, leaving the wires and MAFS connected. Then I removed the air cleaner intake pipe and air cleaner outlet pipe. That made it really easy to get to the upper hose and feed it through with no help, and only took 10 minutes.
3) No special tools are needed, unless you consider a deep-well 10mm socket special. I didn't happen to have that.
4) Don't remove the protective caps until the hoses are in place. You don't want any dirt getting in there.

I've seen posts about saving and reusing the fluid and I don't recommend it. You probably were low on fluid to begin with and will have to buy some anyway, and the fluid is not *THAT* expensive. Automatic transmissions are extremely sensitive to contaminants. You just saved hundreds by doing the repair yourself. Don't get cheap with the fluid.

Have fun!

 

I just cut off the old rubber hoses and replaced them with high pressure hydraulic hoses from NAPA and double clamped them. No need to wiggle out the the lines; fast and cheap. No more leaks knock on burl wood.