I bought my 2005 XJ8 one month ago, so I decided it was time for a test drive, a long distance one.

It didn't start very well, since I managed to hit a truck in the somewhat limited parking space in the center of Rome, which caused a nasty dent the size of a fist on the front left mudguard. I was pretty pissed off with myself, but much to my surprise the local Jaguar expert (Bardelli, in Rome, Italy) promised to fix it within two working days and the cost would be just 350 €. In reality I was expecting something like 1.350 € plus a few weeks for getting the job done...

Great job by Bardelli - actually they also serviced the car completely during the two days, so I was ready to hit the road only with a minor delay.

Bardelli told me that according to their experience, it pays off to change not only the engine oil but also the gearbox oil more frequently than what the official instructions tell. So I did, and thereafter I cruised across continental Europe without even the slightest problem or concern. I remember reading about some people, who have driven a million or two kilometers (or miles, you name it) with the same Volvo or Mercedes-Benz, and what they all have in common is the fact that they do change the engine oil quite frequently.

1.750 km (= +1.000 miles) in two days, and my Jaguar worked just fine. It was like riding on a magic carpet across Europe, the engine and the suspension are just fabulous! 170 km/h was a relaxed speed on the autobahn during daytime; when it got dark I didn't exceed 140 km/h. But of course I just *had* to test how the Jaguar feels like at +200 km/h, and I must say it was fairly ok. Not like the Corvette Z06 I had some years ago, where even 300 km/h was just fine, but in the end the Jaguar XJ8 is not even meant to be a sports car. I really appreciated the practically noiseless engine - and on the other hand, all the noise my Alpine sound system was able to create, when needed. And the seats, they are actually far better than the ones I have in my living room. ;-)

So a very nice first (long distance) experience with my XJ8! I just wanted to share this with you.

 

Nice trip... Any pics of the scenery? More info on the car? Engine? Miles?

 

Hi PKOKO,

unfortunately I have no pictures of the scenery, it was raining practically all the time...

My Jaguar has a 4.2 L V8, and I bought it with 95.000 km on it. I had the car checked by a local Jaguar specialist and in my opinion they did an excellent job: They noticed small things that I wouldn't have noticed myself, i.e. the warning sound of the parking sensors (front) didn't work and there was also a small issue with the A/C. Both got fixed and the vendor paid the bill (approx. 400 €). For the rest, they confirmed me that the car is in a very good condition and I got a thorough report on all the test results. I also let them do a full service to the car, so I was pretty confident before I headed towards north.

After ten days I will travel the same road in the opposite direction, so let's hope I'll have better luck with the weather and can take some pictures.

 

Now I drove my Jaguar back in the opposite direction. My first observation is that it apparently always rains in Germany! (Not exactly true, but this time it stopped raining only when the snowfall started?!? - Not a very normal thing in November, I've been told.)

I crossed the Alps using the famous Brenner pass (alt. 1.360 m above sea level). And yes, you guessed it right: A real snow storm started to develop at the altitude of 1.000 m, just when I was some 70 km away from the topmost spot of the Brenner. After Brenner it apparently should get warmer again, when you glide towards the plain in the Milan / Po-river area in Italy, the following 100 km or so.

With my summer tyres things started to get REALLY interesting, when the road temperature dropped below the freezing point. I couldn't stop in any of the roadside motels, because the weather forecast was predicting that things will only get worse in the coming days: I could possibly find myself spending 3-5 days eating Wienerschnitzel in one of the cozy Austrian roadside motels. And nobody could tell, if even 5 days would be sufficient. So I kept on driving...

Then the worst thing happened: My sophisticated Italian language dashboard display flashed me the message, GUASTO DEL CAMBIO, which is probably like "gearbox fault/failure". I wasn't very pleased to notice this, since the same weather forecast was predicting that the temperatures would fall even down to -12 C during the night and the following days - and the road climbing towards Brenner is practically completely without any safety margin on the sides of the road, and the traffic consists mainly of heavy trucks, who necessarily can not break fast enough even if they wanted to, if my car would happen to stop right in the middle of the traffic. At least I would have caused a massive traffic jam all by myself, if the my dear XJ8 would have decided to be that bad towards her new owner.

Luckily I was still able to keep on driving with an even pace, even though there were no gear shifts anymore. When I finally managed to find a parking place practically on the topmost spot of this road, I wasn't very happy to notice that I couldn't move the gear shift at all, whereas the letters (and numbers) P, R, N, D and 2,3,4,5 where all simultaneously illuminated with a nice alarming red colour, just if I would have put all the possible gears / options on at the same time! The nicest observation was the fact that I couldn't even move the gear shift to N or P... So I stopped the engine and started to prepare myself for a very cold and long night on the Alps...

Luckily "rebooting" the Jaguar gear box apparently works as efficiently than rebooting your MS-Windows 10 laptop: In other words I was able to use some gears again, at least in the manual mode (4), after I had switched the engine on and off a few times. I didn't dare to touch the gear shift at all, but put all my attention on trying to stay on the slippery road, with temperature now well beyond the freezing point and the snowfall just getting worse. I can tell you that it was not fun! But I simply had to get going, because the weather was just getting worse and since I was in the worst possible spot of my road trip when all this hassle started.

Fast forward: After 18 hours of continuous driving (apart from refueling and buying myself new Diet Cokes) I finally arrived to my destination safely(?), and more importantly, in the Central Italy, where the daily temperatures are still above 20 C.

Tomorrow I will call my trusted Jaguar mechanic, so he can tell me if I need to get *really* worried or just worried. My Jaguar XJ User's Manual was very vague concerning this specific problem situation.

And my question to you, dear Jaguar enthusiasts: Have any of you experienced a similar issue with the gearbox on your XJ8 (X350)? I tried to do a few searches on the Forum, but either I get far too many posts to check - a few hundred in fact - or none at all.

Thanks in advance for your kind help!

P.S: And you are right, unfortunately I didn't take any nice scenic pictures of the Austrian/Italian Alps during my drive back home. I was too busy in trying to keep my Jaguar and myself alive. :P And I definitely don't recommend 18 hours of continuous driving to anybody!

 

What a horrendous experience!

I think I would have had a heart attack!

I am guessing that the problems could be related to the low temperature.

If Jaguar had tested this car in cold countries they would have realised

that the struts leak at low temperatures.

You mechanic will need to read the codes.

Glad you survived.

 

And here is the final verdict:

I brought my baby (Jaguar XJ8 4.2, 2005) to the local Jaguar shop (Rome, Italy), and they connected some kind of a smart device by cables to the dashboard. I was watching over the mechanic's shoulder to see what was going on... "Waiting to stabilize the system... wait for another 180 sec..."

Spooky.

After a while they told me that apparently the gearbox had failed twice to change from gear 4 to 5, which I still remember before all the hassle started on the Alps.

According to him, it was not that strange, keeping in mind that I had been driving 12 hours on the German/Austrian Autobahns, out of which the last 100 km on an upward slope (road?)! And without any other breaks than the mandatory fuel and Diet Coke stops. I'm serious.

To summarize: He "reset the system" (please don't ask me which one...) and I was free to go, after I offered him a cup of coffee!

Great customer service again by Bardelli (Rome, Italy). If you need to stop by during your "Tour d'Europe" with you Jaguar, don't hesitate to contact Mr. Mario. He is a the head of the authorized Jaguar service point practically at the center of Rome (Italy), and will for sure do his best to help you, which is quite a lot. It doesn't matter if you have a beautiful E-Type or a plain XJ8 from 2005, he knows them all!

 

Glad to hear you are ok but I would replace the tranny fluid if you haven't already. I would also check the cooler lines

 

As a matter of fact, I had the transmission fluid (and basically all other liquids and filters) changed before my road trip, i.e. a few weeks and some 3.600 km earlier. A long time ago I had a Pontiac Firebird and indeed the gear box started to behave in a very "interesting" way, but changing the gear box oil resolved the problem.

Concerning "cooler lines", can you please explain me what they are? Don't know this expression.