Hello,
2004 x350 xjr with 200k miles loses complete traction and shows Transmission faillure, restricted performance and parking brake fault. After putting the car in park and then in reverse, the transmission kicks in with a rough klunk. then you can put it in Drive and the trans is in limp mode. If you shut the engine down it will not start again in Park or Neutral!
after driving it home, and you let it sit for a few hours it will sart in Neutral, not in Park. After waiting for about 8 hours car will start normal, in park. Messages stil there but sometimes only parking brake fault. Put it in drive and drive a few meters, turn off and start again, all messages gone and car drives normal. Battery is new. Sometimes you can drive 100 or more mile, other times 2 miles and it is in problems. Mostly happens when shifting from drive to reverse when parking but it also appears just driving at 50mph. Transmision has been serviced and has a new filter and oil .
Where is my problem? after a day, it drives like it should but it is not reliable cause of the strange starting problem.

Thanx Peco.

 

Oh my...
first check battery 12.6 volt under 12.4 charge with 2 amp for long time like 24 hours .
second check you ground studs below engine tray under bonnet right behind headlights.
Undo them carefully brush slightely with a brass brush.
if they brake of it will be a bumperoff and headlight out and install of new connections .... did it with aluminum bolts
Next would be a transmission oil level check
watch youtube videos with zf6 hp26 automatic transmission
Once battery is full get codes read.
preferebly with sdd.

 

I own a workshop in the netherlands in which i work on american and exclusive cars. Also Harleys. from panheads to twincams.
I have checked all the grounds, cleaned them wit a braas brush. the ones behind the headlights already aluminium ones, those in the trunk are clean. Battery is the 100 amp bosch silverline , new (3 months old now) it has been charged slow for 24h already.
We have changed oil and filter (carterpan) about 1500 miles ago. we used an original service set from ZF (Pan/filter, zfgearoil, bolts, gasket, seals. We filled the trans with a pump we also use for mercedes audi bmw etc (also ZF transmissions). we checked temperature with the autel device and wit infrared, was okay. Car was on a 4 column lift and level.
Drove perfct for a few das and then same thing happened. on the parking lot after shifting from drive to reverse , it has no more traction. transmission failure, restricted performance an parking brake fault. Orange lamp burning. no check engine lamp burning.
\Since my son owns a x350 sovereign lwb with the 4.2 we are thinking of changing out som modules, but we asked here if maybe someone has had this and knows another solution. we already checked the shift cable, it is in position and the bolts are thight.
Reading codes only gives some on the parking brake, but that works fine and after clearing, they stay gone.
If we have time we will start exchanging parts from the sovereign, which is very reliable, and i am anxious to nove the problem on both cars..
So if anyone has ever seen this problem please help us, we will carry on searching and what we find we will report in this thread.
thank you for reading and answering
Peco

 

Did you check the 2 bolts (under car, side of trans, 8mm hex heads) that hold the shift cable to the trans?

They can be loose/missing...

 

Since you run a workshop do you have a working SDD? I think you will need this for servicing Jaguar's. What are you using for a scanner now?
Glad to hear to hear you serviced the transmission correctly as that bites a lot of people.
You also hit the grounds which are a well known problem too.

With no codes I hesitate to mention PCM? These cars are getting pretty old so this is a big guess.
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Fresh fluids only bring Vampires up to peak performance.

200K miles-not-klicks?

Overdue for full rebuild of the ZF. More than one clutch pack, the electricals (solenoids & such) ... the electronics (control module) and a thorough review of the wiring harness(es) and their connectors as well.

A 2-million-mile Dodge-Cummins or ToyOder Land Crusher it was never.... Vampire, only maybe... fiscal thing, that last part..

 

Hey Peco,
Greetings!
When you have a minute, search my threads and you'll see that I had similar symptoms a couple of years ago. Turned out to be a stone-damaged LH rear wheel speed sensor.
Years ago, I talked with the transmission guru at ZF North America after chasing similar problems with a BMW 7 series. I had diagnosed the problem down to intermittent valve body solenoid failure. Actually turned out to be bad trans harness connector at trans case. Easy fix. Anyhow, the ZF guru said that about 50% of core transmissions received in exchange for factory rebuilt units were perfectly OK; problem was a chassis-side issue. Of the remaining 50%, majority were valve body electrical issues (eg, flex circuit foil failure). Of the small minority showing mechanical issues, major cause was plugged pan filter causing front pump starvation/low line pressure. Of these, most could have been field corrected with new pan/filter and fluid. Of the remaining (very few) actual mechanical problems, #1 issue was front pump and clutch pack failure due to continued operation with plugged filter.
Guru was emphatic that pan/filter and fluid (ZF) should be changed at 50K miles, followed by fluid only change every 50K miles going forward. BMW, Merc, etc were touting "Lifetime Sealed" at the time.
Also, BMWNA had just then instituted a policy of requiring ZF guru approval before any in-warranty trans pull was approved. Biggest BMW "trans failure" root cause at the time? Coffee spilled into the center console, eventually shorting selector lever circuit card.
Finally, I've replaced case connectors, valve body circuit foils, and solenoids in ZF (and Merc, and VW, etc) transmissions over the years far, far more often than having to actually pull transmissions. Ditto console connectors and boards, TCM connectors, ground connections, etc.
Run an OBD session, and look at problem codes in ALL of the modules. For example, a bad wheel speed signal will trigger multiple trans codes, yet the root cause is in the chassis module.
Hope this helps!

 

All good info, and I don't really dispute it, thank youi.

But I say again - those who DO pull and rebuild them have documented that the 'working' mechanical parts DO TOO wear.

The ZF design is about as good as it gets as to compensatiing and carrying-on "regardless" but still. A refresh of the worn innards can be well worth it if reliability into long years ahead is a goal.

 

WE are going to check abs sensors as Hisport mentioned, strange thing is that our sovereign lwb is having abs problem now, (left rear) and also gives transmission failure now. Okay, this week is going to be a week of Jaguar work ..and no Dodge Rams or Ford f150's... :-)
keep you posted on the results

 

I had a dent from a drill in one of my reluctor ring .
we were changing the abs sensors, one of the bolts broke off so had to drill out .
could drive for another 1500km some times dsc unavail. came up. Engine off engine on light was gone .
Then I drove 330km with both kids to the coast of Belgium and right after Brussels the culprit hit back hard with dsc abs speedcontrole restricted perf. and transmission fault
had to leave it in Knokke took the train 5 days later I installed a new reluctor ring and all troubles were gone

 

hi,
We solved the problem on the lwb sovereign, which was just a bad abs sensor. The XJR however keeps giving problems.
today we were able to read the car out while in limp mode and with the earlier warnings in the dash screen
in the tcm there is code p0705 which says defect in the transmission range sensor.
the second one is u1058 which says no communication between shifthandle and rear axle?

Both cannot be cleared.

Strange thing was that after turning the engine off, this time would start in neutral but not in park. normally it wont start in both neutral or park. When you wait several hours it resets itself and will start normal in both park or neutral.
when looking in live data we saw battery 12.9 volts when idling and 13.7 volts when at 1600rpm.
in park or neutral we saw enginespeed (637 rpm) but when in reverse or drive there was enginespeed zero.
is this purely the transmission range sensor which is bad?
I will try to find this sensor, tomorrow i will ask the guy nearby who dismantles the jags if he has one for me. Is this inside the transmission?

will be continued.

 

Abs sensors ... another one . Always worth having a check

 

How about the ground cable to the transmissio

 

Tonight checked the ground cable on the transmission. Looked okay, cleaned the ground points and the cable. Found out that the plug on the speed sensor was pretty loose. So fixed that.

Can anybody tell what this device is for? Its on the right side rear of the transmission. Has 2 very thin purple black wires going into a plug on this black issue..

 

Today we did put the winter tires and wheels on the XJ sovereign lwb. I checked direct the plug on the speed sensor at front of transmission. There was no room or play, so the 5 mm play in different ways probably was giving false signals to the ecu in the xjR. We managed to do a fixation on that plug and i have not seen a problem or fault since yesterday