Hi All,
I'm traveling with my X300 from Portugal to Norway, decided to take the long way and make several stopovers. So far, I've been very unlucky.


All started in Avignon, France, when in the morning the starter would not turn. I could just hear a loud click. Battery was fine. After being towed, 1 day later and 720 Euros spent, I had a new starter on it. By coincidence, the garage was a kind of specialist of old Jags, which reassured me quite a bit.


However, once on the road again, I started to notice a noise when accelerating from standstill. At speed, it is silent. I would almost dare to say it is transmission. It's very audible in first and occasionaly somewhat in second gear (it's automatic gearbox, not so easy to identify gears). Nevertheless, sometimes I can also hear a similar noise on some particular bumps in the road, which would point to suspension, but not always.


At the moment, I'm in Switzerland and brought the car to a well known Jag specialist. The mechanic diagnosed as a gearbox problem, but that was based on the fact that he could only hear the noise in first gear. Myself I was uncertain at the time. Other subject of debate is the noise location. I would say from the rear (so, not the gearbox), but I'm open that it may not be.


To continue the bad luck story, while the car was on the elevator, I could see that one of the steering gaiter was damaged while towing. I'm certain because the car is (was) immaculate underneath. And it is not over: today I found the front blinker cover broken. It must have been a stone in the road (today, because yesterday it was fine and there were still loose remaining inside), but I could not hear anything.


Well, I have to continue the travel, because the ferry is reserved from Kiel on the 26 and lose it would be an expensive option.


It would be greatly appreciated if any of the members could give some hints of what can be the noise. I know that the description is poor, but I wonder if it can be related to the towing or something else with the starter.


Friday afternoon I have an appointment with my Jag garage in Norway and he will take a look at it, but some opinions from the experts on the board would be helpful.


Regards from unlucky Jorge

 

While there are various opinions regarding towing an automatic, the general view is that an automatic should be towed on it's front wheels, that is, backwards, with the rear wheels raised off the ground. Otherwise, it should be "towed no more than 0.8 kilometers/ 0.5 miles with the gear selector in position "N" at a speed not exceeding 48kmh/ 30mph."

This is according to the Jaguar Vehicle Care Handbook. So, unless these criteria were observed, it is possible that some damage may have been done to the transmission.

 

Hi Jorge,

Sorry to hear you're having so many difficulties and expenses on this trip!

From your description of the noise, one possibility might be that the floor/tunnel heat shield between the transmission and body may be coming in contact with the transmission under certain conditions, either due to something that happened while the car was towed or a tired transmission/rear engine mount. You might have the mechanic inspect the heat shields for any bends or loose sections and inspect the transmission mount for excess movement. I hope your problem is that simple.

Please keep us informed.

Cheers,

Don

 

Thanks. It is great to hear your opinion and feel somewhat less alone in this mess.

Sogood: I may have expressed myself incorrectly. The car was in a flatbed. It was pulled by a cable from the road to it, while in N (at least when I could see). That was the cable that damaged the steering gaiter because it was hooked from behind the engine. But well, with that I can live. It can be repaired later on.

Don: The mechanic checked the transmission play and it was ok. I should have better checked the heat shields while the car was on the elevator. Something like that would make sense. There are coincidences indeed, but having a serious gearbox or transmission problem right after having the car towed has to raise the question, especially because it has been a fairly reliable car.

It is decided: Tomorrow morning we leave from Switzerland to Kiel in Germany. About 1000 km which I hope will be uneventful.

Jorge

 

Hi Kleman
I recently had a very annoying intermittent noise coming from under the car.
It turned out to be the gear selection cable rubbing on the driveshaft.
Might be worth checking.
Dennis

 

Hi Kleman and thanks for the update. Glad to hear that your car was moved on a flatbed and not "towed" in the conventional sense. At least you can rule out serious gearbox damage.

I would tend to go along with Dons' thoughts on the heat shield. If it is cracked, it will vibrate/resonate to different degrees, depending on road speed. It might have gotten damaged when being pulled onto the flatbed.

Best of luck with it and breathe a sigh of relief!!

 

Thanks for the support.
Update from today: We made it to Kiel without incidents. Tomorrow we take the ferry to Oslo and Friday the mechanic will take a look at it.


I'll keep you posted on the origin of the noise.

 

Hi All,
So, here we have the latest news and these are good:
Finaly we arrived at Oslo and I took my car to the Jag specialist here. It had anyway an appointment due for the mandatory technical inspection.
Well, it turned out that the noise was originating from wrongly installed gearbox mounts, which had to be removed to replace the starter.


After a moderate amount of money to install correctly the mounts, the Jag is as before, that is, in almost new condition. And, yes, it has passed the technical inspection with flying colours.


I can only say thank you to the forum and also to the Jaguar specialist in Oslo, Sandberg Auto (perhaps I'm breaking some forum rules by naming the garage, but I also think it is worthwhile to mention when people do a professional work), which identified the problem within minutes.


Regards from Oslo,
Jorge

 

Good to hear everything is okay. I think we are all in favor of mentioning both good and bad experiences with repair facilities and vendors.

 

Jorge,

Glad to hear it was nothing serious and has been resolved. Thanks for reporting back so we can all learn from your experience.

Cheers,

Don

 

I lovevthis forum. :-)