I bought my '02 XJ Sport last year. My Jag repairman told me lat year that my tranny fluids would have to be replaced sometime but would be ok for a while. At the time the Jag had 72K miles on it. Now it has 90k and the first gear was not shifting, getting stuck a few times. I took it to my Jag guy, and sure enough, I burnt it. The fluid that was amber last year is black this year. Nice. I could kick myself for passing it up last year, but we thought it would be good until around 90k...NOT!
Lesson: Change your tranny fluid. What I thought was saving my $450-$500 last year, just cost me around $1900-$2000 for a low mileage used tranny, installed, this year.
Bert

 

Sorry to hear about your tranny, but don't kick yourself too hard... It may have had nothing to do with the fluid's age.

Many of us have had tranny failures in the 60k to 80k range. The mechanical failure may well be the cause of the dark fluid, not vice-versa.

Is your's an XJ8 or XJR? The XJ8 trannies are prone to failure, the XJR's (a different transmission) seem to be much more robust.

 

It's an XJ8. The model is the XJ Sport, but mechanically it's the same as an XJ8.
Thanks for the feedback on the problems with the trannies. I didn't know that. Last year I was told I would be ok to hold off for a while, so that is why I was kicking myself. But now that you've told me this, I don't feel so bad.
Thanks again.