Hey All,

Wondering if anyone has had a similar issue to mine. I have a 1998 XJ8 and was cruising along at 75 when suddenly, there was a loud thump I think on the driver’s side under the hood and the “transmission” light turned on on the dash and the car lost power. All of the dash lights suddenly turned on but I managed to pull over. I turned off the engine and tried to restart a few seconds later and the car wouldn’t turn over. I waited another 60 seconds and the car came in as normal without the lights, RPMs, temperature and all was back to normal and I was able to drive since then without incident. I checked for fluids leaking and watched all the gauges and everything is completely normal including shifting etc.

took it to my mechanic who pinpointed the issue to either the “transmission sensor” or gearbox fault but said it would be an intermittent issue and said to wait until it did it again which didn’t sit right with me.

I’m wondering if this incident had anything to do with my spilling coffee into the gearbox area which contains electrical components. The plastic bezel is loose and of course having the drinks holder right behind the gearbox doesn’t help.

Any feedback is helpful. Thanks so much!

 

I would definitely disassemble the console area and clean everything under there first.

 

It would be greatly appreciated if you'd put you MY and Model in your signature. These cars have many changes and upgrades between models and years. So you providing such information helps us from guessing...thanks.

 

if between spill and thump passed enough time for liquid to dry than chance it have anything to do is rather small.
did your mechanic pull any dtc and how did he conclude sensor or gearbox failure?

 

I have never heard of a similar issue with these cars. Normally, I would expect
such a fault would be associated with a DTC

 

I think it has probably dried sufficiently to make good (enough!) electrical contact. To be safe, you could remove the switch and clean it with electrical cleaner (on YouTube there is a video that shows how to remove the parts correctly and reassemble that might prove helpful). And if you have comprehensive insurance (non-collision), it will pay for a new part and installation (once upon a time, I had to brake fast in a RRS/SC: my coffee cup spilled all over the navigation screen, frying most of the radio and nav assembly; USAA paid for a renewal, less deductible).

 

The car did the same thing again so took it back to my mechanic. These were the codes the mechanic gave me and says it may be the transmission range selector switch but he’s not entirely sure. The “not entirely sure” part is what’s concerning as he says it may not fix the issue. Replacing the above part costs $1600 and I’m reticent to pay that if it’s not the definitive cause. Thanks for any advice

 

Let us know the codes so we will know how to help, 1600 is far from right for this job