Would someone confirm my suspicions. (2000 XJ8 VDP 150k miles) My suspicion is the transmission is bad. Am I wrong? Is it just the torque converter? I wish. ( I did use the search and read like posts)

1) I have the "transmission fault" warning.

2) The vehicle is slow to engage the transmission and when it does it is not a pleasant thing. It can speed up but the motor won't allow the RPMs to exceed 2.5k. So, the car is extra slow.

3) Reverse isn't pleasant at first.

4) There is a new smell from the car.

5) I'm not happy.

 

If you have 150K on your original transmission, you did good? How long to you expect an automatic gearbox to last without a rebuild? Sounds like you have a cracked drum which is very common for the ZF transmission in your car.

Time for a transmission rebuild.

 

Glad to hear I got a good run out of it.

By drum do you mean torque converter? In that case I will agree with you. B/c, the "fault" is off today and stays off as long as i'm easy on the take offs. It still isn't the smoothest thing in the world but I can get around ok.

And, i think the smell i had yesterday was the TC overheating because I was running the crud out of it. On a number of occasions I had to accelerate from 0 mph up steep hills. It shook like I was exorcizing a demon out of it.

Oh well, I'm thinking of selling it for parts or putting in a new TC and seeing how things go. Haven't decided yet.

 

No, he does not mean torque converter. Its a drum inside the transmission. You will need to replace the tranny. This same thing happened to mine at 60k miles. I am replacing it right now with one from a junk yard. You can get 2 junkyard trannies for the cost of a rebuild.

 

How common is the drum fault?

 

So how much work is changing out the transmission? I've only dealt with manual vehicles with clutches.

Special tool(s)?

And how much will that trany weigh? (about)

 

the transmission weighs about 180 lbs. the shop I got a quote from (independant) said it would be about 600 to do a swap. I also bought all new fluid which was around 300 if I remember right.