Well I recently changed my trans filter and refilled with mobil 1 synthetic. The car was doing fine, but then the problem it has given once before repeated itself. The first time the car pulled up, I talked to my wife and she was getting ready to leave the shop and it wouldnt move in gear, just make terrible scraping sounds. After moving the lever over to the manual shift side, it engaged and the problem never resurfaced, until yesterday.

She was going to work and already moving, upon kickdown to accelerate the car just revved so she coasted into a parking lot and it was making scraping sounds again.

Do these symptoms point to any part in particular in the transmission? Are there any other options for swapping in another transmission? Is there one from another car possibly? Is the cheapest rebuilt trans the $1300 one on ebay? Thanks in advance

 

Why did you change the fluid -- did you have problems before.

Who did the refill? And was the level checked?

They are extremely sensitive regarding the level

The M1 is to Esso LT71141 Spec according to Mobil but they will not guarantee it meets ZF Spec -- on Mobil site.


The drums can go on this transmission and it has nothing to do with the fluid.

 

I changed the fluid because it made the scraping sounds and wouldnt engage gears properly just one time. Moving the lever to manual made it engage and after that all was normal. I did the fluid change myself and while filling this, you are effectively checking the level. I will check it once more before I pull the trans and sell it as a core. It still shifts good, just once a month or so it will have engagement problems.

 

There are several links to threads on the ZF transmission failures on the XK8/R FAQ Sticky. This transmission has a history of hard parts failure, particularly the A drum.