This should be accomplished at 50k miles or less depending on how you drive your car. I bought mine with 34k so I don't know how she was treated but the person was 80. I did not buy my parts from Jag because the pricing was...surprising. The filter is integrated into the pan. You must replace the pan to replace the filter. I used a genuine ZF 6HP26 pan and ZF6 Lifeguard fluid. These are readily available on the aftermarket.

Here's the fluid after 49k miles on the right. New on the left. Any questions?




What you'll need.

8 Liters of ZF6 Lifeguard fluid.
ZF transmission pan
Touch-less thermometer.
Large allen sockets.
Long ball tipped allens.
Gloves (you'll be working near a hot exhaust pipe)
Some type of fill system. I used 1/2 inch copper coil and 1/2 inch ID tubing and funnel.

Jack up the vehicle and secure with jack stands.
Remove the 10mm nut at the back of the heat shield above the first section of the exhaust pipe. The shield that's on the right side of the trans.
Place the floor jack under the rear trans mount and jack until it touches the mount. Big aluminum bracket with 4 bolts holding it in at the back of the trans.
Remove the four bolts. Lower the bracket about an inch or so. This will give you better access to the fill hole plug. Measure here...



Here is the fill plug and the front of the trans bracket pointed out. Note the heat shield move out of the way.



With the trans slightly lowered bend the shield to access that stupid fill plug. Insert your hex socket and universal joint with an extension and crack the plug loose. Don't remove it yet.
Re-position the trans and reinstall the rear mount bolts.

Your probably wondering why it's in this order. If you can't remove the fill plug and you drain the trans you've just...had sex with yourself. You have an empty trans and can't fill it and you can't drive it to a shop. Make sense now?

Start the car in park with the brake on and warm the trans. Using your touch-less thermometer warm it to 30C.
Shut the car off and drain the pan. Let it drain as long as you can. I did overnight.

Once drained remove 20 bolts from the pan leaving four corner bolts in place.
Place an oil pan under the trans.
Now remove the last four bolts and remove the pan. Toss it!

Remove the plastic O-ring cover from the new pan.


Lightly smear fresh trans fluid on the O-ring and rubber gasket on the new pan. Clean the mating surface on the trans. Re-install the pan in first installing the four corners finger tight then the remaining 20. Torque to spec in a star pattern starting from the middle outward. Specs and method are printed inside the filter box if genuine ZF.

Now for the..fun part. Not the brightest system and to me very un-German.

Using an awesome, high tech system like mine pour 4 liters of ZF's liquid gold (priced) fluid in the trans.






After you get the four liters in you have to do the final fill.

This is all done with the car RUNNING!

Start the car. (I know it's ridiculous but it's how it's done)
With your foot on the brake put the trans in each gear for 3 seconds including N. So R---N---D---2 (put in 2 with paddle shift)
Now go back into P the same way 2---D---N---R---P
Run to your funnel and put 3 more liters in.
*Measure the temp of the pan until it gets to 30C.
Add fluid until it streams out of the fill hole. (shouldn't be much)
Remove the fill pipe.
When the stream becomes a drip and the trans is LESS than 40C install the plug finger tight.
Shut off the car.

*Note: If the trans gets above 50C put the plug back in and shut it off an allow it to cool back to 30C or below. Restart the car and continue at "Measure the temp of the pan".

You're essentially done. Nothing left to do but tighten the fill plug to spec. You may want to re-lower the transmission for a better angle. Re-secure the heat shield and spray clean any stray fluids.

I paid $170 for the pan and $23 a liter for the fluid as reference. Less than $375 for a Jag trans service. That's a big DIY savings!

Now go have a beer!

 

Thanks for another great DIY write-up. After doing the Quaife LSD, this must have been easy for you. But its still beyond my DIY abilities. Definitely deserves at least a couple of beers.

 

+1
You've almost got me wanting my howling diff to fail, so I'm forced to try the diff replacement and toss in the trans service too.
Well done.

 

Wow, the two times I have done that service is was around $500 with same parts costs.

This service can't be stressed enough for anyone who owns an XK (or any modern Jag). If you bought a car used, do this as soon as possible. I aim for the 50K, but on the XK, the pan was cracked (plastic), so I did it at 30K.

Brake fluid swaps shouldn't be neglected either. Don't go by color, just do it every other season- regardless...

 

Cheers.

 

Maybe I'm just being dense (and guilty of having wishful thinking) but is it possible that just because the fluid is dark and perhaps having metal shavings in it, that it's not necessarily going to damage the transmission and is still going to allow it to function for its full service life?

I have not heard of a single transmission failure on these X150s!

 

There are extensive discussions on the 6HP26 transmission service on this forum, S-Type, X350 as well as BMW and Hyundai Genesis forums who all use the same transmission.

Once considered "Sealed for Life" (hence no dipstick and ridiculous fill plug location), ZF has since changed it's position and recommends a filter change and refill every 50k miles. They do not recommend a full flush though so you can do this on your own as terrifically documented above.

I last changed the fluid on my former x350 and purchased the kit from CTSC. This time around I've ordered from eBay. I also used the copper tubing, though the clearance is a little better on the x350.

I already have the mechatronic sleeve ($15 on ebay for OEM), 6 liters of fluid ($136 shipped) and the pan, gasket and larger replacement torx bolts ($65).

I got a pump for Christmas that I'll be using this time around. New toy... I mean tool. The pump is driven by an air ratchet.

No affiliation

 

ZF has backed off it's "sealed for life" mantra. It's dark from "contaminants" and they are best removed. Define service life? If it's until it blows up then yes it will function up to that moment!

Fluid is cheap, transmissions are expensive.

 

Make this thread a Sticky!

 

Great job and write up. By any chance did you send out the used fluid to get an analysis done.

 

Sean,
Where did you get pan, gasket and bigger (longer?) bolts for $65?

Thanks, Adrian

 

I don't know if ZF ever said it was "sealed for life"--Jaguar said that, no?

I'd probably say full service life for a car like this would be 150k miles. By then, other parts of the car would be failing--perhaps the transmission would be the least of the worries!

Point me to a single failure of a ZF transmission failure in an X150 (perhaps I've just missed it)? Maybe we are solving problems that don't exist--$1000 for this transmission service (is that considered cheap, maybe compared to a new transmission?) could be spent elsewhere on the car.

I'm really just playing devil's advocate here, but somebody has to...

And kudos to the OP for this great DIY post!

 

More like $500 for the service the two times I had it done.

 

eBay. Here's another, a bit more than I paid but close enough.

6HP26 Auto Transmission Oil Pan with Gasket Repair Kit 227 for BMW Land Rover | eBay

Its not OEM if that's your thing, it fits as I've used them before. They don't break any more than any other pan will. Your OEM pan is plastic too and lasted this long.

I did however use ZF Lifeguard 6 OEM fluid. My choice. Others will disagree.

 

Interesting. An indie Jaguar shop quoted me $900 to have it done. What shop did yours??

 

Anybody know a website I can head to which will give me shops in my area that service ZF transmissions???? I do NOT have the skills to attempt to do this myself comfortably!!

 

Negative. Didn't see the point. I wasn't having any operational issues. Unlike motor oil I have no intentions of testing for stretching or shortening change intervals.

As for the other follow up posts...

I got my parts 10% over cost from WorldPac and they are wholesale only. They are genuine ZF parts. If you get parts less than that color me impressed. IMHO "aftermarket" parts just aren't worth the savings. It's every 50k miles. It took this car 7 years to get that. No, I can't prove they aren't any different than OEM but I'd be willing to bet you can't prove they are as good either. You can't see the filter medium in either but the OEM probably tests their product more diligently. The decision is up to you. It's your transmission. It's a risk I'm not willing to take.

While it's true I haven't heard of an X150 transmission failure I haven't seen any 150,000 mile+ XKR's on here either. There sure are a lot of BMW 6HP26's on ebay for sale. That shows there is a market.

Dooooo iiiiiiiiit!!!!

My 1996 Toyota 4Runner has 360,000 miles on it with no signs of stopping. The ONLY thing I've replaced is the a/c compressor. The POS crapped out last year and Toyota didn't warranty it! Jerks! Original diffs, auto trans, engine and catalytic converters. I've serviced the trans every 30k miles. That, my friends, is service life.

Appreciate all the kudos. It's quite a bit of time to put together these posts but this forum has helped me immensely. I try to contribute!

 

Neither do I. And I will just make a mess and end up with a broken transmission.

 

Update driving impression:

I have noticed slightly crisper shifts. Downshifts are a little quicker. Otherwise it's functioning exactly as before. By that I mean brilliantly. Stupid, stupid, stupid servicing regimen but otherwise functions as expected. I have to admit, the piece of mind alone made this worth it.

Drive on!

 

I go to a local indy British car place walking distance from my house "Samuels Jaguar Motors".

They've worked on all our cars; British or not. Any good indy can do this work. Jaguar dealer will rake you on this service. Basically it's like $125 for kit and 2.5 hours labor.