Thanks Don! I've ordered the allen wrench Q&C posted, and will slide under the car with my PB Blaster to give a good soaking. Sounds like I might have to do the same thing you did and put a bend in the long end of the wrench to clear the exhaust.....what a pain.

 

Shouldn't this just be general life advice?

 

Was able to slide under the car tonight without lifting it and soaked the fill plug in PB Blaster. Hope it works...

 

Spent another 2 hours on the fill plug today and finally got it loose!! By the time I got it free it was pretty late in the evening, so I'll change the fluid another day, but at least the plug is loose now. My car spent most of it's life in Key West FL, I suspect the salt air had the fill plug seized in there pretty good. Soaked it for days with PB Blaster, tried a cut down Allen wrench and various other combinations of sockets and extensions holding an 8mm hex bit. Eventually I was able to break it free with a series of 1/4" wobble extensions (about 2ft worth) that went through the rear subframe to the fill plug and had my rachet out near the rear brake caliper. With a pipe for extra leverage on the rachet I still wasn't able to break it free. Applied some heat via a small propane torch to the area around the fill plug, then tried the rachet again and was able to get it to break free! What a relief.

I will say, that fill plug must be a pretty sturdy unit for the hex not to strip after all that.

 

Saw this over on the X152 sub-forum, not sure if we can use this method or not on our X150, but thought it was worth sharing...

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...ge-diy-230515/

 

That'd be great if it would work on our cars, but DOES it? Maybe one of the guys on here with a lift can at least take a peek.
HINT HINT HINT

I seem to remember something about 'had to cut the allen wrench', but I can't remember why.

 

New post on an old thread. About a month ago, just before the lady tore off my front door in the accident, I started getting "E-Diff Not Available warnings on my 2010 XKR. They would appear randomly while driving after the car was warm. The warning would disappear if I restarted the car. I called my mechanic and told him to order the fluid, it was probably time for a diff. oil change. Before I could get it into the shop, I had the accident, so I asked him to do it while he was repairing the body. I picked it up a week and a half ago,and he told me that he saw a lot of metal shavings in the fluid but went ahead and changed the fluid. In the ten days since picking it up, I have not had the warning return but I told him to check with the Jaguar wrecker he uses and when a low mileage differential becomes available, to pick it up. I don't want to get stranded and then have to start looking for one. Hopefully, I won't need it 'til I can't drive anymore! No place to drive to any longer in the nearly martial law State of California anyway. I haven't seen traffic this light in Los Angeles since the 1984 Olympics scared everyone off the streets and freeways. A normal morning commute from the San Fernando Valley up the 405 fwy to West L.A., typically a 1-1.5 hour commute on a weekday morning is now about 15-20 minutes.

 

Hey guys I did this the other day,

Had the diff off anyway so to the save me the headache of using a pump or whatever, I filled it off the car!

Car on a ramp, diff levelled up on blocks of wood ready to install back into subframe, then filled it with tube and funnel. then installed the diff.
Used genuine oil, got half a bottle left over if anyone local needs it

Pic: I used the suction pump as a funnel, but its rubbish to use as a pump, leaks everywhere.
Took a while since oil is so thick.




For future reference I found it easier to remove the driveshaft to get at the filler nut, which is 8mm Allen key. honestly could not get the torque on it to remove otherwise.
I have a 3/8 socket will Allen key adaptors and lots of extension bars, easy that way.
Would I recommend removing the diff? no, especially if all the bolts are rusty.

 

Resurrecting an old thread to give my impression. This is the first real diy maintenance I have done on this car since I bought it about a month ago. The concept of lifetime fluid is just dumb, but it isn't new. When I bought my E60 M5 the diff had similar known issues as the XKR, but in addition to the stutter when turning the diff also made a loud clunking sound, similar to someone being trapped in the trunk and banging to get out. New fluid as well as additional friction modifiers fixed everything on the M5. Also, both the drain AND fill plug were easily accessible, and I believe the original fluid in the M5 was supposed to be lifetime. It clearly was not. The XKR is a totally different animal... The fill plug could not be in a more ridiculous spot. I read through several posts on this forum and the best advice was to shorten the hex key because it won't fit into the plug in the space provided otherwise. You'll have to trim off a significant amount of the hex key, even then space is extremely limited and makes this job way more difficult than it needs to be.

My overall impression is this job is harder than it needs to be It is really messy but it does solve most of the issues with the stutter in the differential. After a couple of miles of driving it felt much better but it still felt like there may be 5 to 10% of stutter remaining. It's a little disappointing but I'm also not going to get under the car pull the fill plug and add any additional friction modifier, which I believe may actually solve all of the problem.

Just my 2 pence.

 

Just to add, do not use more friction modifier than is reccomended.
Friction modifier actually makes the clutches "slippier" if thats a word,,meaning it lets them slip more so you dont feel the chatter when they engage, if you use too much the clutches will just slip and not engage properly
A tiny but of chatter or shudder is to be expected in any positive clutch differential and is not a bad thing,
if you were to feel absoluletely no chatter or shudder at all it would mean the differential is not locking and just slipping.
On my cars that I take to track a lot I usually run half the modifier reccomended ,,, yes it chatters more
in low speed turns but works better overall and clutches last longer since they engage quicker without slipping as much.
For a street car I can see where that would get annoying,
Quote: What Exactly Does Friction Modifier do? Limited-slip differentials contain clutches that automatically deliver more power to to a wheel that has traction and less to a wheel that is slipping. Friction Modifier additive eliminates noise that can occur when limited-slip mechanisms engage and disengage

 

Thank you for that very detailed and informative thread on changing the e-differential oil.
With your help I was able to do mine and I just want to add my experience.
I had experienced the same shudder on turning the first corner as many of you. First I tried to get hold of the right oil. Since the BOT 720 is not available here I settled for the RAVENOL MDL as some of you recommend.
i even got the filler plug out (don’t ask how) and now I was able to open the drain plug. Out came a black smelly sod of some kind that must have lost all of its specifications due to age and wear. At this time I let the oil out cold because I was afraid to drive the car one more time because of the stickiness of the differential in the first corner. Not optimal but I thought better then driving the car again.
i got myself one of these handpumps from Amazon but could not get the hose into the filler plug because of space. So I modified it with a smaller hose that would fit. The oil was stored in my living room so it had room temperature but outside it was just above freezing and I did not calculate two things : first the weight of the oil which is almost like honey at lower temperatures and second the amount that is left in the hose when the piston of the pump reaches the end of its travel.
it took me and my wife almost an hour to get approximately 1.3 liters into that filler plug… no joy.
Ok put everything back together and drove the car: no more binding in the first corner no more shudder on tight left turns. Great!
i knew immediately that this would do the trick but I also knew after all that came out of that drain hole I would have to repeat the procedure on a warm differential.
After approximately 500km I let out the oil again of a now warm differential and it was really a good idea. A lot of sod came out again but better then the first time, so I do recommend doing a second oil change after a couple of hundred miles if your car has 60-80000 miles on it without a differential oil change.
And here are my recommendations for filling the e-differential
​​​​​​- use a transparent hose approximately 6ft. long with an O.D. of 8mm. That you can fiddle in the filler hole without to much kinking so you do not obstruct the oil flow.
- use tie-wraps to attach the hose to the underside of the car. So the hose will not come out of the hole and you avoid siphons in the line. Lead the hose out of the left wheel and attach a funnel.
- pre-heat the oil in a water bath to about 50°C and fill exactly 1.3 liters in the funnel. The filling should not take longer then about 15 minutes with the warm oil. After the first gush into the funnel make sure that the oil is going into the filler hole and not spill.
- when everything is in the funnel and in the differential you will find that some of the oil is still in the transparent hose. Detach the funnel and have someone blow in the hose lightly until everything is in the differential. So you can be sure that the exact amount of 1.3 liters is in.

Hope this helps..

 

Had my e-diff fluid done along with the transmission fluid on my 70K mile XKR as part of the "maintenance catch-up" over the winter (Fixed a couple of issues and did all the services and fluid changes that I didn't have records for)

Not sure if its psychosomatic but the whole driveline feels butter smooth

 

I did the diff fluid change today on my 2011 XK. Mind this is an XK therefore normal diff, not XKR’s eDiff. I assume this was the factory fill that I took out today at about 32k miles. The oil still looked good.

New oil went in 0.9l Motul Gear 300 (again, this is different for the XK’s normal diff).
The filler plug serves as level plug if car horizontal (unlike speced in manual).

All in all not too complicated and accessibility of the plugs is ok.

br
ter

 

It's great to see this can be done DIY, especially good fo anyone that's handy with a socket set/ingenuity and a ramp that's not near a reputable Indy.

For my e-diff no issues to report but decided to get it done.

I bought the correct fluid 2l of BOT90(?) for £30 and my Indy was able to do for half an hours (£40) labour inc. So all done for £70GBP inc.

They did say the screw was a complete female dog to release (car's lived most of its life near the sea) but they'd already quoted me and just slipped the mechanic £10 for his trouble

 

The correct fluid for the e-differential ist Castrol BOT 720, or the RAVENOL MDL as a direct replacement.

 

........ with some included Friction Modifier? Or does that require using some also?

 

Since the RAVENOL is the same specification as the CASTROL no friction modifier is needed

 

So then the RAVENOL already HAS the Friction Modifier included in their formula?

 

yes.
https://www.ravenolamerica.com/passe...g-ravenol-mdl/

 

You can also use Motul Gear 300 LS, it also has friction modifiers.
But make sure it is the LS (Limited Slip) version.
A few F-Type owners including me have used it with zero problems.