Hey there,

I had to swap the engine of my XK8 1997. The day I wanted to pick it up from the repair shop, the mechanic told me, that I would need to refill transmission fluid as it is was short on fluid. He also said, that I will experience "holes" in performance when I kick the pedal. He told me that the transmission fail notice would be caused by the lack of fluid. He himself could not do the job because he told me that you would need T-Tech equipment to do so.

Now I was wondering if he really told me the truth. It would cost be about $400 to drain and refill the transmission. I am afraid, that he messes up the job and wrecked the transmission. The day I dropped the car in everything (in term of the transmission) was alright. I noticed that the car is lacking any performance. Can all of that really be caused by the fluid ?

 

I cannot imagine how the engine swap would have any affect on transmission function. Does the engine seem to run smoothly with expected power?

Did he remove the torque converter and dump 4L of fluid? Changing/adding fluid is not that big a deal. A local indy shop quoted $100 labor plus fluid and filter. A '97 with a new engine deserves an ATF and filter change.

I also cannot believe that a reputable shop would return your car in that manner.

Check the FAQ Sticky at the top of this forum for several discussions on ATF change.

 

I would say he removed the radiator and the trans fluid that was in it was drained and that is a significant amount of fluid. That is my guess!

 

I did not think the trans fluid was cooled by the radiator. But rather a separate trans cooler. At least when I pulled my radiator last fall I do not recall having to deal with any tranny lines.

 

If you look on the left side of the radiator (facing out) you will see two lines going into it from the trans. On my 93 xj-s I had antifreeze in the trans from a leak in the end cap for the trans fluid and tha last time I looked I thought it was there on my 99 xk8.

 

I hope this helps.