Hi All,
Thought I would give an update to my portion of the question as it seems to have been fixed in my 97 XK8. I will tell you I am NOT a mechanic but have owned several Triumphs.... Ha Ha..... With my Jag I hit on an update in the forum where someone said "My Guy fixed it" and said with his it was that the torque converter had slide backward a slight bit and was rubbing the bell housing at certain speeds (flexing just enough to rub). He said while he had it in being serviced his mechanic dropped the trans and tapped the torque converter forward some and it went away. Now I wasn't inclined to drop the trans to look at this at the present time, but after getting a quote for $1200-$4000 from a transmission shop that specialized in ZF cars I thought I would try something. I had the car apart to update the timing chain guides (mine were cracked but not in pieces yet), and as part of that you have to open a small access window in the bell housing and push a locking peg into a special flywheel hole to lock the engine. With that open I thought, maybe I can tap the torque converter forward a few times here and see what happens. I know, not great logic but it seems to have worked. After putting the car back together I have not heard the sound since. With or without sport mode.

Jon Welsh
97XK8 93K miles

 

Ask your mechanic if he's heard of this and knows where to put the screws? Worth a try. My guy didn't even charge me to do it.

 

I just want to emphasize that people in this thread are talking about a few different, completely non-overlapping sets of symptoms pointing to a few completely different problems with different possible solutions.

If you want to try out a solution, make sure the commenter had your symptoms.

I'd hate to see people screwing with their cats as a solution to symptoms they don't actually have. That sounds like an expensive solution to problems they don't have.

For example, the grinding around 35-45 mph that goes away in sport mode (which is what I have) is probably not the same as grinding at 70 that isn't impacted by sport mode.

 

Interesting!
Did you do anything special to tap it? Just stick something in the hole and give it a few taps with a hammer toward the front of the car?
Did you rotate the converter, or just ping it in one place?

Were you able to see it move, or maybe even measure its position through the hole before and after?

I have a strong suspicion my issue is related to the torque converter since the noise happens about when I'd expect it to be unlocking, and I figure sport mode changes the points at which the converter unlocks.

 

I hear ya,,, thing is, my mechanic scares me more than I scare me, lol... Jeeeeeze Louise.

I haven't been driving mine a lot recently, for a few reasons, and am still not sure what to do about my issue. I have a guy I can ask (a mechanic that says he specialises in this brand of car), so I will but am sure I'll get some very different answer. So it goes.