I had the common trans noise issue, i was able to make it chirp easily, especially going up hill. Instead of going the additive route i figured the fluid change would be better cause it would take care of a maintenance issue as well. I bought the kit thats at the top of the thread, it came super fast and everything was legit.
Chirp is now completely gone, so whatever the additive is, its in the standard fluid now. So a trans drain should stop any chirp. I wanted to thank you guys for adding the fluid deal to the xk forum, really helped out. Oh ya, it took little over 7 liters, the kit only came with 6, they where out of the fluid for awhile but its back in stock now.

 

Did you do the job yourself, or did you have a mechanic do it? I've been thinking about doing it. I added the additive a couple of months ago and that cleared up the chirp, but I have 84K miles on the car and I figure a complete transmission fluid change might extend the life of the transmission.

 

I thought about doing it myself but figured it would be tough on the xk without a lift because it seemed tighter than the other jags in the DIY photos, and the fill plug is hard to get at. I just brought in a print out of the instructions off the sellers website (very simple and easy to follow) for the sleeve and and pan replacement and made sure they refilled it according to specs, any competent place should be able to handle it. These guys seemed familiar with the fill routine from other cars. But a mechanic at their shop advised me not to change the fluid before 100k (im at 70000) and told me it would have no effect on the chirp, glad he was wrong.

 

..exactly how many liters will filled up for XK8? any specific brand? and what brand of additive?

 

Seems as though it takes 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 depending on how long you let it drain. The fluid is zf lifeguard6 or you can buy a liter of the zf additive from a jaguar dealer and just pump a liter out and add the additive in. I dont know if you can buy the zf fluid where you are in the middle east, so shipping just one liter of the additive would be a lot cheaper. I also dont know if using another synthetic trans fluid for the change (like castrol) would get rid of the chirp.

 

Similar experience here. I changed the fluid in my 2003 4.2L 6 speed S-Type about 6 months ago and the chirp was gone. I used the Castrol Multi-import...actually she has never shifted better. I had bought the additive, but never had to use it.

 

Where does the chirping sound come from and what conditions does it occur under? I have some sounds coming from mine as well.

 

Its a very quick noise that doesn't drag on at all, it sounds like its coming from the middle/front of the car. The chirp for me would happen at most shift points if the trans was under strain, like when i would hit it hard from nothing in a turn or going up a hill from a stop light. The best way i can describe the chirp is that it sounds kind of like the noise your shoes make during a fast brake on basket ball court but the pitch is a bit lower.

 

Exactly! The location is hard to pinpoint, but it happens right when the car shifts, so you know it is transmission related. Your description of the sound was spot-on! In my car it happened under hard acceleration. When I drove my car in the mountains last summer it happened on every shift between 1st & 2nd gear, and 2nd & 3rd gear. I never noticed it in the higher gears.

 

.Thanks for the info waterloo, actually 6months back i had my transmission overhauled. and the way they are putting the fluids was like this...they put 5litres fluid first and then let the engine on and then put again the extra fluids till it overflowed, so thats how they do it here. I dont know if there's another way to do it.

 

Guess mine is different then. It's a whirring sound when the car is cold but goes away after it warms up. If I accellerate a bit too fast off the line the tranny whirs and keeps whirring thru the shifts until cruise. The best explanation I have gotten is cold fluid passing thru some narrow channels in the tranny. They did put some gunk in it and the noise stopped for a few weeks but came back.

It's got over 100K on it, maybe I should change the fluid?

 

Same thinking here. Just had a complete fluid change with filter and pan replacement done at the dealer. they also cleared the shift memory. Now my 2003 with 70K miles should be good for quite awhile.

 

Since the fluid is more than 10 years old and has more than 100,000 miles of service _ that would be a "yes" to me unless you don't mind getting problems with a very expensive transmission ($7500 + labor ?)