GM
Does anyone know what's on this pan?
Is it about to fail?
Thxs!

99 jag XK8 transmission oil pan

 

I have a few pans on gearboxes that look just like that and I just don't worry.
You can wipe it down with some oil to slow the corrosion down.
A small engine oil leak would have prevented that. My guess is that British cars are supposed to leak a little so the drivetrain gets coated in oil to prevent corrosion?(haha)

 

It doesn't look great, but I would definitely be poking at the rust spots to see if you're down to beer-can level of thickness. Some rust inhibitor will buy you a little more time. Start shopping around, they're not terribly expensive on the salvage market. Kill two birds with one stone and change the fluid and filter when you do it.

 

At a British car meet last year a father and son brought their E-Type and F-Type. The son commented that the F-Type "smells just like the E-Type." I quipped, "That's the combined smell of leather and leaking oil." We all got a good chuckle out of that.

vmaxie, your trans pan looks pretty typical to me, or maybe just a little worse than typical. It would be prudent to clean and treat those darker spots with a good rust neutralizer like Loctite Extend.

My assumption is that the pan is coated in something inexpensive like zinc, and the white spots are corrosion of the coating (zinc oxide). The dark orange rust spots are where the coating has failed and the steel pan is rusted. Follow the Loctite instructions - you don't want to clean all the old rust away, only the loose flaking rust. You want to leave a light coat of rust for the neutralizer to react with and form a coating that will not rust further.

Cheers,

Don

 

Looks like the equivelent to rust on steel….aka pitting for aluminum. I see you are located in florida… if the car is from the north east of usa then its definetly rust/pitting due to salt treated roads, or possibly its from the south near the coast and is same issue due to salt content of oceans in the humidity/moisture in the air. Easy
fix, wire brush or sand and then paint.

 

If it was about to fail, it would be obvious. Smack it all over with a rubber hammer. If it’s compromised, it’ll break and
leak. If not, sand and paint and send it, good to go. My 97 xk8 from Massachusetts its whole life looked 20x worse. I degreased it, sanded with sanding disk on an angle grinder, cleaned and repainted. Good to go, no weak spots and no leaks.