I’ve seen numerous threads recharging this but they are over 5 years old and want to stay up to date. I took my 2005 Jaguar XK8 in for a front end alignment and he test drive it. He said their was a squawk sound and said its in the transmission. They do not have the additive anymore but I’ve been reading online for the past couple hours and they said that Lifeguard 6 is the right one for my car. And they said just to do a quart since I only need the additive. I really don’t want to mess with the transmission it runs like a champ and shifts beautifully. It only has the darn squawk sound and want to eliminate it. It has 102k miles on it. I’m unsure if it has been flushed before and will get the car fax, if they have it, soon. And I know I’ll get a 50/50 of people saying to change it completely (no flush just the 5-6 quarts) and the other half saying it’s fine don’t screw with it. Any help would be great on what transmission fluid would help

 

When does it make the squawk ? I have noticed recently that mine will squawk if I mash the throttle, just for a second. I'm not sure, but it may be when it is kicking down to a lower gear. I know I need to do a flush or fluid change, but I've been putting it off. I'm curious about the Lifeguard 6 too.

 

when you step on the gas kinda hard

 

Your fluid is now 15 years old and has 100,000 miles on it and you simply want to just leave it alone?

The original ZF recommendation was to change fluid every 10 years.

A simple pan/filter and fluid change won't hurt your gearbox.

 

I just talked with the jaguar dealer today and that’s what he told me and hes been doing these since 2001. It runs pretty smooth I just want to get rid of that squawk sound. What type of tranny fluid did you use on yours? That’s the main question I’m asking..

 

Many of us with the ZF 6HP26 transmission have been running Mercon SP ATF for years now. It meets the required Shell M1375.4 specs and is far less costly than Lifeguard 6. It is available at any Ford dealership parts department and can also be ordered online. Refreshing the ATF almost always eliminates the squawk. And given the age of these vehicles now, fresh ATF is always a good thing....

 

Mine did it on acceleration when I first bought(03/17, 61,500 mi). Replacing the fluid and filter made it go away. Shifting became much smoother.

 

Mine has the sqwark and everything i have read or heard suggests a filter change is the best solution, obviously this requires a fluid change too but i have been trying and failing to change it for a while. first attempt i realised i had the wrong fluid (i got mannol atf ag52 which is suitable for 5 speed zf). I now have some mannol atf ag55 but rounded off the fill plug so waitong for a extractor bit to get it out.

I hope to do this within the next week so will let you know if the sqwark is squashed or not.

There does seem to be some discussion regarding whether changing the fluid in the pan is sufficient though. According to zf specs the full transmission system holds 9.9l of fluid, 9.4 in the tramsmission and 0.5l in the cooler. I believe the pan holds approx 6-7l meaning 3-4l of old fluid will still be inside the transmission. Some say a double cycle of the fluid change procedure is best to get most of the old fluid out others say you need to fill and drain at the same time via the cooler lines in order to minimise old and new fluid mixing.

Some food for thought!

 

A cold chisel can be manipulated to free the filler plug. You might drop the rear end of the gearbox for more access.

 

I saw this exact pic in another thread and tried it but as i am working on axle stands i didn't have much room to swing the hammer and couldn't get it to move at all. Saw a solution using a stubby hex head extractor so ordered a set yesterday.

 

I use a pneumatic air hammer with a very controllable trigger.
A long shank chisel will reach into the area between the exhaust and the case.

 

As a last resort, there is the (theoretical) option of a metal pan for this transmission. Both the fill and drain plugs are on the pan itself, sidestepping your problem. Keep in mind it was apparently designed to get around an obstruction on some Land Rover models (the plastic pan could not be removed without lifting the engine) and therefore has reduced fluid capacity. In short, it was not designed for our cars, but it is known to fit.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

I can get the chisel into the gap fine once the heatshield is off. I even managed to cut a slot into the plug, just couldn't get enough swing on the hammer while laying on my back to turn the plug.

am pretty sure i can get it out with an snapped bolt extractor it was just sod's law the one i had was about 1mm too small to bite into the plug.

Didn't mean to hijack this thread btw! I will update the orignal poster with my succes rate following the fluid change once it finally occurs.

 

If anyone elects to go with the lesser-capacity metal transmission oil pan, ZF Tech Support told me a few years ago that once the 6HP26 transmission loses 2 to 3 litres of ATF, severe problems begin to occur. So make certain you know what the exact fluid capacity of a full metal replacement pan is before you decide to make the switch. Our OEM plastic pan systems typically hold right at 10 litres of ATF....

 

I did a fluid change on the ZFHP5 tranny in my old VanDen Plas, but, am I seeing that this fill plug can't be extracted with a hex bit, or conventional tool, even under ideal conditions ? I mean was it made so that it can never be removed without resorting to Brutal measures ? (pardon the pun)

 

Theoretically it can be removed with an 8mm hex bit but on my 17 year old car which has probably never been filled it rounded as soon as i applied modest pressure.

 

I finally got the fill plug out after using a hex head extractor with a 13mm box spanner attached and eventually beating the spanner with a hammer. Once it opened it unscrewed by hand.

Something VERY unexpected happened next... once the plug can out fluid started pouring out of the fill hole. And i mean pouring, like i was draining engine oil. Thankfully i wasn't looking directly at it as it came out, i also hadn't driven the car otherwise i would have been severely burnt.

Seems it must have been massively overfilled at some point, which may have explained the noises coming out of it.

in fact it looks like more came out of the fill hole than did from the drain hole

 

The fill plug should only be removed while the engine is running. But if you have already removed the drain plug there shouldn't be any fluid in the transmission sump.

 

I was never gonna take the drain plug out if i didn't know i would be able to refill the trans.

Never noticed anything about the fill plug only being removed with engine running but if i had i would have been more prepared.

 

The fluid level drops when the pump is running (engine running).
The level is checked ENGINE RUNNING IN PARK OR NEUTRAL, GEARBOX TEMP BETWEEN 30 AND 50 DEGREES CENTIGRADE.