Jaguar XJ Super 8 Auto 4.2 2003 72k miles. - Gearbox malfunction ?

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Sat 3 Jul 2010 20:20
Jaguar XJ Super 8 Auto 4.2 2003 72k miles. - Gearbox malfunction ? - A.L.Jones.

My pride and joy above has been making an occasional, mild, gearbox "thump" when changing up from 1st to 2nd together with an amber engine warning light and or "gearbox fault" display that self cancels. After the 3rd attempt at diagnosis the dealer recommended a replacement gearbox and throttle body with a bill north of £4k. A mechanic friend suggests the gearbox may be getting misinformation from the ECU (???) since the problem only occurs when crawling in traffic queues or similar situations. Needless to say my confidence in the dealers solution is undermined by their indecision and desire to chew on my very thin wallet. As a regular reader of Honest Johns excellent column I am desperately hoping for some much needed guidence My thanks in anticipation. Kind regards, A.L.Jones.

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Sat 3 Jul 2010 20:32
Jaguar XJ Super 8 Auto 4.2 2003 72k miles. - Gearbox malfunction ? - Collos25

I suggest you take it to a specialist auto gearbox garage it could save you a lot of money in the long run.Assuming there is a box fault they would repair it and if it is somethng else then no doubt they will have seen the problem before.Expensive cars with expensive repair costs unfortuneatly dealers who want to just replace parts should be avoided at all costs.

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Sat 3 Jul 2010 22:27
Jaguar XJ Super 8 Auto 4.2 2003 72k miles. - Gearbox malfunction ? - hatman

I am very sorry to hear that, the aluminium Super 8 is a magnificent car. I am currently trying to find one myself. Curiously enough, I viewed one last week with 55k miles and I saw from the service history that the gearbox was replaced under warranty at 40k miles. I would imagine that gearbox failure is very rare though and that a competent transmission specialist should be able to solve the problem.

If all else fails, it could be worth entering the car in a car auction as it's unlikely it will make £4k under market value. A friend recently bought an S type auto that was plagued with gearbox trouble that was impossible to detect at auction.

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