1993MY Sovereign 3.2 transmission failure

XJ40
1

I don’t use my Jag as often as I should so it had become a little dusty, and I decided to wash it.

The driveway has quite a slope, so I tend to let the car roll out of the garage and on to the driveway with the ignition on and the transmission set in ‘N’, that way I only start the engine once and I reason that it would also make it obvious if the brakes are binding since the car not has not been driven for a few weeks.

On backing the car out, I noticed there was a noticeable patch of ATF on the garage floor. This concerned me, since the transmission has always been leak free. I had a look under the car; as far as I could tell the leak was probably coming from the gasket, but may have been from above it. I couldn’t really tell.

I checked the transmission fluid level, expecting it to be normal - the quantity of fluid on the garage floor was noticeable rather than great.

To my surprise it now reads drastically high - nearly 2 centimetres above the white plastic part. I haven’t changed the fluid recently and I have not added any.

I started the engine and it caught with a wobble through the car and ran roughly. The transmission made a frothing sound - and the car was reluctant to move forward. I shut the engine down immediately, so as not to do any (more) damage. It now stands stricken on my drive! Naturally, it has fallen in the part of the drive most difficult to move it from!

What sort of problem does this sound like? - I assume that the fluid level is very high because a good quantity of it has drained out from the torque converter? I check the level reasonably regularly, pre-incident and it was as far as I am aware, correct.

Has the torque converter failed? - Or does these symptoms point to another problem?

The last time I drove it, the car performed normally. It has long taken up drive with a slight ‘thump’ occasionally - but it idles slightly high. The idle was raised slightly by a Jaguar dealer in the mid 1990s to cure a tendency to stall.

The car has also had a slight shudder, also intermittent, for quite a long time. I suspected the transmission, but when shuddering slightly the shudder didn’t stop if the car was put into neutral, so perhaps wrongly, I blamed some other and as yet undiscovered cause!

Also, I shut the car down very quickly so as not to cause any more damage. Would running the car cause or risk further transmission damage? - I ask because the car isn’t in an easy to access place for when the tow truck comes and I might be able to limp it back into the garage, but don’t dare to!

And just when I was saying how reliable the old beast is!

David

P1130242
P1130242.JPG2443×1832 2.44 MB

P1130239
P1130239.JPG2443×1832 2.53 MB

2

If you hadn’t started the engine prior to checking the level I would expect it to be showing high, it needs to be checked at operating temperature with the engine running. The frothing you heard MAY have been the torque converter refilling?

1 Like
3

Thanks for the reply. It has virtually lost drive forwards as well unfortunately. If I start it up again tomorrow, will running the engine or trying to move the car forwards do any further damage to the transmission?

I know very little about automatic transmissions!

David

4

Hmm, I did have a X300 trans fail twice in very short time due to a problem with a sleeve in the area of the pump, the clearance became too large which resulted in loss of pressure in the A clutch pack (from memory) We only found this out after we changed out the box for another good one, unfortunately during the final fit up the owner of the shop had the trans cooler spigot break off, trans out and replace the pump segment from the previous trans. Once back on the road the same symptoms arose. THATS when we found out about the clearance issue. Having said that the car did drive for a few days before it succumbed again.
Having said all that I doubt that that is the problem as it sounds like yours developed quite quickly, also the fluid looks good at present, mine went from pink to black in very short order.

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5

I should also have added that I have checked the coolant level and it is still correct.

I have heard of a failure in the radiator to cause coolant to enter the transmission, thus raising its level. To raise the level by the volume measure on my transmission dipstick, I should think there would be no coolant left in the header tank.

I do still believe that for some reason the ATF has drained from the torque converter when it shouldn’t have done. This isn’t based on any knowledge though!

Thanks for your replies and help,

David

6

I am hoping this will turn out to be the case.

I wanted to make absolutely sure (or as certain as I could be without removing the sump) that there was no coolant crossing over into the transmission from the radiator, so I removed 2 litres of ATF this afternoon with a Pela 6000 suction pump. I reasoned that if coolant was getting in to the transmission then it would most likely mix with the atf resulting in an oleaginous mess, or separate with the atf floating on the coolant. Either way, since the dipstick enters the pan low down, then I would see evidence of coolant if there was any - or perhaps burned fluid. Either way, the atf I removed looked to be in good condition with no burning and no evidence of coolant.

So I decided to start the car. And it started …normally! There was perhaps a little more vibration than normal for a second, but nothing striking and the car settled to a normal and smooth idle. Drive and Reverse engaged normally - there was nothing to suggest that there had been a problem of any kind.

So it is either a self-fixing Jaguar or a neurotic owner! I will have the transmission checked out though, to determine the cause of the leak and to discover if the loss of drive was a one-off due to a draining torque converter not having refilled, or whether it is a harbinger of problems to come. Time will tell, I guess.

7

Glad to hear tat things ‘may’ have returned to normal, interestingly I have had my S11 up on axle stands at the rear to do some welding and after about 2 weeks I noticed a large amount of ATF had leaked out, she is now up on 4 stands.

1 Like
8

I thought it would be useful to follow this up since a good period of time has now passed since the problem.

Anyway, I have had no further issues with the transmission. It shifts smoothly and as it should. The transmission stopped leaking immediately after the problem and hasn’t leaked since. I have also taken the car to a specialist who couldn’t find anything wrong with the transmission. So it seems to be a one-off and I have dodged a big bill on this one!