Jerry Brett

Thanks John. Food for thought. Sadly my Jag must have suffered at the hands of a previous owner as evidence of a repair is now showing on the rear nearside flank and bubbling is showing on the door reveal. The engine runs well at the moment and the transmission shifts smoothly. I think I will have to play it by ear and just deal with any issues as they arise. No doubt I will post on here if anything happens.

Not on a XF. Sorry but it would look wrong methinks.

It's been a while since I last posted what with having a stroke, then the pandemic and the car generally behaving itself and not giving me reason to ask any questions. However, a friend of mine who is in the trade recently advised me to get rid of my beloved X Type. His reasoning was that he would expect a DPF service to crop up soon and that is expensive apparently. Also, the car has done 144k without a transmission fluid change (was advised by gearbox specialist not to change fluid) so is apparently ripe for failure. He reckons that, with second-hand prices so high I could get back what I paid for the car and avoid some expensive bills. It sounds logical but I am very attached to my Jag and would like some input from other owners on the situation. Are there cheaper ways around any of these pitfalls? The car is running fine at the moment (touch wood) and I am now doing fewer than 10k miles a year. Any thoughts gratefully considered.

Alas no scan tool. My local garage will probably do it for free (or for a beer or two). Any idea of ball park cost of fix? Sorry for delay in replying. This is my third attempt. Phone kept accepting response then losing it!!

So I have enjoyed a couple of months of relatively trouble free driving if you discount the low speed gruffness and hanging on to the lower gears for what feels like too long. No stalling, no limp mode. Until yesterday when I pulled out a side turning and yahoo, there 's the limp mode indicator and Gearbox Fault flashing on the dash. Now I know that every other fault has not ultimately been down to the gearbox but the car's recent behaviour set me to wondering. I recently heard about an Omega which had a range sensor fault which was causing similar symptoms to mine. Obviously I will have to go and get it code read again but does anyone want to advance any theories on whether I am barking up the wrong tree?

Yep. I was trying to drive it hard before the limping and stalling. After that I had to drive like a pensioner in a Micra in order to keep it running. Now the low fuel pressure has been sorted I can be more enthusiastic with my driving. It's hard to exceed 2k revs in normal traffic though. And the car is still gruff at lower speeds. It's still not 100%.

So the diesel specialist couldn't find any problems with injectors or fuel pump. He did find milky diesel and debris in the fuel filter. Somewhat surprising as the filter has only just been changed. He has advised me to avoid supermarket diesel and see how it goes. The car is pulling well with no trips into limp mode at the moment. He also commented it was one of the sweetest X Type diesels he'd encountered. Not what I was expecting to hear.

My mistake. When I read the header I thought it meant bang up to date. Pity the discs aren't interchangeable between models.

Just took a peek and the blurb says it's a 2012 disc. Am I missing something here?

I've noticed the same disparity in speed readings. I am guessing that the boxes aren't calibrated to the same level of accuracy as a speed camera. Having said that, they usually agreed with my Mazda.

No, but I can tell you from personal experience that thumping it doesn't work 🤔

I think 251 is injectors. Have you done a leak off test?

So I took my troublesome Jag to a transmission specialist to investigate the problems with holding onto gears at low speeds. He says the box is fine and the problems are caused by low fuel pressure. Took the car to my regular garage to check pipes etc and nothing is loose, leaking or misaligned. The car is absolutely fine tooling along at 70mph. The problem arises whenever I accelerate using more than a featherlight touch. The car either stalls or goes into limp mode. I've looked at online and there are all kinds of horror stories out there about pumps, injectors and fuel rails. I accept that it could be any of these things but I can't believe the car would run so well if something major was wrong. Anybody had a similar experience?

So I took the car to an AT specialist who tells me that there is nothing wrong with the box, it's responding to an engine problem. Apparently the fuel pressure is low and sudden demands on power (rapid acceleration) can stall the engine (this happened to me twice but I mistook it for limp mode with an added twist ). He mentioned the gruff engine note and when I said that it started after the steering pump was replaced he surmised that something has not been put back properly, may even be the cause of my problems. He's not an engine man though so could only make suggestions. So I am going back to my regular mechanic to ask him to take a look concentrating on whatever he took off in order to replace the pump. We live in hope.

Going from bitter personal experience DaveMech's diagnosis is probably correct. My 2.2d had crud in the turbo and that's what did for the turbo actuator apparently. So you might want to get that checked out too as it is probably actuator failure which is triggering limp mode. I have invested in some Archoil turbo cleaner and fuel additive. No idea whether it works yet but their 'Oilem' blog is quite interesting and contains an article that exactly described my problem (and possibly yours). Other posters recommend Wynn's and Miller's which do the same job.

Thanks guys. I will see what the transmission guy says when I eventually get to him. He seemed to think there was a significant risk of subsequent failure due to disturbed sediment but if the box is low perhaps it can be topped up. Not ideal but I hear that even a mix of old and new fluid is better than insufficient amounts of fluid. Car is great to drive when it's working properly so it would be a shame to scrap it. It's worth next to nothing with a duff gearbox.

Gotta love those guys. Shop assistants who've been told by head office that they have to be wannabe mechanics. Not a problem in the days of the Cortina but a totally different proposition now. Good luck with the MOT.

Bad luck. I suspect I may not have a choice although I am not in a position to get it investigated right now. Currently using car daily. Trying not to accelerate suddenly or exceed 2500rpm as that seems to trigger limp mode. Don't know if that's connected to the gearbox and its desire to drop gears below 50mph. Town driving is particularly tiresome, it feels and sounds like it's being held in 2nd gear until it's spent at least 5 minutes at 30 mph without slowing or stopping. As soon as I can get some time off I will take it to a gearbox specialist.

Do you know where the water is getting in? If it's a crack or a gap I'd be inclined to shoot in some automotive silicone sealant and see how it goes. Worked on my old Mazda 6. If it doesn't work at least it hasn't cost much.

Thanks Rod. Did they charge you for 4 lots of AT fluid? That could work out rather expensive. I've already replaced the turbo actuator and had the turbo cleaned. My work changed recently so I now have a mixture of commutes depending on where I am which is better than the 5 mile daily run I previously did. Just concerned that whatever I fix there's always something else. I'm used to running cars that don't need constant attention.

Thanks Rod but it's not currently in limp mode. This is normal drive but it seems to hang on to lower gears at lower speeds. It's fine over 50mph. The EGR valve was replaced this time last year so shouldn't be a problem. There may be fault codes, I haven't read the car as I have no code reader and the local garages don't seem to be very good at interpreting the codes. I love the car but I think I bought a Friday one.

An AT specialist has already warned against a fluid change due to the risk of disturbing sediment in the transmission. So it could be a case of damned if I do, damned if I don't. What genius decided to make the filter inaccessible?

No fault codes. Haven't taken it anywhere this time. Local garages seem to make a complete meal of diagnosis. Not taking it back to transmission specialist after the catalogue of lies and misinformation they visited on me on my previous visits. Next nearest one will require at least a day off work. Friend with a needy Discovery has recommended someone who I will be contacting at the weekend.

Well it's got to the point where I have got my webuyanycar quote and I am debating whether to book an appointment. Car ran fine after turbo clean. Then it became gruff at low speeds although the garage found no holes in the exhaust. Then it went into limp mode, when I was overtaking the vehicles in the crawler lane on a hill. This time I didn't even get the luxury of 40mph, the power tailed off forcing me to cut across the crawler lane to stop at the roadside. Very frightening for my young daughter in the back seat. A month later it did it again, fortunately on a quiet bypass. This time the engine cut out while still moving. Plus the gearbox hangs on to low gear at low speeds up to 50mph. This isn't the 1950s. I expect a car to be reliable and not be forever one journey away from yet another problem. Anyone know of a good home for a precocious saloon car?

Thanks, not sure if box is working OK, seems to be affected by so many outside factors. Oh well.