High temperature Gearbox - 1998 XJ8

[cngarrod]

Me again!

I seem to frequently get the "amber" light and message regarding gearbox temperature, according to the manual (which due to this forum i downloaded from the Jaguar website), how frequent is "normal" and it doesnt seem to make any difference to the way the car drives, or should i then do anything different??

Also, whilst on subject of temperature, on a run, my temp guage doesnt move much above cold and the heater doesnt blow out really hot air if on max setting... if around town, the tem guage steadily rises to just above middle and of course i get lots of hot air. Am having a couple of things done on car next week (shocks and a wheel bearing) so will prob replace thermostat at same time. I havent heard the cooling fan in the engine bay come on yet - what temp is it most likely to?

Thanks in advance for the answers!

[melhook]

I seem to remember the XJ8's used to suffer from a gearbox oil temp sensor fault. The temp sensor is part of the interal gearbox wiring loom, it's not a real difficult job, but not sure of cost of the loom, or the oil. It is adviseable to get it checked out though, but this is where I would look.

Your other temp issue, like you say is probably the therostat, but if you are having it done by a Jag specialist, it's worth having them check the water pump for you, as these are know weak points.

Your cooling fans will cut in and out if you are using your air-con, under normal conditions you probably won't hear them as they run at a low speed, if they are running at high speed and you can hear them from inside, then you are running hot, something that needs checking in this weather. I would expect them to sometimes cut in and out at high speed in the summer, but not at this time ofyear. Hope this helps.