RRPhil:

Yes, that's the part. I had not seen any published info on it when I had my problem. I ended up going to the ZF Authorized repair shop in Burlingame, CA (near SF). A long-time technician there was very familiar with the problem at the time (July '07). The part would crack on transmissions with anything from 4,000 to 100,000+ miles on them. My 2002 was made well after 2000, and I've had correspondence from dozens of others who've had the same problem, many with newer models. The technician said it also impacted other vehicles using this same transmission, including Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, and possibly others (there's a Jaguar site devoted to "the surge" as the symptom was called). I should have photographed the replacement part and the broken one, but I didn't. I was able to get a replacement by calling in some favors from my Detroit area automotive friends who were able to get me a part when the ZF shop said they were on "Global backorder by ZF" for an undetermined period of time (many weeks was their guess at the time). So, I don't think the update you're noting has cured the problem if that was implemented in 2000. Even the ZF tech said he was aware of SEVERAL updates but still saw problems, and was not optimistic that I wouldn't experience this problem again if I kept the vehicle. So far, so good though, but I admit that I now "baby" it.