Hello,

I've read posts here for years but only just registered. With one in college and another when #1 graduates...I was planning (actually forced) to keep my pristine '03 X-Type for a long time but now, not so sure. I also found the rust issue on the base of the A-pillars just below the lower front door hinges. It's much worse on the driver's side but it's on both sides. My 6-year corrosion warranty ran out about 18 months ago so I'd guess it's fruitless to petition the dealer / Jaguar for a remedy. I agree with others here that it's a design flaw - after all it's the 00's and not the 60's! - and you'd expect that Jaguar would have improved its galvanizing / rust-proofing by now. But, why would it rust-through on a vertical panel and not the bottom of the sill? Anyone know how it's constructed there? Is there a seam or some place where water is trapped? Does the sunroof drain there? Any pics anyone has of the inside would help all of us.

My plan is to remove the front fender and front door and cut-away the affected area. But I'm afraid of what I'm going to find. Once open, I'm going to spray Waxoil everywhere I can - in the A-pillar, inside the sill drain holes front-to-back and hope it'll slow the spread. (I've used Waxoil on my 40 year-old British cars and it seems to slow it down). Then, I'll fabricate a repair panel and weld it in or bring it to a shop to weld it since I only have a stick welder.

But, I'm sick over it. It's lunacy that with only 60K on it I've not even replaced the spark plugs yet - but it's rotting away! We all paid a lot of money for these cars and it sucks. I've owned E-Types that are more solid!

Anyone had success through Jaguar? I've read a number of posts by jvegas and he seems to be the only one who's gotten relief but his was still under the six year warranty.

It's worth repeating - this sucks.

Steve

 

I am sure once you look behind the plastic side skirt you will be more horrified... it starts at the bottom and works up ward.

design flaw is the open rocker panels without corrosion protection inside.

 

There is no way to correct or replace this issue? Sorry I don't know to much about fixing cars, but am concerned now about my wifes 02. I am going out now to look!

 

You are looking at an extensive fix, and now that the area is corroded, unless you really get every bit out then it will return. And your repair needs to be spot on and coated to protect against it all just happening again.

I've had good results with Eastwood Rust Inhibitor in other auto body projects. It does slow things down tremendously.

Trying to put myself in your shoes, I may be inclined to let the car go if it is as bad as it probably is.......

Oh, and yes it really sucks - we feel for ya....

 

sadly this is what you will see if you go so far as to cut off the outer skin of the rocker panel. It is much worse inside the rocker that what you see outside.....

 

Wow that really sucks! Good pictures. My wifes car looks fine, which surprises me in this area with all of the road salt.

 

That looks really bad. I feel sorry for you. I am now worried as I have just bought a 03 X type. I am in the uk, so with all our bad wet weather I am hoping mine does not suffer the same damage. Is amazing what a bit of plastic can hide.....

good luck in fixing it. Sure a good body shop can help.

 

I regularly use a hose (without a nossel)to flush out the debris that collects in the sill which I hope reduces the start of rust on the body shell in this area behind.
Reggie

 

That seems too bad and good luck in repairing it . I also remember some rust issues around rear licence plate area

 

The problem is that the of the rocker panel is:

Unprotected inside... only grey primer inside ( as seen in the pics -btw not my car)

has pierced small holes to attach the side skirt. Just pressing in the clip will damage what little coating there is at the edge of the hole. Normal vibrations while driving will guarantee that the coating (paint) at the edge of these holes will be compromised.

Is directly behind the front wheels and there will certainly be abraision from road spray.

Is directly behind the front wheels and the entire unprotected inside of the rocker will be flooded with salt water during winter driving.

Is covered by the side skirt, so is not seen until it is too late.

It is a **** poor design. this area has been a rust area since the dawn of the wheel. Even horse drawn carriages would rust behind the wheels where the spray was. For the life of me I can not understand why Jag built this they way they did. If I was a class action lawyer, I would love to sue them - cuz they should know better. I mean holy cow.. it is an ALL WHEEL DRIVE car, - can you say WINTER DRIVING??? maybe corrosion is a logical thing to consider?

I used up many thousands of dollars of my time and took my frustration to a point where a weaker heart might have stopped ticking.... Finally ending up in the office of the president of Jag Canada. Even with him shouting at me, we finally settled with about 3700 dollars of compensation.

I just sandblasted, painted and sprayed undercoating at home.

 

I vaguely remember reading about your ordeal jimmy - kudos for going to the hilt. Somehow mine has escaped this issue as far as i can see - the rockers were apart during rebuilt after a wreck a few years back. You are right, **** poor design.

To the OP - most decent folks can tell when rust was there prior to 18 months, so you might be able to try that angle with your dealer. HIGHLY unlikely they will give much, but might cut you a deal on some work if anything.

 

I still cant get over how my wifes car has nothing on it, our roads are covered in salt, I have to buy new New York Giants license plates frames every year because they rust away! Wasnt their some type of spray coating you could get for your car in the past? I don't recall seeing anything like that anymore.

 

some facts i know because of my rust issue most of you have read about.

The rust comes about because of a flaw, but not the fact there is no sealant on the inside of the rocker panels. The flaw is that the X-Type sits front low, Meaning that the front of the car sits lower then the rear of the car. In all x-types built prior to 2004 you will find the root of the rust issue. The early X-Types have the 2 front drain holes in the rocker panels sealed by mistake by that gray primer. This means that any and all salty or un-salty water will sit in the front of these rocker panels because the two holes are sealed and the fact that the car sits front end low.

If you own one of these early models of the X-Type, then you WILL GET RUST. No matter how it looks now, you will get it. There is no way to avoid this from happening

Mine was under the warranty (which they have now changed the duration of this corrosion warranty) when i had my rust issue. They still fought me until i turned into Mr. Nice guy. The calm nice angle got me to get Jaguar to replace the car.

HERE IS WHAT I WOULD DO:

The rust issue is no secrete from Jaguar. They know this is happing. They also know that if the A-pillar rusts away, it sets up for a very weak and dangerous car... Jaguar know's this! I would contact them and let them know about your issue. I would say it just like this: "I have the rusting A-pillar on my X-Type, i am sure you have heard of this happening, but I really see no need to bring that to the surface. i would just like to get this fixed by you guys for free..." they will say yes or no. if they say no, I would reply in a very calm voice and tone "here is the thing. I do not know if you know how the A-pillar works. You see, if the car get's hit from the side with the A-Pillar the way it is then whoever is in the front seats would probably die... that would be bad for both of us. is there some way you can escalate this issue and see if someone can take a better look at this and maybe reconsider?"

Just remember that if they keep saying no to just stay calm and keep talking! sooner or later the person you are dealing with will get pissed or tired and start pushing it up the ladder. Keep us updated and as much as I do not recommend it, you could always contact a lawyer. like I said you are far from the first person to have this rust issue and Jaguar knows this and would hate to have this hit on a large scale.

good luck.

 

Isn't the best preventative measure to pump/spray the sill (rocker) panel interiors with waxoyl or similar anti-rust coating?

This would mean at least that the waxoyl should prevent further corrosion or at least slow it down.

It's certainly what I plan to do once the salting of our roads stops here.

Fitting mudflaps (I know they're small) would also help reduce the amount of spray from the front wheels entering the sills.

 

I totally disagree...

Can you substantiate these "facts"?

the rocker panel is open to exposure to salt water.... uphill, downhill, Drains, makes no difference. If the metal is exposed to salt, it will rust unless it is protected. The repeated cycling from wet to dry is worse than total submersion. Most residential driveways are sloped uphill anyway, designing where the water drains is a shot in the dark at best.
there are many drain holes along the pinched bottom seam and water will drain until the holes are blocked by rust flakes.

If the area were to be 100% sealed from the elements then they could get away with no protection. But the design is an open rocker, with dozens of various holes... and it is not protected.

 

I think I can Jimmy,

When my car was in the shop, my body guy was telling me why this is. i was listening to him and not really believing what he was saying. he then took me in to the back of his shop and there were 2 other X-Types there for the same reason. he showed me what he was talking about. It made sense. He then explained how when he got his X-type he noticed the flaw. he drilled out his holes and sprayed some sort of protection on the area. (he owns an 03 X-type). his were not rusted at all he claimed. Now i started believing him because.... well, he has no motive to lie about this. why would all the 04 and ups not rust? do you think they started using a new spray gun at the factory? i think because they noticed only 2 years after producing these cars that those holes are not open.

some points that lead to this statement possibly being true:

-The 04 and ups do not have this rust issue, so they changed something.
-Why would the rust only stay at the A-pillar on all the 02-03's? if there was a sealing issue then the rust could be anywhere on the panel but it is not.
- My drive way is not uphill. i am sure that most people do not have an up hill drive they park in. hell some do not even have a drive way.


why do you think that a drying and rinsing of salt water out of these panels would be worse then standing still salt water?

 

Hello,

I removed the front bumper, both fenders and both front doors. I've cut away the perforated outer and inner rocker / sill panels. Here's what I've found: the outer panel, that is behind the plastic lower moulding and painted the body's color, appears to have tan-colored anti-rust or some type of protection. The inner sill, which isn't visible, but is the structural box section of metal to which the outer panel is spot-welded, is the source of the corrosion. When the sections are cut-away you can easily see the inner sill's interior and it rusts from the bottom-up and the inside-out. When the corrosion perforates the inner sill it begins to eat at the outer sill / rocker panel starting at the front. It may have to do with moisture collecting at the leading edge and gradually working its way to the rear, or the anti-rust didn't adequately cover that portion. I don't see how water can get inside the inner sill since the windshield drains outside this section and the sunroof drains through a hose on each side that exits through the front fender area behind the inner splash shield - unless of course, the drain hose is disconnected internally on both sides. Once the repair is finished, I'll run some water in the sunroof drain and in front of the windshield to see if it gets to the inner section.

I'm doing the repair myself. I'm not cutting out the entire sill - that would compromise the structural integrity (or what's left of it) - and is beyond my welding skills. I am fabricating patch panels that will fit over the area I've cut out and I'll weld-in. I'll put a little filler over the seam that's visible when the door is open and spray to match.

To prepare the inner metal I've painted whatever I could reach with POR-15 and I've driilled three 1/2" access holes under the aluminum Jaguar sill plate (it's held on with double-sided adhesive tape) through both the sill and box section and sprayed the cavity with POR-15. I bought an inexpensive pump oiler and pumped the POR-15 using the flexible nozzle all around the area. I'm sure I didn't cover every square inch but peering inside with a small light it appears that I've gotten much of it. So, the box section now has a generous coat of POR-15 from the B-pillar forward to the A-pillar which should (I hope) slow down the progression of corrosion. POR-15 is expensive at about $50 a quart but it dries rock-hard. I used it while restoring a 40-year old MG and it's held-up for 15 years. There are a few other access holes from the factory that I used to spray POR-15 on the outer side of the box section. Again, I know I wasn't able to cover all of it. I'm thinking about spraying Waxoyl between the inner and outer panels by drilling smaller access holes in the upper sections of the outer rockers to try to protect the areas I couldn't reach with POR-15. Waxoyl flows a little easier and the hose used to spray it is much smaller / thinner. The access holes I made under the Jaguar plate will be plugged with 1/2" plastic caps and the plate glued back on. Other holes will be plugged and covered by the plastic moulding. So, when it's all done the repair shouldn't be noticeable.

I also brushed POR-15 on the exterior portion of the rocker panel's underside and will probably cover that will rubberized undercoating.

It's a LOT of work - I've spent about 25 hours on it so far between figuring out how to solve it and the work itself - and probably have another 12 hours to finish it. But, I have no choice. Having a shop cut out and replace the entire sill sections and all the assocated work would easily exceed the car's worth and I'd bet many shops wouldn't even want to do it.

I've taken a number of photos and will post when this is done. I agree with what others have said: it's not a question of "if" but "when" your X-type will corrode. They're all made the same way and will all rust the same way. I also think that '04's and up may not "yet" exhibit the corrosion but I suspect they will as well. My advice is to inspect this area often and try to beat Jaguar's 6-year warranty. This is a design or manufacturing flaw for sure! I'd happily join a class action suit but don't think there are enough enraged owners yet.

Good luck,

Steve

 

This is the reason I sold my X type, which I really did love.. despite off of its faults. Sure, it was repairable.. But not worth my time. I didn't love the car enough to pay for that repair out of pocket or attempt it myself (and anywho who knows my history with this forum knows I'm not exactly a stranger to turning a few wrenches..).
After getting nowhere with Jaguar, and even meeting with some national Jaguar guy, Leo something-or-other (total jerk, btw), I made the decision to sell. His claim was that the car had been in some catastrophic accident previously and repaired improperly.. Honest to God truth, guys. That was his defense, and he stuck to it.. Despite documented evidence from multiple local body shops who measured the depth of the paint on the A pillars behind the doors/fenders and judged it to be factory.
I cut my losses, got what I could out of the car, and moved on. I knew that it would eventually compromise the structural integrity of the car, and that would be it.

 

Hey Steve - great post thank you very much for the in-depth details. Sounds like you know what you are doing. I'm very much looking forward to the pics whenever you get the time. I agree that you may want to try the Waxoyl, it does flow a little better than POR, and it works great. Sounds like you have bought your self at least a few years if not more before the rust monsters attack again.

 

Reading this thread was depressing. I went out and looked my '03 over, and I don't see any signs of rust, but now i'm going to be worried about it forevermore. Blech.