Was wondering if anyone had any experience with this. I got in my car today and I noticed that the headliner over the passenger doors is sagging, as well as over the rear seats. It's not just a little sag, it's really coming down!

To make matters worse, I know this won't be cheap. I bought the car as a CPO, but it turns out they misrepresented it and it wasn't. They offered me a 3rd party warranty (EasyCare TotalCare) who doesn't do headliners under warranty.

Anyone have any clue if the whole liner would need replaced? I find it incredible that a 2011 Jaguar is having this problem. I know this was a Florida car before I brought it to NY, so it's possible this thing has seen some insane heat, but it's always been in my garage where it's in the shade\cool. It happened on the hottest day of the year (100+ F), but it was cool inside the car and the garage.

Very confused...

 

That is a shame. I had the same issue that was common on my 2001 XJR and took it to a good auto upholstery shop and they were able to match the material and re-cover the headliner shell for (back in 2010) under $500. My thinking is that it should cost you less than 1k. Check with your New York dealer and see if they have a shop that they recommend and go there directly and not through the dealer as they may mark it up.

 

Have you washed the headliner? It usually happens when the headliner gets wet. I have tried to wash mine with a wet cloth at a previous vehicle and it fell down. Try to find out on dismantling. Cheers

 

For a SWB the ivory suedecloth headliner is approx £900 for export, plus about £100 for shipping. With the current exchange rate to US dollars thats about $1300. LWB is fractionally more.

In the first instance I would try and repair it. As it is near to the edge remove the liner panel from the car and carefully lift the fabric from the nearest edge and rebond with a suitable fabric contact adhesive. If it doesn't work you are in no worse a situation than you are at present, and if it does you have saved the bulk of the replacement cost.

Check your sunroof casette too for corrosion as your model year frequently had that and the sagging is in the right sort of area for water getting in at the ends of the casette and tracking into the car. A replacement casette is about £1500 for export, plus about 5h labour to fit as the roof panels need to come out. If that was/is the cause it is possible that you could repair the damage yourself or at least hide it enough that you will get many more years out of it before it is needed. If the casette was the cause and the sunroof is covered under your 3rd party warranty maybe they would pay for the headliner replacement as part of that claim?

 

Haven't ever washed it. I haven't even sprayed it accidentally with an APC or anything of the sorts. What did you do when yours fell down?

I think you may have something here. I never really checked the sunroof from the outside while it’s open, and when I went out today I found this:


It’s not on the side of the sagging, but I also saw the rear moon roof have some condensation in the edges of the glass. It's also bubbled up the rubber sealer on the edges. I’m thinking there is some corrosion that’s allowed some moisture to get underneath the headliner and sag it down. I found a TSB of JTB00281NAS1 that matches my look perfectly,

Another thing that may work in my favor is when I bought the car the dealership that I bought the car from that advertised it as a CPO but then said it wasn't fixed a bunch of stuff that was broken on the car, including a sunroof seal and wind screen for the sunroof. That was all done at the Jaguar dealership near me in NYC. Hopefully with everything I can show Jaguar that A caused B and get the two things fixed.

My warranty is a very good one, nearly everything is covered down to the wheels and tires on the car, just interior upholstery isn’t.

 

My friend in L.A. had his sagging headliner replaced at a convertible top shop. I think he paid like $200. Ask around in the 'ethnic neighborhoods' for the best deal.

Cheers,
Wolfy

 

That is the classic sunroof casette corrosion for early X351s.

The early cars had no protective strip where the rubber on the underside of the glass panels contacts the (very poor quality) unprimed painted steel casette, and with expansion and contraction and road movement of the rubber it would lift the paint off the steel and allow rust to form. The dealer fix if this was reported was to strip the paint, convert the rust to prevent it spreading, repaint, and then fix a textured mylar tape over the areas that contact the rubber seals to prevent the problem reoccuring.

Sadly it was never a permanent fix and was only designed as a cosmetic treatment to push the problem out of the standard warranty period (it is not covered under the corrosion warranty). The problem is by the time it is noticed the rust has normally perforated the steel entirely and as it is not removed the rust continues to spread on the underside until it punctures through again. It also does not address the same problem of the rubber lifting the paint off under the fixed rear glass panel, which continues to spread unabated. Where the underside of the cassette corrodes if the body paint is damaged you get galvanic corrosion of the car roof frame as well. If it gets to that stage some owners have had success getting the entire casette replaced (and the roof frame repainted) under the corrosion warranty as the roof frame is deemed "structural".

The only satisfactory fix is to remove the casette and if the steel is largely intact to strip and convert both sides before refitting and applying tape to all rubber contact areas. If it is badly perforated it should really be replaced to prevent it coming back in a few years. Yours does not look that bad, but if it is the cause of water ingress it may be worse under the fixed glass panel.

Newer cars (IIRC mid 2013-onwards) have the tape fixed from the factory and it covers the entire contact area under the fixed glass panel as well so the problem does not occur in the first place.

When you drop the headlining you can see the underside of the sunroof and should be able to spot if any water has got in. It may be completely unrelated (most times they do not leak). Maybe heat at some point has caused it to delaminate.

 

xdave, your post is amazing! Thank you so much for helping me out with all the information you've given.



Can you elaborate on this if you could? I looked up the corrosion warranty wording and it seems this would be covered.



Corrosion Protection Warranty
Should any part of the bodywork of the vehicle be perforated by rust corrosion, the panel(s) affected by the perforation will be repaired or replaced by an authorized retailer completely free of charge, regardless of any change in vehicle ownership for 6 year unlimited mileage.


Another thing I forgot to add since you mentioned the rear glass is I noticed condensation in the glass (Couldn't get to it from inside or outside the car) around the edges. The liner over the rear seats is where the headliner is sagging the most, as well as over the doors on the passenger side.


I pulled up how to take the headliner down via Topix but I'm hesitant to do so as it seems a bit complicated.


I'm going to bring the car to the dealership after next week, and start what will hopefully be a less than difficult attempt at getting this resolved. I called yesterday and they said my car was still covered under the corrosion warranty so they're at least aware of that. The best case out of all of this is the problem gets fixed the correct way as you mentioned (I wish you were my service tech!) and hopefully somehow the liner was proven to be water damaged or something likewise and get that fixed at the same time.


I'll keep this thread updated, thank you so much for your post!

 

The key part there is that the corrosion warranty only covers bodywork (i.e. structural members and panels) and not cosmetic trims. It is burried in the small print in the warranty booklet. I pursued that route with Jaguar UK through my dealer and we got nowhere, and others have tried and failed too, and Jag are pretty wise on this specific rust problem by now as every single early XJ I have seen has either got the rust present, or the dealer fix was applied (you can tell because the tape will not extend under the fixed panel, and untreated rust is usually visible with a torch). If the rust has perforated the casette trim and caused corrosion of the roof structure that will be covered under the corrosion warranty (both the roof repair and the replacement casette). You may need to lean on Jaguar to get it approved, but it will eventually get sorted.

Ask the dealer to look at it from the perspective of water seemingly getting in through the roof somewhere, and on the very slim chance they have not had to deal with an early X351 with a rusting sunroof pod before be sure to highlight that in every single case my local Jag-approved bodyshop has handled, whether a dealer fix or a full replacement, there was extensive rust under the fixed roof panel as well so do not accept a touch up job on only the visible bit. It would have to be pretty bad for the rubber seals to have failed to keep the water out, but as it is unseen at this point and you have secondary symptoms it is worth pursuing. I'd want them to remove that headliner and provide confirmation of why it has failed.

If the casette is not perforated then I would (and did) accept a repair on my car but only if they do under the fixed panel too. If the casette is badly damaged it will need replacing which is about £1,800 for UK export + shipping as it is only available as a single part complete with the glass and new seals. C2D30276 for a LWB, C2D30275 for a SWB (which is oddly £200 more expensive). You are unlikely to get the parts at less than that from a US dealer, but push for a reduced rate for the labour or go to your favourite bodyshop to have them swapped over.

 

So hope that it's sort of major, got it!


I'm actually excited now to bring this into the shop and start this process. Kind of sad I have to wait more than a week!


In your opinion how would you go about requesting everything be torn into? Try to have Jaguar pay for the time to diagnose/rip the entire top of the car off or just pay the hourly rate for the diagnosis and worry about it later?


I do agree it seems I have more than a few things suggesting this could be a bit more than I ever thought, there's always been a slight wind noise and like I said above, condensation in the rear glass panel and a broken seal for the sunroof that was replaced in February (Why they didn't spot this and tell me about it unless it was doctored up when I bought it in January...)


I found one of the C2D30275's for $3100 via the US should I have to go that route.(Here) I really think Jaguar needs to kick in for something.


Without your posts and help I would have never known what to do. Since you've described everything I've been able to track down old threads and posts across the internet. You've been invaluable xdave!