Although I've replaced the hood/bonnet struts (on more than one occasion!)

I've always lived in fear, that the bonnet might decide to slam shut without any warning, which can happen even in a gentle breeze.

This could be a disaster if you have left almost anything, sitting on top of the engine, which I'm sure that some of us may have done at some time.

So I've always laid a cushion or something soft on top to catch the fall just in case.

The only problem being that this can get in the way of what you are doing, so I made up a DIY bonnet strut lock, which seems to work very well.

All I needed was a small piece of channel, just wide enough to go around the Piston of the Strut and a Hose Clip with a Pinch Bolt.

A couple of cuts in the channel with a hacksaw, was all that I needed to put a spike on the end, which I then bent into a hook using long nose pliers.

Next I put the hose clip round the bottom half of the strut, without any need to remove the strut beforehand.

Then simply hooked the channel (cut to the right length beforehand) onto the 'pinch bolt' of the hose clip.

So now when I open the bonnet, I lift the piece of channel up so it wraps around the piston of the Strut, where the weight of the bonnet keeps it in place, until I want to unlock it.

After some experimentation, the best position on my car, was to have the piece of channel hinge out towards the engine, so there was a bit of friction to prevent it slipping out on its own.

If you decide to make something similar, be extremely careful where the piece of channel is going to lay when you close the bonnet as you don't want to foul or graunch anything or even dent the bonnet in the process.

And always keep an eye on it, while you very carefully and slowly close the bonnet.

Please let me know what you think!

The (assembly photo was taken using an old strut) There was no need to remove the Strut beforehand.

Before I took the photo of the bonnet strut lock in place I twisted it round so that it is laying on top of the piston, which was just to show you what it looks like.

The ideal position on my car was to have the Strut lock on the Engine side, hinging out towards the engine when you unlock it.

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OB,

Nice idea to the problem!

Just a thought, when you're changing your struts, are you fitting teh original Jaguar ones? On late XJSs, one of the struts is a locking strut.

Paul

 

Hi Paul

I didn't know that!

I just replaced them with what was already on there but where I live, it certainly isn't unusual to get an unexpected breeze come up out of nowhere.

And I've certainly had to make a grab to stop the bonnet falling on quite a few occasions in the past.

The Drop Link Anti Roll Bar Bushes arrived by post this morning only £5 on ebay instead of £15 from a Jag supplier! (same stuff and not made out of 'chewing gum'!)

The only problem being it's 'persisting' down with rain.

So now Greg in France has fixed my exhaust, that is the only job left to do before the dreaded MOT.

Which is a half hour drive from where I live.

Being the first MOT since being laid up in 2005 is kinda making me nervous even though its always passed without any problems before.

So fingers crossed!

 

Hi Paul

You were right!

I just had a look at the Struts on my later car and one of them 'locks' just like you said!

I guess I fell into the trap whereby when you order parts, they ask you for your Registration number and then send you the same ones that were Specified for your Car.

So next time I will make doubly sure that I order the lockable struts.

It finally stopped raining, so I managed to take off the 'Drop Links' on the Anti Roll Bar, where I found the rubbers were almost 'shot away'.

So now I've cleaned the links up and given all the relevant parts a coat of hammer paint and 'IF' it doesn't rain tomorrow, I should get them back on.

And then She will be all done and ready for MOT.

Although I was very anxious to get her back on the road after such a long time, working on her is turning into a labor of love! and that includes all the problems that I have encountered with the Exhaust.

Though no doubt it won't be too long before I find another problem that needs sorting out!

 

Orangeblossom, Looks to me that your right strut is on upside down. Don't know if it matters, though.
RagJag

 

Hi Rag Jag

I never even noticed, until you pointed that out!

It was hard to undo in the first place, so perhaps I will leave it how it is until I get a lockable strut.

Thanks for letting me know!

 

Orangeblossom, kudos to you for coming up with the strut lock. It will work just fine. Quite ingenious.
RagJag

 

Why does everyone have this problem?

I bought the cheap URO struts when I first got my car back in 2010 and have had no problems

 

Far be it for me to say so but you are absolutely right!

Even with brand new struts on, it just takes only a gust of wind to have the bonnet come crashing down on something you laid on the engine.

Before I put the Strut lock on, you couldn't take your eyes of it for a minute!

 

You must be one of the lucky ones, I've had this Strut problem on all of my 'Gothic' XJS V12's

 

FYI, what I did was to buy some uprated struts from SGS. You can specify how much stronger (eg 15% in my case) you want them to be, better and cheaper than OEM:
Gas Struts, Gas Springs, Tailgate Gas Struts, Boot Struts - Buy in UK

If you have cash to burn (not my problem) you can order the full bling stainless cylinders!
Greg

 

I don't want to sound rude, but there isn't anything "unlucky" about your cars. An XJS is an XJS. Put the correct struts on it and it will be fine. If they don't hold the hood up, they aren't correct. There isn't any need to fabricate locks for hoods the left the factory being held up fine and went back to the dealership where the techs put the hood up and worked on them just fine

 

I never knew that Greg! another very useful gem of wisdom!

 

I don't doubt that you are correct on this but the Car was old when I bought her and so were the struts.

I made the strut lock out of some scrap that was laying around and it gives me a lot more piece of mind to know that it is on.

 

As struts age they lose some gas and aren't as strong as they were during the brief time factory or dealer tech's were servicing the cars and were indoors away from wind gusts. Your workaround was quite a good idea, so don't be discouraged from some future project. The fact that Jaguar installed a locking strut proves that there was a problem of bonnets coming down unbidden in earlier cars.
Cheers. RagJag

 

Again! I never thought of that, you are absolutely right!

Why bother to bring out a 'lockable strut' if the ones fitted on earlier Cars were plenty good enough to do the job.

As you say they get weak with age and probably lose some gas and the only time that you know when that is, would be when the 'bonnet/hood' decides to come crashing down with out warning.

 

i wish my car was complete enough that i could tinker with these little fun mods.
instead i spend my days fabbing up parts to get it to run and my nights orchestrating my to do list.

 

i dont understand. I thought we acknowledge here that your struts were old and needed replacing. Noone suggested the right struts last a lifetime. I was suggesting that for 20-30 bucks you can just put the proper struts on it and not worry about it for 5 years

 

i really dont agree with this line of thinking. Struts are not a necessity, and to simply make a permanent fix to a frequently reoccurring problem for next to no money is a perfect example of wrenching at its finest.
especially when you take into account the sheer weight of the V12 bonnet? the thing has its own gravitational field. my bonnet struts work, but if the wind blew in on a whim and slammed my hood down on whatever i happened to be working on (assuming i was out of harms way) there would be huge amounts of bonnet and fender damage, not to mention whatever i was working on (fuel rail for example) would probably be smashed to bits.

speaking of my properly working struts, i have them disconnected for this very reason. i use a proper steel prop rod. problem solved.

 

I went down Bernard ebdons route and purchased a ready made lift lock from the states very cheap (about $12 inc carriage to the uk