hi, I'm sure that this has been dealt with but I couldnt immediately find anything on the search function. On one side of my car the gap between the front quarter panel and the bumper (around the top of the wheel arch) is noticeably bigger than the other, and it sits slightly proud. Maybe a couple of mm out. It's not a huge bugbear for me, but noticeable enough. Has anyone had something like that corrected, and is it a big issue?

 

The front quarter panel doesn’t come within 12 inches of the front bumper. Do you mean the distance between the hood and the front bumper where it meets at the wheel well?

 

ahhhh, yes the hood

 

A minor adjustment at the hood hinges might do the trick, but that may also negatively affect the gap between the bumper and the door. You might try playing with the two bolts at the upper edge of the bumper first to see if you can make the proper adjustment.

 

Ahhh, will try that first. I've only had the bonnet up two or three times since I've owned the car, this will be fun!

 

Don't mess with the hood hinges first--that's a significant adjustment and really requires two people to be done correctly. I had great success getting mine more aligned and even just using the four bumper stops for up/down and the pair of bolts on the upper edge that Unhinged mentioned for in/out. See the attached PDF.

 

Perfect, mine is exactly like the last image (with the X on it).

 

I would rather be tasked with fixing the alignment on hidden hinge soft closing cabinet doors for the rest of my days than trying to fix this particular alignment issue. You've been warned.

 

Yeah, I think I will get Jag to deal with it at next service. It looks to me that due to the particular issue the whole nose might have to be dropped off.

 

I had the same issue with hood to bumper and body panels. JLR wouldn’t fix this as they said it is only covered during first year of ownership, my car was three years old when I purchased my 16 S. They suggested to send to their body shop for panel alignment, of course this would be costly and timely. I had great success with adjusting the four rubber bump stops, two on either side on the body. It does take patients and time, you will be opening and closing your bonnet a few time for sure to inspect the alignment to your liking. Search the forum and you tube videos, they will help. The manual has a great section on panel gaps. Good luck you may be surprised with your efforts.
cheers
Frank

 

Cheers Frank, I might have a crack on the weekend - Jag have suggested that I take it to a body shop too. Didnt think of youtube videos, thanks!

 

It's easier than you think. Just go slow, do one change at a time and view the results. Too much--go back a bit; not enough--keep going. Mine came back from a dealer service misaligned because they took it off to work on the car. I was nervous too but I started with the bump stops and then went to the double bolts on the fender. Doing the whole nose or underbelly is certainly a lot more work so if it needs that then maybe you rethink it.

 

Just an update on this. I went to have a go after Tan very kindly sent me a youtube clip on the adjustment process. Anyway, what it seems is that the black inner guard (which I think they have to remove to get at the air filter box) has two screws that come from underneath and stick into lugs (?) that are part of the headlight assembly frame. Neither of those screws are screwed into the lugs (I'm gonna take a chance and use that term) so essentially the headlight assembly and right side of the bumper arent attached to any part of the car.

I might be able to get at them if I turn the wheels full lock to the left, otherwise I'll have to get it put on a hoist so that they can get the wheel off and work at it from underneath.

What a schamozzle, this is the second time I've had a drama after Jag took the wheel off, the previous time they didnt tighten the wheel nuts and I was driving with a loose wheel getting progressively worse for a few weeks (lost one nut, nearly lost a second, bearing went shortly afterward)...

 

You can get at over the top of your tires. Just pop off the two round plastic covers... You can get the right size bolts at your local hardware store. Mine were off too. I forget the size of the bolts now, but I took one off of the connected side and took it with me to the store... Used a 10mm extended socket with quarter inch ratchet wrench... bolt was one inch long and had to use separate washer... On the Jag bolts the washer is connected to the bolt...

 

Be sure to stuff something down in front of those two holes, otherwise you risk losing one of them down that abyss called 'the front end'. I also used some Poster Putty to make sure the fender bolt did not escape from my socket. I had the same headlight assembly misalignment issue and both of those 'fender' bolts were missing. I don't think they were ever even there, as there was no indication of any marks from a previously tightened bolt that may have fallen out.