Ok so quick update,

Car is stripped and the roof has been peeled back! (not overly sure that was necessary given my recent post)

Boot has been striped.

Last time a saw a car this apart is was going for a full respray!

devastated doesn't quite sum it up well enough.

 

 

Small update,

The bolt was removed apparently and the roof still won't collapse / fold down!

It in now being dismantled piece by piece in order to try to remove the rood form the car.

Utterly unbelievable that a design can fail so badly the car has to be stripped one component at a time with no TOPIx procedure!

 

I don't recall if you tried contacting JLR corporate about this. It's possible they could provide some compensation even if it isn't under warranty; don't know how they behave in this regard.

 

 

So just like John Handy, my top suddenly will no longer go down. The windows go down about an inch or so but the roof doesn't unlatch. Took it into the dealership, and they tried the window reset and battery reset without any success. Dealership has had vehicle for week and half so far. The put ticket in with Jaguar Tech who has no idea else to do. There are procedures on raising the top but not dropping it in order to troubleshoot further. Jaguar Tech advised the dealership to proceed as best as they could without damaging anything.

Called the dealership today to get an update and they are taking their time. Worst case scenario, I probably get a new top although I wouldn't mind taking the 400 Sport they have available should something catastrophic happen. I just miss my car but it's looking like it'll be a few more weeks until I get it back.

Luckily, I bought it certified from the dealer back in October so it's all covered!

 

 

 

 

Could i ask you what your error code was please?

 

I don't recall the exact error code but they received two when they checked the car. One was the windows were out of sync and the other dealt with the latching motor. When I stopped by the dealership yesterday, the head technician stated that the left latch did not completely latch on when it was last closed.

So you mentioned one of the dealerships in the UK was able to complete this procedure in 5 days. Can you provide me the name/location of that dealership as well as the dealership your car is being serviced at so I can pass their info over to my dealership. Perhaps they can make the long distance call and speak to whoever was smart enough to at least get the top opened! Thanks in advance and good luck!

If there are any powers that be from Jaguar that pay attention to these threads, you may want to consider a precautionary recall of the F-Type to prevent this from becoming a bigger issue. Just my two cents!

 

 

 

Damn, seeing those pictures brought tears to my eyes followed by a lot of anger. Thank you for the contact info, I had already passed their info along but will give them Liam's name and number as well.

I wonder what it will take for them to buy back my car and allow me to get one that may never have this issue.......

So which dealership is handling your car repair? Is it Beadles Jaguar Southend or someone else?

 

Mine as well my friend.

It is utterly amazing the deconstruction required if the roof is stuck closed. this is a massive design error on the part of Jaguar Land Rover. The essential maths are that it could potentially cost you £5'000 to get to and fix a dodgy connector or cable £5000 being half the cost of a complete replacement roof!

TBH I think as cars come out of warranty and if this keeps happening it will be a total PR disaster for Jaguar Land Rover.

Now I can find about 12 on the internet easily that have had similar roof issues. Now this may not seem like a high number but bear in mind that I am sure a lot have been fixed under warranty and that not everyone puts pen to paper. Add this with the fact that 3 of us have had the same roof stuck closed issue at the same time (within 1-2 weeks) and that it would appear to happen to cars regardless of extremely low mileage / use.

You can start to understand my concern for Jaguar Brand Protection and Impact on future F Type sales (new and second hand) if this erupts in to controversy when more customers are facing considerable repair bills that they need to find the money to pay for.

FYI my friend in Essex was told "it is water ingress sir therefor it is not covered under warranty!" word to the wise is all. Both Myself and my Friend are of the opinion that a convertible should no be able to suffer water ingress and I am certain that nobody leaves the roof open in the rain on an £80'000 car.

 

I'll be honest and say that the pictures you posted have been weighing heavily on my mind since seeing them. I've always wanted a Jaguar and when I saw the F-Type I knew that was going to be my car! Though I was able to buy/lease a new one I went the pre-certified route and bought mine in October. I've had it now for about 7 months and have enjoyed it immensely! Now though, I feel like this is a punch in the gut and the wind has been knocked out of me and my Jaguar ownership experience. I find myself wanting to cut and run from this vehicle and I'm starting to weigh my options on what to do next!

I completely agree that this is a much bigger problem then Jaguar probably realizes. If a recall isn't in order, I don't know what else would need to occur in order to warrant the need for it.

When I bought my F-Type the first thing I heard from several friends was that the cars are nice and stylish but that they are unreliable and always breaking down. One even referred to them as the British version of a Ford! If Jaguar is truly wanting to grow in popularity as Audi has here in the US the last 10 years, they really need to change that perception!!!

 

Well, if people keep repeating that nonsense it is pretty hard to change the perception. Two weeks ago while filling my F-Type with gas a woman in a new BMW on the other side of the pump asked me what kind of car I had. When I told her it was a Jaguar she said EXACTLY what your friends said to you. Her words? "I love the way Jaguars look but I have been told that they break down for no reason in the middle of nowhere." Sigh.....I have owned many Jaguars - they all have been remarkably reliable (while my nightmare car was a BMW).

With reference to the F-Type convertible top: the first rule is this: for ANY, let me repeat, ANY electrical issue in a modern car the first and prime suspect is low battery voltage! This has been proven innumerable times - and it is the reason that EVERY luxury car manufacturer (Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Bugatti, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, and yes, Jaguar and Range Rover) sells the CTEK battery maintainer under their own brand name- and they do this because all of these cars can have the same sort of issues. These rolling computer-stuffed marvels demand full battery voltage to all the modules at all times - when they do not get it random "failures" occur; these can range from warning lights for any system to door locks, windows, touch screens, seats, and convertible tops not functioning as they should. In the vast majority of cases the cause is simply low battery voltage - ah..."but the car starts perfectly" - yes, because that is the way things are arranged. The car will always start because power to the other systems is shut down selectively.
Many of these cars are used infrequently and/or for short trips insufficient to keep the battery fully charged. Many are on batteries that are 4 or 5 years old (pretty much the limit for modern batteries UNLESS they are kept on a battery maintainer). Further, it takes a very informed service adviser to suspect the battery first - they are trained to replace things,not to use critical thinking! And even replacing the battery might not fix the problem immediately - because new batteries are rarely fully charged!
So the first question is this: was the battery proven to be at full voltage output and thus eliminated from the list of suspects? If not, a mess such as the one we have here is the end result.
It may be that there is a deeper problem - but in a number of the cases cited, low mileage (meaning lack of use) is a factor. Even if a car is used daily, but used for short runs, the battery will eventually run down below the voltage level necessary to keep all systems operating properly. This is shown by a common thread: as an example, a failure of the touch screen to boot up until the car has been running for a while - the touch screen wakes up because the battery has now recovered sufficiently to power it! Similar patterns of intermittent behaviour from other systems (such as the convertible top) form part of this history.
So again, has the battery been PROVEN to be fresh and fully charged before the dismantling nightmare began?
My sleeping F-Type which has no electrical problems of any kind - note the CTEK cord:

 

Update: I stopped by the dealership Friday afternoon and was told that they had just gotten the roof opened. They tried the one thing Jaguar told them not to try and it worked. My understanding is that it's an issue with a bolt or something that activates the latch release. They were able to open/close the roof when pressing whatever that bolt is intended for. So now they are ordering the replacement part and waiting to see how far away it has to travel to get it here to Texas. Should be getting my car back by the end of the week barring any setbacks.

 

Sooo...new diagnostic operating procedure: Try whatever Jag tells you not to do.