Several weeks ago my dealer replaced the hood pad in my S. Now I'm having problems getting my hood to latch, and, the dealer doesn't seem real interested in solving my problem. Any of you techs run into this problem with the redesigned hood pad??

Regards:
Oldengineer

 

Hey here's one I can answer! The dealer replaced mine as well. I noticed that when I would close the hood it would not latch properly on the passenger side. After checking things out I noticed that the raised portion of the fron of the pad is supposed to act like a gasket but was real stiff. I ran my thumb down the ridge to soften the material then closed the hood. It closed fine. Give it a try and let me know if it worked.

 

If softening the material as previously suggested doesn't do the trick, can you simply trim away the excess material around the hood latches with a sharp hobby knife or a new razor blade in a box cutter?

And more importantly, why does your dealer not seem to care? They replaced the pad so they should be responsible for making it fit properly. Perhaps the new pad was installed slightly off-kilter. You're under warranty, right? I just don't see how they can get away with not rectifying this problem unless you allow them to....

 

Lube your latches and slightly turn down the bump stops in the front

 

I tried your suggestions, and, I was able to adjust the hood latches close to their original position. The hood now shuts OK. Hopefully, the pad's front ridge will soften up some more with age, and, I can get the latches adjusted the last little bit. Re: My dealer. He's the only one in my state, and, with poor Jag sales, they've lost most of the trained staff. I'm now dealing with a newbie service manager with an attitude, and, a bunch of techs that aren't well versed with Jaguar yet. Armed with the technical information from this forum, I've been able to prod them to fix major problems that I can't. I did get a free rear brake job out of them on the S-Type. They certified the car, and, the back brakes were shot. Near as I can tell, they didn't inspect anything - just did an oil change and put it on the lot. Luckily I got to keep the car overnight before I purchased it and did my own inspection. Made 'em fix my list before inking the deal.

Thanks for all your help.
Oldengineer

 

Sorry about your lousy dealer situation - hope it gets better for you. That's a tough spot to be in when you're still under warranty - chances go way up that you won't get the service quality that you prepaid for....

Those 140-point Select Edition inspections are indeed nothing but marketing hype. Our S-Type came with an empty windshield washer fluid tank and extremely low battery cells. How difficult to check are those items? I did, however, use that information (along with other facts that I uncovered during my research on our particular car) to substantially lower my best-and-final offer to purchase. It worked, along with my refusal to do any negotiating whatsoever....

 

Jon:

After I looked the car over good the evening before we did the deal, I made them raise their offer for my X-Type by $1000, fix the rear brakes, and replace the hood pad on the S-Type.

Regards:
Oldengineer

 

My hood pad isn't crumbling like yours was, but it has certainly torn away from several of its mounting screws. I noticed that last weekend when I was checking fluids and thinking about what you had said about your pad. These pad mounting screw holes need to have metal grommets in them to stop the pad from sagging and then tearing away. I have added "get hood pad replaced" to my warranty item checklist the next time I pay a visit to our dealer....

 

Jon:

You might also want to check the pad that's on the bottom side of the cowl area. On the car I have, it turned into fuzzy crap and fell all over the back of the engine. My dealer has it on order for me.

Regards:
Oldengineer

 

Mine did the same thing as yours did - it seems to have just crumbled away. I vacuumed up the residue last weekend using my ShopVac. If a new cowl pad will fall apart just as fast, I don't know if I even want to replace it. Hopefully, Jaguar has changed materials or vendors or something to keep this from happening with replacement cowl pads....

Keep us posted on how your new cowl pad holds up. If it seems better than the lousy original one, I may have my dealer order a new one for me before our factory warranty expires in mid-July....

 

Jon:

Dealer indicated to me on my last visit that the cowl pad was on backorder, and, they had no idea when they were going to get it. What's the purpose of this pad?? There wasn't enough left of it on my car to even tell.

Regards:
Oldengineer

 

I don't see that cowl pad being there for much other than additional sound insulation. Our car is plenty quiet already and having gone to the trouble of cleaning up the mess that the original cowl pad made when it disintegrated, I'm not keen on putting a new one on the bottom of the cowl unless the materials have been changed so that the pad doesn't fall apart all over again....

Let us know if you do indeed have a new one put on, and keep us posted on how it holds up....

 

If the dealer ever manages to get a new one, I'll let you know if it was worth the trouble.

Regards:
Oldengineer