About 3 - 4 weeks ago, a rock/pebble hit the side of my car and the next morning upon pulling out of the garage, noticed the window had cracked. Submitted a claim to insurance, they sent it out for bids and received a high bid of $1207.90 from my dealership, a bid of $771.90 from one retailer and one bid of $723.00 from another retailer; insurance cut me a check for the low bidder minus my $200 deductible. I'm going with the bidder in the middle. Any words of wisdom in terms of potential issues upon which I should be aware, while replacing the window or subsequent? I've never had a side window cracked by a rock; years ago I had the front window of my 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII cracked all the way across at the bottom and I've seen other cars with front window cracks and "stars" from rocks/pebbles, but never a side window.

 

By side window, you mean passenger's side window that goes up and down? If so, then replacing it requires removing door panel. I would take it to a Jaguar dealer or at least Jaguar specialist as it is very easy to damage the door panel while doing this. The glass is just attached to the window lifter mechanism, so there is no special adhesives or process to replace it - as such you can take it to mechanic instead of a glass shop.

I had my replaced under warranty by the dealer - I had to take it back to get it re-aligned, as it was not retracting 100% down past the seal.

 

It is true that the side glass is quite expensive on these cars - each is about £300+VAT retail in the UK ($400 USD), but fitting it is no harder than any other car and is only a 30 minute job including wiping all the fingerprints off afterwards. Removing the door card is straightforward with most of the screws in the expected places - the only bit that might not be obvious is the wood trim panel needs to be removed to expose some bolts. It just pulls off at the front then slides forward (it has hooks at the rear). The front clips are easy to break on that trim so check it is secured back properly afterwards. If it 'wiggles' you can put a bit of rubber or cloth tape over the clip to help it stay 'in'. The XJ has bolt-on plastic inner liners so there is nothing to cut. The main panel clips are quite rugged if pulled cleanly and not those annoying one-use clips fitted to other cars (I'm looking at you Volvo...)

You do need to remove the outer waist seal to allow the glass to position outside of the car when lifting it out. There is a single screw from the inside to the outside on the door-opening end, then it just pulls up with a trim tool.

If you mean the smaller triangle side window at the rear of car then that is a bit harder to remove.

You should reset the window motor after replacing the glass. On a 2014 that should be:
1) Hold the down button down until fully opened and keep it held for 2 seconds more.
2) Release then hold for 2 more seconds. You should hear a click.
3) Hold the close button down until fully closed and keep held for 2 seconds.
4) Release then hold for 2 more seconds. You should hear another click.

(If that doesn't reset it repeat without steps 2 and 4.)

I know you are getting it done at a garage, but for those arriving here in the future I have attached the workshop manual steps involved. With the trim panel you only need to go to step 14.

 

Glass replacement is pretty much the same, regardless of the vehicle. What particularly interests me is how differently insurance companies handle these claims in different locations. My daughter-in-law had essentially the same experience a couple years ago with her Cadillac DTS. The front passenger door window was hit by something while she was driving it. There was initially no damage evident but a day or two later, the window cracked all the way across its full width. A simple call to her insurance agent (a State Farm representative) revealed that it was a Comprehensive claim ($0 deductible) and they dispatched a mobile glass installer the next day who replaced the glass right in the driveway. I had a similar experience when a wild turkey flew into the windshield of my new 1993 Lincoln Continental in late 1993 - a quick call to State Farm and the windshield was replaced the same day at no charge to me. Just for the record, zero deductibles are no longer available (at least in Virginia) but I am grandfathered into zero on Comprehensive and $100 on Collision because I've stayed with the same insurance for 37 years... my son and daughter-in-law live with us and, although they have their own policies covering their vehicles, they are grandfathered into the same deductibles due to the shared home address. There's no doubt in my mind that Jaguar replacement glass is probably harder to source than Lincoln or Cadillac, so I would expect a bit more of a wait, but still...

Dwayne

 

Thanks ever so much for taking the time with this, my issue!

 

I really appreciate you all taking the time to address this issue as comprehensively as you did. My anxiety level has been somewhat high due to having a shop other than my Jaguar dealer performing this work.