Hey all you XJ x350 / x358 owners out there, just a thought.........

Perhaps some of you have this already, perhaps you don't and would like it?

Pressing the boot open on my keyfob unlocks the boot and it springs open an inch or two.

Well, I want to ideally press my keyfob and have the boot spring open fully, as a lot of the newer variants have, so.........

Doing some checking into replacing my gas struts with new ones, either possibly slightly longer or with more Nm of force

Just a thought and something I intend to play around with, anyone have it or would like it or have any thoughts?

Please jump in.......

Thanks
Jim

 

Hmmm, well that's a bust for now anyway

There's a few videos online of how to's for various marques / models etc, seems to be various ways of potentially achieving this, but of course it all looked sooo easy

See a video example below

Now the boot on this is quite similar in some ways to ours, but a very quick experiment between work commitments today was a failure
I removed the struts and applied what seemed to be suitable springs to take up the gap left when in the closed position, approx. 40mm there or thereabouts and re fitted

Now the boot certainly pops a little more for sure, but nowhere near enough to fully open..........not having time I removed and shut down for the day, back to work

Conclusions are.......

1. Either existing struts and weak / failing, they are nearly 9 years old after all. I've ordered another set from SGS Engineering 01332 576850
The part number on my "Jaguar" originals is 2W93 F406A 10-AF, having spoken to them they offered part number GSC1503 a pair incl vat and next day delivery for £38.38
There are actually 5 possible different part numbers to suit this vehicle all available on their website. I've used them before for gas struts for my VW Passat and they worked a treat.

2. Springs used were not correct ( not enough compression to overcome the weight of the lid )

One of the better versions I did see was on a Rover75, see here.......

There may be various other factors I'm not taking into account, but at present I don't have the time to look into this further
I'm thinking perhaps someone with our model of car who only works a couple of days a week with loadssss of time on his hands, or someone with more experience and or time than I might come up with a solution??

Jim

 

I've often wondered this, I am sure when my dad had his 06 s type the lid popped up by itself but then the lid is probably lighter

 

Jim,

That is an outstanding idea, and one I wish I had thought of before I replaced the rear struts in our '04. The OE struts are ZF/Sachs/Stabilus LIFT-O-MAT units with "dynamic damping." They are designed to apply less pressure as they reach the closed position so the mounting points are under less stress, but as the struts extend they apply greater pressure to support the lid. Here a link to info:

Stabilus LIFT-O-MAT Gas Springs with Dynamic Damping

Based on the above, my first thought is that you would need to use a different brand or type of strut to spring the lid fully open, since the Stabilus struts apply too little pressure when closed or nearly closed, but whether or not the mounting points on our aluminum-bodied cars could handle greater stress, I do not know.

I hope someone can enlighten us with a solution because that would definitely be a handy feature.

Cheers,

Don

 

As always, you're ahead of the game and on the ball Don, see below....

Well just had a chat with one of the guys at SGS Engineering, they manufacture gas struts for most car manufacturers

I've used them several times in the past and can recommend them.

I asked about the possibility of a stronger strut with more Nm of force to fully open the boot as they manufacture specials too. His comment was that, yes they could, but.....
The force needed to fully open the boot would make it more difficult to close and or potentially cause damage to the hinge mechanism over a period of time, so clearly that's a no go

I feel something along the lines of the Rover75 mod would do the job
Points of note though.......
1. black coloured springs to blend in ( painted if necessary )
2. Smaller coiled springs as close to dia of strut as possible
3. No heat shrink applied as it causes issues, the black springs would negate this anyway

Jim

 

OK Jim so why not take this a step further and open with FOB as planned, then press button in boot to close? Too much? That might be an interesting project for my XK.

 

What a novel idea. Not to detract from this thread, I have been putting a bit of thought into a similar mod myself lately, though for me I was intending to go the opposite direction and do away with the electric pop up assist on the XJ and do something similar to what the XK has....just a simple button to push and release the boot, with no electric assist to open or close. I find that the force required to close the XK boot lid is not much more than is needed to close the XJ, albeit that the XJ has the extra feature of the close assist. My fear of having a remote function to fully open the boot would be that I would accidentally press it unknowingly and have the boot wide open when I am not around to see.

When I first purchased the XJ I thought it was a neat feature, but after loading the boot too full on a trip one time, the solenoid failed to work and will only pop the boot slightly and not fully release, causing me to insert the key each time I need to fully open the boot. I have yet to fix it and this is why I have been thinking about a way to modify it and do away with the electric feature altogether.

I have searched the forums and have not found anyone who has dissected the solenoid, so I plan on doing this in the near future to see what is common to fail.

As far as boot lid struts, I just found replacements for my XK about a month ago and installed them after a strut leaked out and would no longer hold the lid open. I purchased off of Amazon and the brand is Boxi. Inexpensive at $21 USD for the pair. Made similar to OE, though the upper ball end on the new ones were a slightly tighter fit against the boot lid and required a light tap of the hammer to install. They pop the lid up and are sufficiently stiff, though one would need a fair amount of extra lift to get the boot from the lowest position, as the OP is suggesting. I know with the new struts on the XK I need approximately 12 inches of rise on the boot before the struts will take over and lift the lid the rest of the way.

Here are the ones purchased for the XK (not XJ):


I also wonder if you could do a hybrid of sorts and do away with the electric pop up feature on the XJ but still have a spring loaded strut to fully open it, as in the video.

Forgive me if I have swayed from the original posters intent, I just thought it may be a valid entry for discussion as how to modify the boot mechanism in any form that would supply the user with a more functional, less complex end result.

 

Well, although my struts hadn't failed I have decided they were a little on the weak side at best and so have replaced them.
I used SGS Engineering as I have done before for good quality parts that I know fit and work as they should.





If anything they are at 405mm a shade longer than the OEM versions which means the boot lid is propped up just a tad higher. Fitting them today took literally 5 minutes


Still have this idea at the back of mind, but no rush for now....


Jim