The digital message/odometer bar goes blank more ofter. The dealer would change the instrument cluster for $1,300 (parts+labor).

There is a company in Idaho that would recondition the old one for $100 plus shipping. Does anybody have experience with this?

My main concern, though, is the removal and re-installation of the cluster. How do you remove it? Are there any tricky Jaguar specific issues, like resetting or reprogramming, etc. that I should know of?

Thanks for any advice!

 

Do you have a manual? I just scanned mine over. It looks pretty basic. I would go with the refurb. Just take your time. If you get cold feet, let the dealer do the labor. It should still be cheaper than letting them supply materials.

 

My 05 XJR had dried dirty condensation on the back of the instrument cluster glass. After looking up what it would take to get at the back side of that glass I decided to live with it. The first step was to remove the center console. SOAB

 

Really? Crap! I just kinda scanned over my manual and noticed that part, but figured it was just showing both assembly removal methods. That sounds like a nightmare. Pasi, you better take a week of to do this.

 

It is actually really easy to do, thanks to great engineering. Once you pull the console out (only 4 screws), the wood trim carefully pulls out revealing the screws to the cluster. Can be done in about 30 minutes or less.

 

Thanks everybody for your support. It took while but everything seems to be fine. First I waited for a while until my busy mechanic had the time to figure out the removal of the cluster. He had to remove the center console cover and the cover to the driver's side from there. Not too much work if you know what to do.

I then mailed the cluster to Moscow, ID for reconditioning. Paid $100 + $35 for return shipping, and my outbound UPS costs. With my slow UPS mode it took exactly one month to get the cluster back. They shipped it back overnight with a note that they did it because of the longer than usual turnaround time. Nice gesture on their part.

My mechanic put it back and now after 10 days or so the display has worked without fail. Hopefully this is it. The company gives 5-year warranty to their work.

Everything cost me about $350 -- a sharp contrast to the $1300 quoted by the dealership. This dealer had quoted me two other jobs as well, one of which I allowed them to do because my mechanic recommended it. The funny thing is that every problem was worth about $1300 (from about $1250 to $1350) and I wonder if this is just the price point their customers are willing to pay without questions and has nothing to do with the cost of the parts and labor put in to the three different jobs.

Does your dealer always quote the same price for every job?

 

The cluster works perfectly well. I got my money's worth in 'refurbishing' rather than replacing.

 

No every job is worth $130 and they put another zero on!

BTW pasi do you know what the fault was as a matter of interest?

 

I did not ask. It just works fine still 7 months after the repair and that's all that counts for me.