Hi chaps,

The centre console wood is plotting against me. It works its
way out of the dash constantly. Sometimes it takes 100 miles,
sometimes it pops out after hitting a manhole cover.

I have attached a picture of the little clips, they seem to be the
problem. For now I am driving without the wood, I am afraid of it falling
out and cracking the veneer.

Also, the steering wheel is noisy. There is the same sound as when
you just hit the steering wheel with your hand, (the rattle) except
in the XJR it happens every time you are on a rough road surface.

The XJ Sport never made this sound in driving,, and I haven't the first idea
on how to take apart a steering wheel with an airbag. This one
looks hard though.

I sprayed a little lube in the lower LH corner of the wheel, but to
no effect. I don't want to drench the wheel in lube, because I've
dissintegrated Jaguar connections with PB blaster in the past.

I am slowly finding my squeaks and rattles... this is annoying though,
the XJ Sport was as silent as a new Audi! This sounds like a 95000
mile car because of all the blasted squeaks and rattles! One
in the inertia-reel, drivers side, and while I've re-applied it, the
high-mount stop light is still a little bit squeaky on the roughest roads.

The steering wheel is easily the worst though. It never stops rattling.
It even rattles on highways where it's relatively smooth.

Ian

Check where the clips go in to make sure there aren't clips in there already. I got a new piece of wood for the door and popped it in but it was loose because one of the old clips was still in the slot. Worth a look.

I have fixed all of my XJR's rattles with the radio and cd player

@XJR02: expand please.

@Oldmike, went out to the car, and there are no extra
clips.

I didn't mean anything constructive by that honestly, any time I hear a rattle in my car I usually just turn the radio or cd player on and use the music to drown out any rattling noise.

as far as your issue is concerned, perhaps you could bend the clips outward more so they are more likely to remain seated in the dash.

or perhaps you could insert some paper or something into the slots or put paper around the clips so the hole that you insert the clips into is tighter

both are crude methods, but they are free and also have a good chance of being effective

LOL XJR02, I thought you meant you found out that the units
themselves were the source of the rattling. Which would have
been different than what you meant.

I fear that paper would just accelerate their working their
way out. Bear with me... but what if I put a tiny tiny
droplet of glue on 2 of the 4 tabs, and then put them in. They
would break loose if I needed to pull the panel out, but they
might just allow the panel to seat properly with that extra 1%
of rresistance.

funny you should say that... the guy who sold me the car said
that it had an annoying amount of squeaks and rattles (unlike
any of his German cars), and that he was glad the stereo
was good so he could drown them out. lol!!

The clips should be in the dash, not on the wood - remove them and seat them fully in the dash then press the panel in, job done.

Steering wheel - lower and extent it, then you need to disconnect the battery for obvious reasons.

Two torx (captive) bolts on the backside of the wheel hold the airbag, turn the wheel one way to undo then turn it the other way....once free gently remove the airbag and undo the squib cable clip, you might now be able to see what is causing the rattle.

Hope this helps

The rear window mounted brake light is probably rattling from the plastic removable cover. Try taking it off and driving around to see if the sound stops. My light was rattling a while back, and I thought it was due to a loose attachment to the glass, but it was the light cover despite it being tightly clipped on.

I'd say the glue is a reasonable idea, but also what sean b said is a good call about the proper sequence of installation

My friend from the Jaguar Club said that these are
trim clips. A one-and done part. He said that they
can be bought at a car trim place for a tiny amount of
cash.

Apparently they are meant to be replaced after they have been
pried out. So, I will use Sean's advice, and after aquiring fresh
clips I will place them in the dash, and then slot the wood in.

Ian

Please let us know if putting the clips in first works -- there are discussions all over the place on this method. I agree that the clips should go in first and then snap the panel in, but I've read posts where some think the opposite is true. I perused the JTIS (pdf version) looking for a definitive answer and didn't find one.

I have the annoying loose center wood issue as well. I located some very similar clips on E-Bay that arrived. I plan on trying the clips in the hole & inserting wood technique tonight.

Will post my findings.

I just did this myself as the center one was rattling at certain RPM's.
Had no idea there was a whole thread on this subject, but here my observations:

1. Those clips are strong enough to be re-used, I don't see how they loose any of their holding power, they are super strong springs.

2. I understand the above discussion on where to locate the clips.
If you place the clips on the wood, they might be put too far inwards, which then might allow some of them not to clip into the dash.
If you put them first in the dash, this can't happen.

3. When I removed mine the first time, some of the clips were covered in a kind of rubber sock, probably to prevent any noise between the hard plastic and the clip.
I don't really see how this can happen anyway, considering the spring-force of the clips, but maybe.
Anyway, when I re-installed, I put every clip in 1 layer of electrical tape before pushing into the plastic.

4. There are some other locations which make direct contact, adding some thin felt will do the job there.

Above worked perfectly, not any noise at any rpm.

My only main issue now is that the plastic of / around the vent housing is cracking, probably creating problems the next time I have to remove things.

Update :

Well as par for my course here lately, upon removing the wood the grill/fascia holding the vents in & forming the border in which the clips go into all shattered lol. Nothing but large openings there, so for now I have it pried into stability using a small clear plastic piece from a trip odometer button lol. I'm hoping to find a center vent with all tabs intact.

Jerry rigging 101

I had the identical issue with tabs breaking on the center vent. I was able to use some thick ccutscrap plastic and plastic glue, worked nicely.

For future searches, the OEM spring clip part # is JZE100010.

Hey Ian this just happen to mine I had to buy

The top corners were cracked. Check it out for cracks or breaks in the plastic.

Yeah my tabs are cracked as well. Will look for a good one.