These instructions/Photos for 2000 XJ8. I’ve seen other posts for other years/models & it is slightly different.

When you open your glove box, does the drawer drop like a rock & slam open? It should slowly drop open. Hidden behind your glove box is a damper like a gas shock or spring mechanism in a tube much like on a screen door to keep it from slamming shut. A cord attaches the damper to the glove box drawer. Look on the right side of the drawer & see of the cord is no longer attached. I found MY cord still attached to the clip on the rt. side of the drawer but the cord had broken & only a few inches remained & a frayed end.

Remove 4 top phillips screws (hidden when drawer/lid is closed). Remove 2 outer bottom Torx screws. Do not touch the 2 INNER torx screws on the bottom! Entire Box assembly can now be removed. Drops to the floor with the electrical connections/wires for light still connected on left side. I needed to prop it up with small empty box for ideal position. No trim or panels need be removed. Just those 6 screws.

Can easily see white horizontal tube containing the damper/spring & I can see upper 1/2 of broken string attached to right side of damper -- which I can pull out under tension, so it still works. So, both ends of my broken cord maintain their attachments to the damper & ‘drawer’ respectively.

Replacement cord must thread through the white square plastic hole to the right of damper tube. This is where the cord turns 90 degrees to go down towards the drawer. This is also where the stress broke my cord. The cord then goes thru a black plastic ‘tunnel’ & emerges & attaches to rt. side of drawer via a clip. Total length of cord ~ 10”

I considered picture hanging wire as replacement but chose black, thin phone line since stronger. I easily tied one end to damper in same place as broken top 1/2 cord & made several knots. (Yes, all those knots are not pretty) I threaded new wire/cord from damper, thru white square & thru blk tunnel to the bottom rt. side of drawer to the clip (BTW, clip can slide in & out of a groove in the drawer.) The phone line was too thick to attach directly to the clip so I tied it, with many knots, to the loop of broken, very thin original cord which was still attached to the drawer clip.

Now the trick was exactly how much new wire/cord length to use? You can tie it well at the top & only one knot on bottom & test & then redo bottom knots with more or less cord. Measuring was iffy since 90 degree turn & hidden by tunnel. I ended up using a length that allowed slight slack in the line when the drawer was completely closed & piston fully retracted & when drawer fully open it pulled out the damper piston ~ 1/2 way. Yes, you can open or close the drawer while the entire glove box assembly is out. (Not easy though , need 3 hands & maybe prop it up on something <GRIN>)

Glove box assembly easily fit back into place & all the 6 holes lined up perfectly for screws.

Voila!

Works great. I think you can adjust exactly how slowly you want the drawer to drop by length of your new cord. Mine now seems to ‘fall’ open ~ 1.3 of the way & then piston action starts & then it slowly fully opens so, perhaps my cord s/b a bit shorter but it works fine for me. If cord too short, I think when closed, the piston never fully retracts & perhaps having tension on it 24/7 is not good. My thick group of knots is completely hidden for the top connection behind the glove box assembly. My bottom, large, group of knots is visible on the right side only with the glove box/drawer open, if you look for it. But, you need to have passenger door open & be outside the car so, no problem.

Cost= $0 since I had many extra short phone lines.

I wonder how much the Jag dealer would charge to fix? Will they say you need an entire new glove box when it is just a cord?

So, if your glove box drops you can probably fix it. Either the cord broke as with mine or the attachment to the drawer clip broke or the clip itself. Some people drill a hole in the side of the drawer to put a bolt & nut thru to hold the cord. I suppose the damper itself can fail & if so, maybe you can buy a new one.




YMMV depending on year/model. Some have cord on the left or different screws I think. I’ve seen several posts on removing glove boxes & fixing this problem.

5 Pix attached.

 

3-3-2014 Update.

Broke again a few weeks ago! My telephone cord broke! Apparently, phone cord is NOT strong enough.
So, had to repair once again. This time I used 100# picture wire! Hopefully, this holds forever. I don’t see how it can break.

Plastic around top left Phillips screw broke off! Either tightened too much last repair or removed this screw last & entire weight of glove box pulling down on this one screw or both. Had to find a washer so this screw would help hold left edge of glove box up.

After repair drawer lowers slowly but, jerkily due to thick picture wire as cord.

I also think the piston is partly worn out but, cannot find a new replacement as per Jaguar. Local dealer says part no longer listed separately, just have entire glove box liner! ($$$$$$) I called Gaudin Jaguar in Las Vegas. Only has one that may fit w/o a photo that I can see & supposedly same part as ashtray cover damper. Is cheap: $11.58 & $17.95 for cord only. (Damper Part # XR8 8879, Part #for cord: XR8 10888) I didn’t chance it since I could not verify that that part # was for my 2000 XJ8. It may be the correct part & is used on different models.

 

I hope this thread is not too old to reply to. I'm trying to get the glove box out of my 2004 XJ8X350. I followed these instructions on the screws (bolts). Mine still has the clip on the RH side (see photo). It is made to slide into a receiver on the RH side. I would like to open the clip to remove the cord so I can take the glove compartment out. Does anyone know how to release this clip. It doesn't release easily and I don't want to break it. Thanks, Streamsaver.

View looking at RH side of glovebox with only this clip holding it.

 

You may want to post in the X350 section of the forum for the best responses, this is the X308 1997-2003 section.