After almost a year of annoying you gents while shopping for the perfect XK for me, I am now moving onto to the ownership phase.
2008 XKR Portfolio Convertible with both Alcon and ACC. :-)

I'm thinking, instead of dozens of single subject posts, I will document my adventures in repairs and maintenance here, in a long super-thread.

If you guys think this is an annoying, horrible idea, let me know.

As I am not a mechanic and have not done any mechanical work since my naval nuclear engineer days of the late 80s early 90s, I will start with things that won't brick the car.

Seems as I have some vibration and a bit of jerking, the priority mechanically will be engine and trans mounts which were found to "Show minor signs of leaking". Read several threads on this and this will be a shop item. The though of supporting the engine or trans while moving stuff around, let alone worrying about the steering assembly stuff is no bueno for someone who hasn't worked on a car in decades.

I have a lot of tools, but I do not have auto mechanic tools, a torque wrench or jack stands or a floor jack. I'll grab some used stands/jack from FB marketplace and the tools as absolutely needed as I go. Seems everything on this darn car is torqued, so that will be quickly.

Here is the punch list that I will journal (if y'all don't vote this idea down). Of course as things I don't know about come up, they may bump other things in the list.


Mechanical In order:
- Motor and Trans mounts (shop).
- Small coolant leak at reservoir (res is new) will attempt to poke around myself, then shop.
- Suspension replace bushes and a couple of boots. Will sort out me or shop based on cost and effort.
- Not really mechanical but hardwire a CTek maintainer.

Nuisances/Inconveniences:
- Glove box drops. Seems the easiest.
- CC Armrest doesn't open. 3 solutions, I'll decide which when I get in there.
- Convertible top cap for manual unlock missing. Cheapest was from england and like $60 w/shipping. Others are like $100.
-

Creature Comforts:
- Mr12Volt for Apple CarPlay and OBD gauges. Gotta watch that coolant temp.
- WhiteXKR's remote top, mostly for rear window control.
- A friggin phone mount that won't put marks on the leather/plastic arch over the gauge cluster, break my vent louver or block the HU screen.
--- I've tried three types so far. I may just have to suck it up and use a window suction mount. Seems they've come a long way. But this won't be needed after I get CarPlay.

Misc:
- Use my wife's old Win8 laptop to build an SDD setup with engineering pwd generator.
- Bench power supply for doing said things.

I will do my best to document, with photos, anything that isn't already well documented in the forum.

Here we goooooo.....

 

Day 1:
Going to investigate the glove box and armrest.
Poke around, learn, figure out visually what everything does before removing anything.
Initial thoughts
Glove box seems easiest. Just a cotter pin or worst case scenario, a screw. But need to pull wife's car out and scoot over as passenger side is 3" from the wall in the garage and side dash cap needs to come off.

Arm Rest looks like a mess to even open and look at. The phrase "small parts exploding everywhere" in the best thread with pics seems very messy and risky. Taking the whole thing off seems to require entire center console disassembly. No go I have to drive Monday morning.

Will edit this post instead of a million replies as I make progress.

Decided to look at the Armrest latch assembly. Just to see.
This ancient thread was my starting place:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...mended-168736/

Ok, well at least the t-bar is still in tact.
Now to figure out how to get into this thing.


Dude was not kidding about the tweezers.
Do I really have to do this while it’s attached? A bench would be much easier….

Yep, broken off.


That fan behind the steering wheel is running. Hope it is a small enough draw to not kill the battery for an hour.
Fan turned off. Gawd it’s hot in the garage.

ok, practice run. Got her where she should be. Now to noodle over jury-rigged ways to get her to stay permanently.


Really wish I could remove the assembly and work on it outside the car. But these buggers are hard plastic and probably brittle.
Plus, regardless of the solution, the t-bar will have to go in eventually.


While digging around for random parts to inspire ideas, I ran across the ole Sheetrock anchors and tried them out. Cut short enough, they fit perfectly into the side latch holes and block the latches from going in.
Rudimentary, but a nice quickie fix.
Of course the glove box doesn’t stay closed unless pulled over cup holders.
*** Removed pic of sheetrock screws as even at 1/16" the retractable latches were slamming into them. Don't want those to break.

OK finale for today. Nothing small enough to secure the t-bar in there. Ironically, placing the one side back where it goes got it to work. But I’m sure not for long. It will pop out eventually.

In the interim, I removed the anchor things and placed a square of the soft side of Velcro over the side latch holes.
seems to work for now. I'm sure it will gunk up the nice fuzzy lining with adhesive, but it was already gunked up from the seller's work-around which was wrapping the latches in black gorilla tape. Which lasted about an hour. Made a mess of the fuzz and latches.

Now to google how to clean gunk off of plastic (without damaging it) and the fuzzy lining (Same goal).

/End armrest for now.

 

Will this turn into "The loneliness of the long distance poster"?

 

Must be an insider reference joke.

 

The third picture shows the broken lug, be good to know what this is and a couple of more zoomed out pics please.

 

Spray some wd40 in them just as a lubricant and the cable sleeve will pull out backwards ok, you only need to clear the holders then bring them up.over with the metal strand cable coming through the slot.

 

Im working on the latch to open the arm rest.


Not sure whatcha mean by Lug. But the plastic that holds the t-bar thing into the latch is broken (as shown in above pic).

 

Thats better I can see what it is from now . Looks like a die cast part there, I will take a look at mine tomorrow.


Actually its not die cast its a plated plastic.. so a replacement out of either a glass fibre strand or carbon fibre strand print would do the job happily, I will see if i can get mine out seeing as I don't really have much going on tomorrow.

it looks like its part of the pull handle, with through pins melted back before plating

 

Looks like it is plastic welded on. The circles you see are the welding points. So they will have to be cut out. Carefully lol.
If you figure out how to remove that piece without collateral damage and clone it stronger, I will buy two (save one for future use).
Given this is one of the most common issues on just the 06-14 XKs but also the x200 S-Types with the exact same armrest assby (and cheaper on ebay, hint hint), I'd think a process of easy removal of those posts and a replacement that can be gorilla glue'd on would be popular.

Here is a zoom in of the non-broken one showing where the attach line is and circled the "plastic weld rivets".

 

Seems the quality of my pics may be questionable.

Does anyone with an iPhone have any tips on getting better quality photos, while in the car, contorted into a pretzel?
I may open it back up and drill a 1/32” hole in what’s left of the broken retaining thing and stuff something in there that holds the t-bar in place.
Would like to take better photos.

 

I absolutely hate the iPhone autofocus. Usually gives me blurry photos, or will focus on the wrong object (try taking pictures through a window screen).
I’m using a free app called ‘Yamera’, which has a manual focus mode. Select ‘Focus’, then pinch or spread to zoom like normal, then select ‘Locked’ (default is ‘Automatic’) and use the slider to adjust your focus. Tried several of the paid camera apps, but they just aren’t as easy as this freebie.

 

Just an fyi I did all the back end on mine 2008 xkr recently and posted here, impact gun high power one is a must, decent torque wrench is needed, blow torch (not joking) one side took a day as I lernt as I went. Needed a puller to get the hub off the drive shaft whihc I had to go by. The killer ended up being the copper crush waskers on the brake caliper. 2 needed per banjo bolt, you also do them up to an amazing tightness and they dont seem to really crush as such. Even replaced the break hose on the second side to ensure everything was clean and new but again has to murder up the banjo bolt. TRack rod bolt under the car is a nightmare losened enough to get a gap to put a metal saw blade on it. Just some examples. But damn does she feel stiffer and more precise on the road. The right side only took 6+ hours as I know what I was doing, replaced as many bolts and nuts as I could with new ones.

 

Wow. Yeah, I’d have to go to the local community college (US thing) and take some auto mechanic courses to do anything even close to that.
​​​​​​….ok that may not be a bad idea.
The CCs do work on actual folks’ cars to teach.

 

Day 2
After an amazing morning cruising around town with the wife, replenishing our CD collection that had long depleted, If it time to tackle the glovebox death drop.

Some nice videos out there as well as the Service Bulletin and a Word Doc from an older thread that shows the exact location of the screws and such for disassembly.
As always I'll take pics, maybe better ones than last time. But I think this one is very well documented.
The Older Thread: (solution at #11 by Dan)
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...esolved-51482/

Bit hot out, but have to be outside to get the door open all the way and remove the end cap.
I'll remove the box and bring it inside to work on, then hop back out for reinstall.

I'll report back!

*** Update ***

Glovebox is out and on the kitchen table.
(see pics in reply to Kurt below)

Removal thoughts:
- End cap was effortless with trim tool. Actually the easiest part. T30 bolt was just a bolt.
- 3 Clips holding the fuzz on underneath were a PITA. Zero leverage. Broke a non-functional corner of one. Had to use 2 trim tools to push the wider sides together while pulling outward. Stupid design. Simple round clips would have sufficed. Be careful with these.
---- I’ll be super gluing that corner back on. (Update: Glued back on)
** What is that nifty looking motor uncovered with the fuzzy liner pulled down? HVAC blower? **
- Two Inner Screws were easy but had to finagle a T30 onto the smallest driver I have. Got about 6” of room vertically there.
- Two external underneath screws. Ouch. First, the diagram gives the impression they are way back in the footwell. They are maybe 3” back from the bottom edge. These screws were super tight. Had to grab the handle of the driver with vice grips to turn. Not just start them, turn them til about 1/3rd out.
Caution: Left side (LHD) has two identical screws next to each other. Looks like the furthest left is for the console top leather trim?
- Removing the box. Diagram says there are two additional ‘clips’. Not removable, just holding it in. No clue. I was trying to be gentle, but it wouldn’t budge. My 6’3 frame crammed in the footwell decided to give it a wiggle-**** and out it came. No apparent damage yet. Hope I don’t have to align wherever those are putting it back in.
- Three Electrical connectors. Now that the glove box is in the footwell, time to disconnect the 12v socket, glove box light and whatever the one on the far right is (goes into the well of the glovebox arm), in that order left to right.
12v connector is just plain dumb. Guess have a tiny screwdriver to jam down into the right side release clip. I poked it with the T30 tip (has external hole) and pulled with pliers. Wasn’t easy. Was honestly was afraid I’d break it.
Glovebox light was a nice turn and out.
Black one on the right. (First pic in reply to Kurt)
This is clipped on the Metal edge that attaches under the end trim cap. Typical electrical connector. Find the push spot and pull. Then unclip the side that stays in the car.

Glovebox out. Sitting on a cloth on the kitchen table.
gonna clean off the greasy dust (although it may help hold it together) and a then do the drill hole and insert a cotter pin.
< Rant removed>
Bought 3 cotter pin sizes.
3/32 x 1 and 3/4
1/16 x 1 <— Went with this one.
drilled a nice neat straight 1/16th hole and here we are!


I had to pull the line to reach so it is under tension on the cotter pin. Thought I remembered that it wouldn’t be under tension… anyone recall?
Solved: Yes it will be under tension.

Day 2 is a success.
Glovebox soft opens. Reinstall took about 5 mins.

Original leather bound manual book back in glovebox and all is good with the world.
Thanks, especially to @KurtC

Anyone know where I can get a Jaguar one for the pen holder? Dealership?

 

As you've likely seen, once you get the glove box out drill a hole and use a cotter pin through the loop in the string as shown below. Be extremely careful as I found the glove box to be very fragile.You might want to pick up some Quick Set JB Weld because, undoubtably, you are going to need to repair some plastics as you work through your list. It's color matches the dark-gray plastics, is very strong, and sets up in 4-6 minutes. So, you can simply hold pieces together instead of trying to clamp irregular shapes.I used this type of JB Weld to repair my glove box because it's end piece was broken when I purchased the car and then I added to the breakage. After gluing it with this stuff, it is very strong.

 

@KurtC
Thanks! I’ll grab some off Amazon.

Nothing broken or weak on this one. I think it’s the first time the glovebox has been off in its 17 years.
l’m gently wiping off all the greasy dust before working on it.

All good on that side:

(Is the image quality better inside with proper lights?)

Here is the unit itself:

Side looking in

Middle looking out

Front looking rear

Top view

 

@Circumnavigator , the end of your glove box's lever arm that originally had a plastic pin through the looped string appears to be broken off. Sorry for the blurred picture below (cropped from a picture showing something else), but you can see how the end of the lever arm originally looks. You should still be able to drill the hole for a cotter-pin fix. Even better if you can find the end that broke off and JB Weld it back on before drilling a hole. I think it's that end that provides the stop when the door opens fully. Once the string was broken off, letting the door drop open likely broke off the stop.

 

IIRC, someone did use a zip tie successfully (cotter pin in mine).

 

Well ugh. Guess I can dig around a bit and see if I can find it.
At the depot grabbing random things I’ve seen in repairs as well as JB Weld lol.

Update: I looked everywhere, that piece is nowhere to be found.

 

Don't forget a cotter pin...
I marked up your picture to show the location where (if memory serves me right) the original plastic pin spanned between the gap in the lever arm. Drill your hole through (both sides) where the raised plastic on the inside appears to make a cross. You can see the broken plastic there where the plastic pin broke off.