We found this in the trunk of our XK the day I brought it home. Could be a broken coat hanger, but I'm betting it is a broken part of the car. Any ideas?

 

What material is it, plastic, metal, wood, ... ?

 

Plastic

 

Glove box arm?

 

Amazing...And how would one know this ??

 

Could be a boot lid hinge cover.

 

Guess you haven't had to take your glove box out to fix a 'floppy' door.

 

Yes. I can see by this picture that is what I've got. I'm just having a hard time visualizing where it goes. Is this under the dash or inside the glovebox?

Right now the glove box just falls open all the way. What is it supposed to do?

ETA: I just found a Youtube about this repair on a 1998 XK8, but it only has a string - not this plastic "catch". I guess I can figure it out next time I get with the car (My wife is out of town with it).

 

The 'string' connects to the arm which is behind the glove box. From memory, the other end of the string is connected to the damping mechanism which is attached to the glove box lid. A small connector on the arm breaks which means the glove box lid crashes open instead.

The attached PDF is the official fix from Jaguar but it assumes that the arm is still in one piece!

 

Can't say that at this stage I've had to tackle this 'floppy' glove

 

Very nicely done!!!

Both my totaled XK and the replacement had this floppy issue. When I picked up the first car I opened the glove box and it slammed down and bounced. I asked the salesman if that was normal and he said YES. I remember thinking how weird that was but hey, quirky foreign car. Got home and though some more, looked it up, sure enough that ain't right. Car was under factory warranty so I had it fixed no-charge.

I was smarter when I bought my replacement XK and checked it prior to delivery and had it fixed as a condition of the sale since it was only CPO, figure it wouldn't be covered.

 

Mine was broken when I got the car and when I told the dealer (not where I bought it) they ordered a new glove box and called me to install it. As a CPO car it was replaced at their cost.

 

Found this thread when browsing - I have had my car three months and thought it poor that the glove box lid isn't damped. A job for the weekend!

Thank you for posting - really helpful!

 

Good to know. Certainly if it costs money the option is to DIY as it is a simple fix. My first XK they replaced the glove box, the replacement XK (bought at another Jag dealer) they simply reattached the dampener per the TSB.

 

I have seen comments that drilling a hole through the arm can compromise the strength of it so that it ends up snapping so when I fixed mine I went with someone else's suggestion of using a tie wrap around the arm and attaching the string to that instead.

 

I love this place...
Opened the glove box yesterday to get insurance docs out for state inspection and noticed no dampening when open. I remember seeing this thread last week and mentioned it to my wife. She said, I thought that opened a little sloppy for a $90k car! I guess I'll put this on the list of things to do....

 

I drilled a small hole and inserted a small screw to hold the loop. I also covered it with a small bit of epoxy to negate any shearing actions. The entire job, including the box removal and reinstallation took maybe fifteen minutes.

 

You're a talented man. Took me 15 minutes to get the box out, but I was being careful. Drilled that small hole and put a cotter pin through it. Took at lwast twice as long to put it back in. Getting it all lined up was a chore.
Now the the next time I took it out, and put it back in (to install my ACM) went alot faster.

 

Wife got home and I went out to look at the glove box open. I see where it was broken off from... that actual door of the box. Somehow, I don't think simple super glue is gonna hold. But I'm not shelling out over $500 for a glove box assembly, and you can't just buy the door apparently. I might have to fashion a couple of right-angle black plastic pieces to go on either side, and then I can super-glue those to the "thing", and super glue that to the door. Any other ideas?

 

Why not try a disassembler for a used glovebox?