I blame this problem on GLOBAL WARMING!! I am considering moving my XKR to Alaska.

For those Jag owners who have this problem......it sucks.

 

I'm sure our President agrees with you as that's what he's talking about today. Iraq and Syria can burn, tens of thousands of children can cross the southern border, daily kidnappings occur in Nigeria, and emails detailing criminal activity at the IRS just happen to disappear forever, but Global warming or as they now call it "climate interuption" (since there is no evidence of higher temperatures, the nomenclature has to be adjusted) is what's going to get us first.

 

Okay, so attached are a couple of photos taken from the outside of windshield showing where leather has lifted, first of an area showing the raw edge of the leather and then of an area where it is still attached. As you can see, there is barely enough leather to wrap around the edge, and to ask that a tiny bead of glue hold a tightly stretch leather cover through hot and cold contraction and expansion is ridiculous. Staples would have prevented (and are now preventing) this from happening. Even an extra 1/4" of an inch of leather most likely would have prevented this situation. Once there is no adhesive holding the edge, the leather is free to contract and create the rippling a.k.a. "shrinkage." This is nothing more than a penny saving exercise by Jaguar and is inexcusable. I have photos from inside but the bubbles and stretching are not visible enough to the camera to show up, so I didn't include them.

 

I wouldn't be happy with picture #1.

Thanks for posting.

 

I feel your frustration! I have an 07 XKR with the same problem. I've contacted Jaguar NA and was told there is nothing that they can do about it. The dealership quoted my a price over $3800 for a new dash and install. It's ridiculous to have this problem for a car of this caliber. I'm wondering how many owners have had this problem and is there a way to find out? I'm sure hundreds unreported as well. This really sucks!!! Attached are some pics I took.

 

A special interest group needs to be formed to address this design defect. If a group of twenty or more members approach Jaguar with this problem they may get Jaguar to supply a new dash to replace the ones that have gone bad. Some owners seem to have been successful in getting Jaguar to take 50% to 100% financial repair responsibility.


Wow, I'd like to thank everyone who posted pictures. The adhesive failure really puts a stain on the car. Everyone who has not experienced this problem needs to be aware of it and of what Jaguar is doing about the design defect. In 5 years or less your dash could look like one of the pictures simply because the adhesive aged and failed. A lot of members on this forum plan on keeping their cherished cars for a long time. It is obvious this is a design defect of Jaguar using an unsuitable adhesive or method to laminate the leather on to the dash.

 

cancre,
That's terrible! Next week I am going to spend some time with my mechanic/body shop going over all of the cosmetic upgrades we're doing, and I have brought up the issue of the dash. Either he will remove it so that I can fix it, if it's not too difficult, or we will have the windshield temporarily removed, so that I can try to restretch and reglue the edges. I'm not sure there is enough leather to stretch and be held with glue as it really needs more or staples. I'll let you (and others) know what we decide and photograph the process.

I think we should start a new poll about how prevalent this problem is. At least we'll know how many forum members have had to deal with it. If there is a significant amount of owners, maybe we can forward to Jaguar and see if they are willing to do something.

TO ALL XK/XKR OWNERS OF 2007-2014:

HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED "SHRINKAGE" OR WRINKLING OF THE LEATHER DASH IN YOUR CAR?

IF YES, HAS IT BEEN CORRECTED UNDER WARRANTY?
OR HAVE YOU CORRECTED IT AT THE DEALER BY PAYING FOR IT
OR HAVE YOU CORRECTED IT AT AN INDEPENDENT AUTO UPHOLSTERY SHOP?

IF NO, DO YOU INTEND TO FIX IT?
AT JAGUAR DEALERSHIP?
AT INDEPENDENT AUTO UPHOLSTERY SHOP?
BY YOURSELF?

 

cancre,
That's terrible! Next week I am going to spend some time with my mechanic/body shop going over all of the cosmetic upgrades we're doing, and I have brought up the issue of the dash. Either he will remove it so that I can fix it, if it's not too difficult, or we will have the windshield temporarily removed, so that I can try to restretch and reglue the edges. I'm not sure there is enough leather to stretch and be held with glue as it really needs more or staples. I'll let you (and others) know what we decide and photograph the process.

I think we should start a new poll about how prevalent this problem is. At least we'll know how many forum members have had to deal with it. If there is a significant amount of owners, maybe we can forward to Jaguar and see if they are willing to do something.

TO ALL XK/XKR OWNERS OF 2007-2014:

HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED "SHRINKAGE" OR WRINKLING OF THE LEATHER DASH IN YOUR CAR?

IF YES, HAS IT BEEN CORRECTED UNDER WARRANTY?
OR HAVE YOU CORRECTED IT AT THE DEALER BY PAYING FOR IT
OR HAVE YOU CORRECTED IT AT AN INDEPENDENT AUTO UPHOLSTERY SHOP?

IF NO, DO YOU INTEND TO FIX IT?
AT JAGUAR DEALERSHIP?
AT INDEPENDENT AUTO UPHOLSTERY SHOP?
BY YOURSELF?

 

Would not the many numerous leather creams and conditioners help to retard shrinkage? Which begs me to ask....is it real leather?

 

tberg... After the dealership gave me a quote , they also referred me to a very reputable upholstery shop that does lots of work for area jag, audi,mercedes and porsche dealerships. The shop told me the same thing.. they can remove the windshield and try to stretch out the leather. But after looking at it closer, he confirmed that they did not leave enough extra leather to be able to staple or glue it back in its place over the edge. He suspects that it will just eventually be a problem again.
Please let me know what you come up with. And yes...I agree it would help if we could gather enough info from other owners with the same problem. thanks again.

 

RedRider48,
If you stretch a 2" rubber band around two nails spread 4" apart, it will easily stretch around them. If, however, you remove one of the nails, the rubber band will retreat to 2". It is no different with the leather. If the adhesive fails to hold the approximate 1/16"-1/8" of leather at the very lip of the upholstered dash board, the leather "shrinks" back to its original size. There is nothing to hold the tension of the stretched leather once the glue has failed.

cancre,
While I agree there is too little leather plus it would still require lifting the dash out of the car or at least high enough to put a staple gun underneath it, it may be possible to staple from the top at the very edge and then fashion a flat leather or matching vinyl flange or a tiny corded welt that would glue down to cover staples. This is a relatively easy thing to fabricate and as I have both an upholsterer and a drapery workroom at my disposal, I could easily make enough for anyone who needed it. (Each dash would require less than 2 yards). This is one approach I will explore. I also live less than 3 minutes from Just Dashes, a company that completely restores dashes to brand new factory specs if you send them your original dash. I plan on stopping in there to see if they would be willing to do them for a discounted price if we can get enough people interested. I may also try putting some crazy glue type adhesive into a very fine syringe and inject it while wedging something in between the window and dash to pressure the glue to make contact with the leather. This would only be a solution for those cars where there has not been too much wrinkling since it would be difficult to stretch the leather without removing the windshield.

There absolutely will be a solution, because there is no alternative. If left unsolved, it will continue to deteriorate until none of the leather is connected, and this is unacceptable to me. And you end up with the look of your dash, unfortunately.

Stay tuned, I'll figure out something.

 

My 2010, drivers side of the speaker has two ripples close to the edge. Looking at your pics make me feel like I am seeing the future of my dash. While my car is in Florida it is garaged most of the time.

 

If your car is still under warranty go see your dealer armed with pictures from this thread. Do not settle for anything less than a new dash.

 

One of the first things people say about my XKR when they get in is the unique leather dash which puts the car's interior in a high class. One of the first things people said about my sold GT-R when they got in was the low quality of the cheap Nissan interior. We all bought into the superior workmanship and quality of the Jaguar interior. It is obvious IMO the leather laminated dash has a design defect--poor adhesion and poor attachment fasteners or lack of.

 

I think my factory warranty ran out a month or two ago, however, I did purchase the extended coverage (which probably won't help). But I will bring her to the dealer towards the end of July and throw a fit if they don't comply. I'll let you all know my results

 

I too live in the blazing heat and sun of Florida. Anytime my car is parked I absolutely always use the front windshield shade regardless of how short a time it is parked. Thank god the car is parked in the garage most of the time.

 

I should not have participated in this thread...today I discovered a 50 cent piece sized bubble forming on the passenger side of the speaker hump on top of the dash. It is not very bad but there none the less. It has nothing to do with shrinkage of dry leather. My car is garaged and does not spend time sitting I the sun except when I drive it or have to park it in a lot with no shade. I do not drive it very much so again not much sun time. And I keep it moisturized every month or so. The issue is the glue used to attach it to the dash is breaking down. Ugh!!!!

 

The "shrinkage" isn't really shrinkage as I've previously stated, it's the breakdown of the adhesive. I have a bubble on top of the air bag panel. The pulling back and wrinkling of some of the worst cases is a result of the adhesive failing at the edge with the leather having nothing to anchor to. But, the bubbles in the middle as well as the leather at the edges are both related to adhesion failure. I am going to experiment with a syringe with a tiny needle and some type of superglue and see if squirting some glue into the bubble will help. At the leather's edge, however, I'll have to try a different approach.

 

Jahummer......How many miles on your 2008 XKR?

 

About 46K miles