After successfully installing my freshly recovered dash, here are a few tips.

Please note this is for a left hand drive car and right hand drive cars will obviously have opposite locations.

I am not going to discuss all procedures here as most of it is described in the Jaguar handbook. If you don't have that I can email the part you need. This article is purely to show what the hand book is lacking.

To remove the dash you will need to remove the glove compartment ( to detach the air bag electrical connectors ) and the driver side under scuttle ( to disconnect the undocumented electrical device in the fascia behind the drivers right hand, looks like a microphone but I know the phone mic is in the A post ). Note in my photo I never worked out how to disconnect the glove box lamp so I left it on the floor.

You do not need to remove the floor console or the brackets connected to the center tunnel that the handbook suggests, but you do need to remove the radio/control panel in the center of the fascia. The connectors on the back of this unit are color coded but note that the 2 black fiber optic connectors look identical so identify which is which.

It is a bit daunting when removing panels for the first time as you don't know which way to pull them. All the fascia panels are easy, they come straight outwards with a little help with a flat screwdriver to prise them out. The door threshold trim needs to be lifted upwards then sideways to allow the side foot well panels to be removed. The side foot well panels are pulled first inwards then towards the back of the car, both sides. The A post trim is pulled to the center of the car, starting at the top with a flat blade.

Before removing the dash you will need to remove the speedometer/rev counter trim and then the items themselves so that you can disconnect the wiring at the back. This is easier done after the dash has been partly removed/loosened.

After removing the center speaker you will see an undocumented bolt holding the dash down. I have shown this with a red arrow in the photo. The green arrows show where the other bolts are. There are a number of bolts in the blue area, some of which you would have already removed with the radio unit.

I removed the dash with the air bag complete. You will have disconnected the battery before you started this job so there is no danger here.

Before re installing the dash my tip is to ensure that the cables to the center speaker and alarm sensor are strategically placed and make sure they are not dragging across the air supply box. You will need to feed these through the hole in the dash as you install.

Hope this helps

 

I have an 07 XK and live in Arizona so sun's an issue all year. From April through October, I use a dash mat to keep direct sun off the leather. The rest of the year, the sun isn't as intense. The dash mat isn't pretty but, so far, no issues with the leather.

 

Could you post higher res pictures of the dash removed? Mostly the tab/hole/bolt locations?

Thanks!

 

can you send the link to removing the dash.

Thanks,

Jim