Hey fellow sufferers, I just sent my 2003 xk8 convertible to the recommended top shop to replace the headliner. Was going to try it myself but the job is beyond my skill set. Everything was going fine and was in the final stages of re-assembly when the shop called and said the top would not go down. I went to the shop and found out the following:

1. Battery had become too weak to start the car, so the shop charged it and was able to start the engine.
2. There is no power to the hydraulic pump, pump makes no sound at all when top button is pressed.
3. When the top switch is pressed, I can hear a relay in the trunk click
4. Rear quarter windows no longer operate.

I suspect that when the battery was drained, some computer somewhere disabled the top? I have had past electrical anomalies related to a weak battery, but they were easily resolved by providing the car with sufficient power. I also wonder that with all of the disassembly of the rear seat area, if there is a wire or switch that may not be obvious that could be inadvertently disconnected. During the headliner replacement process, the installer said that he had to raise and lower the top repeatedly and that it worked fine, until after the battery draining/recharging.

Just so I am clear, before this surgical procedure, my convertible top worked fine. No leaks in the lines, fresh green fluid in the system, no operational problems for 5 years!

Right now the car is sitting with the negative battery cable disconnected overnight, and I will go back to the shop in the morning and we will reconnect the battery and "see if that works". This particular top shop is the one that our local Jaguar dealer uses, and was recommended to me by them. The upholstery guy has a contact there at Jaguar, but was not able to connect with him late today (Friday), so will not be able to talk to a Jag tech until Monday. Dash message says "Bonnet Open" or " Boot Open" I can't remember which, even though both the trunk lid and hood are closed. The convertible top latch is currently in the closed position with the top all the way up to the windshield. The hook that the latch attaches to has been removed as part of the headliner replacement procedure, but the top operated without it as needed to facilitate the headliner replacement.

I will have this thread open tomorrow so any ideas will be helpful.

Oh and yes I have been searching the forum for others with similar problem, and I will try to locate the passenger side RAM switch(es) to see if the wires have been disconnected.

Thank you Gurus!

 

 

Your top could be confused with all the opening and closing and a low battery.

Go to the trunk and open the petcock this will free the fluid so you can operate the roof manually. Take the roof and open it all the way back with 2 fingers. If the roof will not move you will need to unlock both rams. Once you have the roof all the way open then use the allen wrench to park the latch in the closed position. Once you have done this close the petcock, verify you have a fully charged battery then do a hard reset. At this point you can connect the battery and operate the roof electrically. When you do this hold the roof closed button and do not let up. The roof may stall or operate slowly do not panic just hold the button to close.

In this operation you should see the latch open then the roof should work its way to the latch then closed capture the roof and the latch close and the rear windows go up.

 

 

Also how do you unlock the rams?

 

A few links from my page that should help

Link Ram unlock http://jagrepair.com/images/AutoRepa...oof%20Rams.jpg


Link To location of ram JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource


Link To hard reset JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource

 

 

Also one more thing. In the process of replacing the headliner, the little catch in the center of the front roof rail had to be removed temporarily. When I got the roof to operate again with the console switch, the latch did not have anything to grab onto once the top was in contact with the windshield header. The rear windows did not rise like they normally would. I am hoping, thinking, and praying, that once everything is put back together, and the top can actually lock down on its own, that the rear windows will operate as usual. If they won't, then I will perform a hard reset.

Thanks again to everyone, especially Gus, for lowering my blood pressure.

 

The catch that is attached to the roof activates a switch that allows the signal for the windows to operate without it they do not know what to do.

Gus
www.jagrepair.com

 

The upholstery shop just called and said everything is finished and put back together, and EVERYTHING WORKS! I will go and pick up the car tomorrow or Monday, after he has cleaned up all of the smudges on my interior. Once I get the car back I will post pictures of the new headliner along with some interesting things we found out about what is up there in the convertible top!

Thank you again to everyone, especially Gus!

 

Looking forward to seeing the photos.

 

Showing how smooth it looks. Sorry didn't snap a pic of the torn top.

 

So once I got the car back, I had to do some things to get everything back to normal, as follows:
1. Went to a parking lot and drove around in a circle several times to re-calibrate the compass in the mirror. It was displaying a "c"
2. Had to re-calibrate the windows both drivers side and passengers side. (Hold down button till you hear a click, then raise window while holding window button till you hear a click)
3. Had to re-memorize the drivers memory seat settings.
4. Door autolock feature stopped working. Driving the car then stopping, turning off, and restarting fixed that problem
All of the above issues were from the shop draining the battery. We determined that this procedure should be done with a trickle charge going to the battery.

Once I got home, I noticed that the fabric at the top of the rear seat bolsters had come loose (un-glued). The bolsters are at the outside edge of the rear seats and have a snap that helps to hold down the convertible boot. The vinyl covering is wrapped around and underneath the edge where the top folds down. The tails of fabric were sticking out from the underside of that edge, so I glued them back down and used gorilla tape to hold it in place. Since you can't see those fabric edges once they are glued in place, I may just leave the tape in place forever.

Otherwise I am very happy with the end result. We did find something interesting once the shop had removed the old headliner. There is a secondary headliner sandwiched between the convertible top and the headliner that you see. It appears that secondary headliner is used to hold sound deadening fibers against the convertible top, and a little extra insulation value. That secondary liner was also torn and rotten and had to be replaced. They were going to charge an extra $100 above the original quote, but ended up not charging me as a compensation for the problem solving that you all helped me do.

So the total bill was $932.04. The headliner itself was $439.00 and came from a company called GAHH Automotive. The shop bought the top. I had looked up the procedure to remove and replace the headliner, and I don't have the space or the skill to attempt something like that. So other than the churning stomach and time devoted solving the original problem at the start of this thread, I think the cost was reasonable, and the result exactly what I hoped it would be. It is raining here now, but I will get some pics of the glued bolsters and some better pics of the top tomorrow.
Thank you again to everyone!

 

"I had looked up the procedure to remove and replace the headliner"

Hi Kramzerreitug.

Very interested to hear where you found a reference to removing and replacing your convertibles headliner.

I've been searching for some time to remove and clean (or replace) the in car lining on my XKR 100 convertible, the previous owner was a very heavy smoker.

The outer soft top is reasonably sound for now.

All my searches have only picked out your posting as anything close to what I'm after.

Maybe I'm using the wrong search words.

Anyway if you, or any other's could point me in the right direction I would be most appreciative.

 

Sapphire Blue,

Lots of threads with info on replacing/cleaning the headliner. Some links below.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...learned-70845/

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...emoval-209648/

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...dliner-218641/

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...01-xkr-198039/

 

Thanks for taking the time to post the threads, David.

However they all appear to be posting about coupe headlining.

Whereas I'm looking for advice on removing for cleaning, the in car lining on my XKR 100 convertible.

Kramzerreitug seems to have the only posting with reference to convertibles.

 

see if this thread helps - especially the pdf in post 15

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...thread-159887/

 

Many thanks Sklimii.

Great jump forward with the PDF on post #15.

Now feel I'm on the right track, I even found a Soft-Top supplier in the UK who I intend to contact with questions; Monsoon Car Hoods, any of you in the UK had experience with them?