Hi All,

Hope the week is treating everyone well.

I am in the process of replacing all hydraulic hoses on my car following the legendary green leak from the front catch. It was the usual suspect hose and I've ordered a full set of upgraded replacements from DCR Autos which should be arriving tomorrow. In preparation I have stripped the car down and removed the top connections to avoid any further leaks of damage while she sits there. I'm pretty far into the job now but have a question I'm hoping someone on this forum can answer.

I've traced the lines through the car to the boot but the access to the boot is via a small cavity which has terrible access from inside the car or the boot and is stuffed with what seems like very thick foam padding. Having read a number of how-tos on this I've not seen this come up as an issue.

Any top tips on how to best manage this padding and/ or the access for this hole? There are a number of other wires going through also so want to be sure not to damage anything. Pictures attached of progress this far.

Any help appreciated and I will be attempting to get this done tomorrow.

Cheers,

Scott



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Scott, painful but do yourself a favor and just pull all of that foam padding out of there.
Take all the lines off the pump and get it out of the way, couple of bolts and it's out of there, the back has a couple of pointed rubber plugs that give is some flex, be careful, they will be easy to see. I thought it was bolted in there but no, just the rubbers.
Good luck and take your time, dang there was a bunch of stuff to get out of there, be aware of the headliner at the back, kind of a pain to take loose from the metal.

 

When I worked at the dealer my buddy next to me cut some old lines and got some male threaded brass connectors (double end 1/8 pipe I think?) and connected them to the old lines to pull though the wiring and foam area. They were not the correct size/pitch but a few threads and they were connected enough to hold together to hold the lines together lightly and the brass did not gall the steel female connector.

He connected the new lines and pulled them back through the cavity and connected them to the pump.

Later when Jaguar issued the 'stupid idea' of just the short lines from the 'A' pillar to the latch (you were supposed to cut/splice the deteriorated part and install the short new part of the lines) I used those line connectors because they were the EXACT thread and size to connect old-to-new and pull the new lines through the cavity.

You just need to get the lines connected together and pull them through. Make sure you mark or determine what hose goes to the upper and lower pump connections and the correct ones on the latch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The factory lines have an 'F' on the lower pump and longer latch hose.

 

Been a while since I did this but I remember that closing the top will give you more clearance through there.

 

Thanks for all the advice on this. Job now complete, definitely one of the more fiddly time consuming jobs I've done! I ended up tying the hoses together with cable ties to lead them through, this worked quite effectively and allowed for wriggling and reangling at each tight spot. It's also really important to mark both ends of each pipe as it seems obvious where it will go until you've pulled it through and its not so you have to retrace. I just used a little masking tape for top cylinder connections and F latch connection.

I was also amazed by the amount of plastic debris the old hoses create as you drag them out, the outer casing was completely shredded in places.

 

This is a job I am planning to do this winter. No leaks as yet, but like yours, the outer casing of the hoses are falling apart. I don't think it's too bad a service life though, knackered 24 years after it left the factory.

 

Glad it went smoothly. Yeah it does make quite a mess.