Having read more that one post on the forum regarding the "Top Latch", leaking hoses, also known as the terrible "Green Shower" the solution consists of many bits of information helpfully put together by fellow forum members.

I had this problem myself. Went to put the roof down on my convertible and found green stuff dripping from the light above my head in the car. If you find this happening to you you may well want the right information as quickly as possible? So take a look at what happened to me and my solution. I just hope it helps someone. If you do read the link and find it useful it would be nice to get a "Thank you" on the page, so I know I have not wasted my time putting it together. Thanks!
Here is the link....... click me to see the Green Shower Solution.
There are also postings, on the fix, before and after the main one above.

 

Excellent write up !!

 

Thank you Barry.

 

 

Thanks. Its good to know that someone who has done this before and knows the ins and outs of the job says I have put the right instructions up. Thanks for taking the time to do that.

 

frankc, I hope I never have to do this job, but if I do, I'll certainly refer to your excellent write-up!
Many thanks,
Vince

 

Thanks. Nice of you to say so.

 

Frank ... a great piece of work!
Norri ... this one should go the to the "stickies", yes?

 

Thanks in advance should my XK8 suffer from this green shower!

 

Added to the "How to" section.

 

Frank,
Fantastic write-up. It would have been much easier if you had done it from the "Left" side of the car(just kidding, from this side of the pond).
After reading this, if I see any green drips once I finally do get an XK, I will head immediately to my friendly expert mechanic. I know my limitations.
Glad it is going into the "How-to's". Definitely deserves the honor.

 

I noticed oil around the gearshift when my car was delivered and was surprised to see the leak coming from above. After checking out the forums, I realized this was the "green shower" beginning. Thanks to Frank's "how to" fix it, I was able to do it myself. Although rather time consuming, it was rewarding to DIY. I would strongly recommend using Top Hydraulic's hoses for replacement. They are superior and thinner than the originals so they go in easier. I elected to replace all of them since I didn't want to take the interior apart again and just be done with it.

Thanks again Frank for your excellent piece!

2004 XKR

 

Frank, after you replaced your lines did you have to bleed the system in order to get the lines to refill? You say that you filled the reservoir to the just above the full line but there are at least two lines showing. One that indicates the level when the top is up and a higher line to indicate when the top is down. Did you fill to one of these lines the first time or higher? There's a lot of line from the trunk to the actual mechanism in the header panel and I would imagine it takes a fair amount of time for it to work it's way up there. Also as I understand the system it's supposed to be self-bleeding of air so I can't see why the fluid wasn't being pumped from the reservoir into the lines.

I refilled mine to the second line (i.e.. top down) but I couldn't get any fluid up into the lines and was concerned I'd burn out the pump if I kept it running with nothing happening.

 

Just checking that you have closed the petcock after the repair.....(apologies if that’s a stupid question).

Very unusual for the pump to go bad. Basically if it’s running (ie has power) the 1600psi should self bleed. I had air bubbles in the tank when I fixed my hoses.

 

As David suggested ensure your petlock is closed. I had exactly the same problem as you in that nothing happened, I am pretty sure I mentioned this in the post, I had a cuppa. Came back out. Closed the Petcock valve. Tried again. Magic! It worked.

After a couple of 'ups and downs' I had to top up the fluid at least twice. Also do not skip the advice I gave about putting some paper towel under the joints. They will soon tell you if you still have a leak. I had one at the back. Just a tiny one but it showed on the paper towel. A quick tighten sorted that. Then I had one at the other end. Again only tiny, I suspect the pressure increased when I tightened the rear one, again a quick job with the spanner all sorted.

Just think of all the thousands you have saved doing it yourself, plus the knowledge its done properly by yourself.

 

It does not matter if the roof is open or closed when filling the roof fluid the difference is minimal because the roof system is a push/push system. However, because of the system is self purging of air you will need to operate the roof several times and refill the fluid to get all the air out and to have the proper fluid level. If your system is not operating properly after a hose repair you may need to recheck your work all hoses are directional.

If all is good then check that the roof is fully open with the latch parked or fully closed with the latch locking the roof closed then with the engine running press and hold the roof button for the operation you want it to do and hold it until the operation is completed. If the roof is not responding you may need to check the fluid level if it is good then do a hard reset with the roof open and the latch parked. This system can be easily confused and is often confused when the roof button is moved to open / closed or pressing it off and on when a hose is failing and you are panicked that it is not working properly.

 

Not a stupid question as I've had my share of brain fart moments over the years. The control valve was in the closed position but I didn't run the pump for more than a few seconds out of some concern for damaging it. Several years back I installed the pressure reducing system one of our members had developed in an attempt to minimize the probability of the 'green shower' so it does take a bit more time raising and lowering the roof due to the reduced pressure so maybe I'm just not letting the pump do it's job.

I didn't have the normal 'green shower" but having not put the top down for months I found that there was no fluid in the system at all. No sign of a leak anywhere that I've been able to find but the lines have pretty obviously deteriorated with their outer covering having started to flake off so I'm leaning towards a leak somewhere in the many feet of line that are buried everywhere .

In trying to put the top down manually I was not able to do much more than disengage the latch at the header as the top simply would not be moved beyond a couple of inches and I didn't want to force it and risk torqueing the frame. I saw in Frank's article the illustration of how to manually cause the pistons to start collapsing above the rear quarter windows so I may give that a try later today to see if that will allow me to manually lower the top and see if that leads me to a leak.

 

The first thing to check is to look in the rear wheel well on the forward side of the tire and see if you have evidence of an oil leak it will look like a moist area the other is to look at the header lights just below the latch this is assuming that you checked both the latch and lift hoses at the pump. The flaking of the hose cover is a good indication that they are on the way out just be sure not to bend or pull on them unless you want to replace them.

As for unlocking the roof use this link to see how. http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Auto...oof%20Rams.jpg but know if you put the top up manually the windows will not go up until the rams are locked again.

 

RDminor

Some pics of my experiences


Rear of the pump at the line leading to the hood rams

 

Leak from the hood rams. Just remove rear seats to see if ram Benin’s quarter panel is leaking