On my new-to-me 2004 XK8, upon triggering the passenger side seatback release, there is the sound of a seat motor running for about 10 seconds, but there seems to be no activity happening. The noise seems to be coming from the seatback itself.
What is the noise, and what should be happening?

 

Hi Brian,

This is an almost universal problem with the XKs. See the attached Technical Service Bulletin for a description of the problem and Jaguar's repair procedure.

Cheers,

Don

 

Mine does the same as does thousands of others. I believe the headrest is supposed to tilt forward to aid access to the rear (yeah, right). There are threads on the repair which I believe requires no parts, just some effort. Basically the cable comes out of the driven gear that makes the headrest move. Don't quote me. TM

 

Correct, although the head rest doesn't tilt, it just move down to it's lowest position as to not interfere with the visor when the seatback is all the way forward. Both driver and passenger seats are supposed to do it. Common issue, made more common as most people don't bother to fix it as the backrest is rarely used by most.

 

I thought it was to clear the inside of the roof as you tilt the seat forward, otherwise it gets stuck half way. As long as it is in the down position maybe just disconnect the power to the passenger head restraint module - if you can find the right wire. The module is in the seat back, and does nothing else other than control the headrest.

 

The seat motor does indeed lower the headrest, not tilt it. On my previous XK8 I moved the headrest down manually and then used the switch to put the motor in the full down position. That way the motor didn't try to run every time I folded the seats forward. Plenty of how-to fixes on the web if you are so inclined.

No problem on my current Jag. It's a 1998 model with integrated headrests.

 

Here's some options,

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...rest-fix-9622/ https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...est-faq-69635/

I went with the pipe coupling idea, it's still working well.