My top works fine (2006 XK8). No leaks. It had the "green shower" in 2010. Fixed via warranty by the previous owner.


It lasted four years before the shower. So, now we are four years after the repair. Do the math.


Is it worth replacing all the hoses before the event?


I live in Atlanta. These folks (in Atlanta) sell replacement hoses and their website says they will do the job (hose replacement) for $1,500.

www.jaguartoprepair.com

Any reviews of Jaguar Top Repair?
Are the hoses best quality?
Opinions of their work when they do the replacement?
Does this sound like a fair deal?
Would you do it before you had a problem?
If you had this work done, is there anything else you would have done at the same time?


Thanks,


Jack

 

If the hoses were replaced with better quality materials it probably will not be necessary. If you you post the manufacturers data printed on the hoses some one on the forum should be able to help.
Another thing to consider is that you can also have a leak due to the latch itself.

 

My wife's XK8 is the same model year as yours. Our summer climate is very similar to yours (the consensus seems to be that it is primarily heat that eventually takes its toll on these hydraulic hoses). I pondered over this same decision in the summer of 2012 and again last summer. I decided to wait. I know if we keep the car long enough I'll have to eventually deal with the green shower. But I want to get as much use out of the admittedly-substandard factory hoses as I possibly can before I have to fork over the money....

Your mileage may vary....

 

I recently replaced the two front hoses. My write up is here.

If the $1500 covers all hoses and labor then I would say that is a reasonable price. I can't imagine that even the most experienced tech could do the entire job in less than 8 hours.

I chose to just do the front hoses on my 2004 since those are the ones that give us the green shower woes. All my rears had no visible leaks.

Have you done the pressure mod? If not, I would first do that asap and inspect all the hoses for evidence of fluid leaks.

My bet is that the fronts are probably a little wet near the couplings to the latch valve. If so then replace them now. The leaking is your only warning before they just let go one day.

If the hoses are dry I would not replace them until an inspection turned up some fluid evidence - unless you just have too much disposable cash.

I got my hoses from Top Hydraulics. I have no experience with your supplier. Hopefully someone else can chime in on that.

 

Since they were replaced by the dealer I assume they are Jaguar's subpar hoses.


Jack

 

Yep. If a Jaguar dealer did the work, you have the same lousy hoses since they never bothered to improve the parts. Maybe your green shower event has been extended well into the future, though. How long do you expect to keep the car? That certainly factors into the decision for those of us who live in areas with miserable summers....

 

See... that's the thing. I really, really like this car. It is a keeper. I want to keep it a long time. It only has a little over 60,000 miles on it and it is in primo shape. This top thing is a design flaw that diminishes the car. I want to be able to use the top any time I want without worrying about a disaster with Pentosin falling over everything.


Jack

 

I did mine last fall on my 97. They were original and were getting quite squishy. The job is a PITA though not horribly hard, just a fair amount of time. I went with uro hoses (which aren't any better then the Jag ones but a little thicker. Also do your coolant tower with a metal one while your having it done. The two hoses under the intake are the hardest as they require the intake to come off to do. I thought about going with Evans coolant afterwards just so they would no longer be a pressure item and in theory would last until dry rot sets in, I didn't in the end.

$1500 sounds reasonable price wise. Oh and if you didn't notice my car which I also planned on keeping forever was in a little deer related incident totalling it so now I'm trying to explain why a properly maintained XK8 is worth more than your average xk8.

 

I think you are referring to coolant hoses. I am referring to the hydraulic hoses which drive the convertible top.


Jack

 

Doot, green hydraulic fluid, never would have guessed they used green stuff.

However, if Jag lines are not good quality that should be an easy fix at any hydraulic hose shop, and cheaper to boot.

 

blkcat - cabriolet hydraulics out of Bradenton fla offers upgraded hoses as does top hydraulics - worth the piece of mind

 

No question about that. But since Jaguar Top Repair was local to me and would do the work, I was wondering if anyone had any comments about them.



www.jaguartoprepair.com

If not, if I have the work done, I will buy from someone like Top Hydraulics and have a local mechanic do the work. I don't think I could do it myself.


Jack

 

As rothwell suggested do the resistor on the pump, it's a $5 fix and will prolong the life of your hoses. Inspect the top hoses and latch, if they are looking good and you put in the resistor you are probably OK.

 

Maybe easy but labor intensive ($$$) to fix as they run from the trunk up to the top of windshield. Luckily you have a 97 when they were still using good hoses and then for some reason (does anyone know why?) they switched to the subpar hoses. I have a very early 98 and lucky for me it appears to have the good hoses installed. But I still wonder why they changed...Cheers

 

I did not do the resistor mod. I opted to do the pressure bypass valve mod. The pump was clearly designed for a relief valve option. I don't think it was designed to run on reduced power. I know that opinions differ on this and both mods will work.

 

I'm in the UK where it rarely gets warm never mind hot so the roof isn't opened very often, the car is an '05 with 30K miles on it, should I be getting my service guy to take a look at the hoses?

Thanks

 

Couldn't hurt, but I would be very surprised if there's trouble. It seems we seldom hear of these failures on cool-climate cars.

Just for the hell of it, I've been doing some infrared checks on the windshield top-rail temperatures reached in the mid-day sun here. 130 F or so is not uncommon. And the weather hasn't been all that hot here (yet).

 

It was 98 degrees here late yesterday afternoon. I would not be surprised if the windshield top rail could reach 140 or even 150 if the car sat outside in direct sunlight all day with the top down....

 

Yeah... Atlanta. Hot in summer. Black car. This is gonna happen.


I want my Miata manual top back.


I was hoping that someone could give me some feedback about Jaguar Top Repair since they are local to me...


www.jaguartoprepair.com


If they had great hoses and a good reputation for installing them, I would have them do it. Failing that... if I have it done I'll probably get the hoses from someone else and have a local Jag repair shop that I trust do it.


Jack

 

blkcat, I did a search on the forum and only found a few threads mentioning jaguartoprepair.com and found 2 forum members who only purchased the hydraulic hoses from them.

Even reading the reviews on his website, it looks like most bought the hoses and had installed locally