Thetwo magic words are polite and persistent.

Myprevious owner got things done under warrantythat I would never would have considered possible like a new top and driver's seat and back leather covers. Part of the Jaguar allure is that the dealer will treat you as an English Lord.My POhad had numberous Jaguars and all service was done at one dealer.

The positive side of this opportunity is that the hoses and a liter of Pentosin hydraulic oil is about $225. Repairing thehoses is not difficult and you will love your car more for having repaired her yourself.

 

My days of loving to do my own repairs are in the past. While I do like tinkering with things on my cars (I have done a few minor repairs such as a coil replacement and MAF upgrade on my 95 Corvette), anything that would take more than 2 hours is pretty much out of the question these days due to lack of time and dirty looks from the wife[sm=nono.gif]

Doug

 

Well happy news. The service adviser at Galpin got the okay for the repair from Select Edition. He reiterated that technically the warranty excludes hoses but a repair kit is no longer available. He explained the entire situation to the warranty people and they agreed to cover an entire installation of complete new hoses.

I am happy that I will not have to shell out $1,000 or more but I am even happier that I can now couch this in terms where I can avoid an "I told you so" from the wife

Doug

 

That's good to hear Doug.

 

........... good for you Doug; good luck with the install.

 

Thanks, I will let you know how it goes. One concern is that I know that they have to do a lot of removal of various interior components to do the line routing and I hope they are careful in putting things back the way they were.

I have to say again that I consider this hydraulic system design to be a major flaw, in the engineering, choice of materials, and implementation. I am a structural engineer and the philosophy is that you want to have a readily accessible "fuse" in a stressed system. In this case, you have what appears to be continuous length hoses of questionable quality under pressure routing through inaccessible areas. What's wrong with this picture? You would think that in an automobile having a sticker of around $90K someone would have had the brains to choose a better material for hoses under pressure and/or a way of repairing without having to take most of the interior apart and spending the better part of an entire day. For that matter, why couldn't they have used something like braided brake lines?

Just my $0.02 again.

Doug

 

This threadmake me really glad to have a coupe...

(and I thought I chose the Coupe just for the looks...)

 

+1 .........[sm=happy046.gif]

 

Yeah, I have always sort of liked the looks of the coupes compared with the convertibles but I have had a bunch of cars with sunroofs, one car with a removable targa roof (Corvette) but I have never had a convertible. I figured that it was about time for one, especially with the weather here in SoCal where most of the year is convertible weather. But I guess there is a price to pay. What irks me is that this could have easily been avoided by using some common sense design and quality materials.

Doug

 

Yep...I get it. I had bunch ofconvertibles...2 TR6's, TR7 and 2 Fiat Spyders so I am suitabley convert satiated. Enjoy.

On the designside...it is a dissapointment...however, after living through Lucas electrics, the relative trouble free nature of the new (Ford) Jags still amazes me. My favorite convertible design was the Fiat Spyder. Great car over-all (reliable too!) and the top was a one hander...up and down within seconf...even whilst driving (at low speeds)! Simple elegance and trouble free.

 

Theseare probably the most informative postings I've seen yet and I'm truly appreciative of the many comments. I have a 2002 XK8 vert with 16,700 miles and I was never aware of this potential problem up until now. It makes me shutter to raise the top and Inow find myself keeping the top down all the time to hopefully avoid this problem. Is this a reasonable assumption or doesn't it matter one way or the other? I really only drive the car in nice weather anyway and it's always garage kept. Anotherquestion I have is how prevalent is this problem? I asked my Jaguar dealer and he stated that he sees maybe 3 or 4 hydralic failures each summer season. That leads me to believe this doesn't happen very often. I guess that's still not too comforting since there is no way of knowing if you'll be next.

 

Based on my experience so far, here is my take on the problem and the way Jaguar is addressing it. Apparently, there has been a fix for the problem that has been issued by Jaguar for quite some time (JTB00029) and the service guy actually showed me a copy of this document. He inferred that this fix was covered by Jaguar or, at the very least, it was not prohibitively expensive to do. The twist is that the kit is not readily available but the full-length hose repair kits are. Presumably, the newer model hoses that are part of the complete repair kit should be much better than the originals.

Since it is not the customer's fault that the inexpensive repair kit is not available, it looks like Jaguar is approving the full-repair. I do not know what the means if you do not have a warranty of any kind in effect but, for me, there is no cost since the car is still under the Select Edition warranty. I'm not sure what the situation would have been if the car had no warranty protection but I certainly would have made a few calls to Jaguar customer service and try and work up to a supervisor to argue a case for at least partial coverage.

My suggestion would be to ask your Jaguar dealer service adviser how they would handle your case should you detect a leak. If you have to pay, it looks like the repair at the dealer would end up about $1,200 more or less (about $200 for the kit and the rest labor). I think what I would do in that case would be to check with some clever independent guys to see if there is some better homemade type of repair that they could do (e.g., using braided lines with better fittings) and then I would decide how to proceed.

Doug

 

Thanks Doug, I appreciate the info. I'm just going to play it by ear, hope that nothing happens but if it does, I'll have some heavy duty towels in the trunk. I'm shooting for the total hose replacement if I ever have the problem.

 

Hi, this is probably a stupid question but I was wondering what exactly is that meshlike grill thing between the map lights near the rear view mirror? Is it a microphone forthe car phone hook up?

 

I first thought that these were speakers but I believe the meshlike grills in this and other locations are for sensing the position of passenger for the passive restraint system.

Doug

 

This is correct.

 

Well, apparently, all of this talk of the dreaded hydraulic system in our vert has spread some sort of internet-airborne virus...and now my car apparently has it. I say apparently, because although I do not have any busted lines and green jag blood raining from above, two days ago, I got a moan and a groan when putting the top up and down, Beth (my car) was in obvious pain. The noise came from the right rear of the car (hydraulic pump). That very day, I took my car to my friendly jag dealer and the tech started the top down, stopped immediately when he heard the moan, and said the hydraulic lines are in jeapordy. Could be high pressure straining the pump, clogged lines, etc. It's not fatal yet, and I have a service appointment this week. And to make matters worse, it's not certain whether this will be covered by Select...gotta bring it in to let my service consultant say all the right things to the powers that be on the other end of the phone.

I'll update my soap opera w/ yours Doug if that's ok. No need to start a new thread for the same story line.

 

h20boy: I guess that is the consequences about talking about a problem with cars as that is a sure way to cause the problem to happen[sm=smiley24.gif]

I just got the car back and need to start another topic: Top Fixed Nav Gone

Doug

 

Matt,

First, check the fluid in the pump reservoir. If it is low you probably need to replace the top latch hoses anyway. In a hot, southern US climate the hoses are good for 4 years . . . period.

If it would help, my 2000 XK8 had the hoses replaced under the Select Edition warranty.

If not covered under warranty the price is about $1300. Do it yourself for about $225. Done it, call for assistance. Two hours or less with repair kit, a little more to remove the seat. Not a big deal for a weekend repair.

TestPoint

 

Hi Doug,
There has been a lot of talkabout this hydraulic failure on some of the other postings and I'm getting a bit paranoid. With your engineering background, I was wondering if you can answer this:would therebe less chance of this problem happening if one kept the top down all the time? I only take her out in nice weather so that would be fine by me. If you were to put the top up, wouldn't that engage the hydraulic system, thereby making the leak problem more likely to occur?Or doesn't it make any difference one way or the other? Thanks for you help!