I test drove a 2004 Vanden Plas today and I was shocked to discover the XK8 had more leg room! Any suggestions? Has anyone had the seat rebolted back? Or is it possible? The pedal adjustment helped a little but would love another inch or so.

Dell

 

Dell,

I'll open by saying 'no, I haven't' but the following diagrams might help the discussion on the possibility:



The front of the runner has three bolt holes (bottom diagram) which would allow them to be set further back but the rear might need new brackets fabricating (middle diagram).

The top diagram shows the rear trim covers in position.

Graham

 

Thanks Graham I'll take a look! I'm picking up the Vanden Plas today. I will trade up to a XKR coupe next year instead of getting the XK8 right now.

 

The front rails have extra holes so the seat can come further forward go figure

they obviously didn't think that anyone would like to put the seat back had a similar problem with my XJR6

I just removed the seats and customised the rails

Ill probably do the same to The XJ8 X350 I now own as I also think the seat doesn't go far enough back

Clarkson was right

 

How tall are you? I'm 6'2" and am very comfortable. I did notice that once the seat is all the way back, moving the seat down seems to move it down and back.

 

I am 6,3 but have very long legs

Its okay around town but if I have to drive for a few hours my knee starts to hurt from having it bent for to long

With my XJR6 I could put my left foot under the pedals in the X350 I can put my right foot under the pedals but the gap between the brake pedal and foot rest is to narrow unless I am wearing bare feet at least my head does not hit the roof like in the XJR6 the X350 has a fair amount of headroom nice for a change

A extra inch makes all the difference its not just the Jaguar

I get it with most cars the seat in my wife's Jeep 07 GC goes back plenty but the steering wheel reach is not enough okay if I was a gorilla with arms as long as my legs

I hate sitting square backed may as well be sitting at the dinning table LOL

 

I'm 6'5" and the remote key and my knee are fighting for space. I'm going to have to move it back, 1 inch should be fine so I can at least fit a small person or kid behind me.

 

Can this be done on a XK - 2006 model? (Sorry to pop into the XJ thread but its the same sort of problem)


I'm 6ft 6in


Thanks

 

I have taken out the driver seat a few times in the midst of airbag repairs. The rear mounting bolts would have to be redone. I suppose a bolt mounted through the floor with some reinforcing aluminum plate would suffice. There may be some question as to how secure this modification may be. Additionally, reinforcement would aide in raising the floor higher to be at the level of the rear seat frame which is now in the hollow of the rear seat floor.
Fortunately for me, as a short guy, the factory seat mounting is just fine.

RyeJag

 

In my XJR6 I bought a second set of rails to experimented on

There is a stop on the rails its a small notch we used a Dremel to remove the notch the seat went back another inch I was worried that the seat might come out of the rails after doing this mod but has been fine

I will be trying this out on my XJ8 as soon as I get it back from the shop

I will post if its possible otherwise I will make new rear seat floor brackets and just re drill the front ones seems I am doing this mod a lot lately am about to do the same to my Renault van only vehicle I haven't had to figure out how to move the seat back is my wife's Jeep GC its the only vehicle I don't have the seat fully back but that's because the steering wheel doesn't reach far enough LOL

 

It would be easier to change where the seat mounts to the rails thus keeping the bolt down floor mounts the same.

 

Doc, Did you ever come up with an easy way to set the X350 XJ8 seat back an inch?

 

In one word Nope
I hadn't worried about it as I had been driving it just locally but just did a thousand k,s over the weekend

The seat is crap yes it goes down at the back but it feels like I am under the steering wheel okay if I had arms as long as my legs

It put pressure on the back of my thighs after a couple days driving feels like I have bruises on the back of my thighs pretty painful

Pathetic that they cant make a car where the seat goes far enough back If I lived in the UK I would like to take it back to the seat designer and ram it down his throat obviously he was a midget and should be sacked for his selfishness
Either way I can see this being a costly modification if what I did to the XJR6 is anything to go by

I have owned ten Benz products before getting into jags the seats in those cars could easily accept 6,6 person I had to pull the seat forward

I broke the seat in the XJR6 eventually that's why I modifeied the rails the seat had to come out anyway broke it on the pivot points I'D say that the XJ8 is going the same way