I'm stuck at trying to drill a 20mm hole inside the glovebox. My problem is that I can't take the glovebox out of the car (at least, no one else did), and I can't see or reach up behind it to where the hole is supposed to go. There are at least 2 electric cables running thru there, one for the upper glovebox light (which is in the spot where most people drilled their holes), another for the glovebox-is-open sensor. There's a large duct running underneath that area that I can't see past or reach past, which no one mentioned removing.

How did people drill through the rear wall of the glovebox without tearing up the wires behind there? And how did they thread the ACM wires from there into the head unit? The head unit is about a foot away, through a space that I can't reach.

I was surprised at how difficult it was to remove the glovebox lanyard. This shows the hook the lanyard end loop runs through on the outside of the glovebox door:

I disconnected it by pushing side of the loop that ran outside the hook inside it, and it snapped out the hole. I don't recommend this as it required yanking on the lanyard with a lot of force.

It was impossible to unplug the glovebox cigarette lighter from its wiring, so the glovebox shelf is just hanging there. (The clue to how to disconnect the cig lighter is revealed by examining the same type of connector on opening the rear console.)

Another question: Why do people disconnect the battery terminal before doing this? Turning the stereo back on caused problems for some people. Is it really necessary? So far I haven't disconnected it.

 

I easily removed the air duct after removing a single T20 torx screw. The screw requires a torx screwdriver; I couldn't get at it with a drill and torx drill bit. It was difficult to remove without stripping, being tight for about 15 turns.

There are 4 wires in the general area I want to drill, so going in blind would have been a bad idea. Just on top of the glovebox, I see a dark blue fabric bag. I suspect it's an airbag, so do NOT drill into the ceiling of the glovebox, or you may set it off. I drilled just under where the shelf goes, in the upper-left corner.

It was hard to remove the facing as instructed, and easy to pull the entire console out. This bottom connector gets first place for most needlessly complex connector:


Now I have a new problem: All the instructions I've found say to remove the vents on either side of the rear console, to remove the screws behind them. But my 2004 XJ8 has the vents in the middle of the rear console, not beside them. (All XJ8s have vents in the middle of the rear console, so I don't understand why any have vents on the sides as well.)

 

Here is a pic of where I drilled the hole behind the glove box. No need to remove the glove box, if I recall correctly.

I believe there is an 'indent' to suggest the hole location. I used a wood spade bit to drill the hole. Drill through gently; go barely through the plastic. You can use a flashlight to try and verify that there are no wiring looms nearby, but this may not necessarily be visually evident. (I do recall 'holding my breath' for this part of the operation.)

Once the NAV is out, it is not far from the hole to the rear of the radio. Also, for this second install I placed the ACM control box on the left side of the passenger side footwell. Move back the carpet and tuck it there on the side of the 'hump'. This location is 'centrally' near the console, radio and glovebox.

Also, two sets of photos in my album; an install in the first car and install into the second car.

Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum - magmedia's Album: ACM Install - Round 2

Hope this helps.

Thanks-
mag

 

It is my experienced opinion that to do this properly you need to remove the glovebox. See post #113 in https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-photos-50454/.

Now I am sure an inventive person may be able to figure out how to run everything without removing the glovebox but I believe it is in one's best interest to spend the extra time to remove it and reinstall it. That's what I did, but then again, maybe that is because my interior trim pieces are very rare and almost impossible to come by (at any cost) which is why I took extra care with them. The entire glovebox comes out by removing 8 screws (6 on the inside top of the glove box and 2 where the carpet you removed meets the metal glovebox frame near the hinge) along with 2 nuts and 4 bolts, again where the carpet you removed meets the metal glovebox frame near the hinge.

You may also want to a couple of minutes and download a PDF version of the shop manual, they are invaluable.

P.S. If you remove the glovebox assembly the damper or lanyard is much easier to deal with as it attached to the back of the glovebox and the lanyard can be disconnected and reattached while the assembly is on a work bench.

 

My PC just died so I'm using an iPad otherwise I would attach pic of my acm fitting

I installed it in the centre console looks factory and easier to access from the drivers seat

 

My 2004 XJ8 has a shelf in the glovebox, and that indent is for the shelf light:



The big cardboard thing in the middle is leaning on the glovebox-open sensor so that the light is out. I drilled the hole on the left, under where the shelf goes. (The shelf is on the right, dangling by the cig lighter cord.) I hope the glovebox door doesn't hit the wires going through there, because there's not much room up top above the shelf. (ADDED: Yes, it did. No, that hole won't work. There's no good place to make the hole when you have the shelf.)

Now I'm stuck on the rear console--mine has no vents, so I can't remove the screws under the vents.

 

The screws are behind the rear console airvent. The picture shows them screwed almost all the way out:

 

Grab the vents and pull toward the rear of the car. The vent assembly is held in by tabs if I remember correctly.

Cars with 4 way climate differ from the two way climate in the removal of the console.

Hope this helps.
Mag

 

Just saw your photo, looks like you've got it. Please disregard.

Thanks

 

Thanks for your help! I have, to my surprise, removed the glove box. It looked like that metal frame sticking out underneath would run all the way up and around, but it did not.

Where would you find that? I looked but didn't find a downloadable shop manual.