Today I undertook the repair of my rear-dash-mounted sub-woofer. This, as you know, meant that I would need to remove the rear seat and squab from my car.

After trying to do this I feel that the British are upset with me for something--such as not buying enough Andrew Lloyd Webber recordings. When I was done my attempt, I was more winded then a balloon artist at a circus sideshow.

The rear-seat cushion was pretty easy. The only thing I ran into was that I didn't have a Torx set handy, and you need a Torx driver to undo the screws that hold the seat cushion to the chassis of the car. So I went to Home Depot and bought a set. Then I removed the seat cushion, which revealed more Trox screws that anchor the seat-belt ends. Those screws are much larger, so of course the Torx set I had just purchased did not have a bit large enough for those. Back to Home Depot I went.

Then I withdrew the seat belt escutcheons from the squab (I don't even feel like I'm speaking English at this point). This "escutcheon" was invented by someone with a macabre sense of humor. The instructions from the Jaguar service manual say "using a flat-bladed screwdriver in the two rectangular apertures, carefully withdraw escutcheon from squab top roll". Er, first, I don't know how anyone can (a) get in the car, (b) use two screwdrivers with only two hands, and then (c) "withdraw escutcheon". I think this text was written by some lucky tech who was born with three arms.

Anyway, I got those escutcheon thingies away from the squab. Now, in the service manual, there is a sort of footnote, which is mentioned earlier, that says, simply: "Remove rear head restraints". (I think they are called "head rests" in the U.S.) If I am correct, the same person with that wacky sense of humor wrote that too. The sentence gives no hint *how* to remove those head restraints--only that you should. You can't pull them out (at least not with my strength), and there appears to be no obvious release mechanism--even when digging below the round metal cover that abuts the squab. Thus I sort of skipped the step regarding removing the head restraints. Perhaps that is why I suffer so...

Now, according to the service manual, I am supposed to "remove seat squab clear of inertial reel assemblies withdrawing dowels from top panel". I am not an expert by any means, but this, to me, is like saying "Remove engine from vehicle clear of chassis and the various retaining points".

So, at this point, I have my seat cushion out of the car and the squab unscrewed, but I cannot budge the squab for the life of me. It pivots, but it won't separate from the rear dash. I tried lifting and shaking it (increasingly violently up-and-down, I might add, as I contemplated my Andrew Lloyd investment over the past few years)--and it just won't budge. It seems that it is "stuck" near the head rests or in the center top. I even squirted some WD-40 in the seam between the squab and rear-dash--to no avail.

Can anyone help me figure out how to remove the squab from the car?

Thank you,
Jon

 

I have replaced that subwoofer, the whole procedure is a real pain I agree. That rear seat back (squab) is a real bugger to get out. From what I remember you do have to exert a lot of force to get it off of there, but it can be done.

I remember that you can pull it towards you a bit as you lift it up, and that can make it easier.

good luck

I should add that:
I did not take the headrests out
I used the torx socket (if I remember correctly to unscrew all three seatbelt things)

 

Wow, thank you for the quick reply.

The thing that worries me is that there are "dowels" mentioned in the service manual. It would be nice if the service manual were a little more specific about where they are and how they are positioned. I generally do not like to exert too much force on parts when I don't really understand how they are anchored.

But I will try (now) the lift-and-pull strategy to see if that gets me anywhere. If it does, I will confirm here; otherwise I will wait to see how/if others suggest any additional tips.

Thanks again,
Jon

 

I just tried again. From the driver's side of the car, I anchor my left foot on the inside floor of the rear of the vehicle and pull up on the squab while firmly gripping the bottom edge of the squab. It moves up--but it travels only so far then hits something and stops. If I then try to pull on the head rest or on the top squab roll, I cannot get any forward movement whatsoever. It just appears to be locked in place no matter how hard I pull. In addition, it's really hard to get leverage when part of your body has to be outside of the vehicle.

If it requires just brute strength I suppose it's possible that I'm just not strong enough to do this myself.

Regards,
Jon

 

Wow, I always thought a squab was a young pigeon..... It's a good thing that we and the Brits speak the same language!

But more seriously, it is a frequent failing of the Jaguar documentation that it does not tell you how to do many things, especially things that have a trick to it. Maybe you are supposed to learn on-the-job, and just have the shop manual to jog your memory! Generally speaking, worse than US shop manuals. But among the US ones, I find Ford to be the most cryptic, GM the best and Chrysler somewhere in between.

 

Hmm It took me all of my strength to get it out of there, one of the ways I finally did it was to sit in the center of the back seat facing forward and push up on the underside of the seat squab with my hands rotated backwards

 

If it's that hard to get out, I wonder how they got it in at the factory?? "Squab Grease" ?

 

I get what you're saying but I'm still hoping to hear some useful ideas. And I'd like to know how those dowels work, if in fact they exist and are involved in how the squab is mounted.

 

if you've removed the seat base from the car,
unbolted the 3 seatbelts from their bases,
unclipped the covers on the back,

you're almost there. Grip the bottom of the seat back and pull it towards the front of the car, tipping it up. This rotation, along with shifting it up should release the edge holding the seatback to the rear clip.
Once it unclips, its feeding the belts through the seatback holes and removing it.
Next is to remove the rear parcel shelf, which is another fun job. You're then free to work on the speaker.
good luck

 

That sounds good, Sean B, but before I attempt again I would really like some clarification: Do I stand any chance of breaking something when pivoting the squab's bottom edge forward? I had already tried that--I pulled it forward perhaps 20-degrees from its normal orientation--and then lifted. It is being held by something near the head rests and the top center. Maybe those are where the clips are?

Also, I can't emphasize enough that the service manual mentions "dowels". I imagine that those are rods that connect the squab to the rear deck and I am worried that I could break them if I pivot too far or lift with too much force. Are there dowels and can they break if I'm not careful?

Thank you,
Jon

 

I didn't remove the seatbelts, or most of the rest of the stuff either... just lift up on the plastic pieces at the top, where the seat belt comes through, then pull the seat back straight up to clear the metal seat belt feed, then forward - the seatbelts unreel with it - lay it forward up agianst the front seats and there's plenty of room to remove the parcel shelf.

Make sure you remove FOUR bolts - two on either side, if I recall, and two more that are somewhat hidden, by the fold down center armrest, also if I recall correctly - it's been a couple of years since I did it. JTIS shows where they are.

 

Hi Quad--I think you might have found the reason I could not remove the squab because I definitely did NOT find any screws near the center armrest. I had to stop the project for work last week and I do not know whether I will get to it again until next weekend, but I wanted to thank you for your suggestion and I will definitely consult the tech manual again to find those additional anchor points.

I will write again once I have some more information to share.

Thank you,
Jon

 

Look within folds of the leather near the arm rest....

 

Yesterday I finally broke down and drove to a Jaguar dealership I know to be open on Saturdays. No Jag techs were available but a Land Rover guy came with me to look at the rear seat squab (the vertical seatback). He went to the passenger's side of the car and I went to the driver's side and we lifted--hard and strong. It took both of us several heaves before the darned thing budged and then--POP! It came loose with no damage! I now realize that there is NO WAY I would have had the strength/leverage to do that on my own and I think it's really important to have BOTH SIDES of the squab lifted SIMULTANEOUSLY, so as to avoid the introduction of angular forces and the additional resistance they would convey.

When it was finally loose, I couldn't believe that there are three thick steel beams that look like posts. These ultimately secure the seat belts. The squab had to be lifted up and over those posts--to the tune of about FOUR INCHES. I had no idea.

FYI--there were no additional screws behind/around the arm rest (at least not on my XJR 2000 model).

I have the sub-woofer repair kit but I think I will wait until next weekend to continue this project. The idea would be to start on a Friday evening so that (hopefully) I can give the speaker glue and entire 24 hours to set and dry before reinstalling it in the vehicle. (This is not my only car-related project: I had some distractions on my vehicle because the rear-view mirror finally leaked, and I took some time to investigate what could be done about that.)

Thank you to all who chimed in. I will try to capture some photos as I put everything back together--at least to show what those "posts" look like. Shame on the Jaguar technical service manual authors--the documentation of how to remove the seat and get to the subwoofer is woefully inadequate and could have used more illustrations and explanations.

Regards,
Jon

 

Hey Jon,

I'll be taking on this project myself within the next few weeks and would definitely appreciate some pictures and/or feedback/tips. I'm curious as to how the speaker repair kit works out...

 

Hi BonesXJR,

I sure will try. At the house this weekend and will devote mornings to the project. My goal this morning is to remove the seat cushion and squab from the vehicle, then work on the dash. I've read some pretty frightening stories here about cracking the rear dash, do I"m going to use the most gentle approach possible and will definitely report how that went. Someone commented to me once (I forget where) that the seat back (squab) was the EASY part... I sure hope that's not true. I'm hoping to have the speaker out of the car by noon so that I can glue-it-up and let it dry for 24 hours before reinstalling it. I really miss the sub--I think it's been out for over a year--I just haven't had the time to get to it before recently (and didn't know what the solution would be).

I'll keep you posted.

Regards,
-- Jon

 

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The rear dash was a NO BRAINER compared to the squab!

The key is this: You MUST remove the pillars that contain the light assembly on BOTH SIDE before gently wiggling the rear dash up and out. It probably has the potential to clear the pillars if they're not removed, but given the age and relative brittleness of the material after years of sun exposure, it's totally justifiable to expend the extra effort and remove the pillars, giving ample clearance.

You have to remove the speaker plastic "cap" before getting to the speaker itself. I thought for a moment that I needed to remove the screen that's on that cap, but the cap itself can be pried away from the speaker.

I used a Dremel tool to clean the residue from the totally separated foam surround in preparation for the new surround.

I took some photos along the way and I'll post them soon.

Thanks to all who chimed in to help.

Regards,
Jon

 

The Rear head Rests are locked into the seat with R-Clips. 2 on each rest, so if you can lever the seat up and pull them out, perhaps you stand a better chance of getting the seat out. Just don't do what my friend did when we took my rear seat out. He put the rear window through...

 

I saw those "R" clips once I had the squab away from the vehicle, as you can see them clearly from the back of the squab. Thanks for the tip but I cannot even begin to imagine how someone could get to and successfully remove those clips before the squab is pulled away from the dash!

 

Hi there,
I have done this project myself, the trick to tacking the seat out was when all the fastners were removed u kinda squat in the middle of the seat, lift it forward with ur hands and using ur knees as a push up point u can get the upper steal locking bar to come out of the groove. I did all this without removing the seat belts due to the need to just run wires into the trunk for my amp feed and my ipod input wire(using the cd changer hack). All in all the project isnt that hard, but having an extra set of hands deffinetly helps.

Joe