My wife's XJS engine hood will not close just by dropping it.
I have to close the leftside carefully and then walk around and
do the right side.

Opening the bonnet follows a similar process.

I cannot believe how flimsy the hood seems.
Has anyone done any mods to beef it up?

There is a process outlined in the Kirby Palm book and in the
Factory manual on setting the engine hood adjustments.
But, I was wondering if anyone had a simpler method?

P O R (Press On Regardless)!!!

 

I believe they are all like that and must be closed carefully. I don't mind the walk to the other side for I feel I am putting a beautiful engine to bed.
I don't understand your comment that opening the hood has to be done in a similar manner. I pull the latch and the left one clicks open and pull a little harder and the right side unlatches. What is yours doing??
RagJag

 

They should operate together, if they are opening separately then they are slightly out of adjustment.
As I recall the one furthest from the handle has an adjustment screw on it so that the cables have the same tension on them.
It is important not to let the bonnet slam shut as it will damage the latches and can twist the hinges.
Also make sure that the rubber bump stops are present and adjusted to the correct height.

 

Could you explain where can find adjustable rubber bump stops on XJS's hood? I can't notice anything like that in my 95 convertible....

 

It is very common for these large hoods to get tweaked over time. They are large and the back side has little support as it is going up and going down. The hoods are usually pulled up and pushed down on the drivers rear corner.

Many people not knowing how the hood struts operate will pull down on one side of the hood while the struts are still locked and this will put a very slight twist in the hood. Most of the time it is pulled down from the drivers side which will pull the right side of the hood up slightly which can cause a hard shut or no latch issue on the rt. side of the hood.

When I bought my first '95 the rt. side was not latching down tight. I had to make several adjustments to compensate for the slight twist in the hood from being shut incorrectly with the struts locked up. I had to bring the latch up on the cowl and adjust the rt. side of the hood down to allow the hood to latch correctly. This is not a uncommon issue as you will see the rt. side of the hood not latched down tight in many photos of the XJS' for sale.

Each situation is different when it comes to this so very important to look at everything closely to determine correct action plan for your particular hood issue. I found it very important to keep latches lubed and also, as was mentioned earlier you will want to make sure the hood cable adjustment is set correctly. I would always bring the latch fully up first to see if this helps the situation, lube the latches and work from there. Sometimes just a slight latch adjustment and good lubing of the latch will do the trick.

It is also sometimes necessary to pull the latch striker off the back side of the hood and adjust the striker down ( as in bringing it down further from the back side of the hood ) to allow the striker to latch down correctly. This just depends on how badly the hood has been twisted but if any adjustment is needed on the hood striker the striker must be removed from the hood first so as not to damage the hood at the striker mount points.

 

The bump stops should be just inboard of the latches and near the back of the engine bay, sticking up. If you can see a threaded hole near the latch then they are missing. They are like thick, round rubber washers which are on threaded studs and should have lock nuts. Basically just wind them in or out to get the correct shut level of the bonnet and then tighten the lock nut.

 

Actually it doesn't matter one bit if the latch cables are in perfect adjustment because the sides have to be pushed down individually.
Also there are no rubber bumpers on my 1996. There are rubber inserts in the holes on either side of the cowl under where the hood comes down but they don't contact the hood at all.
RagJag

 

I am dealing with a similar problem with my '93. First lets ID terms. Latch, the complete lock attached to the firewall with four bolts. The Prawl: The half moon part of the latch that rotates by cable. The bolt: the round bar attached to the hood.

The function of the three parts above is to bring the hood into alignment with the cowl and lock it in place.The adjustment is the positioning of the latch assembly when the hood is closed. The bolt goes to the bottom of the latch slot and the prawl is drawn over the bolt and holds the bolt and the hood in place. Makes no differences if there is warping in the hood, proper alignment of the prawl and bolt will pull the hood into place albeit you may have to push the hood down initially. I would suggest in the alignment process you remove the stop bolt, nut and rubber cap. They can be replaced later.

My problem is the hood is about 3/8" above the cowl and the latch cannot be brought down lower because it is bottomed. I had two recourses !. bend the bolt up and 2. Elongate the four latch holes further and remove the bottom part of the latch by bending and grinding. So Far this has worked on the drivers (LHD) and this weekend I will tackle the passenger side.
Once the latch concept is understood it all falls into place.

 

And it's important to remember that the late cars work differently to earlier models. To take slight exception to Steve's post, you DO drop the bonnet to lock it on late models, as the locks and release cable work against a spring tension.

Paul

 

I have always thought this is a terrible design and I wish my 95 had the earlier hood closures.

Every once in a while my latches release the hood but then lock back up. If you don't notice it and try to close the hood with the latches in the closed position, the hood bangs against the closed latches. My mechanic did this and now I have nice pimple-sized bumps in each corner of the hood. The bumps since have caused my paint to crack in each corner. Estimate to repaint the hood is $1600 U.S. Ouch! But I worry if I repainted the hood without first fixing my failure-to-stay-open latch problem, it'll only happen again.

Has anyone had this problem with the latches remaining closed after the hood is opened? Do you know how to fix this?

Signed,

Hating my hood latch mechanisms

 

On my '96 I have to lower the hood carefully and then push down on each side to get them to latch. ptjs1, if I let it slam the least bit it will not latch.


XJDanny, I agree that the later design is not good but we must live with it. I haven't experienced the latches going closed prematurely except when trying to let them go down too fast.
I also trimmed the bolts on the hood so they can be pulled out of the latches if the cable ever breaks. The pro and con of doing that has been discussed on this forum.
RagJag

 

Michelangelo wouldn't charge $1600 to paint the hood. The hood is so easy to remove you would not even need to mask it. If there is no fading you might not need to paint the complete hood. A good painter should be able to blend the paint and do the job for much less.
I have a '93 and my locks are spring loaded. If the cable breaks the locks will spring open.That's the plus. the negative is there alignment. If you want to retro fit look at the earlier models. Their latches and lever might be interchangeable. I don't know.
I pasted a large sign on the brake reservoir: DO NOT SLAM HOOD. Works for me!

 

I believe the '94,95, 96, have different latches or maybe only the '95 and 96. This being the case if talking about alignment we should identify the year model. On the 93 the latches spring open if the cable breaks.
This is not rocket science. Why is it we seem to get the drivers side aligned and not the passengers side? One problem is we cannot see what is happening when the hood closes. As I see it (or imagine it) the bar on the hood should drop into the slot on the latch and the prawl moves over the bar and pushes it down. Thereby aligning and securing the hood. On the later models I think the procedure is the same but with a different type latch.
Since the latch and the prawl have a fixed distance and rotation, then the only moveable parts is the latch up and down and the prawl swinging over the bar. On the '93 the prawl can be brought further towards the drivers side by pulling on its cable and the latch can be raised up and down and also some movement left and right. This is where the adjustment is. Unfortunately, it is a blind operation.
Having to push the hood down only indicates that the hoods curvature is not the same as the cars, but the latches when properly aligned should bring the hood flush.
When the car left the factory the hood was aligned. Nothing stretched. So it has to be the alignment of the prawl and latch. Again, unfortunately, it is a trail and error proposition until we hit on the right combination. When somebody gets it right describing their alignment and procedure might be helpful.

 

(93XJS)Worked on the hood without success. After closing the hood There was about 1/2 inch elevation on the passenger side and a perfect fit on the drivers side. However, I could push lightly on the passenger side and get a perfect fit. This indicated to me that the prawl was not pressing down on the bar, or not rolling forward enough to engage the bar. if I pull the prawl further there will be no room for the bar to drop, so not an option. I now can see the fix is to elongate the four latch holes further and bring the latch down so the prawl engages the bolt at cowl level. I did this with the drivers side and got a perfect fit.

 

This is why I stated it is so important to take some time to evaluate on each hood issue what is going on so you are doing the correct things to fix your problem. Each hood closing issue is unique to that car and needs to be handled accordingly. You have to ask yourself why is it that my Rt. side is sitting 1/2 " above the latch when the Lt side is latched correctly.

This is a common issue with these hoods and what that tells me is most hoods are pulled down on the drivers side and over time this starts to pull the Rt side of the hood up slightly on the Rt rear edge. This is only made worse if someone goes to lower the hood and does not realize the hood supports lock into place thereby accelerating the issue.

I have three 1995's and each hood shuts differently. One shuts like it would when it was new , another has to be pushed down slightly on the Rt. latch and the third one I had to adjust the latches and adjust the slight tweak in the hood so the Rt side would latch down correctly.

This issue is not a one size fits all fix. I run a body shop and have been dealing with these types of issues for years so I am speaking from direct experience. It would be like me answering a question about a air leak issue on a forum. For example someone says they have a air leak noise from their drivers door area and I state that the correct way to fix the air leak is to adjust the door glass in on a certain car model. That may or may not be the correct fix for your problem because even though it is common to have that models door glass slip out of alignment there are always many other things that can cause air leaks like sagging doors, misaligned hinges and worn out/deformed seals etc.

Most of our XJS' have had at least one or two previous owners so many times we simply do not know everything about our cars. We may have been told the car was never in a accident but truth be told it was and may have had extensive work done on the body of the car that we have no idea about.

Always best to take some time on the front side of a repair to really evaluate what approach is needed. This time may well save you much more time and money on the back side.

 

Thank you so much for such an euridite reply. I agree with your analysis completely. I have a "93 so I am dealing with a different system then the 95 and 96. The car has not been wrecked or damaged, for sure! When I purchased the car the Latches were bottomed on both sides and the hood was elevated about 3/8 of an inch. The bars were bent up about 30 degrees. but not elevated enough to prevent the prawl from passing over them. Having never seen an XJS in over 20 Years, I made the assumption that the bars should be parallel with the hood and returned them to that position. I then brought my attention to the prawl. By manipulating the cables it is possible to move the prawls further to closure and hence bringing the hood down. This helped, but the hood was still not flush. To move the prawl further to closure prevented the bar from dropping into the closure position. At this point I decided to elongate the bolt holes on the drivers side and readjust the cable. Depressing the latch about another 1/2 inch lined up the drivers side hood.
Elongating the slots is a simple process with a hacksaw with US or UK blades (not Chinese) and will provide additional space for maneuvering the latch. I plan to this to the passenger side this weekend. Elongation of the latch slots is not detrimental to the hood closing and nothing venture nothing gained.........will report!

 

On my '76 the bars are in fact parallel and of a slightly different design to those on my '89 which are angled up as yours were. I believe it was to retain the bonnet to some degree from moving forward in a smash.
That change alone would account for the failure to close.

 

Baxtor
Did you buy the '89 new or were the bars possibly modified by a previous owner. I feel that Jaguar had parallel bars and made adjustments on the cables and latches. Bending those bars is a tedious process and should not be done on the car.
Thank you very much for your response and info.

Just reread your posting (1976 XJ-S, 1989 XJR-S, SI SWB XJ12 x 3 &nbsp The '89's are XJR and you have three? Non-parellel bars may be standard on those cars...Don't know.

 

I am certain the catches are un-altered. My bonnet shuts perfectly as they are, this would not be possible if they were altered. I will post pics shortly of the two styles. from memory one uses a three hole fixing and the other four holes, as well as the difference in straight verses bent.
If yours is '93 they may well have been changed yet again by Jaguar.

(Only one XJR-S restored, one 1976 XJ-S and three series I XJ12's SWB all to be done yet)

 

Afterburner,
The parts listing gives number changes for the catches at Vin 184751 and again at 190527. this is around 1992 and 93, How do those numbers tie in with your Vin?
Pics of '76 (silver) and '89 (red)