Yes, my dash leather has shrunk in the Texas heat ( along with the rear convertible window nearly falling out ) and I decided to take the dash out and have it recovered.

I'm so close to getting it out but something is preventing it coming off.

Has anyone attempted this? I'm wondering if it's necessary to remove the metal cross bar. I haven't done that yet as it doesn't appear to be the problem but in desperation that seems to be the next step.

Any thoughts please?

2007 XKR convertible

 

I will ask my mechanic/body shop owner as he pulled mine for me. Once you get it out, you most likely will not need to recover it. You can restretch the leather and then staple to the front edge of dash up against the windshield and around the center speaker with the grille removed. This will permanenly anchor the leather and allow you to stretch it. Use a high temperature automotive adhesive to insure a good bond to the leather.

I went through the same thing, and my dash a year and a half later is still good.

 

Thanks, I'd really appreciate that.

It looks like the fix you suggested had been done before I bought the car 3 years ago, so I will go for a full recover with a bit of extra material. This is the problem, Jaguar didn't add any extra material to allow for shrinkage, and they put the wrong glue in the rear window to allow for the heat.

I have owned at least 1 Jag ever since 1988 and this 2007 model is the biggest disappointment I've ever had. Technically a great car but quality is seriously lacking.

Let me know what your mechanic says please

 

OK, I got it out. There was an undisclosed bolt behind the center speaker. Don't worry your mechanic now.

If anyone needs advise on removing the dash I am currently the official expert!!

What I can tell you is you do NOT have to remove the center console as advised in the Jaguar workshop manual and you don't need to remove the metal crossbar either.

 

I'm glad you got it out. I was just calling my mechanic as I had a tremendously busy day when I saw your post. If you end up not recovering but instead restretching your leather, there is not enough leather to wrap around the dash to staple on the underside (absolutely stupid of Jaguar), so you have to staple to the front edge, In order to hide the staples, I covered it with a 1/2" leather band that matched the dash leather perfectly. I found it on ebay for a few dollars. If you're recovering with new leather, obviously have your upholsterer wrap around to the underside and staple there. WITHOUT STAPLING AT THE WINDSHIELD EDGE AND AROUND THE SPEAKER CUTOUT (GRILLE WILL COVER THE STAPLES), NO MATTER HOW MUCH LEATHER CONDITIONER YOU SLATHER ON, YOU WILL HAVE A REPEAT PERFORMANCE OF THE "SHRINKAGE."

Good luck, Take pictures!

 

Removing the dash, is something I hope I never have to do, but only time will tell.
While you have the dash out, could you take and post some pictures of how and where the dash attaches to the car?
That would help us in the future, should we need to remove our dashes.
Thanks, and good luck!

 

I will take a picture and illustrate the bolt locations and highlight the rogue "undocumented" bolt that gave me a problem.

It's not as daunting a job as you would think, now that I've done it. The biggest scare was that you have to disconnect the air bag wiring. The air bag is attached to the dash.

Sadly the car wont run with the dash out, maybe its because the speedo and revcounter are disconnected. I put the center control panel back in but that didn't help.

Right now the dash is at the upholsterers. We decided to go for faux leather/vinyl as it will look authentic but has more give so it wont come detached again. It will also not have the joins, only the decorative stitching. The joins are a cop out by Jaguar to keep the cost down, like a cheap shirt!!

 

Did you have any problem with the air vents along the windshield? Other posters have reported breakage when attempting to remove the dash.

 

Please do a dash removal DIY thread!!!!!!

 

I would be interesting in this as well. I need to pull mine as the leather has pulled and needs repair/replacing. What a shame that this is literally a "known issue" and Jaguar does nothing to support their high-end product(s) owner community in addressing a manufacturing issue - NOT an owner or abuse issue.

 

Yes, I admit I did break the center one, almost in the middle. A more patient person would have done a better job. As always it's hard to know how to get it off until you've got it off

 

I certainly will, probably wait until it's all back together so I don't miss anything out. Should have the dash back in my hands next week.

 

I have a grudge with Jaguar right now, having owned Jaguars since 1988, and this is the first one that's given me unreasonable problems. I called Jaguar Cars (USA) about it. If it was still under warranty ( its a 2007 ) they would have replaced it but what they offered me was to have it replaced at half price. It would have still cost me around $2k but I turned the offer down on principle. I felt being a loyal Jag customer I deserved better.
The back window also came loose in the heat, unacceptable for a high priced car. I'm pretty sure Jaguar UK, where I used to live, would have done me better

 

I dunno, these cars are almost 10 years old now. I expect a lot of bits to be falling apart by now! Certainly cheap Hyundais are in much worse shape at this age.

Although, these dash issues showed up on the cars at a much earlier age--sometimes in as little as 3 or 4 years old!

 

I'm assuming that a $100k car costs $100k because they are made from high quality materials and extensive design and manufacturing costs. There's no excuse for this. The problem with the dash covering shrinking ( and the rear window falling out ) I think are either due to design oversight and/or cost cutting. Apparently Lexus and Ferrari have had similar problems though so I shouldn't be too harsh :-)

 

Yeah, unfortunately all manufacturers will have something of this nature. On my previous BMW it was known to leak oil after 50k miles, have issues from day one with the top tossing errors to the system, various other engine components that would fail at an early age. Most people who bought them used had the thought that because it was a $90k car new they would get a bulletproof tank, then get mad at BMW for known issues that crop up. Usually scream the word recall.

Car companies want profits and sell cars to the new car buyers. In the case of BMW, which has grown to be the most profitable car manufaturer, the second/third/whatever buyer and their issues are not a big concern!

Lexus builds cars to last a long time, but in todays world people don't keep them a long time. Cars in the $90k - $100k segment are more often than not leased, so they need to please that buyer for 3 years. Then keep them coming for the next lease.

 

As I have stated before, NONE of the dash issues would happen had standard upholstery practices been followed in the original production, meaning enough leather overlap to fasten with staples or rivets on the underside of the dash top. I would suspect that Jaguar was not concerned with the extra cost of approximately a 1/2" of leather, but rather the labor involved in putting the leather on the dash. Although the leather is hand-stitched, I am positive it is robotically or machine aided application. There is no time on the assembly line to have someone hand staple around the edges. Therefore a rather weak spray-on adhesive is left to do 100% of the "work" of keeping the leather down on the dash, even around the complex curves on each side of the center speaker, a simpy impossible task in areas with hot climates.

My car had these issues when I bought it, the front edges of the leather were no longer attached in any way to the front of the dash. The passenger airbag cover was completely disattached, flappin' in the wind. It's been about a year and a half since I had the dash removed, a stronger adhesive applied and a couple of dozen staples placed along the front edge and around the speaker grille. I live in the San Fernando Valley part of Los Angeles where typical summer days are at or above 100F, my car is NEVER garaged, and the dash still looks perfect. I do condition it, which help keeps the leather supple, but conditioning alone will not solve this obvious problem and mistake on Jaguar's part.

 

Mine started popping up a bit. I lifted the center speaker and used a couple small straws that came with sprays (WD-40 and brake cleaner) to get to the area where the leather was lifting and shot some 3M spray 77 hoping that may have resolved my problem. I'll use a bunch of Leatherqiue to soften up the leather and see how it holds looks good so far. If it didn't fix that then I'll get a syringe with a longer needle tip and inject some Gorilla glue into the lifting pockets (maybe 1 1/2' wide right now). Got my fingers crossed

 

Leeper,
I considered trying to fix mine with a syringe and glue and was going to have the windshield removed so I could get under the edges. I would have followed through except that I found an auto upholsterer who was willing to re-upholster the whole dash with new leather for $1300, so I was going to do that. Since I was having some customization done, I asked my body man to remove the dash so I could run it over to the upholsterer while the body work was being done. After the dash was removed, it was so obvious what the problem and the solution was, that I ran it over to my personal upholsterer (I'm a designer who has used the same upholsterer for over 25 years). After about an hour or two it was repaired and went back into the car the next day. Cost was ZERO! (although I gave him a $100 for his time).

 

Tberg... Good to know. If my last fix doesn't rectify it I may attempt the longer syringe I then may give removing the dash a shot and try your method