Greetings,

So my roof brutally stopped working one day without warning nor green shower. It was stuck closed.
I tried to look at fuses and did not see anything abnormal and elected to try the manual operation.
I did many attempts at lowering the roof rams without success. They seem to be mechanically blocked even though I had open the top pump switched off. Then one day, without doing anything different that I can remember the roof rams did not antagonized me and just went down gently. So the difference was not the amount of strength applied.
I might have just tried a different position for the pump switch. All the way left, all the way right or in-between. I think it was actually in-between when the rams finally went down.

I was all happy with the top down until time came to close it up again.
The first problem I encountered was that it was mechanically stuck all the way down. It seems there was some kind of latch. Using the electrical top switch to try to do an automatic closure seemed to have unlatched the roof from it close position and I was then able to lift it manually and use the special wrench to lock it.
However, I can not get the rams to move back up. Again it seems they are mechanically locked in place. I have tried to move the pump switch to automatic (all the way turned clock-wise), off (all the way turned reverse clockwise) or in-between, but nothing moves.

Am I missing something?

Jaguar repairshop in Berkeley is refusing to look at the car. They say they do not want to deal with top issues.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

The car is a 2004 XK8 convertible by the way

 

Hi,

Long time since this thread was looked at. Have you read the details in the thread just above as you seem to be doing the right things but how are you handling the frames’ “hinges” that the manual says need considerable force? See pics in the thread above.

If this doesn’t work, and as I’m a cheap skate, I do zero dollar checks first. I presume you checked the hydraulic pump works in the trunk? Is it making a noise when you press the button. Is the fluid clear and not gloopy. Can you see fluid moving when there’s power ie switched on?

Have you checked the lines and rams inside the car which needs stripping the entire interior at the back seat. The lines are very thin, and if the hydraulic fluid is old and gloopy it may have blocked some where.

It’s unlikely but possible that the rams have seized through no use. Most report leaking problems as it’s a very high pressure system. Not sure if you’re comfortable disassembling them. That would be a big “reach” IMHO.

 

Thanks for the note David.
So yes I read all the thread carefully as I have been struggling with this for weeks now.

A few clarifications. Everything worked fine until it not.

I just topped off the fluid and went to the second line on the tank. It was much lower before, a bit under the third line.

When I try again to operate the pump to see if it made any noise after I read your note, I noticed the following:
1/ when top is all the way up and latched, the pump does not make any noise when trying to close things all the way. It does not seem to be making any attempts to move the rams up.
2/ when I unlatched the top, the opening of the roof worked amid a bit slower than I remember it working in the past and the top folded neatly. When reversing, it closed also but I assisted manually a bit as it was sluggish. It failed to latch and the rams were not moved up.

It seems everything points to a problem with the rams. Are they on a separate fuse maybe?
I doubt they are rusted as I operated the roof daily before and all was fine.
Also as I said, they seem mechanically stuck when I was trying to lower them manually until suddenly they were not and the amount of force required to move them down was not overwhelming.

I still can not move them up manually no matter what position the pump switchy thing is in.

 

I just found this too
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ervoir-165033/
The pictures of the level of fluid in the pump tank are very useful.

So apparently, I did not top off enough. I'll try to add more fluid and see how it goes

 

Bad news.
After topping off and trying out the closure, I noticed a small leak of hydraulic fluid near the windshield latch. Not much, a few drops. However, when I checked the level on the pump is was back to being very low. So my problem is very likely to be leaks in the tubing.

Now, what I still can not explain, is why the rams get stuck. I can open and close the top effortlessly, but the rams just won't go up now.
Is there an electric switch that a hard system reboot (unplugging the battery) could help with?

 

Open the petcock on the pump to release the fluid to move freely.

 

It is open all the way.

 

Even the Jaguar dealer did not seem to have a clue due to the age of the car.

So I think I'll try to add a switch (as explain here: ) and forget about the rams. Then I can keep the operation manual, which I am OK with.


Otherwise, I am waiting for a quote from a guy in the Los Angeles area who knows what he is doing. That is not very close, but doable (I am in the San Francisco area).

 

Hmmmm….

Before you bypass the controls, it’s work checking the sensor on the RHS ram. It’s hidden next to the bottom hydraulic line. See pic.

 

It sounds like the linkage is locked. look at this photo to see how to unlock the rams on both sides. http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Auto...oof%20Rams.jpg