I filled my oil today - it was really low, only about 1/2 inch in the bottom so a long way below the line. The hood worked well until a couple of days ago when I tried opening it and it moved off the header rail and then made a lot of noise and sort of stopped before moving any further. I put oil up to the first line, put the top up and down a few times and then topped it back up to the top line with the hood down.

I've looked for leaks and can't see any inside the hood well where the pipes join to the rams beside the rear seat and I've also taken out the interior light from the header rail and can't see any sign of oil in there. Where else should I look for a leak? I am guessing that if the level was low it must have gone somewhere so would really like to know where it has gone, and obviously want to avoid a burst in the header rail if possible.

 

Park the car and the next morning look in front of the left and right rear tires. Often when the rams begin leaking you can see a small spot of fluid. This is not an indication that you need to replace them. You have two types of rams the ones that are leaking and the ones that will soon begin leaking. Both of mine are leaking.

 

Thanks Gus, nothing on the driveway!

 

Well I would see what takes place before you begin checking further. If you see it going down then we offer other places to check, one of them is to pull the rear seat and see if you see the fluid.

 

I checked the fluid level again tonight and it has gone down a long way. No oil on the driveway still but I looked under the car and on the drivers side (RHD UK car) there is definitely oil seeping through a seam at the rear of the footwell so I guess there must be a ram leaking somewhere near that. So the obvious question is - how difficult is it to replace?

 

There is a fair amount of interior disassembly involved. No rocket science, just some care, patience and a decent set of tools. Intructions are in JTIS.

 

Low fluid in this short amount of time is not normal; however, is it that you have a bad leak or was the system full of air and your refilling only allowed it to purge the air out of the system. If you are saying that the fluid is noticeable near the right rear floorboard then it could be a ram/lift or a hose. You can see the hoses and lift from the top of the rear seat but it is difficult. Before you begin pulling things apart see if you can narrow it down to either one. Changing both are a pain and no real easy way to do it but know what is leaking is half the battle. If it is your lift Top Hydraulics (link below) can rebuild them at a fraction of the price for a new one. If it is the hoses then take a good look at the rams. I plan to do mine this winter I hope. I recently moved into our new home and I have been building furniture and have little time to work on the cars. Let us know what you come up with.

Link: JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource

 

With the luck I'm having with the car at the moment I suspect it is a bad leak! When I first filled it I did put the top up and down a few times and topped the tank back up again, it was pretty empty again (down to less than an inch in the tank) but have topped it again and will see how it goes.

I haven't got time to replace anything for a little while but have a good toll set and plenty of patience to do the job right when I do get to it. At least in the meantime the oil should help rustproof the floorpan!

I'll keep you posted once I can have a look properly. Certainly at the weekend when I pulled the carpet out of the hood well I could feel the top of the ram and there was no oil on it, didn't get my hand down to the bottom though.

 

With the fluid down that low I think it is your hose. You can remove your back seat and I think without removing the speaker you can see the hoses on the ram. These hoses are sensitive to bends and have the same fittings as the top latch hoses.