My convertible top just stopped working. I was putting it down one day, and it was almost down, just the little top clip needing to flip closed and it just stopped, no pump noise , nothing. It won’t go up or all the way down. When I drive the car, I get a "PERFOMANCE RESTRICTION" message because it is not all the way down. I also have a new problem, been driving it some this way, and now it seems to cut-out/miss pretty badly, not sure if this is related or unrelated. But either way, first I need to get the top fixed, I can’t even take it to a repair shop the way it is, unless they are specifically going to fix the top, and short of a Jag Dealer, it’s hard for me to find anyone around here that is willing to even look at this top.

Because the top stopped working, I could hear a clanging noise coming from the rear of the car, I thought this was suspension related and took it into a shop a couple of times to have this looked at, both times, they told me the noise had nothing to do with the suspension. I even though thought it was something loose in my trunk, maybe in spare wheel well, but could find nothing clanging around. Now that the top stopped working, this noise is gone.... so wondering could this have something to do with the convertible top, maybe a bracket that holds a pump, or some sort of prox switch, that when its out of place cuts the power to the system ??? I know nothing about how this works, but I can see no hydraulic fluid leaking anywhere. Also it may be of importance that the hydraulic hoses were replaced on my car shortly before I purchased it, giving me more thoughts about maybe something was left loose and it worked its way free.

Can someone tell me where exactly is the pump mechanism located and how do I get to it? Anyone else have similar issues?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

There are several ragtop experts here on the forum that should chime in shortly. In the meantime, your pump is located inside your trunk on the right side above your audio gear. You'll need to pull the carpet out of the way to get a good look at it - easy to do....

It's better if your fluid is green in color vs. the old-style yellow fluid. The yellow fluid tends to gel over the years and eventually causes the system to quit working. If your fluid is indeed yellow, you'll want to drain it and refill it with the green Pentosin fluid....

If you do not have a fluid leak, other issues that can stop a ragtop from working properly include a low or failing battery, a blown fuse, a seized latch, insufficiently low fluid, or an out-of-sequence ragtop system. If you read the top failure threads here, you'll learn about all of these as well as the dreaded "green shower"....

Stay tuned for the ragtop experts to provide much more advice shortly....

 

The pump and lift mechanism is in the trunk on the right hand side (when you are facing the car; passenger side in the US). Pull the carpeting on the inside of the fender/wing back and you can't miss it. It's the same carpet that covers the CD changer and mounts.

You can close the latch manually. The procedure is shown in the owner's manual. If you do not have the manual, look at the stickies at the top of the forum page. All years are available for download.

[Jon89 was quicker on the submit button. +1 on what he said.]

 

The top raising and lowering consists of a number of sophisticated sequences, and, fortunately, there are a number of articles written here in the forum.
You may also want to check the relays that are in the trunk fitted next to the trunk fuse box. There is a relay for top up, top down, RH quarter window up/down and LH quarter window up/down.

 

Thanks for all the input. I have looked thru some of the info, and have developed a few specific questions.

I located my pump, can't see anything that seems to be loose or looks broken. Where is the fluid resovour, i.e. how can I tell which color fluid I have?

I see the Hex wrench, and I read information about using this wrench to manually close/open the latch (I am assuming this means the latch at the top of the windshield). Where is this tool used?

Also, I am not sure which fuse might be used for the top operation, so I checked all the fuses located in the box in the trunk, I found none of them to be bad. Someone mentioned to me that I shoudl check the relays. Which relays are for the top functions, and how do I tell a bad relay from a good one ?

I think my problem is electrical in nature, there seems to be no power actuating the top what so ever, like its just not getting supplied power, is there a fuse somewhere else that could be causing this?

Sorry if I seem really clueless about this, its because I am, LOL. But hopefully I can figure this out with some help from you guys on here who have more experience dealing with these issues.

Thanks again,

Joel

 

If you located the pump the fluid tank is to the right of the pump motor. See link below.

Link JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource

If the fluid is green / aqua it is the new fluid Pentosin CHF 11S

The top does have relays and fuses and they will be located in the trunk fuse box. See link and check your owners manual for location of fuses and relays

Link http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Auto...eline99xk8.pdf

Check your PM

 

Thanks, My pump is mounted in the higher position, it makes it harder to get too, I kept looking at the tank and it didnt appear to be translicent to me, I couldnt see what color fluid it has or a fluid level, finally I relaized this is because it has almost no fluid in it. There is a tiny bit of dark fluid in the bottom of the tank. I think this is the green style fluid, it looks almost black, but its for sure not yellow. I also noticed that the two hoses that run around the pump, not the ones that connect to the side of the pump (which I think are the latch hoses) but the other ones, have a black outer coat that is crumbling off. And one of these, the upper most is disconnected entirely from where ever it connects too. This is the one that lays across the tank and it connects somewhere behind the tank, I can't tell where it connects.

If the tank runs out of fluid, will it still activate, i.e. would I still hear a buzzing noise when I push the top button, or will it be electricaly dead? When it stopped working , it just stopped entirely, like an electrical failure. Now I am thinking maybe I had hose come loose, and fluid leak out slowly that I didnt notice then one day, not enough fluid to activate or it blew a fuse or relay, or the pump when out... any one have some ideas here? I am guessing first think I should do, is repair the hose, fill the pump and see what happens... wow it would be so great if it worked at that point.

Additionally (sorry this is turning into a novel), at one point I attempted to manually move my top and I pulled a cable thru a plastic mushroom shapped grommet. Does anyone know if those are easily replaced, I am going to have to address that issue too.

OH, one more thing... I find myself thinking I may have to pull the pump out to get to the hoses and fittings behind it, is this easily done? or do I need to keep trying to work with it in place. It really looks nothing like the one in the pics, it is right up against the inside of the top of the fender. I can see two mounting screws that I can get to with a 90 degree screwdriver, but not sure if there are two more on the back side, if so, not sure how I will get to them.


Thanks,

Joel

 

With the hoses in the condition that the outer jacket is falling apart your best bet for now is to leave the pump mounted and fill the pump in place. I have done this many time on a 3 tier unit with an adjustable wrench so it is possible. As for the motor it will run without fluid it just will not pump without fluid. As for moving the roof open that is another process, whatever you do do not force the roof. Had you checked your Private Messages?

 

Hi Joel- it sounds like you need new hoses. I just went through the same thing and you've got similar symptoms (crumbling black stuff on the hoses), but odd that one is disconnected entirely!

You should remove the pump, but ***BE CAREFUL!*** Mine was also hard to see, and if yanked out, you'll damage the solenoid connections on top. Disconnect the yellow y-adaptor plug on the end of the shelf, disconnect the main power lead going to the pump, unscrew the two mounting points for the pump on the metal bracket it sits on, on top of the shelf (two on the rear aren't bolts, just rubber pins), and slowly lift up and ease it out and down toward the front of the car and over the battery cover. You can easily check your fluid reservoir (it's on one end of the pump, the brass motor is the other end) from there.

Check out my thread/recent experience on all this here: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-screen-94567/

 

When the top is out of sync, the pump motor may no longer activate.

You obviously have a fluid leak somewhere.

If it is a slow leak, if you refill the tank to between the embossed lines it may work for a while if you reset the top by manually latching it. You wil need to turn the petcock counterclockwise to release the system pressure, and latch the top manually, then turn the petcock back clockwise.

You need to be more specific, I am not clear which grommet or cable was damaged.

You have the navigation/premium audio rack which raised the height of the pump and makes access a bit more difficult. You can still fill it without removal with some clear vinyl hose or with a turkey baster.

Chances are your leak is at the lift cyinders or top header, so there really is no reason to remove the pump at this point.

You can also check the only 40 AMP fuse in the trunk fusebox...this is the pump fuse....but I doubt that is the problem.

 

Pulling the pump should be the LAST thing you do!

 

OK, I didnt get to work on it much this weekend, but here is the status...

I got the latch manually moved to the down position, and eventually my "Performance Restriction" message disapeared, it took a day for this to happen, which I dont understand, but its gone, so that is good.

I think my next plan should be to repair/replace the hoses. Fill the tank with fluid and hope it works. Can I get this fluid at an autoparts store, like Autozone, etc? If I decide to replace the hoses, how hard is this to do? It seems to me that routing the hoses might be pretty difficult.

The 40A fuse in the trunk fuse box is not burned out, in fact none of the fuses are. I am just hoping that the reason the pump doesnt activate is that it is out of fluid. But I fear that running low on fluid may have caused the pump to go out. If anyone has some input on that , please feel free to share it with me.

Thanks,

Joel

 

Refill the fluid and find where it is leaking before you replace anything. It may be leaking at the lift cylinders. If you remove the back seat you may see the puddles of fluid.

The correct fluid is Pentosin CHF-11S. NAPA and some other stores carry it...call around. You can also order it on Amazon.

Were you getting a 'Top not latched' message or 'Restricted Performance' message.

Normally 'Restricted Performance' is an engine or transmission problem....so this may be unrelated. Buy an inexpensive OBDII reader or geta free read an an autoparts store to check for fault codes.

 

The Pentosin is available at your local NAPA & AutoZone

Link JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource

I feel your system is confused and would recommend resolving that first along with verifying that you might have a leak somewhere.

 

OK, thanks guys. I found a hose that is completely disconnected. It is the hose that lays over the top of the tank just to the right side of where you fill the tank. It looks to me like this hose goes to a connector somewhere on the back side of the pump. Its either broke loose at this connector or just happened to cleanly break in this area. My hoses have crumbling jackets, but this one, is just a smooth break, looks more like it pulled out from a fitting. I am not 100% sure that I didnt pull this loose accidentally when I was feeling around on the pump, trying to feel for the opening that you fill the fluid into. So I may have created this issue, but most likely, this is where my fuild leaked from. So wondering, should I try to fix this area, or should I go ahead and replace the hoses since they have the outter jacket crumbling. I was told when I bought the car that the top hoses had been replaced due to a leak. It looks to me like the hoses going to the latch are newer and maybe the other (2) hoses have never been replaced. Am I correct in thinking there are only (4) hoses?

I occasionally get warning lights that tell me ABS is not working or something to that effect, I have never been able to figure that one out, and it comes and goes. Also, I get the check eng light and had that checked by a mechanic once and was told that it has to do with a vapor leak in the fuel tank system. I put a new seal on the gas cap, but still that light comes and goes also. The Message I think was hood related, actually said... "Hood Not Latched".... then... "Performance Restricted" I think these are intended to go together and I think I remebering seeing this same message, when I took off moving and got going too fast before the top was totally down while I was putting my top down at a stop light and the light changed. Either way, after putting the latch in the down position, I had zero error messages of any type yesterday. Crossing my fingers that it stays that way.

 

The same thing happened to one of my cylinder hoses - it just blew out from the connector. there are 6 hoses - 2 going to each of the lift cylinders and 2 going to the latch mechanism. If the latch hoses were replaced, you can get away with just replacing the cylinder hoses - Cabriolet Hydraulics in Bradenton Fl has them and will sell the 4 for $350 with a $40 core once old hoses are returned, or Top Hydraulics will sell the 4 for ~$400. Hood not latched is only associated with the top not being latched and not tied to restricted performance or ABS issue. Most likely ABS is tied to sensor fault - many threads here that address the ABS warning.

Check Gus's site for great top hydraulic repair procedures, diagrams etc

 

As for the hose connections see if this helps

Link Hose Connections JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource

To answer your question they all fail at the fittings. Poor design!
Whatever you do, do not pull, tug or bend the existing hoses they do not do well under those conditions.

 

Yikes! $400 for hydraulic hoses.. wow.

 

the $400 is cheap as I believe the Jag OEM hoses are around $200 each and they are not made very well. These hoses have much higher psi ratings and Cabriolet Hydraulics does offer a warranty, not sure about the Top Hydrailics but Chris (Sentinelist) just worked with TH to repair his hydraulics so he may be able to advise.

 

I have 2 locations on my page to get replacement hoses from and both are reputable.
Link Replacement hoses JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource