XK 4.2 Convertible Top Hydraulic Fluid

[Freebird Paul]

Evening All,

I have owned my car 2 and half years now and while the convertible top works perfectly well (and always has done) i was wondering should i be changing the hydraulic pump fluid?

When i purchassed the car the original owner (i am the second) passed me every service invoice since the car was new and after checking the pump fluid has never been changed which means it's been in the system some 18yrs!

Shouls i leave well alone or change it as preventative maintence? 

 

    

 

[N6 JMX]

Paul, the issue of the congealing fluid in the convertible roof hydraulic system refers to the X-100 cars, early XK8 up to the late nineties. It is not necessary to replace the fluid in the circuit on the X-150 vehicles.

Of course leakage can occur due to hose / pipework aging, so you may wish to consider that in the future, but carry out a pipework inspection first. The hydraulic circuit is self bleeding.

N6 JMX

[Freebird Paul]

Morning Jim,

Thanks for your comment, point taken for the fluid ill leave well alone and just check the level. Regarding the pipework do you mean to check all pipes leading to all cylinders around the car?

 

[N6 JMX]

Hi Paul, I mean to keep an eye out for hydraulic fluid appearing in strange places. It is not easy to simply look around the car and visually check the pipes and hoses as they are predominantly concealed behind areas of trim. However, you can see quite a few of them if you stand outside the car and have someone else operate the open / close hood function.  An improvement over the X-100 cars installed in the X-150, is that the top latch mechanism at the windscreen is electrically operated, as opposed to hydraulic, so any hose failure and subsequent leakage is more contained.

N6 JMX