My 06 has a strange fog light electrical gremlin. If I've got the front fog lights on in the rain, and, I flip the brights on, the fog lights go off and stay off. Hitting the switch again won't turn them on either. I discovered that if I knock them off using the brights, I have to shut the car off, and, restart it to get them to work again. I'm assuming I've got a bad relay someplace?? Anybody else run into this?

Regards:
Oldengineer

 

Hi Oldengineer,

What happens if you turn on your bright lights first and then the fog lights? I have an 05 and I normally run this when it's dark. I was under the impression you had to turn the brights first in order for the fog lights work, but I could be mistaken. There also maybe a difference between the 05 and 06 model years.

Good luck,

Mike

 

OK first of all, yes it is a buggy quirk with our cars. All cars I have ever had the driving / fog lamps will only work while the low beam lamps are on. So that set up is as designed. So I'll explain my car and see if it helps you. I run the headlamps all the time. The fog lamps as well. If I use the flash to pass, the front foglamps go out then don't come back. I think it is tied to the auto off lamp feature. What is funny is when they went off, it didn't matter how many times I hit the switch, they wouldn't come on. One time though, I turned the stalk mounted headlamp switch off then back on and they lit.... So, at night with the auto lamps on and dorks in my way, I have to spin the switch every so often to turn the foglamps back on. Not worth bringing up with the dealer, yet.

 

It may also be a feature so you don't draw too much from your electrical system. The high beams, low beams, fog lights, brake lights, radio, A/C, etc. all running at the same time would draw a good amount of amps. Maybe even enough to make your other electronics not work properly. I could be completely off on this one, but I know when building old muscle cars this is a big issue which is why I have a 200 amp alternator in my Duster. Electrical is a pain in the ***, especially when you have a lot of gadgets and gizmos like our cars do.

My guess would be that Jaguar put it in as a convenience feature to prevent dimming gauges and interior lights.

 

DUDE. What are you talking about?

 

I just experienced this last night in my '06 as well. I was driving some country roads and illuminated the dark roads ahead with the brights but couldn't get the fogs to come back on. I had the light switch on Auto as well. Seems a bit odd and inconvenient for this to be intentional. Let me know if I should add this to the list of things I need the dealer to address.

 

So sorry, but must stamp this out.

OK, first of all. It is a DOT regulation for aux. driving lights, or fog lights that requires OEM's to deactivate them when the high beams are on. I had to double check that one and that is why it was not included in my original post. Also, a bad switch would always not work. Not just when you turned on the high beam. If you turn the stalk from On to Auto or vice versa, the fog lamps come back on (As long as the high beams are off). That would tie it in with the auto off feature. When the lamps are on Auto / with Delay, and you turn off the ignition, the fog lamps go out while the headlamps stay on for the designated delay. If you then restart the car, you then have to turn on the fog lamps, they don't just come back on. I going to bring this up with the dealer next chance I get.

 

Mike: If the brights are on, my fog light switch does nothing. If they're supposed to work like the ones on my 2 X-Types, the fogs go off when you hit the brights, and, come back on when you go back to low beams. I'll have to see if they work this way if I switch on the headlights manually instead of in the auto position.

Regards:
Oldengineer

 

Ok, so I messed with mine this morning and couldn't get it to repeat with the headlamps on manually. There I sat like a dork flashing my high-beams in my workplace parking lot and each and every time the fog lamps returned when I switched back to low-beams. I know it still does it when in auto mode because it happened again last night. Again though, all I did was turn the switch to manually on and the fog lamps came back on, then I turned the switch back to auto and they stayed on. Still think it has something to do with the auto off feature. I am going to bring it up to the dealer next time I talk to them.

 

Jeff and Oldengineer,

I think you're right in that it seems related to the Auto feature. I always run my headlights manually and then switch on the fog lights so I never ran across the problem.

Mike

 

It was pouring rain here today, so I experimented a bit. My fogs work fine if the headlights are turned on manually - off with the brights, and, come back on with the low beams. On automatic, the fogs won't come back on when I switch to low beam, and, can't be turned on again with the foglight switch. I'll ask the dealer about it next time I'm there - but- the auto feature is definetly locking the fogs out if I switch to brights.

Regards:
Oldengineer

 

I've been following this thread. Just for S & G's I went out and played with my fogs this evening. I discovered the same thing you did. It seems to be related to the auto switch. Under manual operation they works as they're supposed to.

 

Finally the correct answer!! Thank you JOsworth!! It is federal law that's why it works this way.
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interesting, i did this on the highway last night in mine.........fog lights came back on whether i was in auto or manual mode...odd

 

This has me real interested now. So, PHD, you have a 2003 STR, correct? The 05 and up STR has no front fog lamps. The common thing with everyone who has talked about the fog lamps going out then not coming back on while in Auto mode is that they are all 05 and up, non-R, cars. I wonder if there is something different in the programming in the 05 and up cars? It wouldn't make sense except for the little detail that they omitted the front fog lamps on the R, starting in 2005.

I don't think anything is actually wrong with our cars.. I just think it's weird.

 

If it's a federal law, when did it come into force?

Is it also the law in Canada (for example) and are any of the cars from there?

 

This one is/was talking about two things... At first it was the fogs going off then not coming back. It was also brought up as to why the fogs go off when the brights / high beams are on. The fogs going off when the brights are turned on is the Federal Law / DOT. I don't know about Canada. The weird thing is if you have the headlamps on manual / low beam with the fogs on and turn on your brights, the fogs go out, then when you turn off the brights, the fog lamps come back on. This doesn't happen when the headlamps are in auto mode. When in auto, if you turn on the brights, then turn them off again, the fog lamps don't come back on. Here is where it gets real weird for me. If you then turn the switch to manual, the fog lamps come back on! It is just bizarre to a few of us... Man we must look nuts.. A bunch of S Type drivers out there switching their lights on and off and flashing fog lamps and high beams....