chumbers, when looking at wiring, you have the ideal world and then you have reality. In an ideal world, when you pass electricity through the wire, you should not loose anything. So, the voltage at one end of the wire is the same as at the other end. Then there is reality. You always loose a little bit of voltage from one end of the wire to the other. There is a standard for how much voltage you should loose. This would be 1 VDC from one end to the other. I find this a little excessive, especially in a system that is only starting out at 12 VDC. With wiring, if you pass a little bit of current through a given size and length wire, the voltage drop will be very little. But, you take the same wire and pass a lot more current through it, it will drop significantly more voltage. In the case of your headlight wiring, a wire that is dropping voltage is minimizing the voltage going to the HID bulbs. Since HID bulbs like as much voltage as possible, any loss can lead to issues.

So, when looking at the check I was talking about earlier, when measuring from one end of a wire to another, less than 0.5 VDC as seen on a multimeter is what you are shooting for. This tells me that the wiring is of a proper size and length for the application. If you are getting over 0.5 VDC, then the wire has an issue and needs to be evaluated for what needs to be repaired/replaced.

A situation that you should be familiar with that is an extreme case of undersize wire is in an incandescent light bulb. In the case of the light bulb, there is that very small wire in there, that causes an excessive voltage drop (granted, in this case it is purposely done). But, due to the current the wiring is providing and the voltage drop across the wire, it produces lots of heat and lots of light. Imagine something like this happening inside of your car. Think that might be bad? I have seen this very thing happen inside of older vehicles where the wiring starts to deteriorate over the years and it develops a high resistance which causes a voltage drop, leading to problems. In my case, I had a wire that was about the size of a pencil start burning white hot that was located right behind a carburetor on a car. To say that a part of me started eating Fruit Of The Looms is an understatement.

 

Thermo,

Thanks - I completely understand what you explain, however, still confused. Please trace the quote in your response and confirm you mean to say 'no' rather than 'so'.

I checked the wiring from your fantastic guidance and got the following results;

Pin 5 = 15 VDC
Pin 8 = 0V

This was the result whilst the car and headlights was switched on. I checked several times and at this stage, the HID was not illuminating.

I must admit, when I first started checking the light this morning, it was working and it took about 40 second before it switched off. It did this a couple of times, and after I had tried switching the engine on and off a few times, it eventually fails to fire up the lamp. Saying that, if I left it a few hours and try again, it will probably work again for a short while which to me indicates lamp charging fault, and also now evidenced by ) VDC at Pin 8.

I have also been advised there are two sections to this:

1. Igniter located behind the lamp (have not opened and looked yet)
2. Ballast located under the head light unit.

Is this the case or are they both the same and one unit?

If you agree - I am under the impression the ballast is failing.

Thoughts and comments welcome.

Best regards,

Chumbers

 

chumbers, with our cars, the ballast is a 1 piece unit that is located inside the headlight housing, on the back of the headlight bulb. There is no part that is outside of the headlight housing.

Based on the voltages that you provided, I would say that your problem lies with the ballast. I did mean "NO" in my statement that you are questioning. IE, if you are getting less than 0.5 VDC, the wire is good.

Swapping out a ballast should be pretty easy and straight forward. Hopefully you can find one for fairly cheap and you can do it yourself.

 

Thanks Thermo,

Found some second hand ones from salvagers at approximately £50.

Infact - if I manage it, I may make a video of bumper removal and ballast replacement for the forum. May get my better half to help if possible.

Thanks for all you help. Much appreciated.

Regards,

Chumbers

 

chumbers, a how-to video on front bumper cover removal would be great. Since the bumper cover is a plastic material, I am curious to know if other member's cars have cracked and broken attachment points. I've never taken the bumper cover off, but I looked at the bolts holding it on and the the bumper cover has deep cracks at most every thru hole. It's as tho someone far over tightened the bolts the last time it was put on

I'm actually afraid to take it off bc I don't know how well it will reattach.

 

Does anyone know what the silver square unit is that is located directly underneath the headlamp unit on the exterior?

Regards,

Chumbers

 

Chumbers, if you are talking about the little plate (about 3x4 CM in size as I recall), that is the sprayer for washing the headlights. You can prove this by washing your windshield a few times. You will notice that every few times, the car will spray some of the windshield washer fluid on to the headlights to attempt to clean them off too. not all cars have this option.

 

Can anyone give any assistance on the headlight issue listed above.

I have had the headlights go out three times in less than two years. First, time was the left side, second time were both headlights and the third time was the right side.

Also, the blinkers have not been working. Do not know how long because they work on the inside but not on the outside.

Lastly, the fog lights are not working either.

The fuses have been checked and apparently are all a okay!

Can someone shed some light?

Thanks
Pam

 

Pam, let me get home and look at the diagrams. I should be able to help you out. Atleast from an initial "guess", it is sounding like your turn signal stalk has bitten the dust and that is the root of a lot of your issues. Granted, that does not explain why you would only loose 1 headlight (as they are powered off of the same wire through the turn signal stalk and split in the fuse box).

I will get you taken car of and we can go from there. On a side note, are we dealing with a car having HID headlights or one with halogen headlights? If you are not sure, open up the driver's door and near the bottom of the door jam, if you have HID headlights, there will be a white/silver sticker that says "This vehicle is equipped with High Intensity Discharge Headlights ..........". If you don't have the sticker, then odds are you have halogen headlights.

 

Thermo, thank you for your reply.

Yes I know exactly what type of headlights I have. They are the least expensive of the two (thank goodness). I have the standard halogen.

Also, when my boyfriend replaced both headlight bulbs (only the left side was out). We decided to replace both of them since we all know how difficult it is to get in that very tight area (they work, for now).

He also replaced the high beam bulbs (which still do not work).

There is another issue that could be related to the headlight fixture not being stable. He showed me that the driver's side headlight fixture was loose. We are not sure if there is some kind of bracket that holds the fixture in place. He also pointed out to me a round white plastic with teeth-like (not sure if I am describing this properly) that appeared to be broken and he believes that may be what stabilizes the headlight fixture (your thoughts)?

Thanks
Pam

 

4300K is not the intensity but the colour. Anything below 5000K is erring towards YELLOW (or more accurately RED) and anything above 5000K is erring towards BLUE. 4300K is almost WHITE.

Most HID lamps are about 3000 Lumen regardless of their colour.

Have a look at the www.jaguarforum.co.uk site to read all about them. They can be replaced from the rear but the ABS block makes the LH side difficult. It's not difficult to remove the bumper to change them.

There was quite a discussion on the UK site about the legal aspects of HID bulbs, originally we had to have automatic headlamp levelling and headlamp washers fitted if HIDs were fitted but this is no longer the case.

 

Pam, you are correct when you state that the supports are broke for the one headlight since the internals are loose. IF you look around (maybe another member can help me out here), there are replacement internals that you can get to fix what is broke. Unfortunately, the internals of our headlights are weak and something as simple as replacing the headlight bulbs can lead to failure if you push on the internals too much.

Give me another 24 hours and hopefully I should have an answer for you on what your problem is.

 

There are two that I've been watching on E-bay;
Jaguar x Type Headlight Adjuster Repair Parts | eBay and
Jaguar x Type x Type Headlamp Headlight Repair Kit Adjuster | eBay

 

Looks like the same supplier?

Another supplier - a different item but does the same job
As a one piece design I would have expected it to be cheaper. But no.
Jaguar Xtype Headlamp Adjuster Repair Kit x 2 | eBay

 

>As a one piece design I would have expected it to be cheaper

But when you need it you need it and then the cost just doesn't really matter...
================================================
Jaguar - it's not an automobile, it's a Motorcar

 

The Truth You Must Know (About AC VS. DC HID KIT) : Mydepots Online, Tattoo Kit, Xenon HID Kit, DVR Surveillance System & Projector There are two types of HID lights.

 

Pam, ok, lets do a few checks just to make sure that we have things under control here. First thing, go out to the car and attempt to turn on your fog lights. From what you said, they should not work (but does the green fog light status indicator come on?). I just want to confirm this. If the fog lights do not work, then I want you to attempt to turn on the high beams. Do these work? If yes, then your fog light issue is down at the fog light housings more than likely. I will get to this in a moment. If the high beams do not work, I need you to swap the fuse for the high beams. You did not state the year of your car, so, this can be 2 different fuse numbers. After swapping the fuse, see if things are different. If they are not, then you will want to swap the relay for the fog lights/main beams (what we call high beams, the british call main beams) with a like relay. Repeat again. If this doesn't fix things, let me know and I will give you a few checks to make with a multimeter to narrow things down.

If only your fog lights are not working (high beams work), did the fog light status light come on? If no, then replace the fuse for the fog lights. Does the indicator come on now? If yes, then odds are your fog lights will work now. If the indicator still does not come on, then you will need to get ahold of a multimeter and measure for 12 VDC at the posts for the fog light fuse (if you look at the top of the fuse, you will see 2 small silver tabs imbedded in the plastic, this is what I am talking about). Do you have 12 VDC on both of these fuses? If no, then your problem is the relay for the fog lights/main beams. Replace the relay. If you do have 12 VDC there, then remove the plug for the fog lights and check for 12 VDC at the plug. IF you have 12 VDC at the fuses, but no 12 VDC at the fog lights, odds are you headlight switch is bad. If you want to eliminate the wiring between everything, then let me know and I will tell you where to check.

Ok, now on to the turn signals. With the key in the RUN position (motor can be running or not), put on your left turn signal. Do both the front and rear lights blink (include the side marker lights)? Repeat for the right side. Do these blink? The turn signal indicators inside the car are blinking correctly? Let me know what you have so I can narrow things down a little bit. At this point, to try and diagnose things would be too lengthy and more than likely lead to confusion. In short, if none of the lights are blinking on the exterior of the car but the dash indicators are working, then odds are you are looking at a bad GEM module. If things are limited to only a corner of the car, then we are looking at a wiring issue. But, I want to confirm things before we go further.

As for your low beams. From what you describe (1 headlight going out at a time for the most part), your problem lies in 1 of 2 spots. Odds are, you are looking at a bad bulb connector for the headlight bulb. These are known for getting overheated and failing, leading to what you are seeing. You can get a new "H1 bulb connector" at your local auto parts store and can install that with no problems. While you are looking, you will want to also look at the main plug powering the headlights (the big 10 wire plug). Remove that connector and look at the pins. They should all be fairly shiny. If you see rust, that is a sign that you can have issues. If the posts are dull or rusty, you can use some isopropyl alcohol and a Q-Tip to clean the connectors and a small screw driver/scribe to scrape the rust off of the pins. Then see what you have. I bet you will find that your problem will be resolved with these two things.

let me know how things progress and I will help you get to the bottom of things.

 

Thermo,

Wow, thanks for the detailed information. I just got on line. I will go through each of the steps and will get back to you. My jag is a 2002 X-type 2.5.

This is what I can tell you so far is:

1. Fog lights - The fog light indicator does light up on the dash panel (mine is orange).
2. High Beams - I have no high beams at all. The high beam indicator light does not light up on the dash panel.
3. Blinkers - Left and Right. No blinkers at all on the rear or front including the side markers. Absolutely nothing! The blinkers do work on the inside which is why I never knew there was a problem and I don't know how long this has been going on.

The other issues I will work on and get back to you. Thank you so much!

Pam

 

Pam, I want you to do a few things for me. Lets first start by accessing the fuse box under the dash. The relay in the upper left corner is Relay #15. This is what powers your high beams and your fog lights. if you look below this relay, you will find a similar relay (Relay #17 which powers your reverse lights). I want you to swap these relays with one another. See if your high beams/fog lights work and if your reverse lights still work. If your high beams/fog lights work now and your reverse lights don't, then you have a bad relay, replace the relay. If nothing changes, then I want you to pull out the relay in the upper left corner (location for Relay #15) and install a jumper wire. If you look on the relay, the posts should be marked with numbers (1 thru 5). Using a piece of wire, connect the slots where pins 3 and 5 are. This should force your high beams on. If the high beams do not come on at this point, then you have a problem in the fuse box itself. You can repeat a similar check with the fog lights by shorting pins 3 and 4 together and then turning the headlight switch on to the Fog light position. The fog lights should come on at this point. If the high beams come on, but the fog lights do not, then you have a wiring problem between the headlight switch and the fog lights themselves. Write me and I will give you a few other checks to do.

As for your blinkers, first, check fuse #25 under the hood (15 amp fuse). Make sure that is good. Next, you will need to access the GEM module, then you will need to make sure that all the plugs are on there tight. But, if your problem continues, then it is looking like you have a bad GEM module. That is the only thing that is common to all the turn signal lights. I am sure that is not the word you wanted to hear, but that is what it is sounding like.

 

Thermo,

I will attempt to trouble shoot these steps and get back to you on the results.

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to share your wealth of knowledge and information.

Pam