Hello all! So i am having the dreaded flicker on my hid lights, and tbh theyve never been quite bright. My xj8 has 136000 miles so i think its high time i change them. I noticed on another thread that someone did a mod and it worked beautifully for them where they took an aftermarket igniter and wired it in. The thread is posted below. I just need to know what cables i need to splice the igniter in since the pics posted werent very descriptive. Thanks guys!

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-lad5gl-89738/

 

Hey, that's my thread!

I didn't splice...I try not to if I can avoid it. I bought those 12-pin to 4-pin adapters from ebay. And it isn't an aftermarket ignitor...that is actually built into the D1S bulb. I installed the OEM brand (Valeo) 4-pin ballast, when the original was a 12-pin unit. Since I didn't have the leveling motors in my 05, this was an easier choice.

 

I could not get the adapter at the time so I purchased to of the new plugs, and used the pins from the old plug in the new one

Cheers
34by151

 

Hey H20boy, yes and very nice write up if i may add! But i am referring to Xj220's comments on the bottom of page 1 where he did a mod. It doesnt have much information on how he did it. I am trying to leave the original ballast for the leveling part, but change the ignighter to an after market one.

 

The infighter is part of the bulb (square bit on the back).
Swapping to a 4pin ballast means you have no level circuit, but on the 03.5 onwards it not used anyway. The leveling is part of the air suspension module from 03.5 onwards

Cheers
34by151

 

Do not hurry to mess with ballast, my advice. Start with changing bulbs - 99% to solve the problem. I had the same flickering, and read that to change the bulbs you need to undo front bumper or go from fender liner. None of this kamasutra required, I changed all bulbs easily by hands. Try it first. However the car was on lift because i prepared for mentioned war. Also dealer told me that removing bumper is necessary. You have to have Transformer's fingers to not to cope with this gentl task. I used Philips X-tremeVision D1S bulbs, they compared as night and day to what I had before. Good luck.

 

I will try the bulbs first then since i wanted to change them anyway, hopefully this resolves the issue.

 

SO I pulled the trigger and got sylvania bulbs- I decided to go with sylvania because all of the phillips bulbs i found online were getting reviews that it may be a chinese copy, so to avoid the confusion i went with sylvania and will be installing them this weekend if its warm enough. I will let you guys know if it fixes my failing and flickering light issue!

 

Have you checked the earths (grounds) for the headlight units ?

Having read around various posts here and in the .co.uk forum over the last 10 months or so the general approach recommended for misbehaving headlights is to check the earths before going to the expense of buying a new 'burner' to swap in.

From general reading around it would seem that ballasts are the longest lived of the components (~100,000 hours) in an HID setup so Sochi2014's advice to adress them last is sound.

1. Earth/grounds
2. Burners
3. Ballasts

And I think I'd be inclined to do a 2b ... check there isn't an intermittant i) between the FEM and the front fuse box (especially - they are very thin wires that only drive relays and [as I know to my cost] are subject to corrosion damage), or ii) between the fusebox and the headlamps - before doing 3.

best of luck

Dave in Gloucestershire

 

I checked the grounds and everything seemed to be intact. I've already gone ahead and put the new sylvania hid bulbs in, without removing the bumber which wasn't too hard for me. Even during the day time you can tell they are new because they're really bright. The ultimate test will be tonight when I drive for a while. I hope they don't flicker!

 

Do the lights just flicker, or have you anything else odd happening ? Sometimes the main light switch on the binnacle can play up.

 

The 'acid test' to how far back in the system the fault is, is ... do the sides flicker independently of each other, or do the flicker in synchrony ?

If independently then the fault must be 'forward' of the front fuse box; suspect earths or the light units.

If in synchrony then the fault cannot be further 'forward' of the front fuse box; possibly relay in front fuse box; wiring from front electronic module to f.f/box (the harness there can be subject to water damage); or column/stalk switch.

 

Thanks for the info guys, they were happening independently of each other. I'm happy to say that after last night and long drives, the lights are not only significantly brighter, but working flawlessly! The bulb change did the trick! So I would encourage anyone having a similar problem to try the bulbs first, much cheaper at $86 for the pair then a ballast would cost!