Hello everyone, so I tried changing my side view mirror puddle lamps earlier today with led's and they don't seem to work. I've tried 3 different led bulbs and none work. When I unlock the car, all it does is flash once and it never turns on after that. Yes, I've tried flipping the bulb, and yes all the fuses are fine. What confuses me is there are quite a few members on here that have swapped them out without an issue, not only on XJ's but on XF's and such. All help will be appreciated.

 

Just to ask a silly question, but do the LED bulbs work somewhere else after the quick flash? Normally when an LED bulb gives a quick flash and then doesn't light any more, that is saying that the bulb got too much power(voltage) and it caused it to pull too much current and fail. If you have a model number of the LEDs that you bought, I will look into them and see if I can spot something obvious. The only other thing that I can say is that you may have tried to get a high lumen setup, sometimes the vendors will wire the LEDs up to their maximum current. So, if your car applies a slightly higher than normal voltage, it will cause them to fail too.

I do a lot with LEDs and I have even gone as far as to create my own fixtures for inside of my house. Amazing the inefficiencies in the LED technology that the manufacturers put in. A 9 watt bulb has a rating of about 800 lumens, my 9 watt bulb is up around 3400 lumen. That one bulb lights up my whole back yard and the neighbors. he he he he.

 

i vaguely remember another thread on here where someone was having a similar issue. they had replaced every other bulb with LED and they worked fine, but the puddle lights didnt. I believe another member chimed in with the need to use a resistored LED or something. Im honestly not sure of the details but you arent the first person who has brought this up. you probably have to search but it has come up before.

 

Hello thermo, these are the bulbs I tried first “194 LED Bulb Extremely Bright... . I actually am using these exact bulbs in the interior of my car and they work great, as well as the license plate lamp. I then tried the sylvania super bright led bulbs, I thought maybe the cheap Chinese brand had something to do with it, lol. But there was no effect, it did the same thing flash once and not work.

 

Well if that’s the case, they’re probably going to have to stay yellow. I don’t know anything about wiring or electrical work.

 

Well, the bulbs should be pulling enough current for the car to not think things are failed. Have you tried one of the bulbs to verify that they still work after pulling them out of the puddle lights? If the LEDs still work after pulling them out, then we can say that it is the car that is turning the LED off. if they don't light, then we know that there is something wrong with the bulb and how it sees the car.

 

The bulbs do work else where, just not the puddle lamps so it’s probably the car. Also just to let you know, I had a similar issue with the trunk festoon bulb. I order 3 different led festoons none worked they wouldn’t light up at all. Until I bought a Sylvania Super Bright led festoon. I plugged it in and drove it for a few miles and it’s been working ever since. Thought I’d let you know, maybe it’s similar symptoms causing the issue. And yes I have drove the car 60+ miles in the past 2 days after installing the led puddle lamp. Still no luck

 

I has similar issues with the puddle lamps on my 2010 XFS and 2010 XFR.
Some LED globes worked, some didn't, some flashed, some didn't, some never worked at all, some worked for a while then conked, it really was all over the shop.
I tried a wide range of LED globes (all T10 wedge W5W of course) - multi-chip SMD, Cree and COB (chip on board), some stated as "canbus compatible" some not.
All of these different types of globes worked perfectly in other lights just not the puddle lights,
The XFR was much more problematic than the XFS although both had the exact same puddle lights and wiring, in the end the only thing which worked in the XFR was an SMD globe in one light and a COB in the other, go figure!
The only advice I can give is keep trying different types and brands and eventually you will find one (or a combination) that works.

 

Thats what I had in mind was to keep trying different bulbs. Because as stated earlier to a reply to thermo, I had a similar issue with the trunk bulb where 2 or 3 of them didn’t work but branded version did (Sylvania Super Bright). I guess I’ll keep the hunting. If I find some that work I’ll post back here. I appreciate your feedback.

 

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...lights-196506/

They have to be CANBUS Error-free

 

All I have tried are CANBUS, thank you for the reply