For those of you who read my LED headlight conversion post (link here: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...inside-190283/), you may recall that I planned to also change out all the other exterior bulbs to LED version. That conversion was started this week. I would say "completed," but it is not complete, because of the following two issues:

1) Upon upgrading the two front turn-signal bulbs, my green indicator lights in the dash went out;
2) The bulb-fail module is now activating whenever the brake pedal is depressed or the headlights are turned on. This was not completely unexpected.

Anyway, here's what's going on with your Series III car's lighting system, and how you can upgrade if you want to, and what you can expect once you're done.

1. You'll need to change your flasher module:

The first thing you'll need is an electronic flasher unit, if you intend to swap out all four turn signal bulbs. If you want to do just the rears and leave the fronts, you can keep the factory Hella/URO thermal flasher unit. Anyone who has ever held this unit in his/her hand and compared it to a modern flasher can vouch for its heft and solid build quality. Jag electronics get a well-deserved bad rap but this flasher unit almost seems over-built. Hella made the original; URO makes a replacement. But if you attempt to use the factory thermal flasher with LEDs mounted in all four turn-signal locations, you'll be lucky to get them to flash at all, and if they do, they will flash slowly.

So this is what you will need -- a Novita EP26. This part is listed as discontinued at Advance Auto Parts in the U.S., and has limited availability at AutoZone and O'Reilly's, but it is available. Plenty of online sources for it, too.



And here it is compared to the factory relay. Not hard to see the difference in size:



Unfortunately, my dash indicator lights no longer work. The relay clicks happily away, however. I will be looking into adding resistors in the wiring up front to address this issue (which ought to allow me to go back to the Hella unit) or put in a couple of dummy sockets and hide them in the bumper. Either way, the external flashers work fine with the Novita unit.

DO NOT buy the Novita unit that parts houses tell you fit this car. That would be the EL34 (and/or EP34), and it has three prongs. Ours is a four-pronged relay. Three-prongers don't work. I had to find the EP26 by my own sleuthing, looking on Novita's page for a flasher unit that had the same pin layout. There is another unit, the LM470, that might work. It has five prongs, but so does our plug. The issue with the LM470 is that our relay grounds the hazard lights through the fourth, bottom-most pin. The LM470 has the bottom-most pin labeled as "ignition," with the hazards grounding through pin #5, in the center. I'm not sure whether it will work, LM470s are very expensive ($30+ each) and you can't get a refund on a relay if you try it and it fails to work. So I didn't.

2. When buying LEDs, prioritize off-axis visibility. I originally bought these lights: . The reason for this was our four cornering bulbs plus our two tag lights are listed as 1893 bulbs. Trying to find an 1893 LED bulb at a parts house is a fool's errand. The other issue with bulbs built to mimic 1893 bulbs is they typically are only bright when viewed straight ahead; i.e., a zero-degree viewing angle.

There's a problem with that. Our tag lights are 90-degree sockets, and our cornering lights don't necessarily have to have 360-degree coverage, but they need more than zero-degree coverage. I wish my camera was good enough to demonstrate but it's not. Anyway, here's what I eventually bought:
The key here is not to look at the 1893 code. Instead, look at the bayonet base design (BA9S) that cross-references with the 1893 bulb and then measure length.

Here's a picture of three bulbs. On the left are the ones from my second link, which have 360-degree coverage. Next to it is a factory incandescent bulb and then the bulbs from my first link:



The first thing you'll notice is the length on the BA9S bulb on the left. That's not a problem in the cornering lamp sockets, where we have all kinds of extra room. But these just do fit in the tag light sockets. I had to work a few minutes to get the fixtures to re-seat, especially the one on the passenger's side. Those new bulbs are 1.2 inches long.

But, here's why you use them -- this picture shows the longer BA9S bulb on the left, and the LED 1189 bulb on the right:



The amount of light thrown by the 360-degree BA9S bulb is astounding. The 1189 bulb barely lights up the tag at 10 feet.

Moving on to the bulbs in the rear of the car, the four bulbs we utilize can either be typical 1156 bulbs (no 1157s needed -- there are no dual-element responsibilities back there) or the stubbier version. Either way, they share the same bayonet and therefore you can shop for 1156 bulbs, which give you more length and brightness.

Here's a LUYED 1156 bulb next to the two kinds of bulbs I pulled out of my taillights:



You'll notice the LED bulb is even a tick shorter than the 1156 bulb, so clearance is not an issue. The LUYED bulbs (here's the actual order link: ) are well-built, bright and have a spotlight top on them to give some direct focus to the rear.

Here's what the tail light looks like with the new bulbs in place. The bulbs at the bottom are reverse lights, and I bought even bigger, longer, brighter bulbs for that application, and now my car lights up the whole yard when I'm in reverse gear. (Link for reverse lights: ):



Now, finally, here's a comparison of how bright the LED tail lamp (not brake, tail) is compared to factory (LED is on the left, incandescent on the right):



Here's another angle:




Moving to the front of the car, you'll need 1157 bulbs with dual elements (link to purchase: ). Here's a shot of the LUYED 1157 bulb compared to a factory incandescent 1157. Again, size is not an issue:



Now, a comparison of brightness between the factory incandescent (photo left side) versus the LED (photo right side):




Summary:

If you can deal with your bulb-fail light staying lit on the dash, this is a major upgrade in terms of brightness and safety. If you can't abide the amber light on the dashboard, either you or I will have to figure a workaround to make it go out.

As for the issue with the disappearing green indicator lights, I'm still working on that. I hope to have a solution in the next month or so.

Would I do this upgrade again? Yes. I can live with the bulb-fail warning light, because mine would sometimes activate as a false alarm anyway. And given the dimness of my gauge lights, having that amber light staring at you when the lights are on just around dusk helps remind you to shut them off when you leave the car.

The lack of a turn signal indicator light is the bigger deal for me. The EP26 electronic flasher is not very loud, so I don't want to get caught driving with the idiot signal going because I don't know my signals are on. I think I have a fix that will work, as I've already worked around this problem on a different kind of car (Mitsubishi Starion).

One last note: Those 1893 bulbs might not be a good fit for exterior lamps, but I do believe they would do well for instrument illumination lights, and I'm going to see if they'll work in our cars in any way in that application.

If you have any questions or feedback, let me know.

Jess

 

Hello, Jess,
I did this with my car a couple years ago.

Those 72 element Reverse LEDs look Very familiar! Out here in the Stix, it's DARK when backing around a corner! "Light up the whole yard" is right! They make my 'modern' Sonata's reverse lights look like candles in the wind.

I also highly recommend converting exterior lights to LEDs (and instrument lighting, but Not pillar lights as they make the interior look jaundiced), as they're a Quantum improvement over OEM!
(';')

 

I got some of these for the four smaller gauges and am happy with the results.....


https://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-JAGUAR-X...8/182544151604

.....but the problem now is finding bulbs that will work in the speedo and tach to give matching brightness. The seller made a couple recommendations but was not sure of the intensity would be the same.

Note that three different types of bulbs are needed for the gauges...bit of a bother. Four screw-in, one bayonet, one wedge

There used to be a vendor selling a correctly matched set for the gauges but I've searched to no avail

Good work, research, and write-up.

Since you asked for feedback, though....

I may be misjudging the pics but I wonder if the exterior lamps are annoyingly bright. A pet peeve of mine but I know I'm not alone. I'm really not fond of (for example) sitting behind someone at a traffic light and having to avert my eyes so my vision isn't dazzled or my retinas burned!

Cheers
DD

 

They are pretty bright, yes. But not obnoxiously so. They are on par with the exterior lights on my wife's Lincoln MKT, if I had to judge them: Assertive, but not oppressive.

With an older car that has small taillight "real estate", I want them to light up a bit brighter.

Jess

 

I believe i got the direct link to the reverse lights from an old post of yours, not that you mention it.

Jess

 

I installed the EP26 in my Series II in place of the Hella. I don't have LED's in my signal lights and now my blinker lights don't work. Did you figure out a fix yet? I switched back to the Hella in the meantime.

Thanks, Bill

 

Looking forward to your choice on the screw in LEDs for the tach..the current LED ones I have do not provide proper lighting...I have another style on the way...will report my results...

 

I bought some LED bulbs to make the brake lights brighter but they were not quite as bright as the incandescent ones. I am going to buy a pair of the reverse light bulbs you mentioned and see if they give the results I am looking for. I only drive in the daytime so I want super bright. I'll let you know how they work out. Thanks for the tip.

Jeff

 

Switched to the Sylvania LED's at the turn signals. Lost the indicators on the dash. Tried a "poison" four prong flasher for LED's, still no dash indicators.
Standing by.

 

Hey everyone, sorry for the lateness in getting back to you...

I never did figure out a way to make the flashers work on the dash again. I briefly mentioned in the post above that I'd run into this problem on another car (a 1988 Mitsubishi Starion). The fix for that was to cut into the wiring harness, add a second socket, and hide that socket somewhere in the front bumper with a light in it. There is an inline resistor kit you can buy that allegedly fixes this problem, too, but I could not get the resistors to work on the Starion and didn't even try them on the Jag.

However, I did eventually install extra parking lights in the front turn signal sockets (using a "warmer" color yellow) and then switched the turn signals to single-filament bulbs, removing the dual-signal capability from those sockets (they're now 2-wire sockets sharing a common ground with my front-facing parking lights). This was done to get more separation between my parking and signal functions at night.

I'm continuing to explore options to get the green arrows back working on my dashboard, but honestly, I've gotten accustomed to not using them. If I could figure out what actually makes the green lights activate, I (or someone more skilled than I) might be able to come up with a fix.

Jess

 

Why not just wire a resister of appropriate size into the left and right circuit? Back in the old days in America you would just go into a Radio Shack and pick up some cheap resisters and wire them in. You probably have to order them online now. As to the dash bulbs not flashing, most cars have a system that the indicator is supposed to tell you if a bulb is burned out. I would just wire them straight into the front or rear turn signal wire. It would involve pulling a wire to do it but would always flash correctly. BTW, I mentioned a while back I used your recommendation for the replacement LED in the dash turn signal indicator light, and man does it work fantastic. I can always clearly see it flashing , even in bright sunshine .

Jeff

 

My second order of screw in LED's came today.. they work great in my Tach. Twice the light as the other LED type and the original ones.

From Amazon...four for $8.99... push them in all the way as they are taller. Sold by:

 

I am wondering why this rather obvious answer hasn't been done? (Don't mean to knock anyone at all, just seems like the clear work around) The interweb has a number of articles about this change and no one seems to have tried this. I'm not an electrician or anything but if power is causing the lights to blink then that power line spliced ought to cause another light to blink shouldn't it? Don't LEDs have way lower power consumption?

 

Yes, LEDs do have much lower power needs and that's actually the problem.
The flasher elements don't pass enough power to heat up sufficiently, so they don't blink properly.

I just put LED tail lights into Trucklet, and the flasher acts like one bulb is out just like it acted when one bulb Was out, flashing at about double speed. I have another flasher, labeled LED compatible, just haven't got to that yet. It seems other things keep elbowing their way to the front of the line.
(';')

 

Thanks for this; I'll be ordering some. The screw-in type base is harder to find

I went to LEDs in the gauges on my Series III and am having a dickens of a time getting things right. I can't get the brightness of tach and speedo to match each other or the four smaller gauges. Annoying. About ready to throw in the towel and go back to the original bulbs but I'll give it another whirl

Cheers
DD

 

I, for one, don't know how to determine 'appropriate' size....although any of us could probably self-educate on the subject with an hour or so of Googling.

Cheers
DD

 

This is my point kind of. JessN16 reports having converted all to LED with only problem being that the "bulb out" indicator is always on and that the interior blinkers down't work. Couldn't you just tap the power TO the front blinkers (after the relay) either side and run each back to its corresponding interior indicator cutting out the direct power to them from the relay? You'd only need to take power from front OR back since either should be on if indicating? This should eliminate whatever problem you have with relay and also get around the need to put in a resistor?

You could then just jump the wires to the bulb out indicator to make the indicator think the circuit was complete?

Can someone comment? Ever tried this?

 

The turn signal circuit and bulb failure circuit work independently of each other so I'm not sure everything could be fixed by jumping wires from the signal lamps to the dashboard indicators.

Your idea of making the dashboard indicators work is worth thinking about. My concern is if doing so would jeopardize the 4-way flasher operation. Mulling required.

The bulb failure warning system relies on xx-amount of heat generated by xx-resistance generated by the circuit. Lack of resistance = bulb failure warning staring at you. There are several bulb failure modules; whatever work-around you find for one you'd have to repeat on the others.

Some LEDs nowadays have built-in resistors to duplicate the current draw of the incandescent bulbs.

Cheers
DD

 

I'm going to drive myself crazy now. I think the problem JessN16 is having with the turning lights has to do with the EP26 being wired differently than ours (the original Hella).

Here's the wiring diagram from Novita (http://www.novitatech.com/?q=afterma...lashers/ep26):


It isn't very good, but the C2 terminal here is doing something very different from what the C terminal is doing in our cars. C2 here is a ground and C in our cars is a power wire to the dash indicator lights with a diode in line after. Not sure how that works electrically, but basically C2 is expecting to ground and our cars' indicators are expecting power from that line. The Jag diagram is in S57 Wiring Guide. (Figure 7.1) I can't seem to paste it. This makes sense a bit since the EP26 comes from a Jeep Cherokee ( I think ).

Long and short is that I think that if you cut the 2 LGN wires from the C2 relay on the EP26 and reconnect the left LGN to the GR wire on the left and the right LGN to the GW wire for the right, remove the GWR wires with the diodes and change these to grounds and then take the stubs of the LGN from the relay and turn them into a ground, I think you get everything (except the bulb burn out light).

Well, that's the theory anyway...

 

Right but they're LEDs so they're never going to burn out anyways right?