As I said in my previous post, I took SouthernGypsy's advice and bought Sylvania zXe 9004 xenon fueled bulbs from Amazon. They were $50 for a pair - picture of the packaging attached (the bulbs in the package are my old bulbs). It took about five minutes to install each bulb. What a difference! My factory Sylvania bulbs were pretty awful. Now I have a nice, bright white light and I can see much better at night driving our dark country roads. I'm a happy camper.

I intended to include a picture of one new light installed in one side and an old light in the other but inside my garage, the picture didn't show the difference. Trust me, the difference is substantial. The original bulbs had more of a golden light vs. a crisp, white light.

Thanks to Afterburner1 for posting this helpful post and a BIG thanks to SouthernGypsy for his suggestion and step-by-step instructions in for installing the new bulbs!

 

Here are SouthernGypsy's instructions for installing the lights on a facelift car:

Oh they are really easy on the facelift cars. It takes a standard 9004 bulb. Just turn your front wheels to the opposite direction of the headlight you want to change, look up under the wheel-well in front of the tire and you will see a panel with two rotating knobs, just turn them [one-quarter] turn and tilt the panel out. You will see the back of the bulb. Unplug the wire before taking the bulb out (makes it easier as long as the wires not stuck) then rotate the ring around the base of the bulb and it comes out. While you're at it you might consider changing out your parklight bulb that shares the housing with the headlamp. They come with a clear bulb here but in many countries came with a yellow bulb which looks cool because a little before dusk if you turn on your parklights before turning on the headlamps, they glow like two big yellow Jaguar eyes. Just be sure to use a good bulb that puts out a nice deep orange for the effect, not those cheapo's that look like faded yellow. This is something you can do on the parking lot of the auto parts store and I think they're about as cheap as Amazon for a pair. I know Advance Auto parts has the zXe's on sale right now.

 

Glad you like them, they also make SilverStar bulbs for your all your other external lights. I use Sylvania's "Long Life" series bulbs in all the side and front marker lights but because of the smoked lenses on the back of the facelift models used SilverStar bulbs in all of the rear lights and it makes it more visible from the rear, if you have ever followed one the facelift cars rear lights are kinda dim thru those smoked lenses. Even if you don't change any of the others changing your backup light bulbs with SilverStars makes a big difference at night when backing up in dark areas out in the county. I live in the country myself on a horse ranch in the Ozarks.

 

I have the Jag Manual on disk, but cannot find anything on headlight lens removal. I want to clean the reflectors or remove the headlight as a unit and do a number on it! I assume the approach is through the wheel well. Any help?


As a second non light question: Did Jaguar undercoat the cars at the factory?

 

afterburner1,

The glass can be removed but was never designed to be so by Jaguar.

Softening the mastic-type tape with a hairdryer can help things.

The headlight is removed from the front rather than the footwell.

Good luck

Paul

 

afterburner1,

The glass can be removed but was never designed to be so by Jaguar.

Softening the mastic-type tape with a hairdryer can help things. Then the use a thin fishing line.

The headlight is removed from the front rather than the footwell.

Good luck

Paul

 

I guess I was confused about polishing the reflector by an earlier post. I assumed facelift, but I must have been wrong. That's good news, I won't have to take light apart. Thanks you save me some time!

A quick second question. Did Jaguar undercoat the XJS at the factory (pre sale)?

 

Changed my OEM bulbs for some Narva 120 H4's - difference is appreciable. I would recommend to others as these bulbs don't draw any more current the old OEM H4s.

New bulb left Old OEM right on car and the other way round in the packet. The new bulbs are slightly bigger than the old OEMs.

 

To Forcedair1
Could you be specific on the name of the kit you installed. Please

 

HID Xenon Headlight Conversion Kit by Kensun.
9004 Dual-Beam Bi-Xenon, 6000

If you Google "Kensun 9004" you'll get who carries this. This kit is for the dual beam, as in High and low beams. I purchased this from that place that has a similar name as that big river in Brazil....currently $76.99, but I bet you can find them cheaper from eBay.

Cheers,

 

The location of the filament in the bulbs in conjunction with the shape of the reflector and the lenses design direct the light in the correct direction. All the replaceable bulbs insert only in one way to maintain the correct relationship of bulb-reflector-lens. Any bulb that has a coating on the glass is filtering the light output, which means there is a reduction in actual light output. Stay with as clear a bulb as can be found. Look at the wattage of each bulb that claims 30% brighter and you will see the wattage is the same. Due to the blue coating on the bulbs they only look brighter because of the more white the light appearance is, Go to Daniel Stern's web site and read up on lighting. http://danielsternlighting.com/. If you go to HIDs without changing the lens and reflector you will get a very bright light but it is blinding to oncoming traffic, and does not provide the best directed light for your use. Have you ever seen an oncoming car with headlights so bright it bothered your vision? They did not have higher wattage they had uncontrolled beam of light up in your vision. I found some off road 65 watt bulbs for my wife’s 99 XJ8L in place of the 55 watt stock bulbs. Box was clearly marked for off road use only, so when she drives off the road see will see what she is about to hit. ADDED this...The 99 XJ8 uses the same 4 bulbs for both hi and low beams, it is the lense that changes the lighted area of the road for the difference in distance you can see.

 

Lamps is the century before last. Xenon, is the last century. LEDs are the future

 

Installed HID Kit. Very easy installation. Bought on eBay from USA supplier. Thought I was getting USA equipment, but suspect it was Chinese. Installation booklet was of no use because the English was incomprehensible. Still the setup is so easy, it was not a problem to sort out the wiring. The lights are brilliant and high and low beams work fine. There were two problem areas. Firstly, neither the old H4 bulbs or the new xenon bulbs are keyed for installation .The H4 bulb has a marker for installation, but the xenon bulb does not. The xenon bulbs were installed wth the white wire on the bulb down; it seem to work. The second problem has not yet been solved. Somehow the alarm system flashes the off side lights and emits a tone about every two seconds. it also flashes the "bulb out" light on the dash. I believe it is the location chosen for the B+ and will try direct to alternator output
Would appreciate some comments on the two problem areas

 

Solved the second problem. Click the fob four or five times and the chirping and flashing lights stopped
Still need some help on the bulb alignment, I think???

 

I bought an HID conversion kit for the wife's Minivan
it was nice never installed it...

I ended up buying and installing this.... and was floored on how good they worked.... in her van
Latest ETI 2S LED Headlight Kit 60W 8000LM White Lamps H1 H3 H4 H7 H8 H9 H11 H13 | eBay

going to test them in the xjs face lift

 

Do let us know how they work.

Greg

 

Want to make them even brighter?

Rewire the circuit, so that the headlights get all the power they are supposed to get. I'm not sure what the engineers were thinking when they designed the stock wiring scheme for the headlights, but, the plan they came up with is robbing the headlights of power, and overloading the switch, leading to premature failure. Not only is the circuit routed wrong, but, they also skimped on the gauge of the wires.

Start reading at page 636 of "The Book", to see how you can correct this over the course of a weekend. The new wiring scheme, and proper gauge wires will make a HUGE difference in the output of even the stock headlight bulbs, and will help your switch last longer too.
Try it, you'll like it

 

Disappointed in the HID system I installed and feel that the problems incurred were partially due to low current due to OEM wiring being inadequate for the load. Would like to do the rewiring scheme described in The Book, Kirby Palm page 647 quoted below:

"...RELAY INSTALLATION -- SIMPLER VERSION: Mark Barker provides a simpler method of improving the power
supply to headlights on his web site. Rather than using separate main and dip beam relays as described above, Barker installs a single relay in the wiring to
the OEM main/dip beam relay. “Unplug the thick blue wire in the middle of the
dip/high relay. This now goes to one of the new relay's coil tags; the light switch only has to operate this relay now.
Thick brown wire all the way from the main bus on the firewall, (under 14mm AF nut, using a ring tag) to one of the
new relay's closing contact tags. Another short piece of brown wire from the new relay's other closing contact to the
exposed tag of the dip/high beam relay the blue wire came from, using the appropriate crimps. Finally, a piece of black
wire from the other coil tag to a nearby earth, using a ring tag.” Ed. note: actually, you might want to make that short
piece of brown wire a short piece of blue wire to keep the color coding consistent...."

I found this description hard to follow and tried to find Mark Barker's web site with no success.
I have two request: 1. Barker's web site
2. A copy of the above schematic, if available

And always a big THANK YOU

 

Thank you for following up on this! I never could follow this.

I've always wanted to know if:

(a) this will benefit the facelift models
(b) I can bypass and therefore retire the stupidly expensive DAC6902 relay

 

To Vee
I have to use the 1993 XJS Range Electrical Guide. I don't have reference to part numbers. Using that Guide, I think you mean the DAC6902 relay is the Headlight Control Unit. That is actually two relays or a single pole double through or even a double through double pole relay. If you notice on the drawing the current comes from 6 in a square through the relay arms and then out to the headlights. Those relays are cheap maybe five to ten dollars each (Not from Jaguar) As a minimum I would use a 25 amp relay.
The solenoid side of the relay has me baffled. The top line marked LFG-56 is power in. The bottom one is ground. That's pretty clear. But the center one marked LF6-81A. controls the arms of the relay through the Lighting and Turn Signal Switch (LTSS) How the LTSS works looking at the schematic is a mystery to me. I do know it has to actuate the appropriate solenoid when the control arm on the steering wheel is pulled. Went on and looked at 1994-5-6. There were no changes except for LTSS that now showed as two switches.

To make it real simple, if any thing in the Headlight Control Unit goes bad it will probably be dirty points on the contacts or a bad solenoid, The contacts can be cleaned and solenoids add externally , in parallel.