Hey everyone,
i am wondering if anyone is having or has had the same issue i have been dealing with with my Jag.
Here is my problem.
About a month or so ago, i realized that my reverse/backing up lights weren't working, i did the usual:
- Check the fuses which were Good
- Check & changed all the light bulbs
- checked the wiring
Still nothing. Somewhere down the line as i was checking the wiring, i stumbled upon the reverse lights switch which had gone bad and needed to be replaced. once changed, it fixed the backup lights but now on the left side/driver side of the car, the tail lights and side markers won't come on, as i was checking i also noticed that the low beam/driving light on the same side of the vehicle was out. I proceed to change all those bulbs since the fuses were good and still nothing. They Will not come on . So my questions are :
Are those bulbs all linked on the left side of the car?
What could be the cause of this ? has anyone experienced and fixed this issue ? would the reverse lights be somehow linked to the tail lights ?
Thank you

PS: my car is a 2003 Jaguar X-type. 2.5 v6 manual transmission

 

Danny, when it comes to your light issue, it is sounding like you have 2 different issues going on. The headlights and tail lights are not linked by anything other than the fuse box. I will double check the diagrams for the car just to make sure, but that is what I recall. As for the tail lights, kinda the same story there between the reverse lights and the rest of the lights. There is one common thing with these though in that all the lights on that corner of the car share a common ground wire/ground point. But, because the reverse lights are working, the ground wire is good. So, this leads back to another issue. Let me look at the diagrams and see what I can find for you.

For the headlights, are you running HID headlights or are you running halogen bulbs? I only ask to make sure I know exactly what I am dealing with.

 

Thanks Thermo,
I will double check the grounds again in the car just to be safe.
As for the light bulbs in the front, i am running hallogen bulbs (H1). Its very odd. The X-Type headlight housing has two big Circles. (Blatant description) . The outer bulb works fine and seems to be performing as it should on the front end of the car , but the inner one is not. after i changed the reverse light switch, the reverse lights were working normally, along with the rear fog lights, but no tail light on the rear driver side of the car. Very Very Odd.
I will check grounds around and wirings again and update what i come up with. Thank you for checking your diagrams . your help is so much appreciated.

 

danny, for the headlight issue, if your passenger side is working, then your problem lies in either a bad fuse (check Fuse #16 in the engine bay fuse box), the wiring between the fuse box and the headlight, or the headlight bulb itself. The easiest check would be to use a multimeter and touch it to both posts on the low beam bulb. One will read 0 VDC, the other should read roughly 13 VDC with the engine running (12 VDC with the engine off). If you have 12-13 VDC on the one wire, then you have either a bad bulb or the connector for the bulb is shot. If you have a low voltage or no voltage on the wire, then you are looking at a wiring issue and unless you are good with wiring, I would say you would probably be best served by taking it to a professional shop (there is a repair place just off of Witchduck and I-264 that seems to be good people).

As for the rear of your car. If it is only the running lights that are failed (ie, your turn signal, rear fog, STOP, and license plate light all work), then I would first check Fuse #64 in the fuse box under the dash. If that fuse is good, then I would remove the running light on the left rear corner of the car and then use a multimeter to check the orange/yellow wire for 12 VDC when the running lights should be on. If you have 12 VDC, then you have a bad bulb (or a bad bulb base). If you do not have 12 VDC, then you have a wiring issue. Unfortunately, a wiring problem associated with the headlight and the rear of the car can not be common with how the car is wired up.

If you are curious, I used to live in Norfolk. I lived across the street from the Naval base just off of Terminal BLVD. So, I know the area a little bit. But, that has been a few years and I am now living in Southern Maryland. I worked up at Newport News Shipyard doing the Virginia Class submarine builds.

 

Thank you so Much Thermo,
yeah i was a bit surprised with the directions you gave me (witchduck road Etc ). i was wondering how you knew.
But anyways, as far as the car goes. for the front lights, it was a bad connector for the bulb. Some odd rust. I would move it around and it would work but the second i let it go it would shut off again. I took the whole connector out, cleaned it, re-attached it and it worked great.
for the rear, i still can't quite figure it out. It may be the wrong bulb. i switched them and it works, i switch them back and nothing. It wows me because these bulbs are brand new , but i am guessing its not the right one . I am running 7026 vs the actual required 7028. so i am going to the store to get some that match the bulbs on the other side and we shall see. Ill update you in a few minutes. Thank you so much for the help

 

Swapped them out and wouldn't you know !!! Bright and shiny again ... That peace of mind feeling again.. Thanks Thermo

 

Danny, good to hear that you got things taken care of. Keep an eye out in the Regional sections. I am looking at getting a BBQ together some time in early August. I am wanting to do it up in Fredericksburg, VA. I want to try and get some of the Hampton Roads guys and gals involved in the local Jaguar meetings I have been setting up. Keep an eye out.

 

Roger That !! I am in fredericksburg Often so No Problem !!!

 

ok I see he is having a none working tail light issue. Well I have an intermitten lighting issue let me explain:

I have a 2004 Jaguar xtype. I love my black beauty but this is my issue. When the HID lights are on the rear lights are weird acting. The right blinker is on in front and on the side marker is on but the left in the back same with the left. The tail lights also blink and the rear High light does as well. This is only a problem when the brakes are applied and when the Headlights are on. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem or is it just my car and yes it is factory HIDs not aftermarket.

Oh and it also takes blinks fast like a light is out... but they arent blinking fast outside just the inside indicator

 

Sounds like you may have a bad ground or a short somewhere. Thermo is the wiring king. He should be along shortly to help.


Good Luck,
The Dr!

 

Cam, do you have an early 04 car or a later 04 car? If you look in the driver's door jam, you will see the build month. Tell me what month and year the car was built in. There were slight wiring changes made in the 04 MY cars. So, I need to know this information so I can give you specific information relating to what you are seeing.

Granted, the first check you can do now is to access the plug for the rear tail lights and see if there is a blacked pin in either of the tail light plugs. Normally, it will be the second pin from the edge that will be blackened/burned. If so, let me know and we can take things from there.

 

Hey Thermos,

I am having the same issue as Cam was having. I checked the build year and month they it's November 2003. I checked the plug as well and I believe what you are talking about with the blackened second pin. It almost looks like it broke the plastic around that pin as well. I have pics if you need confirmation
Please let me know what my next step should be. Thank you for all your help already!

 

Hannold, unfortunately, your best bet at this point is to find a donor car and get your hands on the rear wiring harness (at a minimum the plug plus about 6-12 inches of the harness). I have not found a source for just the plug casing. If that is in decent shape, then you might be able to simply find a new pin and cut the old pin off and solder the wire on to the new pin and reinsert it into the plug. The plugs come apart pretty easy once you dismantle them correctly (should be a locking tab holding everything together that you have to remove).

As for the pin on the tail light assembly, you can try taking a scribe or other sharp object and scratching the surface to restore the shiny silver appearance. Otherwise, you are going to be forced to get a new back plate to the tail lights. These can normally be had fairly cheap on a place like e-bay by getting your hands on a destroyed tail light assembly. Just make sure that it comes with the back plate.

 

Thermo, I just had a backup camera installed. Evidently it works only when they apply power to the Backup Lights. I'm picking it up this morning and was told to take it to Jaguar and have them fix the backup lights. They told me they looked at most all of the fuses and could not find anything that was burned out. Do you know where a fuse might be hiding that is associated with the backup's? The car is a 2007 XK Convertible. Any help will be appreciated.

 

Hi Everyone,
New to this website- Hoping someone can help. I Have 2013 XJL-
Someone driving behind me noticed that my reverse lights were always on.
Later, I realized that when I turn on the headlights, the reverse lights go on and stay on.
Anyone ever have this issue? Have a suggestion?

 

NJJAGG, first off, welcome to the Forums. I think you will like it here a lot. We pride ourselves in being a better car group. We like to get to know one another. With that being said, please stop by the New Member Section and tell us a little bit about yourself and why you bought your jag. This will give us a chance to meet you and gives you a chance to meet those that make this place what it is.

As for your problem, you are addressing it in the wrong section of the site. This area is for the X-Type (aka, X400 cars). You drive what is referred to around here as an X351 (2010+ XJ). If you go back to the main screen, you will see the new XJ section about 8 lines up from the X-Type line.

With all of this being said, I can help you out as I have a 2012 XJ and have the wiring diagrams for your car and I am sure I can figure out what is going on. When I get home from work, I will look at the diagrams and give you a few spots to check. Along those lines, how are you with a multimeter? Just asking that if we get to the point of checking voltages, I want to know how detailed I need to be. The quick check that you can do right now is to open the trunk/boot and access the back of the tail lights. From there, unplug one of the tail lights and see if the reverse lights come on with the running lights. If they do, then plug the first tail light back in and unplug the other tail light. It is possible that you have a tail light that has failed and is causing both of the reverse lights to light. If unplugging the tail lights doesn't fix things, then that eliminates about half of what we need to look at.

 

Sorry to derail the thread a little, but, Thermo, after having the XJ for a couple years, has it met your expectations so far? Anything good or bad of note that you found?

 

Alfadude, here is one person's view of the car. As for meeting my needs and wants, oh, definitely. It is a joy to drive around in and a blast to drive. Keep in mind that I have the "base" (relative terms here) XJ. It came with the naturally aspirated 5.0L engine (no longer available in the newer cars, only the supercharged version is). It has plenty of power with the 385 hp from the factory. the ride is nice and the features are plenty. I get tons of questions about the car as it is a real head turner. A lot of people ask me what I do to afford a car like this and I have to laugh at them (got the same thing with the X-Type). I am very happy with the car as it has been a very reliable car for the 60K miles that I have owned it. has there been issues, sure. But, show me a car that doesn't have issues over 60K miles.

As for problems that these cars seem to "suffer" from this is what I will tell you:
1) with the 5.0L engine, the water pumps seem to be the Achilles heal of the car. I won't say that it is a difficult water pump to change, but it does take a certain amount of finesse as you have to line up things just so to not have a leak after install. If you are looking to buy one used, do some research on what the different versions of the water pump look like. The big give away is the factory water pumps have "FoMoCo" stamped on the front of the water pump where the redesigned water pumps (many version of them) have "Jaguar" stamped on them.
2) the early cars (2010-2011) suffer from a slow radio response. This can be corrected by installing a new screen to the radio. if you get the updated software ($200 through jaguar), this seems to help the new screens too.
3) the early cars suffered from a "popping" sunroof. What would happen is as the car goes over bumps and the body twists, the sunroof moves inside its mount and a little bit of tension builds up and then releases, causing a popping sound. The original fix was to simply tighten up the fasteners and this corrects the issue for a bit. But, the popping returned as the fasteners loosened up. The revised fix is to reseal the sunroof and then torque all the fasteners, adding red loc-tite to the nuts to ensure they don't loosen up. Keep in mind that to do this, it requires to drop the ceiling down to access the fasteners.
4) the newer cars (2013+) have a START-STOP feature. Some people find this annoying. For example, you are driving in town and you pull up to a stop light. As the car comes to a stop, a few seconds later the motor turns off (all accessories are still working). As you release you foot from the brake, the car starts the engine by itself and off you go. if you are stopped and the engine stops and then shortly there after it senses say the A/C getting too warm or the alternate battery getting too low in charge, it will automatically start the car to correct the issue, even though you are still stopped. There is a button on the center console to turn this feature on and off, but you have to press it every time you (human) start the car. The 2013 thru 2015's have a process you can do that will defeat this, but the 2016+ cars, you would have to modify the programming in the ECU to defeat it. Either way, it puts your warrantee into question because you have now modified the car and have put it outside of the emissions law.
5) 2013+ cars (for US driver's) have 2 engine options. You can get a supercharged V6 (makes 340 hp) or you can get a supercharged V8 (will make somewhere between 470-575 hp depending on the version of engine you get based on the trim package). the earlier cars had 2 options with the engine, a NA 5.0L and a supercharged 5.0L. All of the supercharged 5.0L engines can be easily modified to get them up into the 620 hp range with essentially nothing more than a new pulley and some ECU work.
6) if you require AWD, the XJ can handle that. BUT!!!!!!! (you knew that was coming), you will have to get a 2013+ car and it will come with the supercharged v6 engine. It is not offered with the supercharged V8. the 2012's and early do not have an AWD option. Now, a birdie a few years ago told me that jaguar was looking to release an AWD V8 supercharged car de-tuned to 458 hp, but I have not seen any word on this since it was told to me. So, I am not holding my breathe.
7) the aluminum body is very nice and removes a lot of weight from the car. the issue comes is if you get involved in a wreck, it is almost for sure going to be totaled. The cost of aluminum body repair is very high and Jaguar has specialized procedures on how to fix the car. So, not just any body shop can do the work. Getting an estimate for $30K or $40K of body work is not uncommon. This may play into your decision. this is why you will find a lot of wrecked XJ's that are trying to be sold as "repairable" following an accident.

If I was to get another XJ, I have a feeling that I would either end up with another 2012 so I did not have to deal with the START-STOP feature (I find it annoying) or I would get a newer year with the supercharged engine Either way, the new car would have the supercharged V8. I would also get the XJL. It is 6 inches longer and all that room is in the rear seat footwell area. Makes a big difference for the rear seat passengers. I would also look for a car with the airline trays as this also tends to come with a lot of other "goodies" for the rear seat passengers (heated and cooled seats, rear entertainment system, and potentially even reclining seats. I would probably also opt for the adaptive cruise control (even though I don't use cruise a lot now, but I can see me using it more as the car would adapt to the surrounding driver's). The one feature that almost everyone seems to want (yet is on very few cars) is the illuminated door sills. I have it and it is a neat feature.

If you want to know more, let me know and I will answer any more specific questions. If you are thinking about trading up. DO IT!!!!!!!!! If I was to go outside of the XJ, then I would probably end up with the XE-S and the supercharged V6 (same engine that is put into the XJ) with AWD and pretty much optioned out. But, for what that car would cost, I can get a XJ base and it will cost me the same (roughly). the only benefit the XE-S would have is it is lighter and would be quicker and more nimble in the corners. I got to drive an XE-S optioned out like I would want and it was a blast to drive (I was on a closed course, so, I could hammer it as hard as I wanted).

 

NJJAGG, looking at the diagrams, there is nothing common with the headlights and the reverse lights. With that being said, I want you to try something for me. Start the car and turn the headlight switch to the "Running lights only" position (1 click, NOT 2 clicks). Do your reverse lights come on then? If so, then odds are you have 2 pins in one of your tail lights shorted together. In short, if you look at the plug for your tail lights, you will see where the plugs will have some numbers written on them (hard to see, but they are there). You are after pins 2 and 4. Pin 2 is for the reverse lights, Pin 4 is for the running lights. They will be side by side.

What I would say to do is if you did my last post checks and you find that disconnecting both tail lights does not cause the reverse lights to go out is to ensure that both tail lights are connected. You will then need to access the fuse box inside the car. Now, you want to remove fuses F24 and F25 (both will be a 5 amp mini fuse). Did your reverse lights go out? If no, then you most likely have a bad fuse box and this will require replacement (the fuse boxes on our cars have a build in computer that controls a lot of things about the car). If the reverse lights did not come back on, then install fuse F24. Note the status of the reverse lights. Remove fuse F24 and install fuse F25. Note the status of the reverse lights. Now, if the reverse lights lit in both cases, then you have a wiring problem in the harness for the rear tail lights (this will require a technician to go in and do some troubleshooting unless you are sure of your electrical abilities). If the reverse lights only lit with only one of the fuses, reinstall that fuse. If it was F24, this will be associated with the right side of the car, F25 will be with the left side. With the single fuse installed, unplug the tail light on the affected side. Did the reverse light on the other side go out? If yes, then your problem is internal to the tail light on the side in question. If the reverse light is still on, then your problem is in the plug that you just removed.

Hopefully this helps. If you need more info, let me know.

 

Thanks for the detailed review. I am not thinking if getting one though, I was just curious how it was going fr you with it as you have had it a while now and we don't hear from you on here as much. The XJ is a bit bigger than I want to get. For my next car my current choices are an Alfa Giulia, The XE and XF are possibilities, as well as a Maserati Ghibi. All used, of course, as I dont really want to spend more than $30K or so. I'm in no hurry, just always thinking though. Have a 2012 Mercedes C300 that has served me quite well up to this point, but you always have the itch to try soemthing else.