OKJag, yes, the Silverstars run hotter and the factory jag wiring is barely able to handle the heat of a factory bulb (in a lot of cases, not even that). So, yes, the Silverstars are not recommended for the Jags. If you are wanting more light, then upgrading to HIDs will be in your advantage. If you need help on HIDs, let me know. I have upgraded my foglights to HIDs and know a thing or two about them.

As for the headlight pointing issue, you more than likely have fallen victim to a bad design. The support posts for the X-Type headlights are very weak. So, if you are not careful when putting in headlight bulbs, you can break off the posts that support the whole headlight assembly. What you will more than likely end up doing is pulling off the front bumper cover (takes about 30 minutes to do) and then removing the headlight assembly from the vehicle. From here, you can look inside the headlight assembly and you will see where there are 2 posts that will most likely be broken. You have 2 choices, you can obtain a different headlight assembly (beware, if you attempt to get on through E-bay, a lot of them have this issue, so, ask the direct question of whether the posts are broken and if they are broken, that you will get your money back) or you can take some epoxy glue and fix it yourself. If you try the glue fix, there is not a lot of room inside of the headlight assembly, so, getting to things can be difficult. But, it will save you a few dollars.

Look in the forums. You will see where people have talked about this issue time and time again.

 

Hey, as Thermo alluded to, the factory wiring harness is very prone to melting—one of mine had already melted and been replaced when I bought my '04 X-Type at 27,000 miles, and I just had to fix the other one about three weeks ago at about 32,000 miles. That's with OEM lamps, by the way, so sticking with them is no guarantee that your harness won't melt.

My recent post on my experiences has some pics and explanations of how it should look after replacing the wiring harness. Basically, you need to clip off the factory harness and replace it with a 0.25-inch flat end on each wire. The yellow wire should connect to the bulb, and the brown wire should connect to the ground lead on the headlight casing. I used butt connectors with heat-shrink insulation, but some people think soddered connectors would last longer. Once you get the factory wiring harness out of the loop, I don't think there's any reason you wouldn't be able to use SilverStars.

 

I'm also having a problem with the housings melting. After they are fixed is anybody having problem with the bulbs blowing/housings melting again regardless of the bulbs being used? Can I install any bulb I choose after the repair/fix is made? More specifically, is there a brand I should stay away from?

 

It was suggested to me after blowing a couple of headlight bulbs that one of the problems is a poor earth creating greater reistance and therefore heat. I know that there is not much room, but if you do take the bumper off, it might be an idea to see if an extra earthwire, or a heavy duty earthire replacement could be achieved.

Mike

 

Silverstars suck for longevity regardless of what theyre in. I used them for 6 months in my 96 and that was 2 sets, fogs as well. I saved the packages with the 6 yr factory bulbs. Put the factory bulbs back in and got a refund. Same thing happened on my nissan. I just fabbed in stype hid projectors in the back of a set of clear 98-03 xj housings and never been happier. I have 2 sets of factory xtype hid projectors and 3 sets of stype hid projectors. And 1 day ill get some time to rebuild them and sell the on ebay. You can easily swap jag projectors in. They just turn on differently. Halogen trigger +/on, hids trigger -/on. Connectors plug in you just have to trigger them correctly with a relay

 

You should have a "dim glow" in both brights whenever any lights are turned on and the brights are off. There is a tiny little bulb in one corner of each high beam housing; these act as the front parking lights on X-Types. Not sure how to replace that bulb, but I'm sure someone here knows how.

 

The front parking lights are W5W bulbs. The bulb just pushes into the socket and the socket just pushes into the housing, very simple to replace. But since yours is working with hi beams on, it's not the bulb.

As for the fog lights, you need to remove a few screws holding the inner fender liner and liner under the bumper. You don't need to remove any panels just remove enough screws so the lower cover can bend so you can get your hand in there. You go in from underneath the wheel well area right in front of the tire. It's very easy. You may want to remove more screws if it's cold where you live just to make sure you don't crack the plastic. Minutes per side.

 

Replaced my factory connectors with the two wire "fix" two years ago and haven't had a problem since.

 

How's that? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm curious how you came to that conclusion. Unless I'm much mistaken, those are separate bulbs. Can you explain a little more what you mean?

 

Sure, here's what he wrote...

I'm assuming he means only the drivers side parking light works with low beams on but both are being energized with hi beams on. The W5W bulb is a single element bulb, it simply illuminates when it's energized. He needs to find out why it's not being energized with low beam on. It's not the bulbs fault if it's only being "told" to light with hi beams.

That being said, I suppose he could have meant his driver side hi beam is actually being partially energized (dim) while low beam is selected and then goes fully bright when hi beam is selected. If that is the case, it's still not a bulb issue. Just as in the example above, something is energizing the bulb at the wrong time... like a bad switch, relay, harness or connector.

In other words, if a single element bulb illuminates... it's just doing what it's being told to do. If it's illuminating at the wrong time, the bulb isn't the culprit. You need to find what's causing the electric to flow to the bulb.

Hopefully he'll let us know whether he meant one parking light is only lighting with hi beams on or the hi beam is lighting very dimly with the low beams on. In either case, the bulb in question DOES have the ability to illuminate fully so you have to look elsewhere to find the cause.

 

Okay…I'm still not sure we're understanding each other. First, on an X-Type, the parking light and the high beam are two separate bulbs that share a single housing. Both bulbs are essentially white. Visually, unless you examine them very closely, the only noticeable difference between them is that the activated high beam is several orders of magnitude brighter than the activated parking light. Thus a person not thoroughly familiar with this setup would probably describe the (properly) activated parking light as a dim glow in the high beam.

As far as I know, due to their sharing the same housing the parking lights turn off when the high beams are activated, but even if they do remain on, there's no way someone could determine whether or not the parking light is lit when the high beams are activated—the extreme brightness of the high beam would completely overpower the dim parking light within the same housing. Thus, to me, the most logical explanation of Mo Burba's description is that the passenger's side parking light bulb is out (dim glow in the combined parking light/high beam housing on the driver's side only with the high beams turned off) and both high beams are working normally (full glow in the same housing on both sides with the high beams turned on). Since the parking light should be one of the cheaper and easier parts on the car to replace, I would start by replacing the passenger's side parking light.

 

Aha, I think I see where the difference in our interpretation is: the word "inner". I am interpreting the word "inner" with respect to the entire front of the car, meaning the inner of the two large round housings on each side of the car (where the "outer" one contains the much more distinguishable combination of the low beam and the turn signal and the "inner" one contains the high beam and the parking light). I think C5pilot is interpreting the word "inner" with respect to the single high beam housing, meaning the "inner" bulb inside that housing, which would indeed be the parking light. Hopefully, if Mo Burba is still reading this thread, he can clarify what he meant. In any case, if C5pilot's interpretation of the description is correct then he is absolutely right in saying that the bulb is not the fault in this situation.

Anyway, I think we've beaten this horse to death.

 

The parking lights remain lit while ANY exterior lights are on. We won't know which bulb he sees lit until he responds. First, we need to know whether he realizes there are parking lights housed with the hi beams. If he shields the hi beam lights from his eyes he should be able to tell if the parking light is lit (you can see the actual filament glow even with hi beams on IF you're careful). Obviously, if the parking light isn't coming on at all, he should simply start by replacing the bulb. If he simply swaps bulbs he'll know whether to go buy one... W5W may not be the easiest bulbs to find, but at least they're cheap. The important thing is he has plenty of help here if he responds.

 

Yup, Found my connector was melted with the bulb still in the socket on my 2005. I had to break it out to further assess the situation. Yea, It's all melted. After an extensive search I found on e-bay H1 ceramic converter. I ordered it (14.95) but I'll have to do some splicing. I'll follow up with the results. If you are running hotter than normal bulbs I recommend this item. It's plug and play. Do it before you have to do some surgery like me. I hope it works.

 

I'm having similar headlight issues, this thread cleared up a few things for me, but I'm a little stumped. I bought the new harness' from Ebay for $14.95. I'm prepared to solder them in, but the new ones only have one wire, as my old one from the passnger side has a brown and a yellow wire. How do I go about splicing these together? On the driver side the headlight plug has only one wire coming out of it.

So, I cut this out of my harness bc it was melted:


And this is the new one:


I'm stuck!

 

Btw, Carluva, I don't think your pics came thru on the other thread you started;

"Right-hand dipped beam out – replaced bulb, still not working"

Maybe you can repost them in this thread......