So far, I have gone through 4 bulbs in the past 5 weeks. The first time, the left side bulb went out, I replaced it, and then both sides went out, replaced them, now my driver side one is burn up again..... Any clues???

 

Hi, I see nobody responded here. Have you gotten any answers elsewhere? I'm running into a similar problem with my 04X. I purchased the car this year and the passenger bulb blew relatively quickly. I replaced both bulbs with Sylvania Silverstars and 21k miles later both are blown. I attempted to pull the passenger bulb but noticed some browning around the housing and the bulb would not come out of the housing, presumably melted into the housing itself (bulb filament looked fine visually). I saw some posts on Roadfly about the silverstars burning out in the X-types. I dropped my car off at the dealership and they informed me of a bulletin on how to fix the wiring harnesses for the lights. They called me back stating the bulbs can not be reused because they are welded in the housings and quoted me $200 a bulb (I'm not paying that without more research)! Needless to say they're repairing the wiring and I'm stuck looking for replacement bulbs that won't break the bank. Any ideas? These are the non-HID's.
Thanks!

 

chknhawk, go back to a good quality halogen bulb for the moment. They may not be quite as bright as the Silverstars, but the problem you are facing is those Silverstars run really warm and cause their own issues.

If you are wanting/needing more light, then the best option is to upgrade to HIDs. I know what you are thinking, "No way am I spending $500 on used HID housings just to get a little more light". For about $80, you can upgrade to HIDs. These will run cooler and you will probably notice that you will have better lighting and no bulb problems.

If you want/need help in selecting a set of HID bulbs, let me know. Wiring them up isn't hard for our X's as the headlight system is already built with a relay in the system, so, a lot of the HID headaches are already taken care of for you. I can step you through the rest of the HID install. As long as you can do basic wiring, it won't be that difficult.

 

Honestly I'd be happy with just a set of decent halogens for a stock replacement. With the other issues I'm running into I don't see much sense in doing many upgrades right now... Which bulbs last in these cars? Low end Sylvanias?

 

Just finished a similar post elsewhere. I was told that one possible reason for bulbs going prematurely could be a poor earth. Try adding an additional earthwire to each of the offending lamps, or upgrade the existing earthwire with a heavier duty one. I'd go for adding an additional earthwire myself. The wire could be earthed off somewhere nearby and you wouldn't have to go cutting into the loom.

Mike

 

My 99 xk had this issue and by adding the secondary ground wire to the lamp assebly fix the problem. Work done by the dealer as car was still under warranty.

 

Well, I'm picking the jag up tomorrow from the dealership. I purchased set of Wagner bulbs for ten a piece and I'll give them a try.

 

It turned out to be a bad headlight unit. One day it fused the bulbs to the lamps. So I needed new units....

 

Both of my headlight housings were burnt up, the bulb was welded in one and wouldn't come out. The dealership put the 'fix' on the housings and I picked up some cheap Wagner bulbs for $20/pair and so far so good.
It's interesting that some of you talk about the grounding because now instead of one plug there's two. The bulb plugs into one and the other plug attaches to the back of the headlight housing - so I'm assuming that's for added grounding.

 

I guess thats why... So how much was it for them to fix your housing? What did they have to do?

 

They basically cut the wires going into the harness and made two individual connectors. One connector became the ground which attaches to the back of the actual headlight housing and the other connects to the back of the bulb which then fits inside the housing like normal. I've only got about a week of drive time on it but they seem to be working ok. I haven't built up the confidence to try the Silverstars again...

 

Guys, check out the X type Faq quick links in the X type section....There's links in there for just about everything written on bulbs / bulb types / chainging bulbs / HID kits etc etc
Worthwhile checking it out

Good luck

 

I've got two years on the new 2 piece connectors with, if I remember correctly, Silverstars with no issues.

 

Excellent, thank you so much! Maybe I will give them a try. Hopefully Amazon still has them on sale, two for $20.

 

Wow thats really cheap! Do they work that well??

 

I'm going to be honest the only real way to fix this problem for good is replacing the whole head light ... That will fix it for good

 

Thats what I did. More expensive, but I'm sure it wont happen again. Not that it matters to me anymore, I sold my x-type not that long ago for my XJR

 

When you say headlight entire are you talking upgrading to the HID's? Otherwise you'll just have the same problem if you put the same style back in, won't you?

2004x-type, are you talking about the fix, the Wagner bulbs or the Silverstars? If you're talking about the fix so far so good. If you're talking about the Wagners then not so much. The headlights were so poor driving home last night I actually had to turn them off to make sure they were on! If you're talking about the Silverstars then yes, I do think they work better than most OEM bulbs but at a cost of price and heat. Personally (now don't laugh) I prefer the APC Ultra White Plasmas which are Silverstar knockoffs with all the same ratings at about half the cost. I've never had an issue with longevity or manufacturing defects with the APC's. Then again I've never had an issue with Silverstars until now. :-/

 

Hey guys, as Jim said, this issue has been covered in great detail on the X-Type forum. Melting of the wiring harness is a known and very common problem in the X-Type, even with OEM bulbs—the brighter bulbs (Silverstars and whatnot) just make it happen sooner. Clipping off the harness and replacing it with two individual connectors as chknhwk described will fix the problem. I did it myself (for one light—the other had already been fixed when I bought the car) in about an hour and at a cost of $22, including replacement bulbs for both sides.

 

I had replaced the headlight units with new units from Jaguar. No HID kit. I sold her not too long ago, and got an XJR, and I bought HID lookalike bulbs. They actually work really well. I dont remember the name, but they are 80 watt as apposed to the OEM 50 watt, and they are bright white. I do plan on getting and HID kit for ALL the lights soon, but they are expensive, and the HID lookalike bulbs really do work well! CHKNHWK, I was talking about silverstars, wondering how they are. Ive never heard of them before this.