I see all this talk about halogen or HID, but what is HID? I think that is what I have on my 02 x-type with the dual headlights. When set to high beam, only the inside lights came on, and when on low beam only the little running lights up in the corner of the inside lights came on. The outside lights never come on. I pulled the bulbs and checked them, and they look good on the outside lights. Then I pulled one of the inside bulbs and it looked good, but now it won't even come on. I was careful not to touch the bulb with my fingers. I can't find any bad fuses either.
Can anyone tell me what should be on for high and low beam, and give me a possible fix for my problem. Also the manufacturers handbook said to only get bulbs from Jaguar. Are there cheaper places?

 

casey, HID bulbs are an option for your car. If you think you may have them, the easiest check is to open up the driver's car door and look near the hinge. You should see a silver sticker there that talks about "Car is equipped with HID headlights". You don't see that sticker, odds are you don't have HID headlights. The other "give away" is when you pulled out the headlight bulb, did you have to remove a black box that was covering up the bulb? If not, then you have halogen bulbs.

HID (High Intensity Discharge) operates on a principle similar to florescent bulbs. The bulb has a small amount of gas that has a large voltage applied to it. This causes current to flow through the gas, causing it to become excited. Once excited, it naturally seeks a lower state. When it makes this transition, it releases energy in the form of light. HIDs differ from florescent bulbs in that the HID bulbs release visible light where florescent bulbs release non-visible light and the phosphorus coating on the inside of the bulb is what then gets excited and releases the visible light.

As for your headlight issue, let me know what style of headlight you have and then we can take it from there. As for getting new bulbs, both halogen and HID bulbs can be picked up at your local auto parts store. You are not forced to get the bulbs from only the dealer. If you do have HID bulbs, you MUST!!!!! get a 35W bulb. If you get any other wattage bulb, you are very likely to cause irreversible damage to your headlights.

If you have any questions, just ask. As you can see, I will explain things to as much detail as you want.

P.S. Welcome to the forums. We pride ourselves in being a forum with high standards. So, grab yourself a cup of joe, look around, see what you can find. We are a friendly bunch and will help out anyone around. All we ask is 2 things in return: 1) give friendly and lively answers where you have something to add, and 2) have a fun time here. We also ask that since you are new here, to stop by the "New Member" section and introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself. This will give you a chance to learn who the movers and shakers are around here. May even get a little surprise out of it too.

 

Thanks so much Thermo. I did have to take off the black covers which was a real pain in the car. I think I will take off the bumper and take them out to completely change the bulbs. So I am pretty sure I do have the HID bulbs.
I went to the new member section, but I didn't see any place to introduce myself. I am very computer illiterate. I am 63 years old and can barely find my way around a computer.
Since I am sure I do have the HID bulbs, how should they work on high beam and on low beam. This is my wife's car and I have hardly ever driven it, so I am not very familiar with it at all. She has been complaining that she had to run on high beam all the time to be able to see, so I thought I would check it out. I have done mechanic work most of my life, but mostly on older stuff, so I can find my way around a car. I just have trouble with some of the newer technology stuff.

 

Great reply from Chris ( Thermo ) as always, thanks Chris.
As stated we do pride ourselves on being a forum with high standards.....I couldn't have put it better myself!

Caseymiw - sounds like your full beam lights are inoperative, possibly a bulb / relay or fuse, but Chris will be able to help you much better than I for sure.

Here's a thread on front bumper removal should you need it
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...val-faq-11541/

Stick with it Casey and with discussions here, we can help.

If you have any forum issues and are not overly pc literate we can help there too. If there's anything you're not sure of or need help, please just ask and moderator / Supermoderator or veteran member who will be glad to help.

Posting into the new member section -
New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

If you look on the left of the page, you will see " New Thread" and click on that as you must have done here, simply post some details about you / car / location & interests etc ......job done.

Hope you get your issues resolved.

 

Casey, all of our cars have a black cover on the back of the headlights. What I am referring to is a black box that is between that rubber cover and the headlight bulb.

Something I will caution you on is HID bulbs operate on very high voltage (at points up to 23,000 volts). So, if you are working on the HID system, make sure no one turns on the headlights as you have your hands inside the headlight housing. This is something that is different from your standard halogen bulbs. I am not wanting to scare you, but some precautions are needed.

I will want to verify, but i believe both your low and high beams are on when you turn on the high beams. If you look at the headlights, you will see 2 lenses on each side. Inside the outer lenses, you will see 2 openings in each one. The outer opening is your turn signal. The inner opening is your low beam. When you look at the inner lens, you will see a bulb in the center of the lens and then one in the upper corner. The center bulb is your high beam. The bulb that is off in the corner, that is your running/parking light. So, in short, this is what you will see during normal operation of the car unless you have DRLs installed in the car:

Headlight switch in off: all lights off except the turn signal when in use
Parking light position (1 click clockwise): the small bulb on the inner lens that is offset will come on along with your front and rear side marker light and your running lights in the rear. Of note, if you pull out on the headlight switch at this point, it will pull out to 2 different positions. The first click outwards will turn on your front fog lights (as indicated by a green "fog light" indication on the dash). If you pull it a little further out, you will turn on the rear fog lights (this will be indicated by a yellow "fog light" indication on the dash).
Turning the headlight switch to the second click clockwise, this will turn on your low beams (outer lens, but inner opening) along with all the lights indicated for the parking light position. Again, the fog lights will work as described above.
You may be able to turn the headlight switch one additional click (for a total of 3) to engage automatic headlights. Not all cars came equipped with this option. In short, there is a light sensor in the dash and when it gets dark enough, the car will turn on the headlights/parking lights for you.

As for the high beams. When you engage these, this will force off the front fog lights and the center bulb of the inner lens will turn on. This light will "snap" on to full brightness.

One other check you can do to determine if you have HID or halogen bulbs is to get a second person to help you or to park the car facing a wall (with the car parked away about 20 feet). While able to see the light of the headlights, turn on the low beams. If the light instantaneously goes to full brightness, then you have halogen bulbs. If you see the bulb flash quickly, then dims, then comes up in brightness over about a 2-3 second period, then you have HID bulbs. You may also see your headlights wiggle up and down as you turn them on. This is normal. Our cars are equipped with a self leveling set up.

Hopefully this is helping to explain the features your car has. If your low beams are not coming on, let me know and we will go from there. There are a few possibilities.

 

be aware...i have had no luck finding an auto store which sells HID bulbs from stock, all stores i called had to order them, and they were around the $100 each price range

I went to ebay where i found prices ranged from $10 to $100 each.
i opted for the super cheap $10...still working perfectly :+)

also be aware....the HID bulbs come in various shades of color. when you purchase a replacement you will need to know what "K" value your good bulb is or you may end up with 2 different color headlights....i just replaced both bulbs. I think 3500K is what jaguar uses, which is very white...the higher the "K" the more color will be introduced, from green thru to blue...hopefully if you do have HID bulbs, Thermo will elaborate on the "K" value ;+)

 

Many thanks to all for your quick response and advise. I have never had such good response before, even on
forums where you had to pay for advise.

Okay Chris "Thermo", I found no sticker anywhere on the drivers door, and no black box, so I guess I do
have Halogen lights.
Everything looks exactly the same as the pictures in my drivers handbook with the
inside circular cover you turn and the big oblong, odd shaped, deep cover with the two clips.
Then the light bulbs are directly behind them. It does seem funny to me that the one high beam bulb I took out to look at
would not work after I put it back, when it worked before. Could I have done something to mess it up?

Do these bulbs show an obvious broken filament when they are bad, like the bulbs used for the turn signals
do? Of the ones I looked at, none of them looked bad to me. What is your suggestion now?

 

Casey, how are you with a multimeter? This would be the best way to get things done as this is a nice quantitative way to see which component is bad.

With that being said, the clips that you plug the bulb into, how do they look. Are they a nice bright white, or do they have a tan/brown look to them. The halogen bulbs are known for "baking" the clips, which leads to them not making good contact, therefore the bulbs not working. Granted, it can also be something as simple as the relay for the low beams failing. Let me get my hands on the drawings and I will give you a step by step "how to" on troubleshooting the headlights. We will get you hooked up and a repair for hopefully fairly cheap.

When it comes to indications of the headlight bulbs being bad, they are just like any other bulb. NOrmally you will get a black spot on the bulb and if you look at the filament, you will see where it has separated. HID bulbs are not that easy as they don't have a filament. All they have is a gas inside of a glass tube.

 

Chris, unfortunately I am not very good when it comes to electronics on a car. I do have access to a multimeter, but it may take me a few days to get it. The bulbs I have, definately have filaments in them, so they have to be halogen. I am leaving on a 4 day trip in the morning. When I get back I will have plenty of time to take the bumper off where I can easily get to the headlights and work on them. I will check those connections first thing.
Thanks again for all your help.

 

Casey, let me know when you return. Using the multimeter is pretty easy. Get your hands on it and I will tell you exactly where to put the leads. Then all you do is follow what I say and you should be golden.

 

Hi Chris "Thermo".
I made it back home and I managed to get ahold of an old tester. It shows volts/ohms/milliammeter and only has 2 leads. Will this do any good, or will I need to get ahold of a newer/better one? I have a neighbor that I can borrow one from, I just have to catch him at home. I haven't pulled the bumper off yet, but plan to do that the first thing in the morning.

 

casey, that will do just fine. Some times the older ones have a few benefits that the newer ones seem to have lost unless you get a high end one.

Ok, first things first. Lets start with your driver's side. We are going to first worry about your low beams. That is going to be in the outer lens, but the inside part of that lens. This will be the lens that appears clear (unlike the outer one which will have a yellow color to it). if you look on the back side, you should see a plug attached to the back of the bulb. If I remember right, you should also see some bare metal on this plug (if you don't, then you will need to unplug the plug from the back of the bulb). If you look at the plugs, one should have a red wire going to it, the other is black (as I recall). Set the multimeter to a "VDC" scale (preferably the 20 V scale, but anyone 10V or more will work). Now, make sure that the leads to the multimeter are plugged into the "V" jack and "COM" of the multimeter. You should see 3 or 4 jacks on the front of the multimeter. One is "COM", one should be marked "V" with possibly a funny looking "O" with feet, a jack will be marked with an "A", and you may have a 4th jack marked with "mA". Make sure the leads are not in the ones marked "A" or "mA". Red lead in the "V" jack, black lead in the "COM" jack.

Now, for the check. Insert your key and turn it to the "II" (or RUN) position and then turn on your headlights. Connect the red lead to the red wire, black lead to the black wire. You should see the multimeter jump up to about 12 VDC. If you see this, you have a bad bulb. If you don't see this, then I want you to disconnect the multimeter, slide into the passenger area of car and find the fuse box there. You will need to located fuse F16 (for 02/03 cars) or fuse F29 (for 04+ vehicles). If you look on the fuse, you should see 2 small silver tabs in the top of the fuse. Touch the black lead to any bare metal spot under the dash and touch the red lead to these metal tabs (one at a time). If you get 0 VDC on both tabs, then you have a problem with a bad relay, replace the relay (R9 for 02/03 vehicles, R11 for 04+ vehicles). If you get 12 VDC on 1 tab, but not on the other, then replace that fuse (it blew, then reperform the checks to make sure it is good, also the headlight should be on now). If both tabs show 12 VDC, then you have a wiring problem between the fuse box and the headlight bulb. Odds are, you have a bad connector inside of the headlight and it needs to be replaced (common issue with our cars with halogen bulbs).

You can repeat the checks on the passenger side, but when it comes to the fuses, you are looking at F17 for the 02/03 vehicles and F30 for the 04+ vehicles.

Also, if you end up thinking the relay is bad, on the 02/03 vehicles swap relays R9 and R1. For the 04+ vehicles, swap relay R11 with R4.. In both cases, you are replacing the relay with the windshield wiper relay. If after swapping the relay you still have issues, then let me know and we will have to go further back into the car.

If you are having issues with your turn signals or the running lights down on the sides of the bumper, then let me know. The turn signals can be a number of things. But the running lights on the side of the bumper is most likely a bad bulb or possibly a bad bulb base. I know it is getting power since the small bulb on the inner headlight is getting power.

Let me know what you find.

 

Thanks so much for all your help Chris. The tester worked fine, you gave great directions. It was just bad bulbs. The high beam I had looked at must have broken the element when I put it back in. The one low beam I had looked at and looked good tested bad. I couldn't get to the other low beam until I pulled the bumper. When I did get to it, it was very obvious that it was burnt out. I replaced all three bulbs and all is working fine now. Total cost of just under $25 and a few hours of time and I have a whole lot more time than $$$$$. No telling what this would have cost at a shop.
By the way, just for future reference, the F16 and F17 fuses on my car are under the hood instead of under the dash.
Thanks again for your help. I learned quite a bit from this little experience. I hope I get a chance to return the favor. I will be checking in periodically to see what other interesting problems come up.

 

Casey, good to hear it was nothing too serious. Besides, it gave you some time to learn some about your car. Do not be a stranger. You will find that I will help out with just about anything.

As for the fuses, I probably mis read the labeling on the diagrams I have when referring to the fuses. Sorry about that.