have a 2003 jaguar x-type, all the light in the back are messed up, When i hit the brakes the rear fog lights come on, when i use a turn signal other lights come on and go off. Any help would be grateful.

thanks much.

 

Satwarez, it sounds like to me that your ground wire is missing/broken and the lights are back feeding through other bulbs. If I remember right (going off the top of my head since I don't have my JTIS with me since I am at work), the ground wire on the rear tail lights is a black wire. do a continuity check of the ground wire. If that is good, then let me know and I will tell you some other checks to make. BUt, based on how the wiring is done, for you to get the indications you are, you either have a bundle of wires that have hit something hot and they have fused together or your ground wire is not making good contact with the body.

 

ok. thanks. i will start doing my checks immediately and let you know. Also when driving with headlights on at night and a car is too close behind me, the reverse aid sensors tend to beep. i thought it only suppose to beep when in the reverse gear. is this normal? do you think its associated with the problem i previously mentioned?

 

satwarez, yes, I would be venturing to guess that the beeping sound is associated with your light issue. The parking aid module receives power any time the backup lights get power. So, if you are backfeeding through the ground wires, it could be causing the parking aide module to sense the other vehicle.

 

@ Thermo. I did my initial inspection of the left rear tail light and discovered the following:

1) the ground wire is indeed the black one

2)upon removing the left rear tail light, i noticed that the wire harness that connects to the connection point on the tail light itself had "burned out"

3)on the wire harness itself @ the point where the black wire is inserted into the harness is burned completely to the point where the two metal contacts don't touch.

4) the blackwire contact point on the tail light itself is also burned, but not to serverly.

How do i repair this:

Do i purchase the wire harness and cut off the old one and just reconnect it to the wires using electrical tape?

Also am assuming that the tail light is still usable and the burned contact point would not be a problem provided that the wire harness is changed?


Your advice and knowledge is greatly appreciated.

02 x type sports
03 x type sports

 

satwarez, what I would tell you do to is to go to a boating store (you are most likely to find what I am going to recommend there). You are going to want to find some spade connectors (preferably for 14 gauge wiring, so, they will most likely be yellow in color). You will need a male connector and a female connector. What is special about these is you are going to want them to seal to each other. So, you will want something that has a sleeve that will slide inside of another sleeve. This will keep moisture out of the connection and garantee a long permanent repair. If you can't find them, then you can use standard spade connectors (make sure that one end is completely covered by plastic to prevent electrical issues). If you can find another type of connector that is water tight, then you can use that too. But the spade connectors will most likely be the cheapest option you can find. From there, cut the ground wires off of both sides of the plug (cut as close to the plug as possible without getting into the bad wire section), attach your spades to the cut wires.

If, due to the amount of damaged wiring you can not reconnect the two pieces, then tape up the piece of wire that is running to the body of the car. Now, using a piece of wire (the same size wire or larger and preferably with black colored insulation), run it from the spade connector to a metal portion of the car. This will replace the ground wire and make the lights functional again. DO NOT!!!!! use a smaller gauge wire than what is already being used. As you can see, it is barely able to handle the current that it normally sees. What probably happened in your case is some water got into the wiring (between the copper wire and the insulation) and it caused the wire to start to corrode, leading to a high resistance connection, which then lead to rapid failure of the wiring due to excessive heating. It may be even worthwhile to simply replace the whole section of ground wire from where it comes out of the taillight (as far back as you can go) and then run all new wiring from there. It may lead to a nicer looking repair and the additional cost is going to be next to nothing since all you are paying for is a few extra feet of wiring.