I had been looking at X-types for a few months, and this forum has helped me evaluate several.

I went to look at one only to find the dealer had sold it, but he said he just got another in trade (Mercedes dealer). It was a 2006 VDP, which I was not so interested in due to the cost of bells and whistles. Being surprised at his response to my offer, I ended up with the VDP. It has 83,243 miles on it.

The jags I had looked at earlier were all looked at by my mechanic, but this one was too far from him, so I have taken a bigger risk than I wanted. I take it in to my mechanic tomorrow.

I have a few questions:

Mirror:
I know the rear view mirror is auto dimming, but there is a little button underneath. Does that turn it on when pressed in, or is it on, when left out? The Handbook doesn't mention the button.

The lights behind me seemed awfully bright no matter what I pushed the first time, but last night they seemed to actually dim with it pushed in.

Wipers:
During my test drive, in which I tried to be as thorough as possible, I could find nothing wrong with the car. Windows, radio, lights, etc. But driving to the airport (about 20 minutes) yesterday, the windshield wipers came on unexpectedly. It was not raining (I am aware of the rain sensing wipers), and they were in the off position. They continued to do this at random intervals.

Today they came on again after ~20 min. of driving. Some have said the battery may be low. I will have my mechanic check it tomorrow, but given the fridged weather, I think I would experience some difficulty starting the engine--starts right up.

Xenon lights:
Inside the driver's door, there is a sticker that says "This vehicle may have mercury containing components" (Something like that), and then lists below it. HID headlights, and Navigation Unit.

So does this car have Xenon lights in it? They seem rather yellow for xenon. If they are in fact xenon, is it all of the lights Hi, Lo, and fog?

I see that Thermo has performed a lot of headlight changes, and written quite a bit about it, but I haven't figured out exactly all the lights in the front housing. He mentions LED's, but what part is using LED, and what LED bulbs are being used? I don't take it the Hi or Lo beams are using LED, so it must be a running light? or parking? I found several postings, but not a full definitive one regarding all the front facing lights.

Thanks so much for all of the members of this forum. You are a great help and resource. I'll post a picture when it isn't so d**** cold. It's ebony color.

 

indi, the button on the bottom does turn the auto dimming on and off. Granted, it takes a few seconds for it to start working. So, if you think the lights behind you are too bright, give the button on the bottom a push and then look back again in about 10 seconds. They should be much dimmer.

As for the wipers, this can be a few different things. The first question that I would ask you is where your hand rests as you are driving. If you tap the "WASH" button on the right stalk, this will cause the wipers to do a swipe as it is thinking you sprayed the windshield with washing fluid and now it is attempting to clear it. The other option is the drive motor for the wipers is getting worn out and if you hit a bump, the motor sees the wipers leaving the "PARKED" position (ie, all the way down where you find them 99% of the time) which will cause the motor to become energized and they will do a swipe until they reach the PARKED position again.

As for xenon headlights, the only lights on the car that will be xenon will be the low beams (or as the brits call them, dip beams). All other lights from the factory are halogen on the exterior of the car. Anyone that has LEDs bulbs (like me) on the exterior of the car have added them after the fact.

If you are unsure of whether you have HID (aka, xenon) bulbs, a quick check that you can do is to park the car in front of a wall (with the car facing the wall). Now, turn on your headlights. Do they "snap on" or do they flash and then over a few seconds come up to full brightness. If they snap on, then you have halogen bulbs. If they flash and then come up to brightness, you have HIDs. You can also remove the back of the headlight housing and if you see the back of a bulb, you have halogens. If you see a black box filling up the opening, then you have HIDs.

 

Thanks Thermo!

I'll do the checks before I leave for home. Mirror confirms what I suspected. Must have been impatient the first night. Hope to get more definitive info on the wipes tomorrow.

May I ask what LED you are using, and for which light? You seem to have put one in for NAV too?

Thanks.
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Trevor, Pittsburgh, PA 06 X-Type VDP

 

Indi, congratulations on your ne car and welcome to the forums.

I am guessing the issue with your wipers is just you have them in the automatic position and that is why they are coming on randomly. Not sure how the systems detects moisture and when to make a sweep, but I know when I first got mine I had it in that mode and it drove me crazy until I figured it out. I don't remember what it was on the stalk and I am not in my car, but just look in the owner's manual or play around with the stalk and you will figure it out.

 

Hello & welcome , nice to see you here . the X is a great compact cruiser , curb appeal , rarity value with the added bebefit of 4x4....Enjoy .

 

Thanks for the welcomes. I feel more comfortable already.

4x4 AWD was definitely important five speed. This replaces our SUV AWD, and our other vehicle is a mini-van.

Our location requires at least one vehicle with AWD. Wife has "on-call" duty at the hospital every few weeks.

Too dark tonight to check out the lights, but will definitely do so tomorrow with the mechanic.

 

Indi, the way I did my LED lights is not for the faint at heart. Being an electronics guy by trade, I did it "the hard way". I actually got out a parts catalog and bought me some 285K MCD 10MM LEDs (lost in that jargon?). I then had to cut the wire and install a 1K ohm resistor to limit the current to what the LED could handle. I then coiled the LED leads up so they were 3 lead thicknesses (folded the last 1/8" over on itself and then roll those two layers over on the lead again to make it 3 layers thick). I did this partially to make the leads the same length, but also to make it so they will slide and stick in the bulb base for the 194 bulbs. Once you do all this, you can put the LED into the bulb base (make sure to get the polarity correct, otherwise it won't work).

For those not that adventurous, you can find some flat top 10MM bulbs already done up wtih a built in resistor having a 194 bulb base already formed on to the LED. Then all you do is unplug your halogen bulbs and then slide these into place (again, make sure you get the correct polarity else the bulb may not work, so, may need to have the parking lights on as you are putting in the bulbs to make sure you get them correct). These will not be quite as bright, but are something that anyone can install. Did I mention I don't like doing things the easy way? LMAO.

If you have more questions, let me know. I will tell you more about HIDs than you can want to learn about. If you do have HIDs and you don't like the "yellow" look, then odds are you have the factory 4300K bulbs installed. You can get some new "D2S HID bulbs" in say the 6000K temperature to get more of the snow white look. The downside to this is you will loose a little bit of brightness as the 4300K bulbs are normally rated at 3300 lumen and the 6000K bulbs are rated for 3100 lumen. Not a significant difference, but some do notice the difference.

 

Yes Thermo, I have some understanding of what you wrote (mcd = millicandles). But I only play EE on weekends. It appears though that the hard way was the only way, when you did your change.

Regardless, if they make them with the resistors built-in, that is how I will do it now. A Quick look at some adverts however show LED's in lumens instead of MCD. One wonders if they are averaging the output angles, or if they taking the largest MCD calculation and converting that to lumens.

Not sure how bright my DTR lights should be anyway. I see anywhere from 45 Lumens to 550 Lumens for wedges.

As for the rest of the car...

Met with my mechanic today. Good news is that the engine, wheels, and underbody are in great condition. I brought some syntheic oil, and a K&N oil filter to change it while it was up on the rack, but we noticed that the oil filter (OEM Jag filter) looked very new. we checked the oil from up top and he recommended not changing it. The oil was very clear.

Is there a 3000 mile set oil change reminder in the x-type? The manual does not mention one, and I couldn't find one in the obvious places.

Battery is tested at CCA 778. It was also super clean. It is an OEM Jag Battery, and looks very new. I couldn't find that it was replaced in the CarFAX report, but it had to be at the last Jag service listed from last year.

Some frustrating events though. Wipers continue to come on intermittently after 15 - 20 min of driving. I am not hitting it, or putting it in auto mode, so I know there is something else going on. Also, today the radio station switched my when I stopped (put in park) the car to let my daughter out for school. That has never happened before, and it didn't happened the rest of the day (did a lot of driving around today).

I was unsuccessful in pairing a new key fob. Will re-look over the instructions again, and am about to check the key fob battery to see if it may have a plastic slip protecting it from contact. It was a new one.

Finally, my head unit lost the bluetooth connection to my phone. I tried to re-pair the phone, but was unsuccessful. I removed Jaguar from my phone's bluetooth list, and then the Jag's head unit reported my phone registered. But it did not work of course. Weird. Will try again later.

Stopped by Harbor Freight and picked up their 3-ton floor jack, 4 3-ton jack stands, and the floor jack crossbeam--big sale today.

Great relief regarding the engine, a little frustrating regarding the electronics.

Also ordered an OBDII to Android device today, but it won't arrive for a month.

Thanks again for all the welcomes and advice.

 

Indi, when it came to the running lights, the plug and play bulbs were available, but I wasn't willing to pay what they were asking. Since then, the prices of the bulbs have dropped significantly. So, almost makes it not worthwhile to do it the way I did cost wise.

Considering that your daytime running lights (from factory) are your low beams, they are in the 1500 lumen range. if you go with an aftermarket company, then those in the 500 lumen range will be adequate as most of them these days are LED and will be visable for a long ways (won't light up the ground at dusk, but are definitely visable). If you want more info, post your questions and I will pass on what I know.

As for the wipers, I want you to try something for me. Access the passenger cabin fuse box and remove fuse F7. Pulling this fuse is going to cause you to loose: Power folding mirrors (if equipped), voice command (if equipped), auto rain sensing, side mirror heating, and all control of the front seats (seat heaters and seat adjustments). So, before you pull the fuse, make sure you have the car started and all things where they need to be. Then drive around for awhile and see if your problem goes away. If it does, then your problem lies in the module that does the auto rain control. If it continues, most likely it is the motor in the cowl that needs to be replaced.

 

VDP! Nice. I have a "VDP" wannaBe! I installed the mesh grill and chrome mirror covers. Are you sure about the sticker that states "mercury continaing components..." I thought that is states that componets in the car could be from Ford or Mercury vehicles? Welcome to the site! A lot of great people and information.