Hi Guys,

I hope this thread helps all who do a search for this topic i the future, so please sticky if possible.
I have made a similar thread years ago for the XFR and now doing so for the XE-R Sport.

After trial and error on the XFR and now with the XE I strongly agree you all buy and use VLEDs brand and resistors. Sure, they will cost a bit more than the rest out there but I promise you they will last long, be of top quality and prevent you from having to take your lights apart i the future to change a bad LED out. The XE is a bit of a PITA on the first go around but now I can do the whole car LED swap very quickly now that I know what works best in it.

The first post is for the LED puddle light task i the mirrors. This was tricky as it is the same as the XFR but I always have a hard time with my jeweler flat blade or pick to release the puddle light threw that tiny slot in the bottom of the glass to push on the plastic spring clip of the puddle light. Please see images for for the clip I speak of. 1 thing to note is I used a 360 type 194 LED bulb in 5k White and I think the light is spotty and slight blue for some reason. If I were to do it again I would buy a flank style 194 bulb so it points the light down.

I think this upgrade is a must as the puddle lights are very yellow in color with the stock 194 bulb and look cheap to me. There is other threads I made about this mod i the XF sub forums if you want more info on the puddle lights.

 

Next I swapped out the floor lights in the foot wells from the stock 194 to a 5k white LED panel light that I got from here: 2x 6000K White 48-5050-SMD LED Panel Lights Interior Dome Map Trunk Lamp 12V | eBay

These just plug plug in and stick onto the under plastic panel in the foot wells. I tried the reg 194 LED bulbs but the light was uneven and cheap, these panels light the floor evenly with white light.

I didn't change any other of the interior lights like I did on the XFR as the domes lights etc are already white in color and bright enough.

Correction, mine are only 12 LED panels:

 

For the trunk I thought it was always silly they only have just 1 bulb back there.

So I bought a pair of DRL LED strips to do the job as I always find it hard to see and find stuff i the trunk at night.

I bought these and I can't be happier with the even light it gives off: https://www.amazon.com/OPT7-Nova-Pla...+5k+white+OPT7

These look cool i the box but they are soldered poorly and the metal trim can short the wires. I would NEVER use these for outside use and only inside use. They work great as a trunk light and just plug into the stock 194 bulb socket in the trunk.

 

The front turn signals were tricky at first. I only found this bulb in LED in 1 place on Amazon that would fit i the hole due to depth, etc : Xenon White Error Free PWY24W LED https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It turns out they are not error free for the XE but they don't cause a hyper flat either. What happens is they flash at the normal rate but the lights on your dash cluster flash very fast to tell you there is a light out via the BCM.

The lights look very good and are super bright, maybe even too bright for me as I am becoming an old fart.

To fix the hyper flash i the cluster I had to install a pair of 6ohm VLED resistors ( 1 per side) inside the headlight housing itself. There is tons of room i there just don't mount it near the headlight tilting motor ( see pics).

To install the bulbs and resistor it is very easy, just remove the airbag via 1 10mm bolt and a flat blade screw on the hose clamp and then unplug the MAF plug and finally removing the ram air ducky. Then just life the air box out and taketh cap off the back of headlight and pull on the parking light bulb to remove it. This is is your handbook as well.

I am so happy with the difference this made:











I use the VLED brand because it is small, and doesn't get super hot and mounts very nicely :

 

For the rear lights this really threw me for a loop. I spent tons of time with a meter and was very careful. No matter what I did the lights would stop working after I started the car and never work again until I put it back to stock. I checked fuses, put the car to sleep, etc. Come to find out the rear is controlled by the BCM and if it doesn't see what it likes in load it shuts down the entire circuit!

I am still doing this today as I type this so I only have it figured out on a bench test and will update more later on. But this is what I got so far:

This chart is wrong for our cars because we don't have your typical 3157, etc bulbs that draw about 26-28 watts and are dual element for turn/brake. Instead we have a pair of 921 bulbs for each side (total 4)

After trying the 3ohm resistors and failing over and over I tried a 6 ohm and it worked! Probably because the pair of 921 bulbs are 13w each and draw the amount of 1 bulb equal to 26-28 w 3157 type bulbs. Now I have a pair of 3 ohm resistors I don't need and just got my 6 ohm units today for me to complete the install. More pics to come :



So in recap you need a total of 4 921 LEDs and a pair of 6 ohm resistors to do the rear tails.

 

The reverse lights are super simple but with a twist. They are accessed the same way to remove the twilight with just 1 single thumb screw you can reach threw the fuse panel or the trap door on the driver side as mentioned in the owners manual.

Here is the twist, The reverse lights are same as the twilight bulbs are bulb 921. Now I had a pair of VLED 921 LEDS laying around from 5 years ago and tossed them in. But I noticed at night when the car was parked and locked that the passenger side reverse light was glowing slightly. IT seems that the BCM allows bout 6 volts on rest to be applied and it was just enough to light that 1 LED a tiny bit. So I ordered another set of new 921 LEDs for mVLED and they looked updated and no longer give a slight glowing. I was told that I can toss a pair of 25 ohm resistors to the reverse lights to burn off any draw to make the BCM happy so I got those also but yet to put them in as it all seems to be working flawless and no drained battery yet.I think the 25 ohm on these are optional at this point but the rest of the lights you need to use them like I mentioned prior.

Feel free to add any comments or ask any questions as we all are here to help out. I make many threads and post not to type a lot but to help give back to others as well as proving some facts to avoid a bad install or damage to your new XE. I hope this helps others when they use the search button or if this gets made as a sticky by the MODS. IF you need more credibility about me please search my name on here as I have many thanks and likes to back up my posts

 

Thank you for sharing all this info/how to guide.

Is there any way I can open those images in full size? Currently, it shows small thumbnails.

I am planning to change interior lights only below the dashboard

 

I think you can use this direct link for this entire album: https://postimg.org/gallery/kj4jguwm/

 

Here is the final pics and info o the rear tails.

All went well and it alls seems to be working as planned. I these pics you can see where I stuffed the 25 ohm reverse light resistor and the tail light 6 ohm resistor They look bright and even and now match the rest of the cars stock LEDs and looks more uniform as it should from factory.

 

Hi thanks for post. I have tried, but what end do you insert the jewelers flat blade? Have been trying the LHS as per your photo? How does it leaver out?
Something is not working for me.
Robert

 

If you tilt your mirror all the way up so you can see behind the glass you will be able to see a small slit where a pick or tiny flat blade can be inserted. You ca NOT pry out the puddle light from the lights bezel anywhere, you have to release it from behind the mirror. There is a PDF in a post in the XF section that I will try to find to post here to help.

 

Please go to post # 84 by MeaneGene , full how to for puddle lights: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...d-82098/page5/

 

Anything on the front headlight bulbs? mine are ugly yellowish color, wish I could replace with something white.

 

In this picture, when do the yellow highlighted lights turn on?

 

not sure when? I guess as soon as I start the car? but I don't have the fancy lights as in your pic or the instructional. I have the cheap set I cant believe Jag would decide to use such garbage on this expensive of a car.... its a shame as Koreans/Japs have better lights on <20K cars.

 

If you look in your owners manual it will tell you what the bulb numbers are for the front lights. Then just buy that bulb type/number from VLEDS in the color you wish. I stick with 5k for pure white but some like the hint of blue ion 6k color. 8k is almost all blue color.

 

Thanks BigCat, as always to the rescue

 

The Germans and Swedes do the same thing. Must be a European thing?

 

They do? see plenty of Audi and BMW on the road and they mostly have fancy lights at least in the US.

 

Do a build model and go base for 3 series, A4,A3, C Class, S60, S80.... all start off with Halogen lights. It's just that in you locale, the dealer may not be ordering stripper models for the lot. Around Boston, it is more common to see base model from any of these marques as everyone drives these. Our Volvo S60 AWD is a base model optioned only with metallic paint and heated seats... That's the way they order them to create volume and good lease deals.