I get bored fairly easily, so I jacked my car up, dropped the under tray (belly pan?), and added a few sets of Hella fog and driving lights behind the grilles for people who won't get out of the left lane at night (in addition to my Stebel 139db mini air horn). They're controlled by a single 3-position rocker switch which I discreetly mounted under the dash. I integrated the wiring for the two sets of lights because I knew I wouldn't feel like taking the time to find multiple switches for the lights, whenever I "needed" them. The bottom lights have dual bulbs, one for fog and one for driving; I switched out the stock 55w fog bulbs for 55w yellow bulbs and I switched out the stock 55w driving bulbs for 100w bulbs. I left the top lights as they were. But, I also have some 100w yellow bulbs, as well as some H3 LEDs with which I might experiment. I sealed the housings with some rubberized coating to prevent water from getting in. As I expected, having them mounted behind the grilles reduced light output and spread, but I didn't really care. I just felt like playing around with something for the weekend. Ultimately, I really like them. You can't really see them mounted behind the grilles when they're turned off, but they add a bit of fun whenever I flip the switch.

Yes, I took everything into consideration regarding local laws, wiring issues, heat issues, etc. I'm sure a bunch of "purists" will hate them, along with most everything else I've done to my toy, but I thought I'd share anyway, in case it interests anyone else who might be a little more open minded.

 

That's a lot of lights! What are the LED strips - and how did you install them?
Thanks for sharing!

 

Very nice work!


Although, I can't tell looking at your car from the front that it is Supercharged!


For example, I upgraded my front grille badge to display this knowledge.

 

I rarely use the fog/driving lights, but they're nice to have whenever I need them. And, like I said, I was just bored a few weekends ago, so felt like playing around with something. I've also upgraded my high beam lights to HIDs, converted all stock bulbs to LEDs (including strips in the trunk), etc.

The LEDs are Philips DRL8 DRLs (12824WLEDX1) and work in conjunction with my headlights; they're full bright until my headlights come on, then they dim. I think I posted a few pix of them somewhere else on here, too. I also put them on the front of my '12 Range Rover Sport Supercharged (see attached pic). They're extremely high quality and have been perfect, after close to a year. To answer your question regarding DRL install; they're fairly easy to do. I used 3M double-sided auto tape to attach them, which is completely reversible without hurting the finish of the car, etc. I just ran the wire through the upper grille mesh holes. I ran the driver-side light wiring behind the bumper to the passenger side of the car, then I ran both sets of wires to the passenger-side headlight. I pulled the signal from the passenger-side headlight, and there was an existing ground bolt in that area, which I'm also using for my fog/driving lights and additional horn. I ran the power to the engine fuse box, which is also on the passenger side of the car, using a fuse tap, and voila.

My car has a ton of wires running around it from the sub box, amp, bass knob, capacitor, Escort Redline radar detector, Escort Live Direct Wire, Laser Interceptor Quad laser jammers (and separate rocker switch), the Escort external speaker, the Laser Interceptor external speaker, the Stebel mini air horn, the three sets of additional lights (and separate rocker switch), etc. But, they're all completely hidden, as I'm extremely **** about everything.

 

Sorry, I can't see your picture.

 

Here are the pictures for the front grille upgrade from mina.


If you notice, I also added the SC badge. I always like to show that this car is the XFR step brother!


How do you like those DRLs on this car?

 

Wasn't familiar with the SC badge - don't know if I've ever seen one before.

The DRLs look great.

 

Hi: the SC Badge is the "Jaguar Supercharged" and is that little round green thing on the grille with a face of a mighty jaguar! The word Jaguar is on top and Supercharged on the bottom of the badge.


In this case, the badge is in front of the car positioned on the chrome grille. When you look at a car's badge today, it only says Jaguar on it. The badge I installed is a retro fit from the XKR line that used this badge a few years ago.




Cheers

 

Gotcha. Nice personal touch.

 

Did you buy the front grille and add the LED's yourself or do they sell them that way now? I was on their site last week and I didn't see anything.

 

The front bottom chrome and front side grilles are from mina and are separate installs. You have to take off the bottom cover under the engine to gain access for the install.


The LED DRLs are a separate install and are sold without the grille parts. The DRLs require special install steps that I posted earlier. I did all the installs myself.

 

OP, nice. I like that you do your thing and don't care what others think. I'm glad you don't get the hate like I did for some reason when I simply plastidipped my grille :P

That is a really sweet badge actually. I wish I knew how well it matches the green in the XFR badge. I've got one in my grille and I feel like the green in the center badge would really pop....I just don't want it to look off with the green of the other badge.

 

WRX...whatever you do don't start that Plastidip discussion again!!!

 

 

I forgot to mention that I changed out my OEM halogen high beams for some 5000K HIDs. Now, those will really blind the hell out of someone... in a good way.

Note: The HID high beams are not pictured above - the ones in the pix above are of some LED high beam experimenting.

 

when you coming to Maryland to do mine you can make a fortune with your skills

 

Reaxions have you thought about doing ZKW / ZKW-R lens swaps in your headlights? I have two sets of ZKW-Rs sitting around and I am really contemplating finally doing it to this car. I have modded 4 or 5 other sets of headlights but I might hand these over to a professional if I do it. The "fuzziness" of the headlight threshold on this car is more noticeable than others, enough that it bugged me and made me seriously consider it.

I don't know if there is anything specifically about our headlights that would cause an issue with this swap but I am curious if anyone else has tried it. I may end up being a guinea pig

 

Spoke with The Retrofit Source this morning, really awesome guys. They seem to believe that the ZKW-R lenses would be a direct replacement for the stock projector housings and that the EVO-XR would be a direct replacement projector unit. Their version of the EVO-XR actually includes the ZKW-R lenses.

Bi-xenon: Hella EvoX-R - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source

Theoretically you could buy two sets of these to replace the high / low beams (if you wanted to convert your highs to projectors) or you could buy one pair and a set of ZKW-R lenses to replace those in your stock projectors like I have and accomplish the same thing

 

I hadn't thought about it, but I'll pretty much try anything... once. Thanks for suggesting. I'll usually experiment with various setups on my XFR and my RRSS, switching things back and forth to see where I like the various items the best. But, as they're both daily drivers, I usually need to have one in driving order at any given time. As it stands, I probably have $7K worth of brand-new, unused car "stuff" sitting in my garage because I'll order it and never get around to playing with it/installing it, and I'm too lazy to return anything. I'm closing on a new house next Wednesday and immediately building a 2-story garage with a lift (17' wide x 24' deep - I'm limited by city property setback limits on the side of my house or I'd go wider and deeper) to compliment the existing 2-car garage, so I'll really start playing with stuff then. At some point, I'll probably just buy a real toy car that I can leave taken apart for days, if I need to. I get sick of having to button everything up, just so I can get to work. Booo.

 

I know this is old but I'm having a hard time finding where people generally run wires from front of the car or engine compartment through the firewall into the cabin area. Any suggestions? Looking for the easiest and have looked quickly for the hood release grommet and beside the brake pedal but I have a bad back and is hard to crawl in there for very long. If I know exactly where to go I can focus and get through it if I have some good advice. Thanks.