Thank you very much Z20 for your support. Cheers

 

Hi all,

I wish to update the fine gentleman in this forum on my own journey in retrofitting the Double Js LED Headlights on my MY2014 XJ and unfortunately its not good news thus a word of caution for all who wish to do the same.

As per the forumers here, I procured the headlights from Waleed and installed them on my XJ today. To cut a long story short, these are the 2 features that are not working on my XJ:

1. No side lights at all, which in the LED headlights are the double Js.




2. No AFS.

Though I am not a trained electrician, it will appear that there are a few more pins on the Double Js LED headlights (total: 12 pins) than the original Xenon headlights (total: 7) and the positions of the pins are also vastly different in the 2 headlights.

Furthermore, the female connector of the lighting harness from the car that plugs into the headlights are armed with only 7 pins thus the hypothesis is that the double Js/AFS are not working as it is short of another 5 pins!

Please see the pictures below of what is just mentioned:

1. Double Js LED Headlights Connector:



2. Original Xenon Headlights Connector:



3. Female Connector of Lighting Harness from the car:



4. The 2 headlights (showing connectors) side by side:



Needless to say, what was supposed to be a joyous celebration of the double Js LED headlights has turned into a nightmare. So while I am pursuing this with Waleed who I hope will made good his promise that his modified LED headlights are a simple plug and play with full functionality, I am at my wits end here having spent a small fortune on this yet end up with a headlight that is malfunctioning!

So the purpose of this post, besides sharing a negative experience, is to also solicit for help from the fellow forumers here who might have some technical clues on what's wrong and provide advice for the next step forward.

Thank you so much!!!

 

Hello there did you get back to waleed and told him what happened??

 

Yes, got in touch with him through WhatsApp last night and he mentioned he will check with his technical team and get back to me.

Not very hopeful as any further modifications must be done locally in my country since it will cost much more to uninstall the lights from my car, package and ship it back to Waleed and then get it back from him again.

Thus, hoping some of the other forumers here can weigh in with any technical advice. If someone has the picture of the female connector of their XJ that plugs into their headlamps, that will be most appreciated as well!

 

SG it's so unfortunate that your experience was not as fluid as mine. The "side lights" you refer to only come on when you turn the wheel, under a certain speed I believe. Are they working when you turn the wheel left or right? If so they are performing as they should. If not then there is an issue. Obviously the "J's" are not working. Does anything happen when you use the turn indicators? Also, I once had an issue with the trunk light not working and after I disconnected the battery it magically worked upon reconnecting. It's a long shot but sometimes disconnecting the battery now that the lights are installed will act as a reset of sorts. I am not around the car until Sun evening to try and help with a pic. I can try and get a pic for you late Sun if you still need it then.
I've never had to deal with Waleed with any sort of negative issue but hopefully he is as helpful when there is a problem as he is when ordering. It would be great if it is a simple solution. Please let me know if I can help in any way.

 

Hi Z20, so far only the AFS lights (doesnt come on when I signal and turn the wheel) and Double Js LEDs doesn't come on, the rest of the lights are working fine as in the dipped beam, high beam and indicators.

Thanks for the advice, will try to see if I can reset the battery.

Thanks in advance, if you could show me a picture of the female connector (the one that originates from the car and plugs into the headlights) of your XJ, that will be great for comparison!


Thankfully, Waleed has responded and I really hope it can be a simple fix like modifying an adaptor cable as an 'in-between' between the car female connector and the LED headlights.

You have most helpful Z20, thanks for replying!

 

 

I hope these 2 pics help. I am traveling and had to talk the gf into taking a couple pics for me (I have a feeling it's going to cost me!). She text me these and I did my best to post using my phone to try and get you pics asap. The first pic is of the plug coming from the car. The second pic is of the back of the new headlights.
The way I understand it is the second pic was taken by holding the bottom of the phone and trying to get the camera in front of the plug with limited space. And therefore the pic has the connectors that are closest to the ground at the top of the pic ( I hope that makes sense). I hope this helps and I will be back late tomorrow and can take additional pics if needed.
Let me know if I can do anything else to help.

 

Hi Z20,

Thanks so much for the pictures.

It's indeed very revealing as to the issue plaguing my headlights as both the car loom pins and the pins on the connector of the modified headlights are different.

For the car loom female connector, your XJ has the contacts for all of the 15 pins while mine only has 7 pins.

Thus, I believe this is the reason for the failure in my case.

To Waleed's credit, he has been following up with me actively, and the solution going forward to to locate a car loom cable, tap on this as the power source and use it to modify my car headlight loom to give it an extra contact (power point) to light up the double Js.

As a lesson learned, it will be good for fellow forumers to snap a pic of their car's female connector and pass it to Waleed so that he knows exactly what to expect. As seen, it appears the XJs does not have a standardized car loom connector and it varies across continents!

Once again, Z20, thanks for the pics!

 

Well at least you now have a pretty good understanding of the problem. And in hindsight I can understand that XJ's in different parts of the world have different specs and configuration. It's unfortunate that the learning curve involved you and your lights once they were already installed. If it makes you feel better anyone that does the upgrade from here on out and has read your post will benefit. And I'm glad that Waleed is doing the right thing and being helpful and communicating with you as I assumed he would. Good luck and keep us posted on solution and progress. And you already know I will do what I can on this end.

 

It sounds like your supplier has made internal modifications similar to those in my forum signature link, which maintains pin compatibility with the earlier cars. From your description of your symptoms (specifically white J blades not active but indicators are) suggests a different method to mine was used as the white J blades are controlled by the same local LED driver as the indicators and the latter are dependant on the former (insofar as the supply circuit is concerned - they are different sets of LEDs).

Can I just check - did your car originally have AFS functionality? That your car has 7 pins in the connector suggests maybe not as an AFS xenon car will have 15 of 16 pins populated, and an AFS LED car only 14. There are schematics in my signature link you can refer to to see how the earlier AFS and later LED AFS lamps are controlled. If you PM me with your VIN I can check for you, or you can do it yourself via the Jaguar TOPIx site for free (enter the VIN, click on the 'detailed info' icon and check the headlamp specs).

Picking up on a comment from Z20, it is worth pointing out that the central junction box/JNC that controls when the headlamps are on and off will disable them entirely on a side-by-side basis if it decides there is a fault. It does that by monitoring the current draw, so depending on the method used to modify those headlamp units to work with the earlier cars it may be that the JNC is disabling the lamps. A full restart (ignition off, doors locked, then unlocked and ignition on again) will reset the JNC. Obviously if the fault is still detected the lamps will be disabled again, but it is worth bearing that in mind when testing changes as they would not be reflected until after a full system restart.

 

I've compared the schematic with the photo of your car-side lamp connector. It looks like your car did not have AFS previously, so is missing those pins.

1 Side Marker LED GND
2 Side Marker LED + (>1) JNC D/12 F25/5 LH Position Lamps
3 Indicator LED + (>12)
* 4 Static Bending Lamp LED + (16) JNC D/4 Cornering Light LH
* 5 Level Motor + (>6) JNC D/19 F23/5 AFS Headlamp Levelling
* 6 Level Motor GND
* 7 Level Motor Control Signal
8 nc
9 Xenon DIP Beam GND
10 Main Beam Flap (>12) JNC D/28 Main Beam LH
11 Xenon DIP Beam + (>9) JNC D/38 DIP Beam LH
12 Indicator LED + Main Beam Flap GND
*13 AFS Motor Control Signal
*14 AFS Motor + (>15) JNC D/40 F50/5 LH Headlamp Motor
*15 AFS Motor GND
*16 Static Bending Lamp LED GND

Those marked with * are missing from your car.

You will need to source a suitable power supply from elsewhere in the car and take them to that connector. The connector pins with pigtails are widely available as land rover mod parts (see the part numbers in the forum thread linked from my signature). You would need the person who modified the lamps to tell you which method they used so you know where to take the power.

 

Hi xdave, thanks for your valuable inputs! The grandmaster of the LED Headlights conversion has indeed spoken! What a wonderful forum this is indeed!

Yes, my XJ was AFS-less thus you are absolutely right on the number of pins missing from my car connector.

So going forward, the solution offered by the buyer is to locate this particular cable (grey/yellow) from the car cable loom as seen in the picture below.



Tap on the power from this cable and modify the car headlight connector as per the diagram below:






Fingers crossed that all will work out fine and I am pending a workshop appointment to put all these theory into practical application. At this point in time, there are a few things that I am still not certain of:

1. When the car is unlocked, my intention was for the J-blades to come on and stay lit until the interior lights/virtual instrument panel/touchscreen times out.

Not sure with the modification, this will be working correctly.

2. When the car engine is driven off, the J-blades remains lit with the rotary control of the light stalk in OFF position.

This was the one feature that I really wanted so fingers crossed that this feature will be enabled.

3. That with the rotary control of the light stalk in OFF position, the J-blades remain brightly lit.

From my limited knowledge, it appears that the light intensity in the J-blades varies and this is supported by another forumer Serlock who did the conversion of the headlights as well. It seems that if the rotary control of the light stalk is in OFF position, the J-blades do not light up as brightly as if it will be if the rotary control of the light stalk is put into the 'Side Lights' position. Again, hopefully after the mod, mine will be bright as day!

4. AFS function.

Even though my set of LED headlights has the AFS function, I am resigned to losing it as it will require extensive modification on the car connector and I am not sure if this extra loading by drawing power away from the car's other cables will cause any issue elsewhere or introduce error codes.

Thus, all in all, I am really grateful to the kind assistance of all the forumers here. The internet is indeed a wonderful medium to spread knowledge as here I am in faraway Asia chatting with you lovely folks and learning a great bunch at the same time.

So, for all pre-FL XJ owners intending to do the modification, I can summarise these are the top 2 things you need to provide to the seller of the headlights to ensure a fuss free experience:

1. Indicate if your car is AFS or non-AFS enabled.

2. Snap a picture of the existing headlight connector of your car that clearly indicates the pin location and number of pins.

Cheers!

 

Hi xdave,

Can I please confirm with you the pin locations you stated above are as per the pins location depicted in my picture:




If so, can I please check with you which are the pin numbers that powers the Double Js LEDs? From your list, it will appear that they are # 1 Side Marker LED GND and #2 Side Marker LED + (>1) JNC D/12 F25/5 LH Position Lamps? This is getting me concerned again as if the pin locations depicted in my picture is correct, then I don't even have these 2 pins on my modified headlamps on the connector side!

Will be most appreciated if you could kindly shed some light on this, thanks!

 

Those numbers are correct. For reference, below I have labelled your two photos.

Note that the LED lamps won't have any pins on 1 and 2.

(BTW your photo shows the new lamp missing the light grey pin retainer to the connector housing. That must be present or you will push out the pins when connecting and have to disassemble the lamp unit to retrieve them.)

Can you find out what circuit the grey with yellow strip cable you have been instructed to tap into is from?

I suspect not as the notepad image includes a message about it not powering the drivers until 3 seconds after the engine starts (not ignition or wakeup). We need to know what that wire is to be sure.

** Important note **
If the LED driver is not powered with the engine off then you will not have any parking lamps. That may be a legislative requirement in your region. Here in the UK that would be an MOT fail and the vehicle would not be allowed on public roads in that state. That is why in my modification I use a relay to supply power to the driver (OEM LED pin 8) whenever the parking lamps are selected on the lighting stalk.

See (1) above.

The LEDs should be fully illuminated at all times when active with a retrofit. "When active" depends on how the drivers are powered, which is covered by (1) above. On OEM LED cars the parking lamps are a bit dimmer than the signature lamps when on/auto, but we can't replicate that without the LIN bus messages to tell them their setting.

You are correct that you will not gain that functionality (it requires extra external modules, wiring and a CCF change), but I doubt it will negatively affect anything. You would just manually adjust the lamps the throw centre as normal and they should remain there.

You need to find out about that cable. If it is for a fuel pump or similar then it will be no good and you would need to find another source. A straight ignition source triggering a relay from a fused battery supply would work, but you would also need to power the relay coil from the parking lamp signal (with a diode to prevent it backfeeding to the JNC). Refer to the diagram for method 2 on my signature link and look at pins 2 on the left, and 8 on the right.

You also need to find out what modifications have been made to the LED lamps you bought. Not just "relay here and splice here" but ideally a schematic for the changes so we can work through exactly what needs to be connected to what on your car.

 

Hi Folks, at long last, the 'impossible' has been achieved. Presenting to you my very own Double Js LED Headlights.






With that out of the way, I will like to thank all the forumers like xdave and Z20 for their active participation in response to the challenges highlighted here with regards to my conversion.

As for the technical portion, the seller was only right on the pin location to be added on the car headlight loom connector. The yellow/gray cable that he asked me to tap power from does supply power to the double Js but it does so continously even after the car is locked for a good 5 mins.

Thankfully, I was real lucky to have competent car electricians helping me out, and instead of drawing the power from this cable, they routed one straight from the engine fuse compartment that is tied to the ignition source for the car.

Thus, whenever the ignition is pressed (without starting the engine), the double Js comes on and remains on while the ignition is left 'ON'. When the engine is turned ON, the double Js remained lit up (note that the tail lights are not lit up and the rotary control of the light stalk is in OFF position). Needless to say, I am a real happy person right now as this has all along been what I really wanted! Pictures of the work done to come:




Inserted new contact and cable for the car RH headlight loom to power up the Double Js.



Completed work on the car connector loom. Another cable is tapped from the same power source that will route to the the LH headlight.



Cable that taps into the engine bay fuse box to power up the Double Js.

What a journey this has been, and at the end of it all, I sincerely think the conversion to the LED headlights for all pre-FL XJs is a must if the budget permits. It certainly freshens up the car to keep the front end current with the uprising of DRLs becoming commonplace in all cars. The 'smoked' black interiors of the LED headlights also gives it a menacing piercing look and of course those signature Double Js steal envy glances from other car owners on the roads.

Once again, thank you all for your valuable inputs and I hope my episode here will serve you well in your own journey for the LED headlights conversion, cheers!

 

Great news! I knew once we got xdave on the case the "J's" would be glowing in no time. They look awesome!

 

Good news and enjoy.

 

Looks great and I am ready to just go ahead and order a set. Since it doesn't appear that a group buy will materialize, I need to get a hold of Whaleed. I've tried 8:00 PDT but seems I"ll have to wake up earlier to reach him.

 

Hey Z20, when you had the tail lights done, did the rear bumper have to come off, or did you just go through the trunk and unscrew them? I want to work on my condensation problem over this long weekend but im not sure i am in the mood to remove the whole bumper if thats the case.

thanks a lot.