I've searched the forums and can't find the answer; possibly because there is no answer. My 2013 has the worst headlights, meaning, not very bright at all. I've seen some of the posts where members have replaced the original headlight with LEDs. This is solution is way beyond my capability and possibly my pocket book. I thought the approach to my problem would be to add LED driving lights to the car. Many times driving lights would be a factory accessory that could be ordered with the car originally or added on by the dealer. My research didn't come up with such an option. Have any of you added driving lights to this model? If you have, could you direct me to the answer to my problem.

THANX
King Fala

 

KingFala, you are correct that there are no real options for the XJ and driving/fog lights that would be factory based. With that being said, some members have gone and installed something like the below light:


These can be mounted just above or below the chrome piece in the outer vents. From there, you are running a power wire back to the source that is desired to make the lights work the way that you want.

On a side note to this, I am slowly working on making my own version of this and what I am doing is putting a 130K MCD LED in the middle of each cross-hatch opening. So, this will give me 15 of these LEDs per side to act as both a DRL and a fog light. I am planning on wiring them such that when the car is started, they will automatically turn on, when the headlights are turned on, my lights will turn off, and then when you activate the rear fog lights, they will come back on. But, to make things do this, I am having to create my own circuit, which is most likely well beyond what you are feeling capable of.

The one trick that I am doing with these LEDs is I am painting the back of the LED black. This is giving the effect of making the LEDs black when they are not on. So, as the car sits in the parking lot, unless you look really closely, you would not notice that I have made this modification. Am I making things harder than they have to be? Probably. But, it is going to give me a look that I am after. I figure the spaced out bulbs in the vents is going to be close to the same look as the signature lights in the headlights.

 

I recently replaced the OEM Osram Xenarc D3S bulbs that came in my XJ with PHILIPS D3S X-tremeVision gen2, which are 4800k. They are brighter than then OEMs and 6 years newer.

 

Was it a bulb to bulb replacement, or were there adapters or ballast that had to be installed, as well? I think a couple of candles would be brighter than what I have now.
thank you for your input.

King Fala (Lou)

 

They are bulb to bulb replacements Only bad part is you have to remove the bumper and headlight assembly to change the bulb. But IMHO was worth it. My dealer did it for me and charged 2 hours labor.

 

Good idea! I'll do it that way.

Thanks, again

 

Thermo, ever see an installation on an XJ using that Amazon 6 inch Driving Fog Light Bar that you posted? Curious if it looks acceptable below the side vent chrome piece or does it totally destroy the clean look like I think it would.

 

If you have the auxiliary intercooler radiator behind the passenger side vent, I believe putting any additional LED bars above or below the chrome blade will block a good portion of airflow. It may not make any difference but its something to consider.

 

The vent is fake and is completely blocked. I could actually mount something directly to the black plastic behind the chrome blade.

 

Yes, the vent is fake and is solid. I used that to drill 10mm holes in to mount my LED array into. So, no air blockage is going to occur that isn't already there. As for how it will look, I would say you can either buy the lights and use some double sided tape to put them where you think so you can see what they will look like without drilling any holes. If you like, then you take off the tape and mount. If you don't want to spend the money on the lights, then I would say to use your printer and print up the image of the lights and then mount that to a piece of cardboard. Then you can tape that into the general area and see what you think. That should give you a fairly good idea of what it will look like. You can then decide yes or no.

I have the vents complete, I just need to take some time and make the control box to make the install straight forward. I have the pieces, just need to break out the soldering iron and make it work.

 

Thermo, I can't wait to see the pics of your completed project with the LEDs mounted into the cross hatch of the vent. Please take pictures of array lit and off. And I assume your circuitry will dim the array when the headlights and signature lights are on.
I had an idea after looking at the front of several cars. Has anyone taken a close look at the various LED light bars that are on various makes of SUVs that have similar looking vents to our XJ. I was thinking that if another vehicle's light bar was sufficiently similar in shape, it could be trimmed or adapted and replace the XJs chrome blade.

 

Freddy, the circuit that I am making will automatically turn on the LEDs in the vents when the car is started. It will then turn them off whenever the side lights are turned on. Then they will be turned back on when the fog lights are activated. Fairly simple circuit. This will allow me to use the factory buttons and have full functionality.

Let me do a little bit of playing. I can probably put the plates in front of the bumper and take some pictures to give people an idea of what they are going to look like. The next few weeks are hell on wheels for me since the plant I am working it is in an outage and I am working 72 hour weeks.

 

Ah, I see. On the supercharged cars, its a real vent with the small radiator behind it.

 

I can give a piece of advice based on my experience. It is: buy the best light strips, not the cheapest. You’ll waste the money anyway, but if you buy a cheap first, you’ll waste it twice. I wanted to find some quality stuff for my car after throwing cheap LEDs into the garbage (they broke for an unknown reason on the fifth day of usage). I’ve found car interior lighting on the internet and decided that these are perfect. And I’ve never regretted installing them. My car became so atmospheric and cool inside! Now long trips aren’t so boring and similar to me. I’ve been using it for three months, and they’ve never broken. I’m completely satisfied

 

I'm surprised you are displeased with your headlamps. Are you unhappy with the low beam, high beam, or both? What are you comparing them to (make and model)?

 

I can't imagine any "no-name" auxillary light adding any meaningful forward vision to the X351 headlamp system (assuming the OE lamps are aimed and functioning properly).
Auxillary lighting can encompass fog lights, driving lights, daylight running lights, accent lights and more. Each type has unique characteristics optimized for the function desired. This thread and links is discussing several different applications and assuming interchangeability, which they are not.
I don't have the Amazon lights, but here is my solution for Daylight Running Lamps, which are in a similar position. It is post #323 of "What did you do ..." thread.

 

Old thread I know! But I also thought the same thing and found out the headlights were just aimed too low.
I did the LED headlight upgrade and they were better but not what I thought they should be. Turned out mine were at least 3" too low. Since I could find no one even Jaguar who would align them. I did it myself using the garage wall and instructions I found on the internet.

You can kind of tell the alignment by driving with the hi beams on and see how many people flash you to dim them. Before I adjusted mine I never got flashed even on hi beams.
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Jaguar couldn't align their own headlights or wouldn't do it?

 

They told me they were aligned from the factory and were self adjusting. So no need to?
I have come to realize that seems to be the most common answer from the dealer. I stopped calling them after my CPO warranty ran out.
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