XJ ( X351 ) 2009 - 2019

reverse lights not working

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Old Nov 26, 2020 | 08:05 PM
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Default reverse lights not working

Hello has anyone ever had this problem and what did yall do to fix ,the reverse sensors work and rear camera but no lights and bulbs are good
 
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Old Nov 27, 2020 | 07:20 AM
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dontay23, looking at the diagrams, the reverse lights are powered directly off of the fuse box module at the rear of the car. No fuses, just a common wire that powers both tail light reverse lights (this is based on a 2013 diagram, if you have a newer car, it may be different, but not likely, please include year to allow us to give a more accurate assessment). Since your reverse sensors and camera are working, we know the problem is not with other computer systems of the car. So, your best course of action is to access the tail light and find a green wire with a brown stripe (located in pin 2 location of the plug to the tail light. With the car in reverse, see if you are getting a voltage there (should be up around 12 VDC, but anything above 3 is good). If you are getting a good voltage there, then your problem is the tail light itself. You will most likely need to replace both tail lights (not very likely based on LED technology, but possible). If you are not getting any voltage, then you need to go to the fuse box itself and find the green/brown wire there (Pin 5 on the A plug) and see if you have voltage there. If you have voltage here, then you have a broken wire between the fuse box and the tail light (anyone did any work in the trunk area recently? If so, I would start in the area of where they did the work). If you don't have voltage, then it is almost definitely the fuse box that is your issue. Unfortunately, you will have to replace the whole fuse box as this is not a repairable item.

If you have more questions, let me know.
 
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Old Nov 27, 2020 | 01:09 PM
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Since these cars have a ground based power system even if you have 12V the lights still might not work. Because they always have 12V to the bulbs. The lights turn on when the ground part of the circuit is completed by the REM when you shift into reverse. Since both of the lights are doing this it's unlikely you have a ground problem in both tail lights. So it's possible this is a REM (Rear Electronics Module) problem.

But please give your car details too as Thermo suggested. We are all just guessing from far away!
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Old Nov 27, 2020 | 03:47 PM
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clubairth1, atleast for the external lights, those are all grounded 100% of the time (hard wired straight to ground) and what switches is the 12 VDC. Atleast this is how the diagrams are drawn for the 2012 versions that I have. Even looking at the interior lights, all that I saw were based on having them hard wired to ground and switching the 12 VDC on/off.

Now, what you are saying is a true statement for vehicles like Honda's (as I recall, maybe it is Toyota that does this). They keep the 12VDC on the components at all times and then use the ground to switch things on and off. This is why their cars tend to fail with the headlights on, not off (like would happen with a Jag due to blowing a headlight fuse). There are pros and cons to both setups.

Now, this is using what is referred to as conventional (hole flow) electrical theory. This says current flows from the positive to the negative posts of a power source. You get into electron flow theory, then we are talking a whole different thing then. Most people were taught conventional electrical theory. But, reality is that the electron flow theory is how things really work.
 
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Old Nov 27, 2020 | 03:47 PM
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2012 jag xjl

 
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Old Nov 27, 2020 | 07:43 PM
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dontay, well, what I posted is how your car is wired. Follow that and you should figure out where your problem is. If you are not familiar with how to use a multimeter, then let me know and I will add a bit more detail to what I wrote to make it very clear what goes where and when to make sure we do not end up on a wrong path and replacing parts that don't need to be.

Granted, I have to ask, how do you know that the "bulbs" are good. Your car does not have bulbs as one would think. It has LEDs. These are not replaceable. They are soldered to the main board that has all the LEDs for the tail light. Making sure we are talking about the same thing.
 
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Old Nov 27, 2020 | 08:03 PM
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Thanks Thermo as we have had people with 12V to the tail lights and the problem was switching the ground.
So the reverse lights just need 12V to operate.
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Old Nov 28, 2020 | 07:12 AM
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clubairth1, I think you are mixing terminology here or it is a bad choice of words. A switching ground and switching a ground (location) are 2 different things. A switching ground, you put the switch in the ground wire, so, any ground in the system causes the lights to turn on. Where switching the ground is simply moving the ground wire from being mounted in one location to another. This should not affect how the system works unless there is a problem. Which, if you get corrosion at the ground point, moving the wiring to a new location would get rid of that and allow the lights to function normally. Now, the map lights work on a slightly different thought process as they are monitoring the resistance to ground and when you touch the lights, the resistance changes and the system knows the light lens has been touched, therefore turning on the lights. This is why putting LED bulbs into these spots results in the lights being on dimly. The computer uses a low voltage to establish what a normal resistance is (by monitoring the very small current) and when it sees a change, it changes the state of the light. Hence why there is a second ground wire on those lights.
 
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Old Nov 28, 2020 | 10:58 AM
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No I was talking about modules that power the circuits with 12V all the time and then when commanded supply the ground thru the module.
But as you pointed out the Jaguar lights don't operate that way.
I thought they did.
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Old Nov 28, 2020 | 01:52 PM
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clubairth1, if you are talking about the 70's jaguars, then, yes, you are correct (thinking about it) with the ground being switched on and off. But, then, they connected the positive of the battery to the body of the car and the fuse box was all the grounds of the car, which also had all the fuses and whatnot. This is why so many people hate the old jaguars. they used a different method of thinking about how current flows and this made them "an electrical nightmare". No, most people are used to dealing with the fuse box being on the positive wires. This one simple change was hard for people to wrap their minds around. They are not really wired any differently other than the positive and negative wires are the opposite of what you normally think of.
 
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