XJ8 headlights occasionally go out in manual switch position. Moving to Auto sometimes relights. Usually only a few seconds problem. Bad switch in stalk?

 

Not a fix for you sorry, but occasionally my headlights blink when my left indicator comes off (and I can hear a relay sound).

 

Failure of this switch is fairly commonplace, I'm afraid. A new one cost me around £120 on my old X350, plus a few minutes mechanics time to swap-out the switches. I found on the old switch that Charlie Allthumbs had been fiddling with it, so it was probably failing before I bought the car.

 

As Fraser mentions, it is fairly common for wires to break within the base of the turn signal stalk. If you are handy with a soldering iron and heat shrink, it is pretty easy to repair the broken wires once you remove and open up the base of the stalk. The hardest part of the job is getting the cover off the base of the stalk, as it has 6 or 8 tabs that all needed be pushed in at the same time. I repaired my stalk roughly 2 years ago, and have had no issues since.


Someone posted how to repair the turn signal stalk in the past within the X350 forum.