Dear all,

Thisrt of all thanks for letting met join this forum.
My english isn't wonderful but i will do my best.
I recently bought an XJ6 3.0 V6 350 from year 2006.
It's a joy to ride it whit only one i hope small problem.
When i start the engine the Head Lights go up and down 10-20 times before setteling down in a normal position.
Does anyone have an idea how to fix this?
There is a lot written about Head Lights but i can ot find a similar problem on this forum.
Should i look in the height sensor of the suspension, a bad ground, resetting the system?
All help is welcome.
Rest of the car no issues at allcheers

 

Welcome to the site;
Wish i could answer your question.
Someone else should know where to start looking
Lots of knowledgeable people here, someone should know
First of all you really do need a Jaguar specific code reader.
That will give you an idea, where to start looking, when you have problems.
Eventually you will need to acquire the SDD setup.
If you really want to get serious about things

 

Could be that you have a small leak in one or more of your Air Springs, causing your car to drop overnight? When you start your car in the morning and the suspension air compressor runs, your car levels itself and the headlights would then automatically adjust themselves to suit?

Just a thought?

 

From my knowledge with my 2003 xj8
only early ones do have a headlight level adjuster.
They got rid of that on later models because no need for it . The suspension levels the car . Well as long as you have air suspension (would level the car pulling a trailer)
I am wondering since you say 2006 car. Question is if it should have such a headlight system or not?
maybe headlight was replaced .
Any way Sdd is the program to use .
VALEO is Oem headlights as well as the ballast LAD5G /12 pin for early cars with leveling motor
LAD5GL/4 PIN ballast for later cars without leveling motor
Taking the headlights of and out so you can inspect what your ballast is , if the connections are correct or maybe corroded -mine were- or wrong ballast installed with a specific connector. My car has 211000miles so I can't imagine your leveling motor broke or any other peace of it.
you would need tray and grille out of engine bay , first
tray underneath engine attached to bumper and then the bumper itself with connections to front radar , foglights, headlight washer nozzles tube .
pull bumper forward now you can see two screws below headlight on each side .
ballast is underneath headlight but included in it

 

Thank you for sending
Soon i will go for a big check at the local jaguar Dealer and will see what happens.
i will post the result.

Regards,

Leon

 

Hi All,
Update on this issue.
I have been to the Jaguar Specialist and they gave me a report on what should be done in the future.
They cleaned the electrical connections behind the Head Lights but no improvement.
One day the lights are doing fine wright after starting the car and the next day the electrical system is blinking for about 20 seconds.
Battery is fine and alternator gives 14,8 Volts maybe even a bit high?, could is be that the regulator of the alternator gives a bit to much Volts?.
Further they sais that the rear Wheels are running a bit heavy caused by the brake sytem and the advise was new callipers and hoses.
This is expensive and all togethet including the repair about 1000,- euro!.
Then the front suspension is about 50% costs 2100,- euro to replace the 2 shocks.
The car drives fine but in the future is will get worse they said.
rear breaks could even be an MOT problem at the end of the year.
I will have to look further into the electrical problem first but don't know where to start, on the computer no strange codes showed up.

If there are people with any new hints about this they are welcome to post.

regards,

Leon

 

Hi
some of us had the same problems .
Dec 2020 I bought a 2003 Lhd xj8 with 328000km done 13000 more second mot pass a couple of days ago
After flickering at the beginning just cleaned the studs behind the headlight , one already missing fired over another bolt , changed the xenon bulbs . A week later the batterrie all good.
8 month later driverside , the same that was flickering earlier
stopped working . The bulb still good.
open hood grille out . There is a video for exchanging to meshgrille.
Loosen the front bumper , from below cooler first tray, loosen wheel well /bumpershroud , with a plastic prytool an a can of Wd40 get inbetween sidefender and bumper on each side , pull outwards
get in front of bumper and move it towards you .
if you want to take it down and aside , unplug radar foglights headlight washers . There is a video how to take the bumper off
now you see the 2 screws on lower part of head light there'an other one on top. Behind the headlight there is the electrical connector clic snapSystem.
once the headlight is out underneath is the ballast either a 12 pin earlier models / 4pin later models
Lad5g by Valeo is Oem/ lad5gl for the later models
Only early ones have a hight regulator motor in them
12 pin/ later models do not ... it is not necessary.
The airstruts keep the car leveled
After i exchanged mine I found that the electrical connector had some green oxidation that I scraped of.
70€ per ballast

 

Front bumper video jaguar xjr by sarka on the ring in german but hey good to see it

 

As for the airstruts check miessler automotive near stassburg bun in germany
Specialis for air susp.

 

Front bumper video jaguar xjr by sarka on the ring in german but hey good to see it

 

Voltage is fine from the alternstor perfectly normal.

 

Bilstein B4 airstuts at about 800 a piece
but mine are still the first one at more than 340000km now
google miessler automotive

 

It seems unfair that the suspension holds up in Europe and disintegrates in the US. If the struts go half that mileage here it is a miracle. The rubber suspension bushings are a crap shoot, in Texas they last a 100,000 km on average. Here of Canadian bushings looking good at 200,000 km.
Did not know the CATS was the reason my XJR corners so flat. Thought it was jacking around the air pressure to keep the car level when cornering.
How much are the Miessler struts? I purchased an air compressor from the Miessler US distributor. Was cheaper than a Wabco. Total POS. They would not except a return. Lasted maybe 3000 miles. But was labeled as made in Germany.

 

Miessler automotive is located at frensh/german border on the german side 250 km from me .
go an have a look at their page click on Jaguar in the menu

 

Thanks for all the positive info.
I will try the connections behind the bumper soon and see what happens.
Car runs fine and is a joy to drive every time.
If i have more news i will come back.
Suspension is working fine maybe not 100% according to de dealer but in the morning maybe 2 cm rise and go i think that is normal.
I will check for small leaks and come back on the forum.

Cheers

 

Hi All,

Today i removed the front Bumper and Head lights.
Connectors were sligtly corroded and i cleaned them.
One thing i noticed both sides have cable connetors fitted and all 4 bulbs are hallogene H7 12V 55W
Could it be that the previous owner took out the Xenon bulbs or is the later type equiped with 4 H7 bulbs?
To make sure the compressor wasn't runneng to heavy i put in e revision set as well.
After all repairs i started the car with the compressor unplugged and the head lights were still flickering for about one minute, then stabile.
I took the multimeter again and on the battery during the flickering the voltage goes between 13.6 and 15V, when stabile 15 Volt.
If the alternator or volt regulator is bad the problem should always be there i think.
The compressor has no influence because power connection was disconnected during first run.
The big question for me are the cable connectors and the 4 H7 bulbs.
Does anybody know if this is the normal setup for this car from juli 2006?
I cleaned all connections i could find also in the trunk but they looked fine and the ohm meter gave good readings even between alternator housing and ground connections.
If anybody has more idea's the are more than welcome.

Greetings,

Leon