Have a '98 VDP with 124K miles on it. About a month ago the "Rear Bulb Fail" message and amber warning light starting coming up on my dash nearly everytime I stepped on the brake pedal. Three times now I have checked all tail lights, brake lights, turn signals, license plate lights, and trunk lights, and all are working fine. Any ideas? Could it be a fuse or a relay or ? Or is there some other bulb lurking somewhere that I haven't found yet?

Thanks.

 

Check the center cyclops module, over the trunk lid. I have missed this one on more than one occasion. And yes, it might have more than one bulb

 

The third brake light is not monitored on bulb failure.
If light is only coming on when pressing brake pedal, likely bad bulb. Even though they work, replace them. The pins get flat and worn and cause light to come on. Get them from dealer. Seen too many problems from installing outside bulbs.

 

Great info here, thanks.

Now that I think about it, had the same problem when I first got the car last November. I pulled and reseated all the brake light bulbs and the problem went away. I'll inspect them again, clean the sockets with contact cleaner, and replace whatever bulbs look iffy. Maybe best just to replace them all at this point.

 

Remember, if you do replace bulbs, get the ones from the dealer, especially if they are P21Ws. The 1157's from your local auto parts store fit, but are of different load resistance, and you'll get the same annyoing message and really wonder what's going on.

 

GREAT INFO!!!!

 

1157 bulb will not fit my 99 vanden plas. I had to order in some wierd bulbs that have the ******* like 150* apart instead of 180* I still intermittently get the warning message.
-Rob

 

So I had a rear brake light failure and went to Salvo for a replacement bulb. It worked a few days, then all the lights failed. I read the forum and went to Jaguar parts dealer and bought the PS21 bulb to match the burned out bulb I was replacing and everything works fine. Must be that resistance thing discussed. Thanks for the great information!

 

Was successful in eliminating this message on my Jags. I used the dealer bulbs, certain brand recommended by someone, regular bulbs...I have enough bulbs to last through the next ice age.

I had my non-dealer Jag mechanic fix it once, and he replaced the entire brake light housing. It worked for a while then started doing it again.

On another forum someone recommended putting in extra resistors, and I was going to try that, but my engine blew up.

 

OOH, I forgot to mention that I was successful too using used aftermarket bulbs! I put new bulbs in right after I got the car and we have had this message intermittently for almost a year. Last month, I removed all of the rear bulbs, bent all of the contacts upward and covered all connections in dielectric grease. I have yet to see a rear bulb failure message since that day.