Morning all.
I have just bought a 99 XKR, and it has a few small problems that I am hoping you can help me with.

1/ When I open either door the window drops about 1", but when I close the door it does not go back up. So, when I open it again the window drops another inch, and so on. Can anyone suggest what is causing this?

2/ At the very front of the engine is a cylinder with "HELLA" written on t. As soon as I turn on the ignition this cylinder starts to make a whining noise, and continues to do so until I switch the ignition off again. As Hella make lighting equipment I assumed this cylinder was something to do with the headlights, so I turned the lights on, this alters the pitch of the whine. I should point out that at some point the car has been fitted with an aftermarket xenon kit. Can anyone tell me what this cylinder is and what I need to do?

Apart from that I am well pleased with the car, it is only the second car that I have owned, the first was a 4x4, so this is a massive change for me.
If you can help me sort out these two small issues it will turn this great car into my dream car and make me smile like an idiot for the rest of my days.
Thanks in advance, Karl.

 

Well, a good first step would be posting in the XKR forums instead of the XJR forums.

But seriously, I'm not familiar with the XK windows, but I know BMW coupes and convertibles often have a feature called "self-indexing windows." Basically, the window drops a small amount when you pull the latch to allow you to open the door easily, and then raises again when you close it to create a better seal against wind noise. Was a great feature, and made it a lot quieter than many frameless window 2-doors. If the XK has them, it could just be an error in the microswitch that controls this dropping. It might not be sending the correct signal to raise the window again. But this is better suited to the XK guys.

The cylinder could be a ballast for the HID lights. This would make the most sense, IMO. On a side note, if you don't have projector lenses, PLEASE take the HID's out, as they are NOT designed for use with standard reflector housings. They scatter the light too much and don't have a sharp cutoff, and these things cause it to be absurdly annoying to other drivers. It's one of the things I think should be ticketed very heavily. (I have a very graphic description of the things I want to do to drivers that have HIDs in housings designed for much dimmer halogens that I tell the 16 year olds on my BMW forums when they talk about HIDs, but I'll spare you here....).