Despite continuous maintenance requirement I am happy with my 99 XJ8L so I decided to upgrade to a newer one with lesser mileage and have just bought a 2003 XJ8.

Reading the handbook (had nothing better to do) I noticed that this model has repeaters on the front fenders, mine were not working so I pulled the covers off.

One side had nothing attached to it so I presumed it must have fallen inside the fender. The other has a connector but no bulb. Using a tester the connection works but I am at a loss to know what type of bulb it uses.

The handbook says cap less 12V 5W same as the ones on the bottom of the doors, but the connector appears to take pin type fitting and a bulb of smaller diameter than the cap less mentioned above.

Searching through the available bulbs at Pep-Boys, and Auto-Zone produced no results.

The car also has a very pronounced sound on the freeway like a hum or whine. Do not think it is the front bearings as when I turn the steering side to side the noise is constant. It also does not appear to be a differential noise as generally with differentials when you accelerate or decelerate the tone changes this does not.

I am changing the tires this morning so I will know if they or one of them was the cause as unlikely as it may be.

Otherwise a very nice one owner car with 64,000 miles.

 

New tires and she rides like a Jaguar. In 45 years of car ownership never experienced tires making such a difference

 

HI -
What brand/style of tires did you get?

 

Tires make a huge difference in the XJ -- they do not like some tires. That is why only one tire was ever recommended.

 

Michelin Primacy MXV4 225/60 HR16

 

Regarding the side repeaters...

Jaguar cars for the European market all have them.
(Practically the same light assembly as the ones used in the trunk.)
Bulb is called W5W (at least over here).

Cars for the North american market came with no side repeaters.
Instead there was just an emblem with a leaping cat mounted.

I recently converted two trunk lights to fit as side repeaters.
(I didn't like the amber color on the fender.)
Of course I had to replace the bulbs with yellow ones.

Attached is a pic to compare the side repeater lights with the trunk lights...


HTH!

David

 

Those repeaters look really cool. My 99 Vanden Plas has just the emblems as DavidN said. I used the 5W5 bulb on my 94 Thunderbird instrument cluster and license plate lights years ago because they are slightly brighter than the 194 bulb. I would just put in 194s. I had to order those packs of 5w5 bulbs from my local parts guy.

 

They use what I like to call "peanut" bulbs. The actual part number is "2825" (Sylvania Brand Bulbs). You can find these at Advance Auto Parts, Pep Boys, Autozone, etc.... Even Walmart. You get two to a pack.

 

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My 95 VDP x300 had the side lights in orange - so you should be able to get the part from a dealer -- my later early V8 just had the emblem. I really liked the lights as it alerted those on a multi lane highway you wanted to move over. Plus they looked cool.

I inquired about connecting them up on the V8 and I remember something strange about the wiring - so having one wire and not the other may be how the later ones were sent over. The problem was the light control module -- the dealer told me that it monitored each bulb individually and by adding a bulb to the turn signals it may adversely effect the electrics in the module. So it would not be covered under the warranty if I played with it.

 

You may be able to get around this by using an electronic flasher or relay on each side. The amperage draw of a relay turn-on circuit would be much less that an incandescent bulb so perhaps it wouldnt strain the electronics too much. The LCMs on crown victorias have relays inside soldered to the circuit board. I would presume the jaguar has them as well. Most relays can handle a 30 amp draw.

 

Thank you gentlemen, the mistery is solved my car is a US California car with emblems on the side however one of the emblems was holding the harness for the lights that are used in European versions I am sure the other fender also has this wiring harness. As US models are not supposed to have the side flashers then I will leave things as they are.

 

So there is a hole behind the emblem? And the harness is already there? If so, this is awesome because if the lenses are cheap enough, I might add this to the 99.

 

On US specs cars, the wiring is only there on the passenger side and missing on the driver side.
What I did on mine ( I do have the factory electrical diagrams) was to locate the correct pins location on the electrical connector which is just forward of the driver side door hinges, added 2 pins to the plug ( the pins are aready there on the cabin side of the connector),made a short harness and... voila.
The correct orange repeater are only a few $
BTW, the dealer is wrong on the light control module