It may be my generation, but I'm a bit impatient when it comes to getting my hands on information—especially images—when I'm faced with a decision. So, here are some informative images of the 2010 LED tail light kit, as assembled- and sold by Jürgen Hermann (Jürgen Hermann - Jaguar-teile.de - Startseite):



The harness is a modified OEM harness—complete with the clips and retainers; ready-to-install!




Nice and tidy, out of the box:




I assume that these are the resistors to eliminate the flashing reverse light and flashing fog light.






There were concerns about whether or not these assemblies were OEM, and I think this may answer the question.

Jürgen was super responsive, and very easy to work with. I engage in international business on a regular basis, so I'm not too apprehensive about sending monies overseas, but I can imagine it would be a bit intimidating for some. This is not a cheap kit, and the thought of engaging in an international battle of 'bait and switch'—further complicated by language barriers—can be daunting.

I'm sharing my favorable experience in the hopes that it may help some of you take the leap! The only hiccup was that my first PayPal payment was sent in US dollars—of which he refused. I resent payment in Euros, but PayPal took both transactions out of my account, to the tune of ~$4,000. I asked Jürgen if he had accepted both accidentally, in which he replied (almost immediately)—stating that he has called PayPal first to ask them what had happened. He relayed their response to me, which I found above-and-beyond his responsibility to me as the customer (the double-transaction was really my fault). Needless to say, the first monies were refunded—but what I learned is that Jürgen is an honest businessman. I only wish there were more mods within his catalog for my XKR.

(Please note: I have no affiliation with Jürgen other than being a super-pleased customer.)

I'll post up some pics of the install, although that may not be too eventful, as this kit appears to be truly plug-and-play.

Oh, and in regard to PayPal: they take a big @ss bite out of both the customer and the vendor. If you have the ability to wire funds from your bank to a foreign entity via SWIFT, I strongly recommend that. You'll both be better off!

Cheers!

 

Thank you for the detailed pics, emxnyc!

 

Good pictures. Thanks.

Are you doing the installation? Is it simple plug and play?

Albert

 

I'll be popping these in this Thursday evening. I'll take pics of the process. And, yes—from what I can tell, these appear to be plug-and-play. All OE harnesses, and even the stay-clips and retainers are included.

e

 

Good set up , I think you will become one of the coolest XK Owners at the boards considering your signature is very uncommon one and so is your topic

 

Huzzah! Two fog lights and two reverse lights!

I'd love to tell you how the install went, but I cheesed out and had my tech install them. (They were working on the boot lid anyway, so I figured I'd let them break clips, etc...)

There was an earlier post about Hermann's LEDs arriving without the weather strip on the outer housings, but these arrived with them installed, so the install, I'm told went fairly well. The lights look amazing, and change the character of the rear, I think. I won't miss "hey, you've got a tail light out!", and I can flash my fogs at inconsiderate tailgaters again!

There is one problem, however. These turn indicators DO throw the "bulb failure" warning. It's odd though--the warning kicks on, and the system kicks up into 2X flash mode, but only if I tap for lane-change or if I throw the L or R indicator on WITHOUT depressing the brake pedal. So, it's like this: I can be coming down an off-ramp, hit the signal (which starts flashing 2X speed) and then apply the brakes to stop at the intersection, etc... As soon as I hit the brakes, the indicator returns to normal flash rate. As soon as I release the brake to take off again, they kick right back over to 2X... It's like there's a load problem across the entire system. The reverse lights and fogs don't flicker, so he apparently figured that out (see pic above), so that's my only gripe. Of course, if I were a typical Floridian driver I wouldn't even know that the indicators were faulty, because I don't think I've ever seen a Floridian signal any of their intentions... I happen to signal all the time--even turning into my parking space at my office. I know--lame. Hermann's tech is trying to figure it out, so I'll wait to see what they come up with. Just a little bummed, because you figure a $2k set of lights would be damn good, but I guess it's all part of the fun!

Enough typing, here they are: (more pics to come once I grab myself a proper DSLR)




Cheers!

e

 

Jahezus... the sky lit up here in S.C. when you took the pictures!

Really, nice job and looks to compliment the vehicle nicely.

Thanks for the first post review as well.

 

Sounds like the voltage/current is to high when operating the turn signals. Is there a resistor inline with the turn signal LED's?

From the pictures you posted above the resistors are apparent, but they may need to be increased in value.

When the brake pedal is depressed a greater load and current draw is being placed across the resistors and may be dropping the current flow just enough to indicate to the computer (managing the LED's) that the LED's are operating normally.

 

My pleasure! I'm hard to shut up!

-e

 

Yeah, I figured the indicator circuit was perhaps a few seimens too high--but I am confused why the two circuits would be linked. It makes me wonder if the linear resistors are properly situated on the circuit. I wouldn't think that each circuit (i.e., turn indicator PC board and brake lighting PC board) would be linked together in parallel, as this odd behavior suggests.*

Jürgen says his man is on it—but, as mentioned in the first post of this thread—I am crazy impatient.

Question: does anyone have actual schematics of the 07-09 and the 10-12 circuits? I may have to bust out my Fluke and do this up überNerd style.

Thanks!

e

*I'm not an electrical engineer, but there is a Holiday Inn Express near my house.

 

I installed a set of the new 2010 style lights to my 07 XKR earlier this week using the Adamesh wiring looms from the UK - no error messages on the dash at all!

 

Okay, so I picked up a proper D-SLR, and took a few shots of the new lights. (For those of you with 2010+ XKs and XKRs: you're all used to this, so I offer my apologies for posting not-so-groundbreaking images... I'm just amped by the beauty of the LEDs! And perhaps a little dazzled?.. could be the caffeine too...)

Here we are... Daytime:





Brake Lights:





Fog Lights:





A tight shot of the Fog/Reverse assembly illuminated:



Reverse Lights:





Brakes and Fogs:





Turn Indicator:



There we are! (Those are just a bit better than my iPhone point-and-shoots.)

-e

 

I know you're really happy with your lights, and they do look great. However, for my money, nothing can beat how the back end of your car looks like in the daylight. Those quad pipes are simply perfection.

Is your car indigo?

 

Thank you for the compliment!—and no, she's black. (That doesn't sound right...)

-e

 

I noted that you're in London, UK and presume that your car is a UK-market vehicle. Glad to know that you haven't had the "bulb failure" dash message when activating the turn signals.

Anyone know if the Adamesh wiring harness will work on USA-market cars without any problems?

Thanks.

 

I sent Adamesh an e-mail with that question. They replied, very quickly, that the unit will work correctly in cars built for US market.

 

If they figured out the harness, that's good... Hermann's kit's harness works as advertised as well, as both the fogs and the reverse lights work properly. The problem is with the outer lights. The question is: did Adamesh figure out the proper resistance on the turn indicators for US cars?

I was holding back on the final review of this kit until I received a solution for the indicator problem, so here it is:

I am sending this kit back to Hermann. I am not too pleased with several aspects of the kit--firstly, how much more expensive it is for the same product from Adamesh (US$709.25 more expensive, to be exact).

And, like a tool, I had them installed for me, because I thought it would be better that I don't get that intimate with this car just yet. Haha. There was another $250.00. And now I have to have them removed (more expense yay!) and wait for the Adamesh kit.

I'm not too pleased. Had I known that I would have to become a troubleshooting electrical engineer, I would have purchased the hardware domestically and gone about it George's way. At least I could have used the extra grand on beer and microfiber cloths (you know--to remove finger prints, and soak up my tears...).

-e

 

Look on the bright side...at least you got some great looking pictures out of it! :-)

 

I also emailed Adamesh and they replied promptly, saying that their wiring harness should work with the US models. Like Hermann, the first Adamesh design used resistors in the wiring harness. After they had problems they redesigned the harness to use light bulbs instead of resistors to avoid the bulb out message. Here's an excerpt from their installation instructions:

"LED lights only use a small amount of power compared to the original lights. Due to this the car dash board will come up with a warning message to say there is a bulb failure even though the lights are working correctly. To overcome this problem we have to fit the 4 small lights units provided.

There are 2 lights for each side of the car which will replicate the brake and indicator lights. Once fitted these can be fitted loosely behind the boot panel so they are not visible. Ideally these should be positioned so access can be gained from the small inspection covers on each side of the car in case the bulb does need to be replaced."

I'm fairly handy and thought I might be able to do this install myself, but after reading the Adamesh installation instructions I think I'm better off having it done by a pro. Adamesh offers a complete kit or the wiring harness only, so I want to see if I'm better off just getting the harness from Adamesh and the tail lamps from Nalley. I also need to get a quote to do the install. Still not convinced that it's worth the cost...although I really love the look!

Has anyone in the Atlanta area done this conversion? Can you recommend an installer?

.

 

If anyone requires an installer for the LED lights in the UK London Area (M4 Slough Corridor) then get in touch. I have a guy who did my install for me. £130 all fitted. Takes around 2-3 hours to do but he does a pukka job.