Good afternoon all, as i continue to prepare my xkr for its mot i need to replace a low beam headlight bulb. I knew they were not the usual halogen bulbs but this is the first time ive come across hid. I was a bit surprised and unsure about what id got im hand after removing it, and even more so when i saw the price of replacements lol. Ive done a bit of research on youtube and some advise changing both at the same time. I just wondered what the forum thought and if they have any bulb recommendations with economy in mind. Many thanks for all input.

 

From memory, you need a D1S "bulb". Tons of cheap options, check eBay or Amazon. Buy a pair and replace both as they dim over time. Only option is the color/temperature where you can go from more yellow to white with a hint of blue. Our cars are old, so keeping it more yellow makes sense to me, but your car your choice.

This is just the bulb. There is also an associated "ballast"/power supply. This can be a lot more pricey depending on options. I'd say start by swapping the bulbs left to right to determine the cause of the issue.

If you need a ballast, the issue is that our earlier '03 cars need a model that controls the tilt based on the input of the level sensor on the control arm. Those models are expensive/branded. The 2005-6 did away with the level sensor I believe and the ballast for those is super cheap. You can use the later ballast in the older car, (direct swap, same connector) but be prepared for the headlight to be angled down more than you might like. Might be good enough for MOT as it would not be blinding to anyone but less than ideal if you do a lot of night time driving on the countryside.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

Hi and thanks for the assistance. Car will be a summer car and I don't think I will be doing a lot of night driving. Some useful info there. I will swap sides with the bulbs and report back. Fingers crossed.

 

Hi again, I've swapped the bulbs around and they are both working. Could you elaborate for me on my next steps. I'm very poor with electrics. Thanks in advance

 

Just get new Osram DS1 bulbs and burners. They are about £30 each. One of my ballasts went bad so I have it booked in to get it sorted, I'm pretty sure I got the correct ballast made by Valeo I think. Abour £40 for a new one which isn't so bad. I just hope it fixed my HID.

 

What's the problem you're having? The MOT found them to be too dim? Flickering? I suggest getting new bulbs and ballasts because at this age, they're both close to toast. Especially if you've got flickering. While you're in there, also replace the connector that runs from the ballast to the bulb's ignitor as they're known to go bad as well. Yeah, it's not economical, but then, you drive a Jaguar; it isn't a cheap car.

Now, there is an unlikely possibility that the HID projector's bowl is burnt as well. This happened to me. No bulb and ballast on the market would solve that cause of dimness. It happened to me and I ended up swapping over to a Morimoto Bi-xenon HID projector because the OEM valeo projector is NLA. That was a project that required retrofitting an aftermarket projector to my headlights but the results have been spectacular. I must say that burnt out projectors are not a normal occurrence and I can only think that a previous owner was running a 55W bulb and ballast instead of the original 35W bulb and ballast. That would plausibly have been what burnt the projectors on my car, thus necessitating that I retrofit a new projector.

And, with HID bulbs: The best options are Phillips Xtreme Vision and the Osram Nightbreaker bulbs. Do not use a bulb that is brighter than 5500k. It will be dimmer and too blue.

 

Start by checking fuse. There endth the lesson to self lol

 

First thing I always do now. Replaced parts before spending £'s only to find one fuse just blew.