The lights don't always come on. Yesterday, on a dark country lane in the dead of night, they turned off, which was somewhat alarming. Possibly relevant history:

1. I think they may have stopped working reliably on return from the engineers, who had replaced the hydraulics, so I wonder if they may have disturbed something. It could just be coincidence.
2. A few months ago I replaced the original mirror with a Jaguar mirror with another containing the compass. Everything worked perfectly.

Any idea where to start? I do still have the original mirror (somewhere!) so presumably could swap the sensor, but I am reluctant to play around with it unless really necessary.

 

The original mirror controls the auto lights and is the cause of the intermittent black-outs. The mirror also controls other functions which will not work without it; i.e. the home link feature, auto head lamps and rain sensor, auto dimming function. Most components need to be switched out with matching number replacements

 

Diddion, some of us have found defective mirrors, others, myself included, found broken solder joints behind the steering wheel.

If you go for the steering wheel, it's an easy job that'll take an hour or so. I've posted plenty of photos.

During my studies of this problem I was able to identify the wire (color) in the mirror area that is grounded to turn on the auto headlights.

Sounds like yours is intermittent, itd be nice if you could just test that wire when lights are off in error.

What seems to cause the failure? Jiggling turn sign at stalk = open solder joint. Don't forget you can put her into automatic lights on by just covering the photodiode on back of mirror with piece of masking tape.

John

 

Diddion, some of us have found defective mirrors, others, myself included, found broken solder joints behind the steering wheel.

If you go for the steering wheel, it's an easy job that'll take an hour or so. I've posted plenty of photos.

During my studies of this problem I was able to identify the wire (color) in the mirror area that is grounded to turn on the auto headlights.

John[/QUOTE]

Did this too; once you take the wheel off, there are several wires that come out of the indicator stalk. Contrary to normal standards, there is no slack in there for the wires and during operation the solder joint eventually breaks and the wire pulls free.

The green wire allows headlights auto-on and the grey one (broken too on mine) allows you to control the trip computer. Now I get instant fuel consumption readings, not sure I want that now...

 

Thanks for these comments and ideas. The replaced mirror worked faultlessly, so i think the likely culprit to be a faulty or dislodged connection caused by the hydraulic hose work, or those solder joints. It’s booked in for some work, and I’ll report back.

 

The engineers think it is something to do with the mirror sensor or its connection - I'll get round to it some day.

 

How are you seeing engine temp? There isn't a gauge and I don't see a way within the infotainment system. Are you using some type of add on?

 

Yes. I have the full projector headlights. One off custom build by a retrofit Guy.

Angel eyes, functional turn signal. RBG color changing