Checking the wiring will be the next step. The good news is because the car passed its annual inspection on Tuesday, I now have a full year to figure out and fix this issue....

A more pressing issue on this car involves replacing the slightly-weeping black plastic coolant T-connector on the U.S. drivers side of the octopus hose. That job will require small hands and a great deal of cursing. My small-handed neighbor is coming over in a couple of hours and we are going to remove the coolant reservoir and then see if he can successfully get down in there and do battle with the factory T-connector....

 

Are you referring to the lamps in front of the wheel well, or behind? My front lamps are on with the other lights but do not flash. The lamps at the rear of the wheel well do flash.

 

Going OT a bit - see if these closeups of the tee to octopus joint help:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...4/#post1932330

Good luck!

 

I was forced to check mine.
The front amber ones don't light with the lights but do flash with the indicators the rear ones illuminate with the lights but don't flash.

 

Thanks Michael. I reviewed that thread a month ago and was glad to get the refresher look at it again this morning. Fingers crossed that we can get this job done without breaking anything....

 

Curiouser and curiouser.
In ROW that would be the function of the indicator side repeaters. US has a leaper badge there?

 

I own a 2004 so this may apply to yours as well. Both my rear markers did not illuminate. I just assumed they were only reflectors until I crawled under the car and saw the wires. I replaced the bulbs to no avail. I am not very DIY qualified so I had my mechanic check them. Turns out the bulb sockets were highly corroded and needed replacement. Unfortunately, they are integrated into the entire marker component. So I had to replace the entire marker including the plastic colored cover. They are very pricey at Jaguar but were half as expensive at Jagbits. Very simple to replace. Just unsnap the electrical connector, pop out the old marker from the fender, and reverse the process to install the new. Work great now.

Betting this is the same solution for you. Good luck

 

This one - attached (hopefully)

My rear (red in the side of rear bumper) doesn't flash.

 

My 97 had a leaper badge, but my 06 has the repeater in front of the door.

 

Thanks.
I'd just made a pretty diagram to show my take on the differences but it seems not to be so clear cut on newer cars,

 

Dear God!

This is to simple and you Guys are making a Mountain of it! The X-100 has a marker light on all 4 corners.....Amber in front of the Front Fender opening on each front fender.....Red on each lower rear Fender.....These are Marker Lights and are required in the USA....Look at any Car built after 2000 or so, they all have these lights in some manner. The X-100 came with a Hole in the Fender just behind the Front Wheel........The early X-100's came with a Leaper stuck in the Hole....It was also wired for a Blinker Signal, so you could replace the Leaper with a Blinker Light......(A Side Blinker to warn Cars beside you) Somewhere along the way the Leaper was removed and the Blinker Light was placed in it's position...........My 1998 had a Leaper, then, as I recall, My 2000 had the Blinker, as did my 2003 and 2005. My 1998 was wired for Blink Lights, so I removed the Leapers, which I still have in a Drawer and replaced them with Clear Blinker Lens and bought some small Amber Blinker Bulbs that had been chrome-plated, so the Amber would only show through when the Bulb was lite.

US Cars should have Side Marker Lights and also a side blinker warning light....Some cars have the Blinker on the Mirror, ours on the Fender behind the Front Wheel.

Come on Man, look at the other Cars on the Street!

BCP

 

Honestly, I don't care about the other cars on the street. I just want to find out why my wife's XK8's front amber side lenses do not light up when the consensus is that they should do so in order to pass the annual safety inspection. But that job can wait because we have run into trouble with the cooling system plastic Norma T-connector replacement job....

 

Jon, went out to my car (2003 XK8) and started the engine with headlamps activated. The small oval lamp near the door was not on. I turned the left turn signal on, the small oval lamp flashed. Apparently the small oval lamp is a turn indicator and only works when activated. The larger long lamp near the front headlamp is a side marker and is on when the lamps circuit is activated. Originally I thought the small oval one was on when the circuit was activated also. I know better now thanks to all.

 

Kelly,

As you discovered, the small amber oval markers just in front of the doors are turn signal indicators. They have always worked properly on my wife's 2006 XK8. It's the amber side markers just behind the headlamps that my local inspection station was giving me grief about. They have never illuminated during the 9 years we have owned this vehicle and I need to resolve that issue before the next annual inspection rolls around in February 2022....

 

Jon89,
Why wait Jon? Take the Car to someone that works on X-100's there in Raleigh and get the problem fixed.....Couldn't be a big deal...Fuse or Wiring or maybe just a Bulb......!

Do something about it, Jon! Then send us a Photo with the Lights on..............

Billy Clyde @ Cinco Ranch

 

 

Thanks Michael. I hope to figure out why the front ones are not lighting up in my wife's 2006 XK8 in the next week or so....

 

Update:

A nice sunny and dry afternoon today so I pulled both front wheel well arch liner plastic hatches that allow access to the front side marker assemblies in order to get a good look at them....

The drivers-side bulb's filament was intact, but the wedge base of the bulb had cracked open at some point. My free Harbor Freight ohmmeter showed that 12 volts was indeed getting to the bulb's socket....

The passenger-side bulb socket electrical connector had been sloppily soldered and sloppily taped up by a previous owner. That electrical tape was dried, cracked, and falling apart. I surmised that it was probably allowing the sloppily-soldered wires to come in contact with each other inside the electrical connector. I peeled away all of the old tape, trimmed up the sloppy solder job with my trusty X-Acto hobby knife, made sure the two wires were again well-separated inside the bulb's electrical connector, and then did a very precise re-taping job to fully cover all bare wire ends and all remaining solder with fresh electrical tape. After doing so, my ohmmeter showed that 12 volts was finally getting to the bulb's socket....

A trip to NAPA for two new Type 168 12V 5W wedge-based bulbs completed the job. Now, both front side markers illuminate whenever the headlights are on. I will keep an eye on that patched electrical connector on the passenger side. I may wind up having to replace it. It has a Ford logo and some numbers embossed into it, so I hope it is readily sourced and not very costly....

Thanks again to all who contributed to this thread....

 

You must be nearly at the end of your 'to do' list

Just checked the link is still valid - about $4. See Canuck pump engineer's post:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...0/#post1128527

If you can get 4W or 3W lamps, it will slow down the socket's degradation (or fit amber LEDs, like wot I did)

 

Jon89,

Congratulations, that was quite a job, was it? Now, what you need to do is order a couple Clear Lens for those Side-Markers and replace the Bulb with a Clear Bulb that Blinks Amber.....That will get rid of the ugly Amber Lens...and the new Chrome covered Amber Bulbs will blink Amber...

Billy Clyde @ Cinco Ranch.