I thought I would share this with the community as a warning of how a simple job can quickly turn into a potentially expensive nightmare.

When I collected my 2005 XKR a couple of weeks ago, there was a fair bit of condensation in the xenon headlights. I decided to get rid of it by removing the clear plastic cover, the sidelight and indicator bulbs to create ventilation holes and drying the whole unit out in the garage by gently heating the outside of the headlight glass with a hairdryer.

It took a good 30 minutes of hot air on each side to dry them out, but results were convincing. Unfortunately, however, the damp air in the headlight unit on the passenger side must have found its way up into the ballast controller, because the 20A headlight fuse in the engine compartment kept blowing.

With considerable difficulty, I managed to remove the headlight unit from the car (this involved first removing the front wheel and wheel arch liner...) and unscrewed the ballast. I then began ringing round Jaguar breakers in the UK to source a replacement ballast. Most said that they couldn't sell me just the ballast and would need to supply me with the entire headlight; about £450 used, £1000 new + P&P!! However, after much persistence, I did finally manage to track down a breaker who was willing to sell me the ballast only for £60 + P&P. You can imagine my relief!

Installation of the ballast on the headlight was very simple, though getting the headlight unit back into the car was a PITA. I crossed just about everything it was possible to cross when I flicked on the light switch, but to my huge relief, the light fired first time and seems to be working ok.

The moral of the story is to take great care when evacuating the condensation in your lights, as repairing these fancy xenon lights is a protracted and potentially very expensive job. In my case, the car was off the road for over a week as I waited for the part.

Fixed now (but I daren't switch the lights on until the car has had its French MOT this afternoon):

 

Hey Frog: Nice looking car. Same color as my wife's XJ8, but isn't your steering wheel on the wrong side??

Cheers,

 

is the headrest supposed to be that 'curved' frog? You do have a separate headrest from the seatback, correct?

 

I dont bother with the OE HIDs they are too expensive to fix, cheapest way is to buy a conversion kit and fit it into the OE HID unit, it does mean having to do a little re-wiring but a new ballast if necessary is only £15 ($25) and easily bought on Ebay

 

I have the Recaro Sports seats that were fitted as standard to the 4.2S run-out models in 2005. They have integral headrests which, while looking cool, are not as comfortable as separate adjustable ones. They're too far from my head and I never use them.



As for the steering wheel; yes, I live in France, but I bought the XKR in the UK (only 2 hours drive away from where I live), because prices are about 40% of what they are over here. Plus, there's loads more choice of Jaguars for obvious reasons.

 

Frog --

Nice looking Jag!

Thanks for the advice on removing the condensation. I plan to work on the headlights on my 2002 xk8 this afternoon, and I will be extra careful now.

James