Any wild guesses? Winner will have a pizza delivered to their door from their favorite pizza joint, lol. Cell phones and modern payment methods great like that!

I have a 2004 XKR and in aquiring the car it didn't have working or usable headlights. Long story. They cost a bazillion dollars for used ones. No budget for that, lol

I ended up getting my hands on a free set of XK head lights that fit BUT they don't have the self leveling motor found in the originals... I wired up the lights using pigtails from a non leveling headlight XK,,, and all lights work, high beams, signals - alls good... But, and there's that word, of course, I have a dash warning that's saying to check the lights.

I have a large box of resistors here. What neighborhood do folks think I should start in in tricking the car to believe there is a leveling motor in the line? I ask because I have NO IDEA.

Any help, guidance and suggestions greatly appreciated!

 

So the car originally had HID lamps?

 

HID is a new one for me. But I'll say yes, because I trust ya!

 

HID = High Intensity Discharge

You may have to live with the message, I'm afraid. The "headlamp levelling control module" in each lamp talks to the BPM over - you've guessed it - a serial data link.
I imagine the BPM notices the missing conversation and just complains to the instrument cluster, hence the message you're seeing.

It's quite complex as there are ride height sensors front & rear also talking to the headlamp modules. Take a look at 9.4 and 21.2 in the 2003 EG and you'll see what I mean.

 

If you are saying you have two wires which should go to a motor and you want to put a resistor instead. Then if that motor was 60watts at 12v it would draw 5Amps and have a resistance of 2.4ohms. However fitting a 2.4 ohm 60 watt resistor is a bit expensive I would go for something like 50 ohm 10watt and see if that fools it .
Just had a thought ...why dont you put a bulb instead of the motor say a 21w stop lamp bulb . Cheap and you can see if it comes on.
Let me know.

 

Don't put a random low value resistor across random wires - you won't fix the problem and you might damage something. A 12v filament bulb (not LED etc) as suggested by Pistnbroke is safer, but it won't fix your problem.

Do as Michaelh has suggested, check the wiring diagram and tell us what wire colours from the car harness you have left over. If the error message is indeed for the headlamps not the rear lights you have two options:-

Find a pair of damaged headlights with the self leveling modules and use the modules from them.

-or-

Use the Jaguar IDS software to turn off the self leveling option - this must be an option somewhere.

But check the wiring diagrams before doing anything or you might release the magic smoke from the electronics.

 

JayJay....use a multi-meter and measure the old one.

​​​​​​​TJ

 

Good Morning Y'all. Good morning...

I feared what Michael suggested,,, that it would not be as simple... But I need to give it a shot... I would just like to be sure that what the BPM is looking for is the module (and it's complexity) or just that there is a motor there to run to adjust the beams - and that's what it's looking for. It must be the more complex,,, as Michael says. I looked at 9.4,,, then 21x and damn,,, yeah, doesn't look like fun.

I didn't know that placing a resistor could cause damage. I didn't. Thanks for the warning!!! 🙂

Unfortunately I don't have the old lights or the modules to run a resistance check. Someone was there before me a couple of years ago, before I got my hands on the car. Scavenged what they could from the original headlight set. I'm glad I got there when I did because them folks had written the car off,,, again, long story. They were most likely going to start digging for other things.

I will provide some better information about what's there in a few... The wires and old connector sets are still in the car. I used the "new" pigtails and snipped the wires I needed to run the "new" headlamps one by one, connected and wrapped as I went. From memory, I think it's just 2 wires left. Maybe 3. But we'll see.

I like the idea of the bulb... Could this car bas as nice to me as that?! Thanks PistonB...

The message on the cluster is a super light green light. Looks like a little headlight. It's not a big deal. But I would like to be LIGHT FREE. That would be amazing considering this car took a swim in a lake... In the last maybe 2 years, with y'all's help and my time with 3 other old *** cars, I'm always amazed when I'm driving it. Up and down some mountains in Vermont last week - which was great great fun!

Next, and about all that remains after this, is the seat belt warning stuff and airbags... Light in dash and occasional "FASTEN BELTS" warning chimes when I'm zipping down the road (belts fastened). Again,,, I looked at the wiring diagram and it is complicated.
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Jay,

Do you know the story of how your car wound up in a lake? Did someone steal it and then ditch it?

 

"The message on the cluster is a super light green light. Looks like a little headlight."

Isn't that just to tell you the headlights are on (bottom right in this image)?

 

Well Damn, Dib!!! This light isn't a feature in my 2002 XK8. No indicator for lights on... So yes, wonderful, you're right! It's the green one I believe,,, right most gauge, indicator farthest to the right...

The pizza goes to YOU! PM a Brotha with an address lol...

I think pizza rewards (or beer) should be a thing on this forum, 😂

And story is,,, it was in a lake that flooded it's banks or something like that after a bad storm down south... Florida, I heard. No confirmation. Was sold as a "salvage" car on auction... There was no water in the engine although the transmission was literally full to the brim. There is/was evidence of water all the way over the dash as all of the servos for the climate control system were corrupted and needed to be swapped. Believe it or not the damage was not so great...

When I first got the car I would have SWORN it might end up being the former car of a member here but no one has said anything thus far. Anywho,,,

​​​​​Thanks y'all!!!

 

XJS ALMOST left me in the side of the road this morning headed down to NJ Shore for the 4th!!! Turned around did 55mph limping back home...

Not a good day, til I swapped it for the XKR and headed back down... I swear sometimes I don't know if I'm going backwards or forwards with all of these cars. It can be overwhelming... Often have the sense of falling hopelessly behind with em all 😤

 

Hi Jay, as I read this before I saw Michaelh's excellent point I thought to myself: grab a POT (potentiometer or variable resistor) set it to a minimum resistance for safety, maybe 50 ohms, then grab a screwdriver and see if you can find a resistance value/range that fixes the issue.

Been thinking about it, decided to suggest it anyway. Maybe you'd get lucky so - here you go mate. With radio shack closed, if you don't have POT but would like to try it, ping me. I'm sure I've got one you can have.

John

 

Only one green light for headlights on but no blue one for main beam ...

 

Hey PB... I get a blue light for the HIGH BEAMS and a green one when I switch the lights on... The green is what I WRONGLY thought was a warning for headlight problems,,, or in my case for the 3 wires >>> Orange, White and White/Red btw >>> which are left over from my headlight hack. I had to use non HID (I think) XK8 headlights on a 2004 XKR with HID plug sets...