Jaguar XK8 Lighting Modifications

[@rnjbailey2264]

Outstanding work, Richard. Many thanks!

[@johnpalmer2969]

Hi Richard, have installed your fog/day light conversion in my XK8 years ago - brilliant…. I am now going to try to fit it on the wife’s Ford Fiesta Mk5 the last year 2002 of production - hopefully it will work as well as the Jag - will let you know….. Thank you for producing this…

[@franknance1555]

Installed LED's in each recommended location in interior, side lights, trunk etc. What a difference! Ordered diodes for fog lamp mods. Great informative video. Thanks so much. (FYI I have 2001 xk8 convertible, US version)

[@Dave-in-France]

Hi Richard, an excellent, detailed and complete video for doing various electric light modifications. 1st class ref. material which I will keep. Thank you very much for going to the trouble of making this video. Dave

[@rachelblack3816]

Extremely well researched and illustrated! Bravo! Thank you for the clear explanations, and for all of the replacement part numbers to each replacement bulb AND screenshots of the web sites where you ordered the products! So kind. Very, very, well done.

[@richardastley2517]

Thanks Alex. Your comments are much appreciated.

[@ODRModurol]

Richard, absolutely excellent presentation. Small point but would recommend breaking in it down into 3-4 separate episodes (10-15mins). I've tried to watch it several times, good stuff but quite long for one sitting. Actually bought the DRL wire (assume from you) on ebay then found your explanation at the end of this video after the last viewing. Keep up this great work, would like to see more stuff.

[@richardastley2517]

Thanks for the feedback, and I agree, I could have shortened the whole video. I post videos simply to share any knowledge I gain and certainly not for any financial gain. I don't sell anything on eBay and have no connection at all with any vendors I recommend.

[@ToTheGarage]

Fabulously clear and detailed program. Thank you very much Richard

[@stephenmoore8405]

great job, well worth watching

[@AndyK.1]

Interesting video. When I fitted leds to the front indicators on my x308 I didn’t require a load resistor thankfully. I used switch back leds like some other jag owners. These are like bi coloured leds orange and white. The white being used for DRL. These even contain circuitry to give orange priority and delay when bringing the white back on like new cars. In the UK where we actually get fog you don’t want white led front fogs as incandescent lights see through the fog far better. Interesting measurement on the brake light speed.

[@richardastley2517]

Hi Andy. I do remember foggy days in London town, but fortunately, although I now live in Michigan, surrounded by the Great Lakes, we don't get really bad fog. I am interested in the LEDs you describe with the fancy circuitry. Could you provide a link?

[@AndyK.1]

rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F283308379806 rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F401614768349 rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F302756269994 Examples. Don’t buy cheap ones

[@richardastley2517]

Hi Theo: Interesting that your 2006 was manufactured in early 2005 and that it has different wiring from that shown in the official Jaguar 2003-2005 XK wiring diagram. It does seem you have figured that the low (dip) beam relay is in a different position from I would expect. You don't have HID headlights do you? HIDs would explain why you have relays reversed and why you get the flashing. I do indicate in the intro to the section about front fog lights that the method of using a diode won't work with those. If you don't mind the fog lamps staying on when the low beams are on, instead of connecting to the cathode of the diode to contact 5 of the low beam relay you could connect it to contact 5 of either the horn relay (2nd relay from the center of the car) or power-wash relay (4th relay from the center of the car). It would mean that the fog lights, when being used as DRLs, would go off on the rare occasions and brief times during which either of those functions, whichever you chose, was operated.

[@theokampert4659]

Thanks Rick, you're bang-on. I have the HID headlights, which I know as Xenon lights, so it never registered in my brain. I have it now so the fog lights stay on. Not perfect, but works for me and didn't need to spend however much the dealer would charge me. Thanks again!

[@oasisauto]

wow ...great info ...thank you 🙏

[@rnpshiii]

Hi Richard, Amazing video. My question to you. If I wanted to replace every taillight bulb with LED if I made a custom 3D printed cover that would accommodate the space for the resistors would they all function? Let me know if so I will have one designed with extra space to tap.

[@richardastley2517]

Thanks, glad you found the video useful. There are 4 lamps per side that have bulb failure sensing and that require resistors in order to fool the vehicle electronics into thinking incandescent lamps are installed when in fact LEDs have replaced them. They are the 2 tail lamps, which can share a single resistor, the turn signal and the stop lamp. The back-up and fog lamp have no lamp failure sensing and thus don’t need resistors Adding resistors presents 2 problems Finding space and dissipating the heat. Of the lamps that require a resistor I chose only to replace the turn signal with an LED because I like the modern instant-on look (vanity I know) and the fact that the resistor doesn’t dissipate as much power as would normally be necessary when replacing a 21W bulb. That’s because the lamp is not used continuously and when actually flashing is off half the time. Your 3D printed cover sounds great from the space point of view but I hope you can use materials that can both firmly secure the resistors and get rid of and withstand the heat. The resistor for the two tail lamps will dissipate power continuously at night and a long stop at a red light, with the brake on, can mean that the stop lamps will have enough time to heat considerably. You may have to do some experiments to determine how hot they get Good luck, and if you succeed, perhaps you can share your results and software here so that others can benefit too.

[@rnpshiii]

@@richardastley2517 thanks for the reply. Will give some additional thought and consideration . And will share with everyone.

[@richardastley2517]

If you have any questions that you want to ask directly, you can see my email by clicking on my name and then the About button. Thinking about it some more, a larger shell around the rear lights that contains an aluminum plate on which to mount and heat sink the resistors would probably work well.

[@rnpshiii]

@@richardastley2517 great idea. The housing could be bigger and square on the inside for a prefab heatsink as the loss of trunk space would be worth the lighting performance in my mind.

[@theokampert4659]

Hi Rick, great video. I installed the diode as per video on my 2006 XK8 and the fog lamps stay on all the time. Any idea why that could be? Thanks.

[@richardastley2517]

Hi Theo. Sorry for the delay, it's a while since I made this video and I had to review it. I see I described modifications I have made to both the rear fog lamps and the front. Is it the front or the rear fogs that are a problem?

[@theokampert4659]

Hi Rick, sorry, I should have clarified. It's regarding the front fog lights being used as daytime running lights. I have figured out that my 2006 XK8 (manufactured 01/2005) has the relay box configured like the 96-03 models as per your video, which means I put the diode between the fog lights and main beam, which explains why the fog lights stay on. However, when I put the diode between the dip beam and fog lights, the fog lights 'blink'. They do turn off when the dip beams are on. The 'blinking' is strange though...any ideas? Thanks so much.

[@ChronicViper]

Well done. I really line the attention to detail in your descriptions. Especially the led comparisons with voltage. Do you know the length in mm of the festoon courtesy bulbs in trunk?

[@richardastley2517]

Thanks. The LED versions I'm using have an overall length of 36 mm and a distance between end caps of 18.5 mm.

[@patromer0126]

wow, thank you for the very detailed video. Q: did you disconnect the battery before any changes. Do I need to add diodes if I change instrument panel bulbs to LEDs

[@richardastley2517]

Hi Pedro. When changing the instrument lamps I did disconnect the battery, but only after ensuring that I had moved the steering wheel as low as it would go. The LEDs have integral diodes so don't need additional ones.

[@jonince1960]

Hi Richard.............Thanks for this very informative video . Hi dove stright in and went for the easy ones first..........I got a pack of BA9s's (only need one for the Glove box) and i went in and changed it over. Nothing ! ......i thought it's a duff bulb.....changed it for another ....nothing ! ...........I've checked the fuse pertaining to the glovebox and it's fine...........any help greatly appreciated. Mine's a 2005.5 XKR Stratstone Edition (last 30 of X100 Shape)

[@richardastley2517]

Hi Jonathan. I have read your message a few times and tried to think of what might be wrong, after all, as you said, this should be an easy one; a no brainer. The trunk lamps and foot-well maps share the same power source as the glove box lamp, so if they’re working there is power. If you take a while fitting the bulb then that power source will shut-off so as to conserve battery in the event the glove box is left open. Make sure you close and lock the doors then reopen and check if the lamp works. Otherwise I can only think that the LED bulbs you bought are a bad batch with either mechanical issues preventing them making good contact or an electrical problem such as the diodes being reversed so that they won’t work on a negative ground car.

[@jonince1960]

@@richardastley2517 Thanks for your reply Richard.....Indeed the footwell and trunk lamps are working so there is power.........I Only tried 3 of the 10 so i will try the rest to ascertain if it is indeed a bad batch. I have used T10's for the map reading lights and that's a transformation in itself with crisp white light where only yellow came out before :-) I am plucking up the courage to get into the instrument cluster T10's and T5's and i now have the T5's in Red White and Blue and will set up a test day using your technique and a sharpie to get the polarity right before i start. I want to replace the trunk and footwell lamps with LED's and although i see the 6smd one sided LED i don't have the specification of the replacement and can't find "the right one" on Ebay. Since mine is an XKR coupe I also have a rear seat courtesy light so i want to change that too. If i have success on the Instrument cluster i am next going for the center console as when driving at night with the radio off the whole area is dark......if something is switched on like the AC on Auto i can just see the red dots and not a lot else. When the CD/AM/FM radio is off that panel is dark. The steering wheel is dark and both door window lifter control panels are dark (or so dim as they may as well be dark) I have tried the technique in the video from ToTheGarage with John in turning the lights on and then adjusting the dimmer to max brightness so they are as bright as they can be but the light emitted is next to useless. If i could send you an Email i can show you the photo's i've taken of the current situation.

[@richardastley2517]

@@jonince1960 Jonathan: I just added a forwarding email address to my profile. I think you you should now be able to click on my Name > Profile>About>View Email Address

[@1960livvy]

Great Video - Thanks

[@280SE]

Great video Richard 👍🏻

[@amartosresearch1934]

Hi. Thanks for doing this! Is this the right diode to get? 1N5402 Rectifier Diode 3A 200V DO-201AD (DO-27) Axial 5402 3 Amp 200 Volt

[@timberrr1126]

What ages LEDs is heat. The chip needs to be in a heat sink. Good idea to buy 3 different kinds. They may only last 6 months. There should be a heat sink around it. Also consider using an AMBER LED with an amber lens cover. In a T10 socket I have used CANBUS LEDs. It fits right in.

[@richardastley2517]

Heat sinking, at especially in the all important immediate vicinity of the chip, isn't usually in control of the end user. See my video concerning LED Fog lamps here I reduce power input to proportionally control heat output, without, in the case of the voltage controlled LEDs, similarly reducing light output.

[@mikehenry6492]

Would love to know what upgrades you would recommend for the main and dip beams

[@richardastley2517]

Mike. I really don’t have a solution for headlamps but, coincidentally, the day you sent your message I met someone with an XK8 who was very happy with the HID kit he’d bought on eBay. However, a few days later you’ll see there was comment on this channel from Andork who wants to dump his HIDs. It’s my understanding that even if LED lamps are, or become, available that are bright enough for use as headlamps they need to be used in a reflector housing specifically designed for them in order to focus the light properly. That’s because, whereas a filament is a relatively small light emitting source, LEDs are relatively large sources of light, not least because designing them to be reliable requires very good heat dissipation, which in turn requires large surface areas. I doubt that anytime soon anyone will be making whole LED lamp assemblies for such a low production car as the XK8. If you go for HIDs, I noted from observing the car, and talking to the owner of the XK8 I saw, that his were rather bluer than I liked and that he only changed the low beams. He used 6000K lamps but my own choice would be a color temperature that is somewhat whiter, probably 5000K. As for high beams, the HIDs apparently take so long to come to full brightness, you would lose the flash to pass feature. I guess the choice there is a balance between how often you use flash to pass and how much full-beam driving you do.

[@flyurway]

@@richardastley2517 Here’s what I found when doing a little research when I put LED’s in my Chevy truck 3 years ago. Halogens all use a reflector type housing whereas HID’s always use a projector with a lens in front to properly focus the beam. The reasoning for this was because the arc in an HID tends to arch into a shape that a filament does not and can’t be focused properly by a reflector to prevent dispersion of the beam. So the problems with aftermarket HID conversion kits (into OEM reflector housings) were that the beam dispersed widely resulting in not only light being wasted illuminating the tops of trees but also blinding oncoming traffic. So that’s why HID conversions are a bad idea, they can’t be made to focus properly. LED’s I found had some of the same problem and I found that the cheaper ones dispersed more while if you stepped up to the pump and got a pricier LED kit you also got better results getting more of an actual “beam” from them. I got some middle of the road LEDs that were actually DOT approved (I guess most aren’t?) and have had great luck with them, albeit I’ve had to aim them down 3 times now and people still flash me sometimes. These LED’s were so bright that when switching to hi-beams it resulted in almost less vision because those premium halogens I was using still couldn’t hold a candle (pun sort-of intended!) to those LED lo-beams. Though they illuminated slightly further down the road as hi-beams should, their output was so low and so brown they were worthless now. So I went out and got some LED hi beam replacements but, being cheap, just got some “decent” ones that cost about 1/2 what my lo-beam bulbs cost. I figure at least spend the money for the low-beams as you’re always using them when there’s oncoming traffic. The cheaper LED lo-beams were also a big improvement over halogen but I can see how much the light on the cheaper ones disperses more so even though I can see better down the road I know it’s not as good as it could be because I’m also lighting up treetops. So all that said, I’m rather miffed that there are no LED conversions for HID units because I would almost bet that those projector type housings would be just the ticket to counter the biggest problem with the LED’s, and that’s getting the light output to beam better, exactly what the HID projector housings were designed to do. My best guess there is that there aren’t that many trying to convert HID to LED in the first place. But what do I know, I’m not the engineer!

[@richardastley2517]

I think your comment is spot on. Looking at LED replacement H1s and 9005s on eBay and Amazon it seems the rule is cheap devices have big LEDs, whereas the more expensive types have LEDs with smaller emittance areas and adjustable positioning relative to the base (although it’s not clear to me why that should be necessary).

[@flyurway]

@@richardastley2517 The adjustment is there so you can set the depth of the LED to your reflector to find the sweet spot where you actually get a usable beam instead of all the light just dispersing all over.

[@mikehenry6492]

Richard .... check out UK company bettercarlighting.co.uk. - some interesting recent developments on LED lights for older cars/ classics, including headlights.

[@lukereardon1821]

Thank you Richard, a wealth of information here. I have been experimenting with HID and LED bulbs since their inception and it is a difficult task as the quality is never known until you test it yourself. I do disagree with one thing here. Fog Lights should operate on their own without any other forward beams on, no high beams and no low beams as we North Americans call them, I am Canadian. Fogs shine low and wide so as not to reflect off the fog (or off falling snow) into the driver's eyes. If the regular head lights are used in conjunction with the fogs the advantage is lost. Modern cars for years now have misused fog lights operations to the point that no one really knows how they are supposed to operate. Did I miss something here? Is there an option for the fogs to work on their own? Please let me know what you think.

[@richardastley2517]

Hi Luke. Thanks for the feedback. I'll have to go back and look at what I said in the video but I'm not sure I disagree with you. See my other video "XK8 Fog- DRL LED Conversion" kzbin.info/www/bejne/hX6Uh4Bjqbx_bLM. As standard the XK8 Body processor module is programmed: To switch off front fog lights when high beam is selected To allow fog lights with side lights. To allow fog lights with low beams, and while, like you, I think that's counter productive, I don't think it's my place in this instructive video to change the original Jaguar policy. In the "XK8 Fog- DRL LED Conversion" video, the user can choose, or not, to use a diode to initiate the fog-lights with ignition and thus operates them as DRLs. The preferred method show is to wire the ground through the low beam filaments, which switches them off as soon as the low beams are operated (again, they are anyway disabled by the body processor from working with high beam). However, that can be over ridden by using the front fog lamp switch. Also, if users choose, they may be wired so that the DRL fog lamps continue to operate with low beams. In other words, I hope I haven't forced by thinking on the way DRLs and fog lamps should work, but rather let people choose for themselves.

[@debbieharber6550]

Must admit that’s my only complaint with my xkr the lights ..terrible visibility when you live in the country at night time

[@KarlH1980]

Unlike this chap, I recommend that EVERYONE replace their license plate bulbs with LED's. In the US, unlit license plates are the number ONE bullcrap reason coppers stop everyday drivers for no real reason. Usually they let us go with some warning or whatever. Too often however people wind up with $50 tickets.

[@briankennedy5578]

Scotch locks suck. They are very unreliable. I wouldn't use them on anything. There will be issues. The only question is how long. Severe weather it won't be long at all.

[@flyurway]

I wish to hell I could dump these HID's in my XKR for LED's. Don't like these HID's at all!

[@richardastley2517]

Andork. See my Mike’s question below and my response. Would you tell me more as to why you don’t like the HIDs.

[@flyurway]

@@richardastley2517 For one thing they aren't that bright, they're barely better than the halogens I've had on other vehicles, albeit whiter. Shortly after I picked up my '04 XKR 2 years ago I had one start flickering. A little Googling told that this happens when the bulbs get old. So being hopeful, I spent $127 (nothing but the best, right?!) for a fine set of new bulbs so I'd have no more problems with that! Well, it was okay for about a year and now one is flickering again. I haven't gotten up enough ambition to double check yet for any wiring/electrical issues yet to rule that out but it's interesting how the new bulbs made the problem go away completely, but only for a year. But like I say, they aren't that bright anyway and can't even begin to compare with the LED's I put in my '06 Chevy truck 3 years ago (and for only 2/3 the price)! I should get a pair for the halogen hi-beams anyway.

[@richardastley2517]

@@flyurway I did manage to get powerful LEDs installed in my fog-lamps, which I use as daytime-running-lights. They work well because as “be seen” rather than “see with” lamps they don’t need to be focused. They are bright and white and compare well with any DRLs on new cars. It was a bit of a kluge because the lamps have a slot to take the narrow H1 bulb but are retained by the holder that has an HB4 fitting. I bought H1 LEDs, removed the retainer fitting and replaced it with an HB4 retainer. The LED lamps I bought have fans that I think protrude too much out of the rear to replace the low beams, which are H1s too. The lamps without fans have a big lump of a heat-sink at the back with the same potential problem. However, I’ll check if the lamps I used for my DRLs will fit in place of the low beams. If they fit I’ll see if they perform and let you know. The high beams may actually be an easier mechanical fit because the HB3 is a fatter round lamp. Again, the space at the back is limited and there could be an issue with focusing of the beam.

[@flyurway]

@@richardastley2517 Yes, the ones with heat sink braid on them will probably fit better but I don't know if that braid gets hot enough to melt any plastic that may be nearby. As for focusing, it's kind of a crap shoot. I found that more expensive ones seemed to focus better while others even have an adjustable ring that allows you to set the depth and those actually do give you that ability. At least with hi beams it's not as much a problem if the beam scatters since you don't use them with oncoming traffic (even though everyone else seems to!), it's just that it's also wasted light.

[@flyurway]

And strangely enough, if I recall, the hi-beams on these are a 9006, the same as the lo-beams on my truck (which uses 9005 hi beams). Go figure!