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Posted by jagbaudi

I am new to the club, so please let me know if i'm in the wrong place to ask this question!
I am looking to change the headlights in my 2003 Type S from halogen to hid, can anyone help me out as to what issues I might face by doing this and also how easy it might be. Thanks.

Reply from PaulE

Before spending a lot on a HID conversion have you considered changing your bulbs to high efficiency ones of the same wattage. Not very expensive and they are a definite improvement. You must have reasonable optics on so recent a car so really all you need is a brighter light. Phillips and Osram are probably the best. ' Phillips X-treme Power' claim an 80% improvement and they have made a massive difference on my XJS with the oval lights. You can get them on-line (v.efficient) from www.powerbulbs.com.at £22.50 for two when I got mine. Hope I have been able to shed some light, let us know how you get on.
PaulE.

I attended the first S-type seminar at Castle Bromwich some four years ago.

The question of modernising the headlights on earlier S-types was asked.

Apparently modification to HID/Xenon units as fitted to later cars is difficult, if not impossible as later cars have a different "electrical architecture".

The alternative is as suggested, a set of uprated lamps. I purchased a set of Halfords Bright White lamps which are road legal at 55watt power output.

Halfords claim an improvement in lux density of 90%. The improvement in my opinion is justified. These units work well and the improvement is very noticeable. The cost as I remember was approximately £23 when fitted in June 2008.

I recommend this modification. Similar lamps are available for most cars.

Fitment is relatively easy on the offside unit. The nearside lamp access is not so easy! Long nosed pliers, small hands and massive patience is needed to push down the spring clip and move it out of the headlight detent. After lamp replacement, the reverse action applies. Practice on the offside unit first! Your efforts will be well rewarded with extra illumination at an affordable price.

I must add that this fitment job has been known to reduce professional motor engineers to near tears. There is very little space into which you need to slide a hand, complete with new lamp and then re set the locking spring clip. If you have thick wrists or large hands, forget it! However if you remove the aircleaner box first, the job can proceed in a fairly routine fashion.

Without doubt, this seemingly simple job is in practice one of the worst S-type jobs you will ever come across. There is only one other that comes anywhere near it in terms of inaccessability and frustration levels: that of fitting new heater control taps located near the bottom of the radiator. It is again almost impossible unless the radiator is removed from the car.

Jaguar certainly know how to build `em!!

Best of luck and have your box of sticky plasters handy. I bet you manage to cut your wrists!

Mike Kennedy. JEC S-type JEC Forum Co-ordinator.

I own a superb 2006 S Type Diesel Sport, but I felt the Headlamps were very poor for a modern car. Having decided that I needed to improve these in some way, I eventually decided to try and install a HID bulb kit. I purchased a kit from Ebay at a very reasonable £60 ish, the kit comes with all the fixings and cables required to fit, the only real work needed was to drill a largish hole in the plastic bulb cover to allow the new cable to pass into the lamp unit which is then sealed with a Grommit (supplied). Installation took about 1 hour to complete with no problems encountered, the improvement to the Lighting is superb and I can also confirm that my car does not seem to have noticed that they are fitted and has not flashed up any warnings etc. I was so impressed with this kit that I have since fitted another one to my VW T4 Transporter.
If you would like further information and perhaps some pictures please feel free to drop me an email at - dave.newbs@tiscali.co.uk
Dave