Job done and working.
A few observations. Best advice has always to be to remove the bumper cover and then three 10mm bolts which secure each headlight unit to the car. This, after my experience today still stands as the easiest and the best way to change ether halogen or HID units.
Armed with my best mate, Mr Dave Rex, we got stuck in. Rex though we could replace both lamps without bumper cover removal. PTJS1 had already said that the near side lamp could be changed without cover removal but that the off side was impossible. As always, he was right. So the cover eventually came off which was fifteen minute work only. Three 10mm bolts secure each headlight unit to the car. Much easier with the lamp units moved forward a couple of inches. Impossible unless that happens. Trying to do it without the cover removed risks dropping sockets and spanners, springs and bolts down onto the undertray...then you do have to take the bumper cover off to recover all the lost bits and tools. Don`t waste your time doing it the hard way. Get the cover off and retain your sanity!!!!
Goof number two was with the off side ground cables. Eight ground cables siamesed onto four cable lugs locate on two soft bolts welded to the bulkhead just aft of the headlights. Cables are short and the lugs can corrode badly. To try to get more space, we removed the nut on the stud and displaced these eight cables. Having changed the off side lamp, the lugs went back on the upper stud for ease of future accessibility and the nut was put back on. Joy of joy, the stud snapped at the bulkhead as I tightened the nut. No brute force used at all. Bugger!
To get the car going again, I managed to pull up the eight cables from the depths and skank a connection to ground from a near by headlight to front frame fastening. A long hex cap head 316 stainless bolt temporarily replaces a rather short steel bolt together with some washers and has a satisfactory enough fixing for a while. My intention is to replace that 6mm threaded bolt with a more suitable 8mm bolt in the near future. I could have done without that stud breakage. I`m certain the stud was aluminium rather than mild steel. 316 at build stage would have been rather more robust and less likely to corrode. Not a good piece of engineering. You wouldn`t have got away with that on an aircraft. Thanks Jaguar for a shoddy piece of detail design.
Enough moans and frustration. Even in bright sunlight, the Osram Night Breakers are noticably brighter than the standard OE Osram original fit units. Fair play...thirteen years old and still in prestine condition when removed. Good lamps in my opinion.
In daylight, the Night Breakers burn with a blue hue once fired up. This turns to bright white light after fifteen seconds or so. Side by side during fitting, the Night Breaker lamps have a very distinct blue tinge to the glass.
A few pics now.
Extra performance offered by Night Breaker in white. Osram OE lamps in red.
Clear white lamp of the OE unitstill in great condition after thirteen years and 88k miles on the road. Performance was sufficient, but not outstanding.
Night Breaker lamp with blue tinge to glass. Performance not yet assessed as the dark has not yet decended.
Detail of the extremely tight working area to the rear of the lamp units. My cable lift temporary mod is clearly seen.
Dave Rex battles with the off side headlight unit on J44. A good fellow is "Wrecks". Ex Ford Daganham commercial PDI trouble shooter with a huge experience and always ready to give me a hand.
The Osram box showing the seven digit number which you enter onto their website to ensure your seller has sent you genuine Osram units. The site asks you to confirm the lamp number then comes back confirming it is a genuine product or a fake. Mine both came back confirmed as genuine. So they should....£42 each!
That`s it for the time being. Its still light so nothing further I can do until dark.
Mike
