Front Fog Lamps

[Simont485]

Hi all....

I have been looking for original front fog lamps for my 1996 XJS.....been looking on eBay and any that appear are very expensive....and as for the Jaguar covers.......

Anyway is the Hella 155 lamp the same? I see them appearing more often......or were they fitted to earlier XJS?

[ptjs1]

Hi Simon,

The answer is Yes...and No.

The Hella 155 is the lamp that was used by Jaguar, but there are different versions. If you ignore the later black plastic bodied-units, as fitted to BMW etc, and concentrate on the chrome-bodied units, then you can decide.

It's all to do with the mounting brackets that are riveted into the back of the lamp casing. Those fitted to earlier facelift XJS have the bracket riveted such that the mount comes from the top of the lamp. Those fitted to later big-bumper cars had the bracket reversed so the mount was at the bottom of that plate. There are also different body mounts on the later cars and different wiring plugs.

However, you can technically carefully drill out the rivets on earlier lamps, reverse the bracket and carefully use round head rivets and put the bracket back. The wiring can be cut and resolved, although I think that very late cars aren't pre-wired or have the switches in place in the car. The other thing that you need to buy or make are the body mount brackets for the late cars. It's probably easier to make some.

Hope that helps

Paul