Now that Mrs H has a car with proper LED headlights, I am reminded (yet again) how pathetic the Jaguar S-Type headlights are. So I have dug into my shallow pockets to upgrade the dipped beam lights with Twenty20 LEDs. I knew they would be an instant MoT fail if they were fitted at the time of testing, but I didn't know that, since March '21, a motorcycle can have aftermarket LED bulbs fitted and pass its MoT. This providing that there is no dazzle from the LED on dip.
Why are motorcycles exempt?
Why can't car drivers fit aftermarket LEDs and expect an MoT pass?
The official notice;
tinyurl.com/59ybbhfs
Includes a superb piece of officialese nonsense
"Vehicles presented with converted halogen headlamp units first used on or after 1 April 1986 will continue to be failed."
I didn't think you could get aftermarket LEDs in 1986...
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>> Why are motorcycles exempt?
>>
>> Why can't car drivers fit aftermarket LEDs and expect an MoT pass?
>>
>> The official notice;
>> tinyurl.com/59ybbhfs
I suspect they're generally unacceptable for aim, dazzle or whatever but that they're just about OK in a single motorbike headlamp where a certain degree of 'hair raiser' functionality might boost safety.
You could ask DVSA, following up via your MP if the answer is unsatisfactory.
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Has the car got projector lenses?
Why not fit aftermarket HIDs rather than LEDs.
I know several people who's cars have passed an MOT with HIDs fitted.
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Swapping the bulbs on my old Ampera was common but most people swapped back for MOT AFAIR. I don't recall anyone being "caught" with the wrong bulbs.
However as a more common practice, and presumably against the rules, maybe testers will start to take more interest in whether the correct bulbs are fitted.
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The car has reflector headlights. I was just after a simple bulb change so I went for LED but if I'd gone HID I 'd still have had the same observation about aftermarket bulbs being OK for motorcycles but not for cars.
My MP is Sunak, who hasn't acknowledged the two letters I've sent him previously about holes in the furlough system.
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>> My MP is Sunak, who hasn't acknowledged the two letters I've sent him previously about
>> holes in the furlough system.
That's pretty poor.
Ours is Chris Heaton-Harris and a junior minister so on the HMG payroll. I wrote bending his ear about Universal Credit and couples where one is over and the other under State Pension Age. He dealt with it although all I got was the same boilerplate text with the same 'fairness' rationale as in the media.
I'd expected the subject to catch the media but so far it has not.
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>> Has the car got projector lenses?
>>
>> Why not fit aftermarket HIDs rather than LEDs.
>>
>> I know several people who's cars have passed an MOT with HIDs fitted.
And I know plenty who aint.
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>> Has the car got projector lenses? Why not fit aftermarket HIDs rather than LEDs.
There are a vast number number of items on Jaguar X type forums on the subject of retrofitting HIDs. Conclusion is ..Forget it if you want to be legal.
Just changing to HIDs is not legal. HIDS must have at least self leveling
IIRC the whole light unit also needs replacing so it has the correct markings on it ( £500+ each ?)
Some MoT stations passing X types with HIDS appear to be ignoring the regulations.
I am not aware of any X type that has been fully retrofitted with HIDs.
IIRC even the steering column needs replacing
IF the parts are available plus fitting , the cost of fitting etc would be very very high.
Who would take on the job?
HIDs were a standard fitting on one model of the X type
It was also an optional extra on some models but very rarely chosen.
I do not know if any S types had HIDS fitted at the factory so fitting legal HIDs may be impossible.
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As I understand it self levelling and headlight washers are necessary if the output is > 2,000 lumens. I only found this out when I was surprised that our Ibiza, with full LED lights, had neither. So if you can find a HID or LED retrofit kit with an output less than 2,000 lumens you might be okay. However, I think that they also have to be type approved, so practically speaking it might still not be possible. And I suspect that your average MOT station wouldn’t have the ability to measure light output in lumens anyway…
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S-Type Rs had HIDs as standard, so that might be one route if you wanted those. When I had a 2004 S-Type, I found the headlights pretty good, having upgraded the bulbs to one of the Osram/Philips Extreme Vision/ Nightbreaker +100% style sets. Certainly much better than the two Audis and VW Golf I'd had before, also fitted with brighter bulbs, but which were like candles by comparison. Might be the cheapest route to a bit more light on the road, while still passing an MOT.
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>> S-Type Rs had HIDs as standard, so that might be one route if you wanted.
On the X type another giveaway was the light switch. HID versions had no beam height control.
I would guess something similar on the S type.
( Dip beams on the X were like candles )
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>> And I know plenty who aint.
Why does that not surprise me.
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Because you knew you were wrong?
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>> Because you knew you were wrong?
Nope. If someone has a black cat, generally you know someone with an even blacker one.
Aftermarket HIDs are still a grey area and at the discretion of the MOT tester, who BTW cannot go digging around for evidence of aftermarket kits being fitted, correct rated bulbs, etc.
If the beam pattern is correct, and there is no light scatter, then he/she has no reason to fail it.
Some cars with factory fit HIDs didn't come with washer jets or self levelling. However cars made after a certain date will fail with an aftermarket kit if it's obvious.
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>>If someone has a black cat, generally you know someone with an even blacker one.
Pots and kettles can be much the same way.
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>> Nope. If someone has a black cat, generally you know someone with an even blacker
>> one.
You went to Tenerife?
He's been to Elevenerife...
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>> You went to Tenerife?
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>> He's been to Elevenerife...
>>
Please stop. Think of my aching sides.
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Feel free to criticise, but you don't see auxiliary spotlights on the front of cars these days. I seem to remember especially many Jaguars came with them fitted.
Are they now:
Still Legal?
Still available?
and would they suit you?
8o)
Last edited by: neiltoo on Fri 19 Nov 21 at 10:36
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As I remember, the ones on Jags were discreet: about 6" diameter, with a blue nipple shaped centre.
On the other hand, Minis would have four 12" soup dishes a la Paddy Hopkirk!
8o)
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Just be clear, good people, I feel quite able to upgrade my lights: auxiliary devices, HID, LED, 100W halogens or whatever. The trigger for my post was the glaring (ha!) injustice of car drivers being penalized vs. motorcyclists. Why is a quick route to greater light output, and therefore, by implication, greater safety, legally denied to car drivers and yet available to motorcyclists? I have made a start on the tortuous journey to greater enlightenment (!) by emailing the DVSA.
This thread is woefully short of the ridiculously forced but amusing puns made by many of you in other threads. Please get on with it.
The extra lights that had coloured centres were made by Notek, from the late 1930s onwards and were never AFAIK factory fitted to Jaguars. The lights with brown coloured centres were designated foglights and the units with blue coloured centres were spotlights. As any chav will tell you blue light travels further and faster than ordinary light. I think Jaguar favoured Lucas for the factory-fitted bumper-mounted foglights seen on many post-war models.
My car was a 3.4 S auto with the fog lights mounted where the horn grilles either side of the radiator grille used to be. It was in the days when software updates were done by some mug doing keyboard input actually on site. My Australian boss, who had never seen snow allocated me the 'East Coast run' for a payroll update in the mid '70s. Starting in Leeds, I took the M62 to Hull, then Bridlington, Driffield, Scarborough, Malton, York and back home to Leeds. It had started snowing at dawn and I had to stop every few miles to clear the snow off the windscreen and indicators. The front of the car looked like a snowplough apart from the foglights which had melted tunnels in the snow. The gods certainly looked after youthful me that day, mainly by kindly clearing everyone else from the roads. A youngster in a powerful automatic with only Dunlop SPs between me and certain destruction, and not a snowplough in sight. The following day I found out that there was a book running on whether I would complete the trip or not and, if not, whether recovery or ambulance services would be involved. Phew!
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>>This thread is woefully short of the ridiculously forced but amusing puns made by many of you >>in other threads. Please get on with it.
Its a very illuminating thread, no idea watt you are on about, we don't need to be led.
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>>This thread is woefully short of the ridiculously forced but amusing puns made by many of you in other threads. Please get on with it.<<
I've been hiding my light under a bushel...
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>> >>This thread is woefully short of the ridiculously forced but amusing puns made by many
>> of you in other threads. Please get on with it.<<
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>> I've been hiding HID my light under a bushel...
There fixed that for you.
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>> This thread is woefully short of the ridiculously forced but amusing puns made by many
>> of you in other threads. Please get on with it.
>>
..it's a serious thread; that would be far too light-hearted....
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This should make him beam with pleasure
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 20 Nov 21 at 17:47
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It's about time some folk around here were sent ohm.
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Jaguar S-Type - Aftermarket LED MoT anomaly - Bromptonaut
