Hi,
Last week the drivers side headlamp (dipped beam - bi-Xenon) blew. As I had an old headlamp in the garage I swapped the bulb out and hey presto! Lights again!

2 days after that another bong on the dashboard, this time its the passenger dip beam light out, so off to Halfords and sixty quid later, new bulb fitted and all ok.

Wife has just come back to say the bongs are back, this time its the passenger side bulb out again, but ignore the bongs, switch lights off and on again and the light is back on!

Any ideas? Loose / bad earth somewhere?I had assumed that because the drivers side bulb had gone it may have overloaded the passenger side causing that to blow,but wife has just told me that this has been going on for quite some time with the passenger bulb warning bong!

She does tend to drive all the time with the dipped beam on, and sometimes its on a very short run, could that have something to do with it??

If it is an intermittent problem, then it is most likely to be one of four potential things:
1. duff bulb - swap the bulbs over from left hand to right hand sides and see if the problem moves sides.
2. loose/damaged wiring or connections - check all the connections in the headlight are sound.
3. faulty ballast unit (referred to in Microcat as the light control unit) - it's the silver looking box mounted on the back of the headlight unit, you can swap the left and right headlight ballasts to see if the problem is with that unit.
4. faulty igniter - this is a small box mounted inside the headlight unit, difficult to get to, as needs the headlight disassembled to get access to it.

Check those out methodically and you should be able to identify which one is the problem.

You can get replacements for the igniter and the ballast unit (expensive if bought new) off fleabay or try Cam Tech Craig. Craig does facelifts for the Range Rovers and has plenty of old headlights, ballasts, etc, I got a second hand light unit off him last year when a pheasant comitted 'suicide' by flying into and destroying my driver's side headlight.

i'm sure i read somewhere that the bulbs should be replaced in pairs , if that is the case then you can get decent ones of ebay for around £18 a pair or pop round to me in swindon cos i have some you can have for nothing.. ... - .- -.




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+1 to what stan says, you should always replace the bulbs in pairs...and make sure that they both have the same rating, i.e. both 4800K, both 6000K, etc.

Mixing the ratings doesn't stop the lights from working, but it doesn't help either and looks silly too.

Thanks,
Both bulbs are the same make and code numbers are the same, and they both look the same when on, it could be the ballast resistor as I now find out that the passenger side has been doing this on and off for about 6 months!

I have a ballast resistor in the garage off the old headlamp so will try that one.
Does the headlamp unit have to be removed to get access, or will a short torn driver do the business?

The igniter units used to be the common failure on the Jaguars, (i'm assuming the RR will use pretty much the same parts), people usually found out it was the igniter after replacing the bulb and ballast.

If you remove and disconnect the sidelight unit, you may get enough space to get the ballast out, but it would probably be best to take the whole headlight unit out. Plus you could check that it is only the ballast, not the igniter that's at fault. You would need the headlight out and disassembled to replace the igniter if that's the problem.

There are videos on youtube showing how to get the lights removed and disassembled (powerful.uk do the videos).