Considering changing OEM headlight bulb to brighter aftermarket bulb. Would appreciate suggestions. Thanks

 

Lots of bulb choices out there. Here's mine. Got news for you though - your headlight adjusters are most likely broken. If you replace your bulbs you'll be able to tell easily if the mechanism is broken, as it will just flop around when you take out the bulb. Another way to tell is if headlight beams are pointing very close to front of car. As far as bulb replacement goes, there's a cover on backside of headlight assy held on by two clips. Driver's side is easy to access but passenger side is tougher. Using a long shaft screwdriver through the pictured hole makes for piece o' cake for dealing with the outboard clip of passenger side headlight cover. Could Jaguar designer have put that hole there on purpose?

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...nt-diy-173156/

 

The other problem I had when changing my bulbs was that I found one bulb and socket fused together by corrosion. Bulb broke away from the spade and the rest of it wasn't coming out no way, no how. Local O'Reilly store didn't have anything to help me but good ol' Amazon to the rescue - found pack of four wired H1 sockets for about $10. Spliced in a new socket and it's a good fix.

 

same issue with my 02 xtype-dealer wanted 260 labor to do just that. lol

 

i hope you have tiny hands, changing the bulbs on these cars is a PITA!! i had cuts for days

 

Yep, psgr side definitely crowded with ABS module so makes for a fun time. You get to recall long-forgotten swear words.

 

I would go HID.
totally worth the effort best mod I did on my X.

you may find this thread useful.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...n-kits-147921/

 

Lee, I would second the upgrade to HIDs. A bit more work, but well worth it if you need more light. If you need info on HIDs and what to look for, let me know.

There are tons of brighter bulbs out there. Just be aware of those offering more light via a higher wattage bulb. The higher wattage bulbs work in your car, but you will pay later (either melted connectors or the plastic in the headlight assembly will warp/melt). I think you can see where that might be bad.

 

Wow, thanks all that have posted on this thread. Growing up dad bought some European Lucas headlights I believe that were unbelievably bright for standards in the 60's. Dad sold the car they were in and I removed them and put them in my 56 Chevy. I really could see down the road. Even then I think they were not legal but I was never pulled over for the headlights, mainly a little street racing.

Thermo - I do not want to pay later for things melted or warped. If you would please give me your information on HID's, etc. that you mentioned in your post.

Paulc732 - I will read more thoroughly your post about headlamps. Good points made by people that had posted on that thread.

Coming home from town a couple of nights ago, my wife and I were talking about our headlamps and especially on dim how the light was dim and not to far out, on bright the beam was further out but not like what I want. We have a lot of deer that love to play on the road side and at night. I think they are betting on whether or not the humans will see them before they dart upon the highway.

 

The poor lighting you're seeing could be from two causes: Cloudy headlight lenses and broken adjusters. The lens oxidation can be polished away (see YouTube), and you can check adjusters on driver's side pretty easily. Take off the bulb cover by unfastening the two clips; hold onto the bulb and test for loose movement of the headlight. If it flops around freely then the adjusters are broken. Hella made this design type for many car manufacturers, and the adjuster defect is well known. Replacement parts aren't too expensive but viewing some videos and taking your time makes for a good repair, scoring 2-3 wrenches on scale of 5 in my opinion.

 

I replaced my complete headlamps when I found a new set on the cheap. I pre-installed all new bulbs before replacing the cloudy and broken headlamp assemblies. I used SilverStar Ultras and have been very pleased with them.

 

Lee, when it comes to HIDs, you have a ton of options. You can control a lot of things with HIDs (granted, not all of them for the better). So, lets start with the most important and work our way down the list.

Wattage: You will find HIDs in all sorts of wattages and most people think "I have 55W halogens, therefore I need 55W HIDs". That is not the case. The only street legal (and even this is questioned based on where you live) HID bulbs are 35W. The reason for this is your standard halogen bulb is rated at about 1500 lumen (light intensity). A 35W HID bulb is rated at around 3000 lumen. So, just upgrading to HID bulbs will be like driving around with your low beams and fog lights on all the time.

Color: Yes, you can pick the color of your headlights. Again, many options, but not all are legal. You will find that they will say that the bulbs are XXXXK (where XXXX is a number). This number refers to a color and in a roundabout way, the amount of light that you will get. The numbers will vary from 3000K to 30,000K. 3000K is a very yellow light that while is illegal for headlights, may make for a good fog light. The 3000K bulbs are some of the brightest that you will be able to get. You next have 4300K bulbs. These will be very similar in color to halogen bulbs (maybe slightly whiter, but still have a slight yellow tint to them). These are the brightest HID bulbs that you can get (normally rated at 3300 lumen per bulb). You then have 5000K bulbs which are snow white in color, but the lumen rating falls to 3200 lumen. Unfortunately, these can be hard to find. You then have 6000K bulbs. Very white in color and have a slight blue halo to them if looked at from the right angle. These will be in the 3000-3100 lumen range. From here on up, you start getting back into the legality question as the light starts becoming blue into purple and eventually even pink. With each step away from 4300K, you loose about 200 lumen (ie, a 10000K bulb is 4 steps away from 4300, so, it would be roughly 800 lumen less than the 4300K bulb of the same wattage).

You next have the bulb style. While the glass part of an HID bulb is the same between all the bulb styles, the plastic base is not. This is where the modification to HIDs can be made much easier with a little looking. In the case of your car, the headlights use an H1 bulb. So, when looking, find an HID bulb with an H1 base. You will find that there are tons of possibilities when it comes to bulb bases.

The final thing that you have to consider is if the HID kit comes with the matching bulb plugs. Some kits give you bare wires and expect you to be able to wire them up accordingly. Some will be more plug and play and will have the matching style plug to the bulb base. In the case of the headlights for you, you will need to get just the bare wire kit. If you do the fog lights, this is where the plug on the end can make a big difference in ease of install. Worst case, you will find that the HID ballasts use a 9006 bulb plug that can be obtained from any local auto parts store. that way you can upgrade the plug to something that is water tight and give you something that will last a long time with no problems.

This leads me back to one final thing to consider. You will find that there are thin ballasts and "normal" ballasts". People that have used the thin ballasts normally end up replacing the ballasts every year or every other year. they don't seem to last all that long. Get yourself a normal size ballast. I would even recommend getting one from a company called "MAXLUX". Maxlux is the OEM manufacturer for most car makers when it comes to HID systems. Yes, they cost more. But, how often do you want to be working on your headlights because one is not working?

You may also hear that people will say that you need a "relay kit" if you are upgrading to HIDs. Your car is wired with a relay kit already (ie, the headlights are controlled via a relay). So, no need to do any wiring upgrades. The only wiring change that I would recommend is taking the ground wire for the ballast and connecting it directly to the body of the car to make the wiring easier (1 less wire you have to worry about getting between the ballast and the headlight housing).

 

Yet another great explanation from Thermo.

In my case I had to add a capacitor to the circuit
the reason is I got an "economy" ballast I needed to add the capacitor to stop the lights from flickering.

If you go with the Maxlux ballast Thermo recommends this will most probably not be required but good to know if you find your HID lights do flicker.
I got mine from HIDextra.com on a black Friday deal
This is the kit I used and has worked for 2 years without problems before I sold the car.

HID kit
H1 HID Light Conversion Kit | HIDeXtra

Capacitors
Universal HID Capacitor | HIDeXtra