Hey all

I don't currently own an F Type, but am looking at picking one up in a year or so- this is more out of curiosity than anything else.

I've done away with any "amber" colored indicators or reflectors on all of my others cars (except my XJS- need to have them custom made), as I think they contrast too much with everything else (pet peeve, perhaps).

With the F Type, I'm wondering if the UK spec headlights would bolt-in to a US spec car, since they don't have that ugly amber strip on the outside? Or is there an easy way to open up the housing and remove the amber? I did this with my LR3 but it involved essentially melting the glue holding the assembly together and was a pain.

Any thoughts?

 

Well you would actually want the LHD European or ROW (Rest of World) headlights, not RHD UK spec, otherwise you'll be dazzling oncoming traffic as the beam cutoff will be on the wrong side.

But yeah sure, no problem to swap headlights, so long as they are the same spec (with or without active/adaptive function). There were also different headlights for the very first cars, before it changed to an option of chrome or black bezels.

Good luck finding secondhand headlights. And a new set will probably set you back $4k or therabouts.

 

Probably not relevant (as I'm assuming US cars will have this option hidden), but UK-spec cars have an option in the menu to switch the lights over LHD mode. Not sure if this is only available with the adaptive lighting (which I have on mine).

The French police do love terrorising cars with UK licence plates when they're bored (easy pickings...they actually march you to an ATM to withdraw any fines they issue you with, otherwise they seize your car!), but I don't know if this option is "just good enough to keep the Frenchies at bay" versus "true LHD mode".

 

Canadian cars also have this option. I have Adaptive Lighting too.

 

The menu option CaptainHam refers to is for the high beam assist function if that is fitted to your vehicle. It determines which side of the road it looks at to determine if a white light coming towards the car is another vehicle (and so dims the high beam) or a reflection from a road sign (which will be ignored). The full manual mentions something to that effect.

On at least the current generation XJ and F Type (but likely all the current Jaguar vehicles) the manuals state they do not need any changes made when switching between LHD and RHD countries. If you shine the lights on a garage wall for example you will see that unlike some other cars the light patterns does not flick up on the nearside anymore and the light diffusion is identical on both sides. Likewise the headlamp bulbs are non-servicable at the side of the road. The gendarmerie might still try and fine you for not carrying beam splitters or spare bulbs though so keep your manual in the glove box just in case!

The headlamp units will not be identical between LHD and RHD specs, but the dipped beam pattern is.

 

If you're going to do this you may as well wait until they offer LED headlights. Won't be long since they are adding to other models.

 

JLR does seem to be a few years behind the lead technology manufacturers in most areas. The LED headlights in our C300s are light years (no pun intended) ahead of Xenons.

 

Agree. Both my other cars have the Full LED headlights and I find the Jaguar headlights quite disappointing when driving at night.

On my BMW M5 I have coded it to unlock the matrix high beam feature which creates incredible visibility. Not sure if there is a way to do this to the Benz?

 

That's a good point, the next refresh will most likely incorporate the full LED lights. I won't even be purchasing one for at least a year anyway, so I have plenty of time to wait and see what happens.

I've yet to drive a car with full LED lights, but I've heard they're a significant improvement over HIDs.

PIAA now makes LED fog light replacement bulbs, and I'm going to get some for my LR3, as the factory fogs are pretty useless.

 

Those LED replacement bulbs are also pretty weak. They don't compare with a factory LED setup. Especially if you have Active no glare high beams.

 

Have you tried them? I'm not expecting them to compare with an OEM setup, but I'm assuming they would be much better than the standard builds in my fog lights. They're just to supplement my adaptive HIDs.

 

Assuming you are talking about putting a high output LED bulb in the existing bulb socket then I have. Tried them on one of our older cars (a 2008 Lexus). They're not much better than the standard bulbs.

The more substantial upgrades you can do to your current fog light areL

1) Replace them with HID foglights. That would make a big difference and is not expensive.

2) Remove the current foglight setup completely, and install a whole new LED foglight fixture. Like this one
LEDriving FOG | Automotive lighting | OSRAM