S-Type Xenon Headlights, Levelling.
A few days ago because the car was rather loaded I noticed that the headlights were high, Had a look under the bonnet and found the famous Brutal screws, 1 sort of worked and the other didn't. there was no auto levelling action. I attached my i930 and under headlight levelling found :- B2618 Front axle level sensor signal not plausible. I cancelled the dtc and the lights went up and down. I tweaked one with the screw and everything seemed ok, I should add that the adjusters work perfectly on the LH unit so there was no need for the Brutal mod. Next day I am back with the lights low no self levelling and B2618 again, I guess this means there is a wiring or sensor problem. BTW the xenons are rather dim and the lenses look dark too, is this normal, just ageing?

 

The xenon lights will dim with age. The outside of the plastic lenses will become misty, this is down to the effects of the sunlight on the plastic.
Mellow

 

It's not the outer lens but the inner ones that look dark. I think i've got an intermittent contact to the front sensor, after 2 days it is still ok but the problem is still there so I will clean the contacts to the sensor and see how it goes. Do the HID bulbs get dim/age? I had HID lamps on my CLK and the lights were excellent at night!

 

The UV rays do kill the outer plastic lenses as Mellow has mentioned which will affect the clarity.. Cant buy them separately.
The UV rays also breakdown the internal 'chrome' finish on the reflectors. I have yet to see if anyone has had a go at re-coating them. They're likely not 'chrome' like the good old days but likely a thin useless painted/bonded whatever you want to call it, extremely reflective finish. It has such poor long term UV resistance that after it has broken down if you touch it with anything it just deteriorates off, again this would now be affecting the performance..
Thirdly, probably due to the gasses from the internal chrome finish/plastic breaking down over the years and likely dust/moisture combination a film forms over the high quality glass lens that sits in front of the HID bulb and on the inside of the front plastic lenses, again affecting the performance..
The HID bulb's probably got a covering of all this **** as well..
Overall, a brilliant design but overall a pathetic long term proposition. You could almost class just about everything plastic in modern automotive design in the same sentence..

Maintenance on these (if you could call it that as they were never designed to be thrown out and not 'maintained')?
You could carefully pull them apart, try not to break all the tabs in the process, carefully clean the inside of the lenses, carefully clean both sides of the large glass lens in front of the HID bulb (one virtue of a HID bulb is that it should last the life of the vehicle, not so its base and starter!), don't touch the HID bulb but clean it with metho and replace the likely broken internal plastic adjusters..

By the way for what its worth they were not made by Jaguar but by Hella.
I dare say unless we revert back to glass with chromed steel bowls, just about every modern car will at some point have the same issues.

 

The outer plastic lenses clean up quite well, not that they were bad to start with just slightly discoloured, the reflectors look good.
I think you have got it with the rest however, It looks like the lens which you say is glass is dark grey! Probably the chamber in which the HID Bulb sits is a bit of a mess. If the HID bulb is removable in situ then I could clean it, maybe as I look at the lens I am seeing the dirty HID bulb?
I have been searching for an S-type parked so that I can see what the lenses are like. I have looked at other HID lenses on Audis etc and they seem clearer!

 

Not sure if this is it? But the STR has black surrounds inside the headlights while the non-R cars have chrome.
Is this possibly what your seeing as a dark area?

Yes I replace HID bulbs if they are more than 5 years old. Also get Osram or Phillips as the cheap ones have failed on me before.
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When I look at the HID lenses head on they are dark grey, they look burnt. The headlights are adjusted ok but the the light they provide is crap!
my old CLK was a delight to drive at night, this car reminds me of my 1938 Morris eight with 6V system. Info on HID bulbs says they last forever!!!

You say you have replaced the bulbs, Are the HID bulbs easy to remove? If so I will poke my endoscope in there to get an idea of the state of the lens etc

 

You have the diesel so your HID lights would have the chrome surrounds and not the mid grey metallic finish ones of the STR.
As I mentioned the main problem is UV damage followed by moisture/dust damage, probably by a rear cap not being secure etc.
UV damage will not only erode the internal chrome finish it will cause the obvious 'cloudy' external appearance on the outer plastic lens as it breaks down the outer lens' coating.
At that point of the light life span, that's not too bad as you can sand back and re-coat the outer but over time the UV rays will cause stress fractures within the whole body of the outer plastic lens. These look like tiny cracks. No amount of polishing will get these out.
So time for a whole new assembly. Of course a whole new assembly is getting extremely rare (and extremely expensive if you can find one). If you're really skilled you could buy a whole new outer lens but that was never available as a separate item anyway.... I have a suspicion there may be some outer lenses floating around somewhere in Poland where I think this part was likely made. Sadly I don't know anyone in Poland.
Every time I go to my friendly Jaguar wreckers I look to see if they have a good headlight off any S-Type. I'm not likely to find an STR one here in Australia but the standard quartz headlight's lens will fit. I have found one good LHS one so far, looking for a RHS. I will ultimately change over my outer lenses which due to the UV stress fractures are beyond saving.
The S-Type's lights are probably more exposed to UV rays than other designs due to the cars beautifully styled front end.
You're going to have to pull yours apart, gently clean the back of the front lenses, not touch any of the chromed pieces (maybe just run them under warm water?), clean with alcohol the internal glass lenses, seal them back and then polish and re-coat the outer lenses.

 

I spent 20 mins polishing the LH outer lenses with metal polish and they are already pretty good, half an hour more and they will be as new.
It is the glass lens that I am not happy with, it looks dark, The main reflectors are V good.

 

So far so good, for you. The Spanish sun may be less harsh than here in Australia but eventually you will have all the issues I mentioned.
Without coating the 'outer lenses' now that you've polished them they will go back to where they were.
If the 'main reflectors' have no signs of a visible 'dust' coating then they should be okay, for now. Look very carefully, that 'dust' coating on the reflectors I mention is a sign that moisture and dust has entered the assembly.
No way to clean the inner magnifying glass lens other than to disassemble. Mine needed a very good clean, which did make a difference.

 

Main reflectors are good and main beam is excellent too. In January I intend to do all the outstanding jobs, headlight repairs, parking brake lubing and cleaning of all connector pins I can get at, (It seems like the contact cleaner sorted the auto levelling). Top wishbones and a few other things including the long awaited A/C compressor change.

 

Good point from jya and they will turn yellow again within a year or so if nothing extra is done. The polishing removes the factory UV protective coating. Which is or has failed anyway!
I have treated them two ways so far. I have shot automotive 2 part clear coat which is OK if you can spray paint. I also used XPEL protective film which I was not sure it would work but again so far it has and also has the added feature of providing rock/impact resistance to the headlights. I have never seen a rock take out an S Type headlight yet but all of mine do/did have impact marks on the front lens.
EXPEL Headlight Protection

A bit expensive and since the R does not have fog lights those pieces are wasted. Easy to get on EBay and other places.
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I know my front and has been replaced because I I’ve been all through there and saw that the inner bumper support was red inside the tube so I wonder if my STR has STR lights or junkyard replacements from which ever is type they could find one I had lights. But I did manage to polish them up and put some UV protecterant on them. Time to reapply


You can see the grill isnt from an STR. In the cover over the radiator was missing so I purchased this one shown and cut it out to fit STR overflow tank

This was the day I got the car

 

Your car does have the STR lights with the black surround.

Here is the chrome version.



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cool! Im finding STR specific parts are ungodly expensive and the lights would be an expensive ordeal!

 

Yes when I broke my passenger side light from a small wreck I had a heck of a time finding one!
Turned out great because almost no one even knows that they are different so I kept shopping and found a local guy selling a light with the black surround for a good price.
I did NOT mention that his light was only installed on STR's!

The best thing about the S Type head lights is they are easy to bake in the oven and take apart. You can rebuild just about any problem once you get them apart. Plus you can change the crappy plastic ball leveler to a metal one as some guy on EBay sell's the kit for a decent price.
S Type Head Light Repair Kit

The only problem I had is once the adjustment gears strip out the replacement gears are not much help. But you can still adjust the lights by turning the shaft with a wrench. Just harder to do.
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Aarcuda, that looks like an STR grille to me. It looks like the surround's been chromed/chrome sprayed at some stage. Normally the STR grille surround/frame is body colour.
Yes, those STR lights need another coat of clear!