I recently upgraded my headlights to LED projectors and rebuilt the adjusters while I had the headlights split open. Reassembled and reinstalled but now, for whatever reason, the right side dipped/low beam headlight cannot be adjusted high enough. My owner's manual makes reference toa "Touring" adjustment which allows you to raise or lower the headlights somewhat for travel in countries with RHD or LHD. It supposedly can be done without removing the headlights from the car. Has anyone made this adjustment and what was the extent of the t change in the overall height of the dipped/low beam?

 

I’ve been looking into switching my stock headlights to either HID or a little easier LED’s. Can you post up what kind of led headlights you got please. I want to make sure they will fit into the housing and still be able to put back the dust and water shields that go onto the back of the headlights. Thx

 

Hi Max224,
I believe the internal lever adjustment simply alters the 'Pedestrian' highlighting characteristics of each headlight .
RHD models illuminate the left footpath with a wedge of higher light, whereas LHD models illuminate the right side footpath with a wedge biased that way.
The touring adjustment does not affect the central lighting height, just the left or right bias height to allow you to drive in a region that is the opposite side of the road from the intended market for the car. Then you can make the touring adjustment so you are not dazzling oncoming drivers with the inappropriately angled pedestrian illumination.

It sounds like you might have ended up with the adjustment mechanism registration out.
Check the final toothed ramp cam is at the same rotational position for both headlights.
Either that or one of the 'bulbs' might have an slightly shifted 'point of light origin' either due to it not seating properly or a manufacturing variation. To test that theory, swap the bulbs to other side to see if problem transfers.

 

My thanks to Mark for those sugesstions regarding the headlight aiming; all good points. I've been trying to find a solution that doesn't involve removing the headlight assembly(s), but it looks increasingly likely that that's not realistic. Not the worst problem ini the world, but I may wait a bit until the weather gets cooler and I get more motivated.

NYCJAG2006,

I purchased the upgrade kit from a guy in the UK who specializes in replacement and custom lighting for X-Types. You can check him out on Facebook at X-Lyte. You can also check out his videos on YouTube. Guy's name is Anthony and he always follows up on email questions. I ran into several problems (mostly self-inflicted) in installing the kit which he immediately addressed. He also sells exchange headlights with the kit already installed. If I were to do this again, that's the way I would go.

 

I checked out the headlights in both my 06 Estate and 05 Sport; neither one has the adjustment lever discussed by H2O2 Steam. Probably because all North American cars are left-hand drive negating the need for that adjustment. Also lost the self-leveling feature of the headlights because I didn't disconnect the battery when removing and replacing the headlights. According to what I read on this forum, In order to get them working again their control module must be re-programmed by a dealer/*******. Nice feature, not worth the $ 100-$ 200 or more that they want to charge for that. I've owned a lot of both European and American cars and am still blown away by the unabashed greed the dealers exhibit.

 

Hi Max,
Sorry, been offline for a few days as my elderly mother just had a car accident in the weekend and now in hospital with what appears to be airbag deployment impact injuries.....couple of cracked ribs and the AB gave her one heck of an 'upper cut' under her chin that knocked her out and a nasty persistent haematoma under the chin.
Note to all: don't crowd the steering wheel and inadvertently put yourself within the deployment space of an airbag........you will come off second best!

You could be right.....continental USA market cars might not have that option.....I don't know where you would have to drive there to have to be operating on the left side of the road.
Just for curiosity/closure I have pasted the adjustment lever reference out of the drivers manual below.
This was never a solution to your overall headlight misalignment, but I was just answering your initial question about the functionality of the "touring" feature.
Good luck with your issue.

 

Hi Mark, so sorry to hear about your mother's accident being somewhat elderly myself (80 in September). When I hear about accidents of this type it makes me wonder if the safeguard (airbag deployment) can often be worse than the accident intself. My sincere best wishes for her speedy recovery and no lasting effects.
With respect to the headlight leveling, there appear to be significant differences between US and European spec cars. My light switch looks nothing like the illustration from your owner's manual in that the switch positions control only the lights; there are no manual controls for the headlight leveling system. I did a "hard reset" which restored the headlight leveling function although the right-side light is still too low. The problem appears to be with the dipped projector light mounting in the headlight which will necessitate removing the headlight from the car and splitting it open, sigh. In the interim, at least, its still driveable but can be a bit challenging at night since it doesn't illuminate enought of the road in front of the car. Another case of Jaguar Addiction taking its toll....

Thanks for all of the information you provided.