Why does the passenger side low beam look different than the driver side?

 

Guernz: Remove the plastic cover from the back-side of the dim headlight and you'll likely discover that bulb has a poor ground or an overheated / melted electrical connector & wire.

Access behind the US passenger-side headlight is tight due to the ABS module, but it's doable with a little patience. The US driver-side lights are easily accessed by removing the battery & box.

I fixed a bad ground on my X-Type's headlight by adding a dedicated ground wire. Pictures are in this post: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...4/#post1053650

 

Do you think it could be a bad headlight alignment?

 

I assumed from the picture that the passenger bulb is dim due to a bad ground or melted electrical connections. But I can't view it from different angles and at night time like you can. If both bulbs are the same brightness, but the passenger bulb is incorrectly aimed, then 'yes', the passenger bulb needs to be re-aligned to point forward.

In our X-Types, the plastic tabs that align the headlights are prone to break, particularly if someone is too forceful when replacing the bulbs. There are several threads in this forum describing how to remove the entire headlight, open it, and epoxy or replace the plastic tabs that align the headlight.

 

I just had this headlight replaced. It looks like the lense is it aligned properly. I don't think they adjusted it right.

 

Guernz, try this, at night, find a nice wall that you can park about 20 feet (7 meters) away from and then turn on your head lights. You should see 2 "*****" of light on the wall. Are they both the same height? If yes, are they both roughly in front of the car the same distance from center (think of it as if you drew a line straight out from the hood ornament)? If yes, then odds are your headlights are properly aligned. The question then becomes whether the two ***** of light are the same intensity. If yes, then it is simply an optical illusion, especially prone if you have HID headlights. if they are different light intensities, then you may have a bad bulb or a wiring issue where the bulb is not pulling the needed power.

If the headlight assembly is fairly new, then I would be looking at the headlight plug itself and seeing if you have a pin that has overheated the plug (this will be obvious as part of the plug will be brown/black and may even be slightly charred).

If the headlights are not pointed correctly by the check above, then I would do the quick check and make sure that the internals of the headlights are solid. This can be proven with a gentle nudge of the internals with your hands. If they move with a slight bump, then they are broke. If they are offering some resistance, call it good. the trick with this is you don't want to push too hard. The internals (especially after years of use) can become brittle and too hard of a push will break them. If the internals move, then you need either a new headlight assembly or you need to get the new posts, tear the headlight assembly apart and replace the internals.

 

When I am far away from the car the headlights look like the same brightness. As I get close the passenger one looks dim. If I crouch down in front of the car the driver side headlight gets brighter at a higher point than the passenger side but as I continue to go lower the passenger side gets brighter until it looks as bright as the driver side. If I drive up to a wall the passenger side light is a little bit lower than the drivers side. I would have thought no matter how it's aimed it should light the projector the same. Could a small difference in aim cause the headlight to look dim from the front of the car?

 

Guernz, keep in mind that you are dealing with a focused light beam. So, when you get outside of where the light is being focused, the light will appear less bright. That is the purpose of the lens that is on the front of the headlight assembly. So, you will see where the light is dim (yet you can still see it) and then you will see where it gets suddenly brighter. In the case of the two headlights on your car, because one is aimed higher than the other, you enter the area where it is at full intensity at a different height. Kinda like when you look at the wall, you can see where the light is not very bright above a certain point and then you suddenly have lots of light. This is what is causing what you are seeing. Get the headlights aimed at the same height and relative position in front of the car and you will find that your headlights will look the same.

Another way of looking at this is a light bulb shines light 360 degrees. The older cars (where you can see the bulb in the housing) simply take the light that is going towards the driver and reflect it back towards the front of the vehicle. But, there is nothing that is controlling where it is going after that point. Where on your X-TYpe, the light is still being reflected like it is on older cars (use this loosely), but it is then sent through a lens which then takes the random light paths and straightens them all out to shine in the same direction. This gives you more light going in a desired direction (ie, out to directly in front of the car) and less to the undsireable areas (ie, to the sides and up). The focused light in essence creates a cone of bright light leaving the headlight assembly. You get outside this cone, the light is not very bright. You get inside the cone and it gets very bright. Where this cone points is a function of where the headlight internals are pointed.

 

Had them adjusted. Still the same. The only other things I can imagine are either there is something wrong with the bulb or the new headlight is different or defective. I don't think it is the bulb because when I get down and look the bulbs are the same brightness. I don't know if the headlights could be different because it is a new jaguar part and should have matched the old one.

 

Could it be that the inside the projector lense on the old headlight is foggy and since the light can't pass through and is obstructed and dispersed across the projector it appears whiter and brighter than the new headlight?

 

Guernz, just to ask a silly question, are you running the same style headlight bulb in each side. This applies to both HID and halogens. there are lots of options these days and if you run say a 5000K HID on one side and a 6000K HID on the other, they will have a different color to them. Along the same lines, if you have the standard halogen bulbs, if you are running the factory bulb on one side and you installed say the Sylvania Silver Stars on the other, this can also lead to a color difference. Also keep in mind that with halogen bulbs, as they get older, they will tend to yellow some. So, if you have an old bulb with a new bulb, that can also explain a color difference.

As for the inside being foggy, that would only cause the light to be dimmed on the foggy side and would not really help in making it more white.

 

They are the same bulbs from the old one and they could not adjust the new headlight any higher aother lowered the old one.

 

What does each adjuster do? The jaguar dealer told me there is only vertical adjustment and no left to right but people say that is not true.

 

What does each adjuster do? The jaguar dealer told me there is only vertical adjustment and no left to right but people say that is not true.

 

Very new rookie owner here - only 2 days. I see the two plastic adjusting heads that a hex Allen wrench would fit into above each light assembly on my 2004 xtype 3.0. I suspect my beams point WAY too low straight down in front of the car based on a quick drive last night. I would like to try and adjust the beams up as I aim them against my garage doors. Which of the adjusting screws would "raise" the beam from pointing down to more out in front? I would describe each headlight assembly as having an inboard adjusting head and an outboard one. Thanks

 

Rob, a quick check that I would say you need to do is to look at the low beam first and see if it looks like it is centered in its opening. If it looks like it is sitting at a funny angle or against the bottom, then I would say you need to open up the back of the headlight assembly and with a light touch, see if the internals of the headlights move. You don't want to push/pull to hard as you can break the internals, but it is sounding like you have some internal parts that are broken on the headlights. There are repair kits on e-bay that you can buy for say $30 and then you can rebuild the headlights yourself vice paying $300 a headlight to get one that might or might not have broken internals.

 

Thanks Thermo. After I posted I did shine my beams against the garage door and the passenger seems to be reasonable but the driver beam is much lower. I will try to see if the internals are solid and if so will try the adjuster screw. I also researched and found some diagrams showing the adjuster locations. But one caption said first step is to set the Adjuster switch to "0" first and then use adjusting screws. What in the world does that mean? Is there a set of numbers on a switch somewhere on the headlight assembly? Confused a bit

 

Robin, I do not recall right off the top of my head. I don't have an X-Type to go look at (sold mine back in June 2015 to get a new XJ). Hopefully one of the other members can help you out with this.

 

0 means to zero them out. Turn all the way to the right. Then do half turns, count till your light is where you want it to be. But before doing that. Check and make sure the internals are not busted. Take back cap off, use your finger and see if you can wiggle the back of the light. If you can,your addjusters are broke.

 

Thanks Dr.