I used 175 degrees for 10 minutes and it worked well. I even intentionally broke the adjusters in the good headlight to fix it preemptively.

 

Is there a TSB on the failing adjuster? I'm preparing to bring my car into my dealer and being able to reference the TSB would be nice...
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Jaguar - it's not an automobile, it's a Motorcar

 

Does anyone have a suggestion for an argument for why a dealer should submit a warranty claim for replacing a headlight assembly to fix the broken adjusters? My dealer claims that this is something that could happen after hitting a pot hole and therefore isn't a manufacturing "defect"?

Oh, $662.00/USD parts and labor.
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Jaguar - it's not an automobile, it's a Motorcar

 

Hitting a pot hole is quite normal in Boston. Surely you and the
dealer know that! If normal events break something well protected
inside the headlight then it is clearly defective.

Indeed the plastic is defective. Simply holding the part in your hand
a little too firmly will break it. It is as easily to break as an egg.
I am sure that Jaguar knows this but they don't want to spend the
money on a car model that they no longer sell in the US.

Does your car still have warrenty coverage? The newest cars in the
US are 5 years old.

Pete.

 

Hmm,

While it's obvious that the adjuster are a crap design (i've just spent days with the bumper off fitting new adjusters and other issues and God knows I'm not here to defend Jaguar, they ain't like eggs guys, lets not go over the top, although there is not enough "meat" in the plastic, IMHO alot of breaks are down to messing about attempting to pull and replace the side light bulb which is another story.
Either way it's not a good design and let's be fair, in most cases, any major ******* will avoid replacing parts unless under warranty or you've got a cast iron case!

I now have to get back to my garage to refit the bumper, I kid you nought!

Have a great weekend !!

B

 

Perhaps the ones that you delt with were newer and therefore not as
degraded as my parts. My car is a 2005 and while doing my repair
with epoxy one part borke again while holding it in my hand. You can
see my write up with lots of pictures in an earlier thread.

The design of the headlight adjuster system is a good one. The problem
is defective plastic. If you have worked on them you probably noticed
that the mating parts which are also a white plastic are good. These seem
to have retained their original strength. There have been no reports
that they have failed. They are the other half of the parts that do
fail.

The color of the parts is subtly different. The bad parts have a dusty
color where the good parts are a shiny white as you expect from most
plastic things. The dusty appearence indicates that some chemical
process is progressing that is weaking the plastic itself.

The design is good. The replacement parts have been demonstrated
with a 25 Lb weight hanging from the ball joint. The bad ones
could not take a few ounces. The bad ones could not take being held in
my hand while I applied glue.

Pete.

 

Bad idea to try to fix them, plastic is bad especially if in hot climate like florida. Get the Ones with metal reinforcement you are looking at. You will never have an adjustment problem again. $622 is about right for the dealer to install a new unit (prepare to spend it again for the other one soon). The X-type is a fun car, learn to fix most things your self with the Shop Manual from this site. If you date a "pretty girl" you have to put up with some difficulties!

 

Pete,

As Mike says, I would also advise you not to attempt to fix the existing adjusters, it ain't worth it. The guys over here said taking the bumper off the access the ligts was easy. that's what they said, not in a 2005 it was'nt, rusty bolts with rust threads.
Anyway, after going to the hassle of bumper off better fitting the uprated/Polish adjusters than mess with a glued/Heath Robinson affair and maybe, just maybe, having to do it again when they break again!

Your choice.

B

 

>You will find that both sides go brittle and fall apart

Sorry to ask (my search-foo is not adequate this morning...) but can anybody point me to the thread that contained pictures of the "crumbled" plastic adjusters? I remember that someone epoxied things together and took before and after pictures.

I'd like to show the before pictures to my dealer...

tanks
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Jaguar - it's not an automobile, it's a Motorcar

 

That was me. That thread was here;

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...t-issue-72601/

I have taken down most of the pictures, they were too big and used
up a lot on my space allocation. However, the first picture is
still there and it shows the crumbled parts. If you are interested
I can make all the pictures available again.

As I have mentioned in the past, epoxying the broken parts is a
bad idea. When I did it I don't think that replacement parts were
available. Now they are and that is a better way to go than what
I did.

Pete.

 

Thanks, that's the explanation that I'll have with me when I take my car to the dealer.
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Jaguar - it's not an automobile, it's a Motorcar

 

I had simultaneous headlight failures. Broken adjusters on both headlights plus a burned out ballast. I followed the procedures as discussed in this thread.
The original adjusters are garbage. The ones that weren't broken, fell apart easily in my hand. They were VERY brittle. I bought the all plastic versions on Ebay for $50 for two sets. There are solid and do the job.

All in all, the procedure was pretty straightforward. Even the bumper came off without any problem.

BUT I did develop a new problem.

When I put everything together, BOTH adjuster motors no longer adjust the Xenon headlights. They both worked before I started. I double check my connections, and all looks fine.

Has anyone else experienced this? I find it hard to believe both of the motors died at the same time. I read ONE obscure post about the ADHLS sensor needing to be reprogrammed or replaced. I don't even know where it is.

In the mean time, I have the headlights adjusted manually, and it's good enough.

Some pictures:

 

Morning Catfan re the self adjusters when I replaced my crumpled adjusters I heard a wirr sound from one headlight when I put them back in but nothing from the second headlight I assume that was the self adjusters. Worked out I had not aligned the cogs correctly on one. Suggestion find someone with a bit of weight sit them in the boot and listen to the lights you should hear the motor wirr...My wifes sister would do the job nicely.

 

90 degrees in the video is Celsius. Same as 195 degrees Fahrenheit. I used 195. Worked great. I tried 175 first and found it required more force than I was comfortable using.

If you have any DIY skills at all, this fix is a relatively easy way to save several hundred dollars.

 

That sucks. I think mine are broken. The drivers side points down too low and I tried adjusting it and the screw just spins. Seems like the passenger side doesn't work either, but at least it's pointed pretty good.

 

You have to take off the wheels to remove the bumper?? Is there a how-to on removing the bumper?

 

You don't have to remove the wheels. I didn't. But it would have been one heck of a lot easier if I had removed them.
There is a step by step in one of the threads. And this is it: click here.

 

I realized after I ordered the repair kit, an easy way to "fix them" would have been to simply epoxy the reflectors into place where you want the beams pointed!! That would have been like a $1 fix. A little less glamorous but it would probably have worked if you are going the low budget route. I might have given that a try first if I hadn't already ordered the kit. It is nice being able to adjust the level though but how often do you need to do that? Oh well, I'm going more for a quality restoration than a cheap fix I guess.

 

Hi Catfan


What a great set of pics and just what I needed to see. The removal of an X Type front bumper - everyman's idea of spending an idyllic weekend !. I am too into this territory just to fit a headlight back panel and clean out the gunk inside the unit as a result of its being left off. Have taken preliminary steps by applying WD40 for the retraining screws/bolts. My previous experience of replacing light units/headlights and back panels was one of mundanely removing a simple few bolts or screws and replace - this job does look a ***** ache of a difference - Good old X Type fun - love to meet its designer, one well placed kick up the rear end would be a pleasure.

 

So I talked to the car dealership I got my car at and they said they would do the repair if I brought in the kit. I'm just hoping they can figure it out. I explained to them that the bumper needs to be removed and the headlight lenses need to be opened up. It saves me a lot of trouble if they can figure it out though if they don't mess it up.