Just completed fixing my broken headlight adjusters and thought I'd put up some guidance and pictures. There's a YouTube video by Pawel Lemanski showing the replacement, and he also sells the replacement adjusters and gears on eBay. With shipping (from England) it came to a little under $40. Here are the steps:

1. Remove front marker lights, then remove front bumper cover. Most of the bolts are visible, but there's one bolt behind each wheelwell liner. I also took off the lower splash shield to facilitate a sepentine belt inspection.

2. Once bumper cover is off, remove the headlights. The electrical plugs have a catch that's a little daunting. I found inserting a curved pick into the side of plug will release the catch.

3. I tried using a heat gun to soften the lens adhesive, but it was slow going. I ended up baking the lights in the oven - 200 degrees F for 20 minutes. They came right apart.

4. Disassemble the lights, separating and setting aside the pieces not needed to get at the adjusters. I put mine in a box and placed in the trunk to keep out of the way.

5. Remove old adjusters and drill out the broken ball ends. Mount the new adjusters.

6. Replacing the gears is optional, but if you do take your time and note that the two gear stems are different lengths. Reassemble them wrong and you're screwed. I used a drill bit in my Dremel tool to free the ring gears from the stems. Putting the new gears on the stems is a bit tedious. Put a dab of grease on the smaller pivot gear to hold it in place while putting the larger ring gear onto the shaft. I used a 12mm socket to support the ring gear base, then tapped the shaft home with hammer and a punch. Caution - take care not to drive the shaft too far into the new gear, or you'll jam the mechanism inoperative. Tap a little to seat, then check depth; another tap or two, then recheck and so on.

7. Reassemble the lights, checking to see that everything's clean of debris and fingerprints. Once you put the lens covers back on you're committed. I used silicon sealant for adhesive.

8. Put lights loose in the wells and connect power for testing - do this now so you don't button everything up, then discover you had a bad bulb.

9. Reinstall bumper cover, then take car out for aligning the headlights. Congratulate yourself for a job well done!

 

What a clean garage!!

 

Yep, it's the space I've wanted for a long time. Wife gets rest of the house but I've staked a claim on this part. I got the floor coating put on professionally when we moved in; already had the t-shirt from big-box store DIY floor paint at previous digs, so knew what I wanted with this place. BTW, that's a gorgeous XF. Wow.

 

Swinging im using your post to get ready for rebuilding my adjusters as soon as they make it across the pond. The material that has to be heated when separating the plastic housing - is it butyl rubber and is it necessary to clean it all out and replace or does it remain in the channel so it can reused? The videos make it look like the stuff that seals inner door panel moisture barriers and that stuff seals back to itself with no need to remove and replace. Also from your profile picture did you fly Aardvarks?

 

It's some kind of adhesive but not sure what. I originally intended to clean it all away and use fresh adhesive but found out it'd take a month of Sundays. I just did what I could, then used small amount of silicone adhesive on reassembly. Replacing the adjuster gears is tricky - if yours are OK, recommend leaving them alone. One of mine was stripped so decided to go ahead. When this job's complete you'll be very pleased with the results. And yes, I flew F-111Fs at Mtn Home Idaho and RAF Lakenheath 1974-1980.

 

That is very cool! I am not a pilot but like aircraft. I have always thought the F-111 was one of the best looking planes we had and bet that was a great experience. Thank you for your service.

 

When I did mine (wish I had known about the heating procedure!) I replaced any lost adhesive with butyl rubber from Home Depot. They sell it as window and roof sealing strip. In handling both the Jag stuff and the Home Depot stuff they seemed to be the same.

Pete.

 

Finally had time and good weather over a weekend to be able to put in new adjusters and new bulbs in my halogen based headlights. Wow what a difference! The whole time we've had this car the highlights have shined down about 20 feet ahead and had no idea how bad it was. I also used a 3M drill type cleaning kit for polishing the outer lenses and really happy with results after a long day of fooling with the Jag. While I had the wheels off I also changed the front rotors and pads.

The adjusters I bought from U.K. off eBay and watched his YouTube tutorial. I used a Wagner heat gun and it softened the butyl very well. I used my razor knife to basically cut the stringing rubber as I was seperating the lens from housing so it fell back in place as I went around. After installing new adjusters I carefully lined up the lens in the channels and then used heat gun to make the rubber soft again then seated the lens solidly and snapped the tabs down. Looks to have resealed very well

That's one more item off the Jag project list

 

Mother flutche
r! My nice 6,000 k after markets seemed a bit too low as well. Brights (halogen & who can use brights except country dwelling folks anyway) were fine. So, decided to align them last night & yup = pieces disintegrated. The gears actually fell off and under the car. What a dandy design feature yet again.

 

Yeah the pieces that have the ball that makes the ball and socket design are just crumbly dry and brittle. Really was bad material choice for sure. Makes a huge difference to get the adjusters working

 

My lights were looking rather dim, so I've been fooling around putting in new bulbs only to realise they don't shine any farther and that its a case of adjustment. I had a look at the adjusters today and they look like they're toast. One of them is missing the plastic adjuster entirely. Must have fallen off somewhere on the road.

I have neither the time nor space to fix this myself. Any idea how much it might cost to get this done?

 

I'd say search internet for independent shops in your area and make some calls. This is a fairly tedious repair though. There may be someone out there on the 'net who'll do the repair for you, but you'd have to remove the light assemblies from the car and ship them out. Only other choice would be to buy new lights altogether, which will be expensive. You might check on prices just so you know. Start with site sponsors.

 

Hello Swingwing,

This was a very helpful post and I have replaced my adjusters. Wife was not overly happy with.me baking my headlights! Challenge that arose is the 2 shafts for the large gear on the height adjuster look as though previous owner used channel-locks or vise grips to attempt adjustment. I had stripped the gears, but now have a new set ready to install. Any suggestions to prevent stripping from your experience?

 

Glad I could help. Replacing those gears was probably the trickiest step in the process as I recall. Read my step #6 well and take good look at the two shafts, as they're different lengths. Getting the old ring gears off the shafts isn't hard; use a small drill bit or a Dremel tool. When you're ready to mount the new gears you'll need to rig support for the housing, or get helper to hold it while you tap the shaft into the new gear. I think I used a 12mm socket to support the gear while I tapped the shaft into the hole. As I recall you have to have the smaller pinion gear in its place while you do this. Tap a little, check operation, tap a little more, check. Good luck. If you want to talk about it beforehand you can call me at 682-465-6957.