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Also, how do I know if I have Halogen or Xenon? I saw something online about there being a manual adjustment inside if it's halogen, but I've never seen that in a US car (but have when traveling in Europe/Asia).
Last edited by n8ertot; 12-06-2015 at 02:20 PM.
Reason: I accidentally a link
Yep, if you have halogen low beams there is a manual adjuster wheel in the cabin, next to the boot release button.
If you have HIDs (AKA bi-xenon) there is no such adjuster wheel, instead you manually adjust the height on the light itself using a 6 mm hex/Allen key.
You will also have headlight washers on HIDs but not on halogens.
Everything above applies to UK/Euro/Oz spec cars, not sure if any or all of it applies to NA cars.
If not, the easiest way to tell for sure is to remove the round plastic cover off the back of the light assembly and have a look at the back of the globe. If it's HID the rectangular igniter box which attaches to the back of the globe will be staring you in the face!
I think the adjuster is not something any car does in NA, so I don't think that's an indication for me.
I at least have the covers for the washer, although now that I think of it, I've never checked to see if they do anything. Maybe I'll have to get in there and see if the igniter boxes are there. In the meantime, here's a pic of my headlight in case that shows anything.
Opened it up and took a look at the inner light (on the right in the pic above). I think those are the high beams. I think they're just Halogen, which makes me want to convert to xenon (partly to get the turning lights). Anybody know what that takes? Do I have to reprogram or would I be able to just swap parts?
On a stock XF with HIDs it's only the low beam (the outer light on pre-2012 cars) that is HID, the high beam is an ordinary H7 halogen globe, just as you show there. It can be converted to HID but it's not cheap or easy.
To get the turning lights (mine has them) you would have to buy complete new light assemblies, not cheap, and I don't think any NA delivered XF came with those turning lights so you would have to buy a pair of UK/Euro lights, so even more expensive.
The turning lights are in the HID (outer) housing, so simply upgrading the high beams won't help with that.
Mine's a supercharged, but I'm pretty sure it's never turned. Maybe that's just something the 09s didn't have. I thought the turning lights were in between the LB and HB and would just turn on when you turn the steering?
See this pic of mine for where the turning light/globe is:
It's a standalone H1 globe in the inside edge of the HID housing, it comes on when your lights are on and you turn and/or indicate and lights up the corner you are turning around.
I understand that the post 2012 XF turning lights are completely different and the light housing itself swivels.
See this pic of mine for where the turning light/globe is:
It's a standalone H1 globe in the inside edge of the HID housing, it comes on when your lights are on and you turn and/or indicate and lights up the corner you are turning around.
I understand that the post 2012 XF turning lights are completely different and the light housing itself swivels.
That's interesting. I definitely don't have that. My BMWs all had swiveling housings, so that's what I was expecting. I know the MY09 had some different setups, but I was thinking the turning light was directly above the washer.
Other than that, mine look the exact same as yours, so maybe they're xenons too.
You need to take the dust cap off the back of the outer light and have a look inside to see if it's xenon or not.
The lights directly above the washers are the parkers or sidelights (parkers in Oz, sidelights in the UK, I dunno what you call them in the US!).
Simple little T10 wedge 5W globes which turn on with the first turn/click of the lights stalk.
I have replaced mine with Cree LEDs, way brighter and whiter than the feeble stock yellow globes, and I use them as DRLs.
You need to take the dust cap off the back of the outer light and have a look inside to see if it's xenon or not.
The lights directly above the washers are the parkers or sidelights (parkers in Oz, sidelights in the UK, I dunno what you call them in the US!).
Simple little T10 wedge 5W globes which turn on with the first turn/click of the lights stalk.
I have replaced mine with Cree LEDs, way brighter and whiter than the feeble stock yellow globes, and I use them as DRLs.
Unfortunately I won't be able to get to it until later, but I'll take a look as soon as I can.
Finally got around to taking the housing out. Turns out I had 2 dead bulbs in it that I never would have known about. I thought the car would have alerted me that a light was out. One was the marker light and one is the light between the lows and highs. Weird.
And they're Xenon, so now I'm wondering if it would even be worth converting to LED, since they're probably brighter than I'd get from an LED bulb.
12-06-2015, 01:51 PM
LED headlights?
