Dear XJ users,

What does this setting do exactly (it should be obvious)? All I can find in the manual is that I don’t need to do anything do drive abroad. When changing it, I can’t see anything happening to the headlamps. No messages on the dashboard and I don’t have my diagnostic tools with me to check what’s going on.

It changed to “Drive on Right” itself when I got off the train in Calais but when changed manually between left and right it’s not doing anything, the light angle is not changing.

 

zYx, it is my understanding of this system that the headlights get "cut off" differently between these 2 settings. What I mean by this is that the headlights will always be aimed pretty much straight ahead. But, the difference comes in the side projection of the lighting. The side of the car nearest the traffic will not let light project into the on-coming lane as compared to the other side of the car which will allow the light to shine on to the side of the road to light up items on the side of the road like signs and pedestrians. If you park your car say 50 feet back from a wall and change the setting back and forth, if you look out at about a 45 degree angel from the car, you will notice how that area changes in light intensity. You will not notice much change directly ahead of you.

 

zYx, Thermo, is it also possible that this setting changes where the auto high beam sensor 'looks' to see oncoming traffic? Would make sense to me that the sensor would need to be calibrated differently for left/right hand driving.

 

Paul2005, I remember reading about this at one time in my many random reads. You may be right too. The headlights do a lot to prevent the oncoming driver from getting any good angle on the light coming out of the front of the car. I know it can be brutal to get a good flash of the HIDs if they are not in the correct housings.

 

This setting only affects a camera/high beam assist, it have nothing to do with a light pattern/symmetry (there's just no hardware for that in a headlights).
Changing this setting tells a camera where to look for a oncoming traffic lights (left or right side) and where to look for a taillights. WIth a wrong settings the high-beam assist would still work but not in a correct way (will switch to low beam too early or too late).

 

Indeed.

Now, to switch from LHD to RHD and reversely, there is a lever in the headlamp assembly, that’s why there is a hole on the back with a round plastic cap; one can access it via the wheel arch.

 

That would make sense as I was playing with this setting the other day when it was really misty outside, I could clearly see the light rays. The lights pattern did not change at all. I get no errors (screen and SDD) so the system must be working correctly.
This changed back to "Drive on Left" as soon as I drove off the train in Folkestone last week.
It would be nice if there was something about it in the handbook.

 

2 years ago I was planning to drive to France, I ws unable to find much information regarding headlight adjustment.
I went to my local dealer who wasn't sure either, a mechanic came and spoke to me and said that you have to adjust them by leavers on the rear of each headlight, the option on dsh menu for left/ right hand drive is for auto high beam, it adjust the the sensor on rear of interior mirror to detect on coming cars.
My XJ is 2014 so not sure if this is the same for other year models.