My father's still driving at 75+, loves his 2008 XJ. He was complaining about night driving - I told him "don't drive at night" but a ride in his car proved the point: the stock headlights on the 2008 XJ need an upgrade.

I've searched the forums, some good old posts from 2012 - 2014 but what is the current thinking on headlight upgrades? Easy enough to go to FLAPS and buy Halogen bulbs (I think), but today we can get Xenon units, LEDs.

Ideally I'd like a "direct replacement" bulb-swap, but I'm up for other ideas including adding relays. One of the last projects I did for my 1974 TR6 before I replaced it with my F-Type was install fuses and headlight relays.

 

TR64ever, first off, if you are looking to upgrade to LEDs, a simple bulb replacement is not going to do what you are after when it comes to headlights. There is much more to making LEDs work for headlights than a simple bulb. The same can be said about switching over to HID bulbs. HID bulbs should really have a projector element to them to help focus the light to get it all pointed in the correct direction.

I would say to start with replacing the bulbs and seeing what you have then. It is very possible that simply replacing the bulbs will do what you need. The next thing I would do is give the headlights a good polishing to get rid of any haze that might be there. Lots of options out there these days. I personally use 3M Perfect-It III (Stage 2). It is a liquid rubbing compound that will clean up foggy headlights.

 

Thanks for the reply Thermo - I need to take a closer look, my 2006 X-Type had hazy glass and I used a 3M kit (not sure which one) to polish them back up. It was a cheap fix that worked! I'll pick up a kit for Dad's XJ.

 

Back when I drove a Nissan that didn't have HID headlights, I switched my bulbs to Sylvania Silverstar and it quite a bit of difference.

 

If your dad's XJ has the (quite poor) standard headlamps then it is possible to switch to the OEM HID units. I did that on my my XJ6. I do not recall having to make any wiring changes or program anything after the change. Make sure they are levelled correctly afterwards, and be aware that if you don't have headlamp washers before you may be breaking local rules for cars with high intensity headlamps.

 

I had the factory halogens in my XJ. They were indeed terrible. So I removed them from the car, ripped them open, gutted the bulb housings and replaced them with an aftermarket HID projector assembly. It fit perfectly. I gave the plastic covers a good wash and polish, inside and out, put everything back together, and now have excellent light output with a very clear, sharp HID projector cutoff. And it looks completely stock. It was a weekend's work, but it was well worth it.