Could it be that my headlights have been adjusted too low? I was driving on a dark, straight country road the other night and it was a bit unnerving. The headlights in low beam just stop in what seems like just a few car lengths ahead. The high beams are glorious! But low beam does not give me nearly enough time to react if something were to be in the road.

 

I felt the same way. easily adjusted much like the H4 housings. just need an allen key.

 

Instructions from the Workshop Manual for the 5.0:

 

Thanks and good info. It does not say which adjustment screw does up/down and which one does left/right.

 

I recall that... my solution was to place a horizontal tape line on the garage door, with marks for the centre of the beam from each bulb. Then adjust to my preferred illumination needs. Been doing it this way for decades. the "computer" alignment" just doesn't suit my needs.

 

Sorry, no - I guess it's trial & error.

However, you should find that North American Spec cars only have the up-down setting:

 

Not so. L and R, U and D.
Be careful with the L and R settings. If overly adjusted it negatively affects the adaptive controls.

Cheers

 

Interesting - both the 4.2 and 5.0 manuals have the same wording. Maybe it's different in Canada?

 

I went to my Jaguar dealer to correct an adaptive headlight fault on my 2011 XKR under warranty a few months ago. They diagnosed a faulty right side lighting module and ordered one. A week or so later they called and I went back to get it changed. Would you believe that they simply neglected to adjust the new module after installing it! I don't drive it much at night and was shocked the other night when I got flashed repeatedly.

Thanks Ngarara for the diagram of the adjusters. It was very easy to line everything up. God I hate going back to the dealer.

Winlr
NW Washington

 

Have you driven a car with the European low beams with the sharp cutoff before? Not everybody in the US likes it, being used to the spray and pray junk mandated by the USDoT.

I moved here from the UK in '97 and I was frankly appalled by the useless headlights on the cars of the time. Transverse filament sealed beam halogens? I think they stopped fitting those new in about 1983 in Europe. They were great at producing hotspots linked by dark patches and no left-right spread. Fitted my Firebird with a set of Cibie Z-beams so I could see again. Same wattage as the 4666 sealed beams, but vastly more even spread of light on low beams and improved high beams too.

Most of us overdrive our low beams when they are properly adjusted to prevent dazzle. It's one of those first world problems we have here.

 

Just BMWs, Mercedes Benzes, and Infinitis.

 

I'll take that as a yes.