Here in Sweden it is pretty dark this time of the year, so I have noticed that the high beams are more focused on illuminating the highways signs that are high up, rather than lighting on the road. So my question,

Is there a way that they can be adjusted individually, leaving the low beam as is ?

 

Because the High / Low beam is the same bulb, they cannot be adjusted separately. However it does sound as if your headlamps could be aimed too high.

They are adjusted with two allen keys:



(click on the image to enlarge it)

That being said, I've just driven down overnight from Northern England to the Loire Valley in France over some dark rural roads and the XK headlamps are atrocious.

After owning and driving most models of Jaguar over the last forty years, these self levelling headlamps with additional cornering lamps may be high on technology but they are rubbish on efficiency and nowhere near as effective as earlier models.

Graham

 

Thx, I feel the same way, they are not up to par..Just passed the MOT, so the lights should be in order...

 

this has been a complaint of mine in the past....
The Jag lights are not as well designed as my Audi or Lexus were.... Too much "dispersion", and not enough "projection".

No fix that I have found yet, and I even bought a set of lens off fleabay just to study them....
Vince

 

That describes them exactly.

Graham

 

That IS the problem. Thanks for properly describing it for me. Perhaps designed by those who do not enjoying driving at night, fast; like I do.

Ok, now for a solution: what do you think of additionL driving spot lighting, like a le mans car?

 

Driving lights would obviously do the trick, but I hesitate to bugger up the front end of my XK with them.
I bought the lens assembly (just the projector lens and high/Low Shutter off fleabay, hoping to find a way to adjust the focal length of the lens or bulb position, but failed to see any easy way.... Have not looked for higher powered bulbs yet, but I have seen kids do this in the past (other brand of car) only to have the added heat melt the whole housing, so that approch requires caution.
My next thought was to find driving lights that could replace the fogs.... I find it odd that a driving light option was never made for that area considering the poor headligh performance, but maybe something aftermarket can be made to work down there. Cant look in that direction till I actually pull one to see how it is mounted.
If anyone has ideas, I'd love to hear of them....

Vince

I

 

Not too keen on replacing the dogs, I'm using the yellow bulbs and I like that. Perhaps fitting driving lights with the fogs?? In the lower grill??

I do agree with you that the front end of our cars is nothing less than gorgeous. It will be a delicate task to fit driving lights properly. I'll start playing with Photoshop...

 

I have discovered something interesting when studying my headlamps...
It seems there is an "added in" plate, inside the lens housing. This plate is clearly in path of the beam (marked in blue), and seems to be designed to deliberately scatter some of the light upward.

So a question come to mind: Is this plastic piece on all the early (07-09) Jags, regardless of country?
It looks almost applied as an after thought, and I wonder if it is possible to remove it, allowing more light down range.

Thinking out loud....

 

That "up-scatter plate" is a US DoT requirement to illuminate reflective, but unlit, overhead road signs. A few years ago Buick were told to recall a bunch of cars because the up-scatter was deemed inadequate. The US DoT does not like the European style of sharp low beam cutoff because of all the unlit overhead signs in the US.

 

So are you saying Non-US models do not have that plate?

 

I'm guessing not. European lighting regs are strict with regard to light above the cutoff. Maybe one of our UK/European owners will chime in.

 

This is from my RHD Japanese spec '07 XKR.

According to the parts manual there is only one part number for RHD cars in my VIN range with adaptive lights so I assume they will all be the same as mine.

 

oh that's just great ... as if there weren't enough dumb wits running around with high beams on.

 

+1

UK doesn't have this insert.

The RHD markets all have the same two Adapative or Non Adaptive options. (arrowed in blue in the following Parts Catalogue extract)

The US has had 5 changes headlamp in both Adaptive and Non Adaptive making 10 possible headlamps. (arrowed in red)



It's unfortunate we don't have any members in the Dominican Republic. I'm fascinated to know what is special about their headlamps!

Graham

 

Interesting.
U102 says his RHD has the defuser, but GGG's RHD does not....

I'm not sure this is the whole reason our HIDs do not equal the power of my two prior cars (Lexus and Audi) but I bet if we could get that diffuser out of the light stream things wold certainly be a lot brighter down range!

Hummmm wonder how hard that would be......

 

I notice in the picture that there is no shield around the H4 (?) bulb. On my 2008 there is a shield so that light is only sent sideways. Are these an additional high beam light on non-US spec cars?

 

I assume that is the H8 cornering lamp you are talking about?

Neither side on my car has a shield so I assume it is standard.