My 145,000 mile 07 XK is my daily drive. I’m UK based. A year ago, I replaced the headlamp bulbs and there was a slight improvement. However, either the cycle on startup does not raise the lights high enough or…… something else! They’re certainly not reaching far enough ahead for comfort. My wife’s eight yer old Ford Focus has better headlights. Suggestions welcome please.

 

adjust them.
In the last year someone else raised the issue. My post included an attachment on how to do this.

Incidentally, engineering and technology keeps improving. I don’t this its fair to expect that the accessories on a 17 yo vehicle should be as good as an 8 yo vehicle.

 

Most people don't realize that the inside of the projector lens gets very cloudy. It should look like a dark crystal, not a foggy silver disk.
Get some jumbo Q-tip swab things and clean those out using a very light cleaner. Usually the headlight unites need to be removed to do this.

 

You need to assess what is wrong:

• Adjustment as Guy has already mentioned - easy, wind them up and see if it solves your problem. If yes make sure that they are still dipped enough to not dazzle people.
• Outer clear cover condition - plastic light can deteriorate and eventually diffuse the light too much. You can polish and recoat with lacquer.
• Bulb quality - Have you got decent bulbs in? Good bulbs focus properly and throw light where you want it. Philips or Osram are safe bets and there "high-output" variants are very good but expensive.
• Innner projector lense as Cee Jay has already mentioned.

Mine is in good condition as it only has 32k kms on it and the lights are very good. They were actually OK when new.

 

I have an 07 XK in the UK and the headlamps are standard and really quite good .We have modern cars to with small parts of the sun as headlights, and they are of course much better . However I think that's the issue 17 year old car against new car .

 

I've had ongoing problems with my XKR 2000 headlights. I have good glass on the fronts, but they tend to get water in behind them from humid air and the heat of the bulbs. Jaguar introduced a T Piece to allow the damp air out (and in), and that's no better. Instead the rubber seal between the front and back parts needed to be replaced and glued in to seal the unit. Then the silver coating went on the dish around the light bulb so I had to unseal it to get access. I tried to clean the dish and ended up wiping off the very thin silver coating (I recommend you barely touch it) so had to have that re-coated with silver (£125) I also bought new LED lights, and that finally got me to modern level brightness and sharpness for the edge of the beam pattern.

 

You may be perusing the wrong forum, sir. Your 2000 is an X100 model for 1996-2008 (UK). This is the X150 (not XK150) forum.

 

Thanks all for your very helpful suggestions.
Rather less helpfully, there’s nothing in the owners manual about how to adjust headlights and a local (supposedly) specialist garage told me it can’t be done! Tried to access the workshop manual via the sticky in the main forum but it won’t open saying “The key you provided for access was invalid. This usually occurs because the file is no longer stored on MediaFire”. If someone can point me to an appropriate link for headlamp adjustment/maintenance I’d be very grateful. I certainly intend to try cleaning the projector (as soon as I’m sure I know what it is and where to find it!). I can hear your frustration from here but I’m afraid I’m not very experienced in this sort of thing.

 

Turn the hex fitting, that's the adjuster.

 

I suppose you didn’t search for my post as I suggested.
Moreover, time to find a real specialist.

About the manual, send me a PM.

 

THANK YOU!!

 

Guy, I did try to find your post but searching for headlamps didn’t bring it up and if you search for “Guy” on this forum you can imagine the number of results.
As an only very occasional user here, I don’t know how to dm.
Yes I know that, like my headlamps, I’m dim.

 

Here you are.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...lights-283714/

I will need you to send me a private message. Under the icon for your user name you will find the link.
Cheers