My 2010 XK passenger headlight stopped working, Is it more often a bulb, or do other bits wear out? Also, are there any bulbs less expensive that work the same as a Jaguar part?

Thanks for any input.

Alfred

 

Most likely a bulb.
One of mine went recently so I upgraded to LED and they are miles better. Not particularly cheap but should last longer than the HID projectors. HID tend to go off with time also.

 

My XKR is the first car I've had with HID and I have been underwhelmed by the brightness driving at night. @Madness what do you mean by 'go off'? Are you saying they get less bright/efficient with time?

 

Yes. They last a long time and detoriate gradually. As I said I have just replaced mine in a 08 XK. They could have been the originals. There are some improved HID bulbs you can get ( see that guy on YouTube Life in Cars) but I went for LED and they are brilliant. Not cheap at £60 a pair but a really decent upgrade.

 

@alfred you'll want to check if led headlamps retrofits are legal in your location. Eg in Poland they're not and you'd risk having your registration taken away in case of police inspection.

Correctly retrofitted LEDs are awesome though, both in light quality and energy consumption (noticeable mileage improvement since we don't have LED DRLs)

For standard HID I recommend Philips white vision 5000K which is what I went with.

6000K looks "cooler" (in terms of light being more blue and maybe someone considers them "cooler") but the more blue the light, the less visibility it provides.

 

I have tried different LED solutions. In all cases; in fog, rain or snow conditions I find there is too much reflection and the light penetration is not to my preference. The adaptive HID solution is quite good for me.

Furthermore, those with overly bright lights or, mis adjusted lights coming at me on the road, blind me. I find that terribly inconsiderate.

Not as inconsiderate as those who don’t dip their lights when approaching on coming traffic, though.

fwiw.

 

I spend most of my driving miles in the country. I"ve tried 6 different LED solutions over the past three years and non of them gave me the depth of lighting I want. Less than the stock lights!
If I primarily drove in the city I would use them.
My friend has an XE with really awesome LED lighting. The housing is so important in getting the output where it should go.

WJ

 

thanks for the input guys, I dove into it yesterday and replaced the bulb without much stress. A Sylvania replacement fit in just fine.

 

I've read that the xenon has a tight point of light generation focus on the center of the bulb, that most led's can't attain. The headlight is designed around this focus, and led DS1 replacements can't match it. The result is scattering, resulting in glare. I've not formally tested it, but when I've tried to replace my DS1 with anything but Xenon, the result isn't very satisfactory. Bright, but everywhere.

YMMV, of course.

 

That is very interesting.
All I can say is that my new LED lights are miles better than the HID they replaced. But maybe my old xenons were knackered!
It would be interesting to compare them.

 

hello, any chance you could share a link to the LEDs you purchased and would they fit a 2013 model year? TIA!!

 

You need to go to classiccarsleds.co.uk and search for ds1 leds.
I think they are fine with the later models. Apparently they are very helpful so you can check with them first