Hi
I'm deriving a 2000 XK8 and want to upgrade the head lights.
Has anyone installed headlights from a British company called Grantley Design. They have headlights with LED running lights. Very sharp and clean lights, the problem is the local dealer wasn't to sure if they would cause problems down the road. Does anyone out there have any experience with this product here in the US or overseas? Thanks for the feed-back.

 

Gator,

I've moved your question from General Tech Help to XK8/XKR forum. Members here with the same model will be able to help.

Graham

 

There are several forum members who have installed LED rings in their headlights.

Tony is an active forum member and has done just about everything under the sun to an XK8. One of the things he makes is an LED light ring kit.
Paragon Design UK - Jaguar XK8 & XKR Light Conversions

One advantage of modifying the Jaguar part is that the lens is actually glass, so holds up a lot better than polycarbonate.

 

Charlie,
Thanks for the response. So there are no issues with different loads on the wires or connectors with after market stuff?

 

I ended up going a different route. The aftermarket headlights have plastic lenses and the LEDs started failing on one side after about 2 months. Installation was easy I switched them to HD but the projectors aren't set up for HD so it didn't work well. Second time around I picked up some new OEM lights and modified the crap out of them including shifting to twin high performance projectors. The light is pretty impressive. But it isn't a cheap date. Did the rear lights too. It is a lot of labor though. My lights all sequence.

 

I have had my glass lens come off about 3 years ago. The lens broke on the street. I was able to find a used one from a guy that has many xk8s. This just happened again to my replacement this weekend. I was also looking to upgrade to the Grantley Design one-piece poly unit. Thankfully the glass didn't break this time around, I was able to find it in the grass off the highway. My wifes car was in the shop, and we needed a car for an appointment the next day, so I used gorilla glue to put the glass back on. it is being held on the outside with gorilla clear tape.
So I should stay away from the Grantley? Think the Gorilla glue will hold up?

Thanks.

 

I use these in the low beams (H-1). They are very substantial upgrade in terms of additional light. Not a fan of the halo type lighting however.

the Hikari ultras installed quite easily, and have been working perfectly for over a year with numerous night trips totaling many thousands of miles.

HIKARI Ultra H1 LED Bulbs Conversion Kit, Prime ZES LED, Halogen Replacement 6K Cool White Foglight IP68

i have the Hakari Ultras in the hi beams also (H3B type)


Z

 

Hoping not to be dense here zray, but ....are you saying that the HIKARI Ultra H1 conversion bulbs will fit in the existing XK8 headlamp assembly and that the stock plastic cap will still fit over the back of the new bulb ?

 

yes that’s exactly what I’m saying. The Ultra is their best bulb, they do make 2 other less expensive ones that have less lumen output.

when installing the Hakari bulb, the stock wire bulb retainer does require a bit of pressure to get it to lock in the Hakari bulb retainer / adapter “sleeve”. But not so excessive that there’s a danger of breaking anything. Using a blade screwdriver to provide some localized pressure would probably make the wire retainer fit into place easier.

I did try several different makes of Halogen bulbs before going with the Hakari LED’s. But the stock type bulbs tried were only incrementally better than the old original bulb.

My car is an ‘02 XKR which as far as I know uses the same lighting equipment as the OP’s 2000 XK8

Z

 

Z,
Do you recall the lumens of the H1 and H3B you have? I'd like to upgrade mine, but it looks like the ultras are no longer offered.

 

I don’t have the box that had that information, but I do recall that the mid priced Hakari bulbs were close in lumen output to the Ultra Hakari bulbs but the price difference was about $30 .

There are many LED conversion bulbs available today, but the Hakari brand will continue to be my choice based on reliability and light pattern. They won’t blind the oncoming traffic.

if I were shopping today I’d get the best Hakari bulb set I could afford and try them out. From Amazon they are returnable so there’s really no risk to get them for a trial run

Z

 

If its just light output you worry about then I just fitted 55w HID in dip and main and the transformation is fantastic,

 

Hey, I have questions regarding this. Did you use an aftermarket ballast for the 35w HID? Or can the stock ballast power it? Any issues with burning out the wiring? The stock HIDs are 30w I believe, and it's what I stuck with on my custom build for the dip beam (it's actually bi-xenon now), but my main beam is an LED High beam projector.

One of my ballasts seem to be on its last legs, and rather than replace it, I have flirted with the option of fitting a 55w ballast instead.

 

Mine had Quartz haloogen throughout. replaced with the cheapest set of HID you can find on ebay the ballast power determines the output ... Use 55w ballasts and 6000 deg HID units. All the ballasts will fit inside the headlamp unit.I have done this to at least 6 cars .You will do no good with super bright or leds they dont compare with the HID

 

wish we lived in the same street my friend . Then we could have a direct comparison between your HID’s and my Hakari LED’s . That would be fun.

Z

 

I don't have superbright LED bulbs fitted in my car. My car came with the factory HID headlights. The OE HID projectors and the Halogen reflectors were burnt out, providing sub-par light output. I modified my headlights to replace that halogen high beam reflector to instead use a high beam LED projector, and the low beam I installed a Bi-xenon HID projector. From the wiring harness, a y-split 9006 wire connects to the LED high beam projector, and the bi-xenon's projector cut-off shield solenoid. That way, when I activate the high beams, both projectors are outputting in high beam, but, when the high beam is switched off, the cut-off shield stays in place focusing like light beam in low beam mode, and the High beam projector is turned off. The result is that I have great light output at night. I've been running this setup for a few years. It is leagues better than the OE HID system and any LED bulb or halogen bulb that you can think of. For my HID bulb, I am using the Phillips Xtreme Vision bulbs instead of the cheapest HID bulb you can find (they do make a difference). However, my setup requires hacking into the headlight innards and removing the stock HID projector (which is lousy in design), modifying it to fit the retrofit projector, and converting to a D2S bulb instead of the OE D1S, and also removing the halogen reflector and bolting the LED projector to it.





You can see more info of my build in this thread: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...jector-240281/

Now here's the thing, I retained the OE Valeo LAD5G projector because it interfaces with the ride height sensors to provide the adaptive headlight function. This adjusts the height of the beam as you drive to reduce glare to oncoming drivers. However, this means that I'm still running my HIDs using the 30w system. If I wanted to upgrade to 50w, I would have to sacrifice this function but would end up with even more light output. I'm just wondering if the difference is enough to justify it? Since I'm now getting flickering from my ballasts, the time is coming for me to replace them. So, do I keep the stock ballast or do I upgrade to a 55w system?

If I do upgrade to 55w, is there a risk of frying my wiring?

Also, if I'm going to have to remove my headlights to replace the failing ballasts, I might do what enderle did and installed a pair of LED halos in each headlight to have DRL function. The nice thing about some of these halos is that they allow you to also be controlled by the turn signals, giving you amber LED halos flashing when the turn signal is actuated and the white LED halo when it isn't. I just worry that that may look too BMW-like with my quad-projector setup.

 

That halo appearance is not attributed just to BMW. All the late-model Dodge Chargers and Challengers around here have them....

 

You're right, that's another car I don't want my Jag to emulate.

 

Here in Canada, halo mods are clearly associated with rice rockets.

 

all over in the USA too.

To close out my experiences, there no limit to getting better and better lighting, well superior to the stock lights, especially on the 4.0 cars.

all that I’m concerned with is not being able to outdrive my lighting regardless of speed. At light I limit myself to under 100 mph. Too many deer to risk going faster.

At that speed I’m in no danger of out driving the LED lighting low beams I have, with plenty of side lighting from the fog lights to warn me of animals. Occasionally I use the high beams, but they aren’t really needed.

As lighting technology developed. I’m sure better and better systems will be available. Whether they are needed is another matter.

Z