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Just purchased my " beauty"

However I haven't gotten an answer even from my PPI tech as to what happened inside the headlight housing to cause that ugly black
burnt looking residue...!!
Light works fine....
I imagine only recourse is an expensive replacement unit😟

Any help would be appreciated
Thx

 

The inside is supposed to be black. Looks like you may have had a water leak which these headlights are prone to have and somebody tried to clean it.

 

I have the same thing on my 97 xk8, the innards are starting to oxidize eventually those spots will pit and rust

 

Really?

 

There must be condensed water in your headlight, it peeled the chrome-coat away.
Special repairshops can recoat it.
Nothing to rust, all coated plastic.

 

The inside of the headlights are not metal, they are plastic coated with chromium(?) If you remove the headlight lens (pain in the butt...) you can clean, or re-spray the interior of the headlights to the color of your choice. Make sure the coating you select can take the heat though, those lights will get prrrrrrretty hot on summer days if you chose a dark color

 

The headlights are made of plastic housings with some sort of silver coating. This coating is very delicate, and can be wiped off very easily ( ask me how I know).
You have two options, replace that part of the housing, even on eBay that'll be around $200 a side, or go the way of the last production years and black out the main section. Do some research on 05 and 06 year headlights and you'll see what I mean.
Regards,

 

At least on my 97 the reflectors directly behind the bulb are made of thin metal, and yes the rest (rear housing) is plastic. I am not sure about painting the rear housing but there is a good reason why the back of the bulb area is called a parabolic refecltor

 

Badcat97,
Yes the reflectors are metal, but look again at the PO's picture. His problem is not the the rear reflector, but in front of it.

 

True.... It's the front part.....anyone have a "probable cause"
I would hate to have it happen again.....drivers side is perfect!!
No water condensation ever shows in the bad lens so I have to think its heat
related.... But how/ why would the chrome coating melt/ peel of like that????

New replacement lens found for $ 225 but I can't do labor myself so expense grows!!

 

Look for a company like this

reflektor neu verspiegen

or this

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Jaguar-XK8-XK...sAAOxykUZTfRNO

 

Yes but I believe the cause is still moisture and should also look into his seals on the headlights as far as painting the area of the discoloration you can check into Alsa coatings Alsa ChromeFX - The World's Most Exotic Finishes