The Ebay Xenon HID headlamp assembly arrived yesterday. It was packed and protected extremely well. All the bulbs appear to be there, and the power washer assembly is intact. There is one common flaw (I was expecting it) that we should be able to work around....

The one bottom bolt (a Torx T-40) is tough to get to and usually seized in its ferrule (that is the common flaw) so my small-handed neighbor will assist me with this job. But this is 20-year-old Jaguar plastic after all, so we need to wait for warmer weather to avoid cracking anything....

 

While you are waiting to install the new headlamp it will benefit you to reinforce the lower mount with JB Weld Clearweld. This will provide additional support for that weak point in future. Build up several layers, it may not look pretty but it will be strong.

When rebuilding my headlamps I removed those brass inserts and replaced them with hard nylon machine bushings tapped for the securing bolt.

 

Thanks for the advice. Thinking of doing something similar. That brass ferrule and its T-40 bolt will NOT be utilized in my replacement headlamp assembly. I know the bolt would just seize up again with the passage of time. Metal ferrules stuck into hard plastic that will eventually turn brittle is a design flaw....

 

Following up on this, has anyone have experience with adding the transparent wrap to the lens? The same kind that is often used to protect the hood and bumper against small rock/gravel strikes. Thanks.

 

Good timing, I plan to put Lamin-x film on mine this weekend. Saw the recommendation in the XK8 bible and figured I'd give it a try. Already put it on one of my fog lights and wasn't completely satisfied with it, but the shape of that lens was really awkward to fit the film to. The headlights should be a lot easier. I'll follow up here with the results.

 

With Friday afternoon temps expected to rise into the low 50s, my small-handed neighbor and I plan to tackle the headlamp assembly replacement job then. Hope to report a successful outcome afterwards....

Bob (motorcarman) says that with auto self-leveling headlamp assembly replacements he has done on S-Types and XJs, the replacement headlamp had to be paired with the body module using WDS or IDS for it to properly respond to the auto self-leveling cycle and then aim correctly. He does not remember ever replacing an XK8/XKR auto self-leveling headlamp assembly so he is not sure if we will have to do so....

Just spoke with two different Jaguar indie shops in my area. They do not think we will have to do the WDS / IDS pairing procedure on my XK8 headlamp assembly. Let's hope they are correct....

 

For what purpose?

 

Oops wrong thread!
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A bit of information for all central North Carolina forum members....

In the event that I wind up having to get the replacement headlamp assembly programmed in order for the self-leveling cycle to function properly, Jaguar Greensboro told me they cannot do it and Jaguar Cary never bothered to respond to my questions. Jaguar Greensboro has dropped their Jaguar franchise and is now just Land Rover Greensboro. They still have a couple of Jaguar techs but will only work on models newer than 2012. No idea what Jaguar Cary's status is since they did not bother to return my call....

 

Shame on them. Good information.
Good luck tomorrow.

 

Thanks Wayne. Frank and I are planning to tackle the job on Friday afternoon....

 

Good luck and I am watching this too. Had to go thru the programming thing with my old 2005 STR. One thing I did find out is on that car at least is if the headlight was disconnected with power on you will lose the startup up and down sweep. I hit a deer and it was night so the headlights were on at the time of the crash. Body shop fixed everything and then got stuck on the headlight leveling.

I got on this forum to search and was told get it programmed at the dealer. The body shop then spent 3 more days trying to use whoever they wanted to use and I had to go back and gently insist that a Jaguar dealer was mandatory to fix this. Dealer reset it in less than an hour.
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That STR headlamp job was probably way back in the day when the dealership service department would actually help us. Now they just say "we cannot do that" or don't bother to return our call....

I cannot remember the last time I noticed the headlamps doing the automatic up-and-down sweep and I would not be surprised if this feature has not worked for many years. As long as I can properly aim the headlamps manually and they stay where I put them, that is fine with me. Same goes for the lens power wash feature -- in fact, I would prefer that thing NOT to work because if it does, sooner or later that squirter stalk is going to get stuck while hanging halfway out of the assembly and I may not even notice it before it falls off (and takes the impossible-to-find mirrored tip piece with it)....

 

Yes good point about just having working headlights!
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Update:

My neighbor and I managed to do the headlamp replacement job this afternoon. The bottom T-40 bolt actually unscrewed from the brass ferrule with no problem -- I could not believe it. We managed to get the broken headlamp assembly out with not a great deal of difficulty. What slowed us down was figuring out how to detach all of the various tiny electrical connectors that we had to deal with (as you will learn later)....

Regarding my Ebay headlamp assembly, not only was the brass ferrule plastic socket cracked with the T-40 bolt seized in the ferrule, but the Xenon low-beam bulb was broken and its ballast did not work. After we swapped my wife's original low-beam ballast and bulb into the Ebay headlamp assembly, all the lights finally worked....

Next, we had to figure out how to install the now-properly-functioning Ebay headlamp assembly into its proper position in the light well. The power wash unit attached to the bottom of the headlamp assembly made this very difficult. I finally managed to get it into proper position by pushing down on the top of the car's urethane bumper, creating just enough of a dip in that spot for the power wash unit to clear the top of the urethane bumper and then allow the whole headlamp assembly to slide backwards into position....

After securing the top two headlamp assembly fasteners (we opted NOT to reinstall the bottom brass ferrule or its T-40 bolt -- the plastic bottom of the headlamp assembly simply rests on top of the metal support bracket where the brass ferrule would have been), it was time for a full system test. My neighbor started the engine and I watched to see if the self-leveling headlamp dip-and-rise automatically occurred. It indeed did, so no WDS or IDS programming was required. Joyous high-fives were exchanged between the two of us....

This is another one of those jobs where having two people working makes everything go much more smoothly. The smaller-handed guy works from the engine bay side, while the larger-handed guy works from in front of the bumper ....

After we finished up, it was time to call the Ebay seller. He already knew about the bottom T-40 bolt seized in its brass ferrule. But he was not aware that his assembly had a broken Xenon low-beam bulb along with a bad low-beam ballast. He offered me a $200 credit back on my Visa card which I gladly accepted....

I have a 90-day warranty on the Ebay headlamp assembly so we shall see how that goes....

Thanks to all who offered advice and guidance, especially Lee (Hell-Cat) via a great tutorial sent to me by e-mail. We could not have done this job without you.....

 

Excellent ! Great to hear that it went well Jon.

If you want me to write up the brass ferrule replacement steps using a machined plastic bushing, let me know and I'll oblige.

Well done !

 

Lee,

I won't be using that machined plastic bushing approach, but someone else here on the forum may want to attempt it. So if you can add your write-up to this thread (or even start a new thread specifically about the subject), that would be a good idea. After all, knowledge is indeed power....

 

Here's the follow-up:

The cons:
- They were an absolute pain to put in place.
- I ended up with lots of air bubbles under the films no matter how much I tried to squeeze them out. You're supposed to puncture these with a needle and the film sort of self-heals after a while, but you can still see the punctures if you look closely.
- The headlight films are cut a bit too large on purpose, but to me this actually made fitment harder because it was not obvious what to use as a starting point/edge.
- You can tell there's something on the lens, it's not as clear as an uncovered one (I only did one side at first and let it dry out completely so that I could compare).

The one pro is that the films do seem very sturdy, and if it increases the chance of me not having to try to find a replacement headlight in the future, it's worth it. I'm going to keep mine.

 

I used XPEL PPF on my 2005 S-Type head lights and had no problems but I am not sure they still sell to the public
After installation I had moisture and blotches. They did not look good at all. But the next day it was all gone as the water dried up. I installed these after I did a cut and buff to remove the cloudiness from UV damage. Headlights stayed looking like new until I sold the car a couple of years later.

I can see a faint line of the plastic film at just the bottom edges of the light.




At least the old S-Type had lights I could bake in the oven and take apart to work on.
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