Yesterday I parked next to a light metallic blue XK8. When I came back out of the store I was admiring the two cars together and noticed that the interior of their headlights looked chrome, while mine looked black. The shiny chrome looked really nice. Was that just the way the headlights came on certain years, or did that owner do something to their headlights?

Mine are chrome, not black. Thought all (97-06) were the same.

Jaguar has produced both chrome and black. There must be some year/8/R/option logic but I have never had enough information to make a statement on the subject. Both my '00 XK8 and '02 XK8 cars had chrome interiors to the headlights.

I believe '03 and later switched to black...but someone please correct me if I am wrong.

My 2003 xk8 has chrome.

LOL! That's weird. My 2003 XK8 has black. What color is yours? Mine is platinum.

'03 XK8, chrome, midnight black metallic.

mines black- thought the 2003 was also the split, guess not.

My 05 is black. My 97 is chrome. The chrome looks horrible compared to the black, IMO.

i agree. i was thinking of painting my chrome headlights black because the chrome is horrible

I believe the xenon headlights have black housings and the chrome are non-xenon.

Do you mean HID?

I have one that is chrome and the other is black!!!!!





Just kidding.

EZDriver

They're one and the same. Xenon (HID) headlights were introduced for MY2003.

Hey Rev, my car color is blue, with standard lights.

Yeah, I'm thinking of doing that to my 97. Taking off the glass looks to be a chore though.

My '06 has black. BTW I am amazed at how shiny the lenses still are on my car. Jaguar must use a better grade of plastic.

The chrome in the headlamps comes off very easy so be careful if you try to clean them, also the change over year was 2003, cars in that year that were fitted with Xenons (or HID if you like) had black lights, it was something to do with the chrome causing more glare, cars without Xenons retained the original chrome, however as stocks diminished all later cars were fitted with black head light units

Hope that clears it up a bit



Oh yeah, I really would not advise trying to get the glass off, it is a real PITA, much easier just to swap the front assembly, you can pick them up on Ebay quite reasonably I bought a pair for $150

As quoted by Gator 8
It's glass

My 2005's are black. It was the trend on a lot of 'sporty' cars here 4 or 5 years ago. They look better than chrome, IMHO.