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Poor headlights

4K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  Partick the Cat 
#1 ·
We've just spent a few days touring round Anglesey and Snowdonia. Car's behaved impeccably. 43 mpg getting there and 37+ touring around according to the onboard computer. On thing I'm not happy with are the headlights on dipped beam. They seem to be set too low. Main beam is fine.
 
#2 ·
Hi Barry, Have you the headlight leveling system on your vehicle. If not you do have the adjusters on the headlamps.

Roger
 
#3 ·
Hi Roger, I've just got standard headlights, no leveling system. The car has a fairly recent mot but the lights are set far too low. Driving on unlit roads is not good. I'll have a look at adjusting them when I get a chance.
Barry
 
#4 ·
Barry please update your signature via the link below and tick the Show Signature box so we know which model and year you have.
From what I have found is that you should have air suspension which is supposed to keep the car level. Could yours not be doing its job right.

Roger
 
#6 ·
#7 ·
Not all vehicles with self levelling suspension have self levelling headlights , my XJ HID's are fixed.

Front suspension always lowers itself before lowering the back end to avoid high level lights,

Rear suspension always rise before the front for the same reason , does it every time I go in to N or Park.

Standard suspension would normally have the manually adjustable 1-4 level adjustment for Halogen / self levelling for HID

The HID Projectors are not the best in the X350 / X358 , very poor in comparison to my Mondeo ST 220

I did even consider that standard halogen headlamps with decent bulbs might be better than the D1S HID projectors.
 
#8 ·
The self levelling unit was deleted quite early on as the base option of ordinary spring suspension never happened, and the air suspension keeps the car and hence the headlamps level.

There are headlamp adjusters, they are white and stickup through the cover over the radiator and lights at the front of the engine compartment.
 
#9 ·
That's odd Eddie because cars built with HID's had auto headlight leveling modules inside the headlight unit. The wiring diagrams do not show conventional headlights after 2006.

Roger.
 
#10 ·
That's odd Eddie because cars built with HID's had auto headlight leveling modules inside the headlight unit. The wiring diagrams do not show conventional headlights after 2006.

Roger.
Any vehicle with HID headlights on normal suspension must be self levelling with self test function.

When you turn them on , they go to the lowest level and then rise up to the correct position.

If they fail to test properly , default position is down to its lowest setting and they'll stay there.

Both of my Mondeo's do this and behave as they should , the XJ is just as is according to air ride height.

Would be interested if anyone else's X350 / X358 does anything different on HID projectors with regards the test cycle.
 
#11 ·
Every X350 with HIDs I have seen do this Eddie, mine does.
 
#13 ·
Sorry, I mean they self test on ignition with headlights on.
 
#14 ·
I'll be double checking them tomorrow , may not be quite as obvious as the Mondeo , or may be unplugged / not working !

The beam pattern is good / correct level , I checked already when I first thought the lights were poor in comparison to the Mondeo.
 
#15 ·
SSM17841 dated 28 Oct 2004: HID units without the stepper (levelling) motor were introduced at G39155.

For some reason the wiring diagrams have continued to show the stepper motor without any reference to it not being there on HID cars after G39155.
 
#17 ·
My 2004 XJR has leveling mechanisms inside the HID lights and used to go to the lowest level and then rise .
When I bought a replacement light the leveling mechanism had been deleted and so I disconnected the mechanism in the original light so it didn’t look odd.
 
#19 ·
I think the levelling motor was deleted quite early in the X350s production run; that SSM is '04 and the X358 wasn't introduced until ... late '07 or early '08 ? I think it was only about the first year of 350s that had the motor.
 
#20 ·
there was a whole world of confusion surrounding the Light installation Directive at the time.

The end result was that all vehicles with HiD (gas discharge) lamps required some form of headlamp levelling, which could be either active levelling in the headlamp unit with a motor, OR could be reliant on the vehicle self-levelling suspension where it had it. That "or" bit was added at a relative late date.

So I'm not surprised that early cars had self-levelling lamps with self-levelling suspension and later cars had only self-levelling suspension.

None of them had the internal switch where the user could adjust beam level.
 
#22 ·
.... The end result was that all vehicles with HiD (gas discharge) lamps required some form of headlamp levelling, which could be either active levelling in the headlamp unit with a motor, OR could be reliant on the vehicle self-levelling suspension where it had it. That "or" bit was added at a relative late date.

So I'm not surprised that early cars had self-levelling lamps with self-levelling suspension and later cars had only self-levelling suspension. ....
I think the explanation for the X350 is rather more mundane. It was originally intended to market the X350 with conventional spring suspension, and only to fit self-levelling air suspension as either an optional extra or a standard feature on high-line models. For the conventional spring cars with HID lights it would obviously require levelling motors so that was what Jag initially specified for the HID lamp units.

The decision to abandon the conventional spring suspension and have air suspension on all models was taken so late on that initial stocks of HIDs with levelling motors had already been manufactured so these were fitted to the first X350s until that run of HIDs was used up. Naturally further production runs of HID lamps did not have the levelling motors.

One consequence was that there was a small number of X350s, just after the switch to non-self-levelling HIDs, that still had the wiring harness for self-levelling lights, so the plug for the levelling unit was 'taped back'. (It's in an SSM somewhere).
 
#21 ·
Not all vehicles with self levelling suspension have self levelling headlights , my XJ HID's are fixed.

Front suspension always lowers itself before lowering the back end to avoid high level lights,

Rear suspension always rise before the front for the same reason , does it every time I go in to N or Park.

Standard suspension would normally have the manually adjustable 1-4 level adjustment for Halogen / self levelling for HID

The HID Projectors are not the best in the X350 / X358 , very poor in comparison to my Mondeo ST 220

I did even consider that standard halogen headlamps with decent bulbs might be better than the D1S HID projectors.
Interesting Eddie,

Happen my thoughts are the other way on the HID's having also had the ST220.

Then again I did change the Jags units a couple of years ago now as I suspected I had differing manufacturers bulbs in, sure enough I had.

Gun metal grey with Infra Red leather, loved that Fast Ford.
 
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