XK 07 headlight problem

Welcome to the forum! Sorry to hear you’ve bumped your XK.

It looks like your car has swivel headlights and the headlight you bought to replace it does not. I would look for one that has this feature and return the one you’ve bought.

If I may crash this thread a little - the headlamp 'glass' is plastic and I think this explains the big semicircle of light that illiuminates the trees rather pointlessly as I go along. Would much rather have it focused forwards.

Did XKs ever have glass headlights, and/or can they be retrofitted? I can forgive a TVR having plastic headlights but not a Jaguar...


PS Welcome and all that

Hi Ian D,

Thank you for your prompt reply - what do you mean by "swivel" headlight? Is it related to the elliptic terminal I mentioned (which is closed on the one I got)?
Sadly it's already past the return date (and spent $500 for this..) as I was out for biz trip for a while and was also trying to get other parts to fix other part of the car... So I'm really hoping to get this work with what I got. I see all the lights are turned on but just the warning sign... Any thoughts?

@simpo3, I don't think I fully understand what you meant (sorry I am not a native EN speaker..) and I'm honestly not sure if Jag XK has been using glass or plastic for headlights

When you turn the wheel of your car you’ll notice that a part of the headlight will move in that same direction, this was an optional extra that your car has. You’ve purchased a headlight that doesn’t have this feature and so is now displaying the warning light to say that it’s de-activated.

X150 never had glass headlights in fact every modern car uses plastic for headlights, has done for quite sometime now. The reasons are as follows:

You don’t want glass parts flying everywhere in a crash, with potential of a tyre blow out if the glass isn’t swept up afterwards. Imagine the weight of a glass headlight with how large they are too. Plastic also allows more dramatic shapes and aerodynamics plays a key part in this too. Plastic can also take a greater impact before breaking unlike glass too. Which helps with slow bumps in car parks etc. It’s also why fog lights have either been phased out altogether like on Jaguars since around 2010 or are made of plastic.

I see, thank you Ian for the detailed clarification.

But honestly I don't need that swivel headlight feature - as long as the lights are on for the front I have no problem with it.
Is it something I can just use and ignore the warning sign (or potentially shut down the sign if possible), or you think I will have problem?

I'm not an expert in Jag so your input is highly appreciated.

That is totally up to you, the headlights will still function as normal but you’ve lost that feature. That warning light will always remain on. You could find an independent with Jaguar diagnostic equipment to disable the feature and deactivate the warming light, a dealer most likely wouldn’t do it though.

If it's just the lens that is cracked, why don't you swap the new lens to the old headlight assembly, and retain full functionality? You may then be able to resell the rest of the new headlight here (or on ebay) and recoup some of your costs.

Peter

Ian D said:

X150 never had glass headlights in fact every modern car uses plastic for headlights, has done for quite sometime now. The reasons are as follows:

You don't want glass parts flying everywhere in a crash, with potential of a tyre blow out if the glass isn't swept up afterwards. Imagine the weight of a glass headlight with how large they are too. Plastic also allows more dramatic shapes and aerodynamics plays a key part in this too. Plastic can also take a greater impact before breaking unlike glass too. Which helps with slow bumps in car parks etc. It's also why fog lights have either been phased out altogether like on Jaguars since around 2010 or are made of plastic.

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Interesting, I hadn't thought of that. In less raked headlights it would be OK, but when angled very shallow like the XK the light is diffused/refracted into a great big semicircle which wastes most of the power of main beam (at least it is in mine). Great for identifying species of tree, not so great for looking at the road ahead. Plastic also abrades with mileage, making the situation worse.

You had them re-aligned at all? Maybe too high, I never had a problem with them tbh.

I had the headlights cleaned and 3M clear wrapped to stop stone chips and UV protection.