I've searched a bunch of the headlight threads but I'm still a little confused/unclear on which cars were equipped in which way.

My car is a 2003 with the 3.0 and 5-speed manual trans. I decided to buy new headlight bulbs for the car tonight, as the ones in the car were throwing weak yellowish light.

There was only one set of bulbs at the store, so I changed out only the low beam (outboard) lights. I have not touched the inboard hi-beam lights.

As I began changing the bulbs, I realized that the entire backside of the bulb assemblies rocked back and forth easily to the touch. Almost like the back of the light assemblies were not connected to anything. I've not noticed my lights bouncing when I hit a bump, but I have noticed my lights pointing somewhat low ever since I've owner the car. Also, when I would move the low-beam fixture with my hand, the high-beam fixture would also move.

After replacing both sides, I unfortunately have found that the driver's side is now pointing almost directly at the ground and I can't get it to go back the way it used to go.

I have halogen bulbs, and I don't have (or I don't think I have) adaptive light fixtures. The lights do not adjust with speed and they don't move up/down automatically on startup. The fixtures just seem to be wonky. I'm already plotting how to stabilize these things but I wanted to ask the question here first to determine exactly what is "normal" on this car.

This particular car came with very few options. No memory seat, no sunroof, base model radio, etc. It had also been involved at one time in a front-end crash and a lot of pieces were left out of the reconstruction (for instance, I don't have a washer fluid reservoir, washer pump or hoses running up to the washer nozzles). Whoever put this car back together was a hack. So it's entirely possible that I'm missing a key body part here.

Any suggestions would be welcome, and if asking me questions and having me check the car out would help, please ask and I'll report back. I've owned the car about 16 months now and I'm trying to restore her back to good health, and I'm almost there.

Jess

 

Good luck rebuilding her. Those are rare cars, like the 5-speed XJS cars. I have only worked on two in my time with Jag.

The S-type headlamps were weak at the adjusters. I don't know about anybody else on the forum but have not come across with a solution other than replacing the headlamp assemblies. Whenever we saw one at the dealer, the car had previously been in a collision. X-types had the same problem.

We tried fixing one car by heating up the seal between the lens and body of the headlamp and separating them to gain access to the adjuster. We ended up with a makeshift setup that didn't hold all that well, not to mention the seal between the lens and assembly didn't make that well. All we could really do was replace the entire assembly.

Search some yards and try to get some used ones. The bumper cover has to come off to get them out (you may end up seeing more than you want to from the collision repair). Good luck and if anyone else has suggestions, I would love to hear them.

 

Here: Fixing Drooping Headlights on S type R Jaguar - YouTube

 

Bacardi, thanks for that video! Just what I needed to see.

Mark, you would not believe the things that are missing on this car. The screw-off disc on the back of the passenger's side headlight is missing completely, so the passenger's low-beam light is cloudy on the inside. The brackets on the front bumper cover are partially broken, so the bumper cover has been glued on. I had to re-caulk the trunk weatherstripping, as the panels no longer match. The car had rear-end damage as well, and the backup alarm box was broken, but I replaced the factory radio and installed a back-up camera. The spare tire well is bent and won't hold a spare. The factory radio's display was dead. The A/C came stuck on full heat.

And the worst part? I gave this car what might have been the first oil change it had ever had. We've been changing oil every 1,000 miles or so just to try to clean everything out. It breaks my heart that someone wouldn't treat a special car (or any car, really) the way it deserved to be treated.

Jess