Just bought a 2003 S type R last week. I've only driven it at night once since I've gotten it, and was wondering about the headlights. They seem to shine very low and don't provide much light out in front of the car very far. On high beam, they seem to shine out more where you would expect them to in low beam mode. Am I just not used to these type of headlights, or is there a height adjustment on them? Are they supposed to move up and down with the cars front attitude like the new BMW's? The car has never been wrecked so I don't know why the lights would be out of adjustment. I would appreciate it if anyone could "shed some light" on the subject. Hahaha.... know that was stupid!!!

 

Whoever you bought the car from sold you the car knowing the self leveling feature on the headlights is probably broke. This is a common problem with 03.
It will run you approx $1800 to repair at dealer

 

Several of us have done the repair ourselves but it can be quite involved. I sounds like the leveling slide inside the sealed headlight assembly is broken causing the headlights to point down. I would at least have it looked at to determine what the problem is. They might just need to be reset. Mine were the same way and the dealer was able to adjust them. Since they consider them to be unserviceable they will just want to replace the complete assemblies. I did have to remove the lenses from one of mine to repair the leveler slide later on when a bulb burned out.
Let us know.

 

THE DREADED STR HEADLIGHT PROBLEM RISES AGAIN (shaking fist at the car gods)......join the club.....unfortunately. Or have someone accidentally bump into your front end in the middle of the night and call your agent....J/K shhh haha

 

Join the club bro. I've got an '03 STR and the headlights were perfect. They lit up the road at night like it was freakin daytime. Then...one night on the drive home they automatically came on as it got dark, and BAM....they're both pointing straight down. My fog lights shine farther out onto the road than the headlights.

Auto-Level feature is F'd. I haven't taken it in for official diagnosis, but am pretty sure that's the prob. I don't feel like blowing 2 grand on headlights, so I'm dealing with it for now. Stupid Jaguar never did a recall on this....pisses me off. But such is life. I still love the car.

:-/

 

Thanks to everybody for the responses. So...how do the headlights act when the auto-leveling isn't working? When I start the car and turn the headlights on, they come on, tip down for a second and then retract back upwards a little. Is this normal, or are they broken (not coming up high enough?). I turned the manual adjusters all the way back, and the headlights adjusted upwards, just not high enough still.

 

Mine do the same thing, we I start the car up I can see the hid's selfleveling up and down. Whichadjusters did you adjust? If you adjust the screws closet to the center of the headlights they will literallyaim into the sky and blind people. Try that and then report back with your results...

 

Here is what I've done so far. Parked in front of the garage with the door down and adjusted the manual adjusters (not sure if they were the inboard adjusters or the ones out towards the fenders) and observed the headlight beam raising until I felt the adjuster feel like it was as far as it could go. Finally drove the car last night and they project out farther, but still not as far as they should. Any ideas? Like I said before, the headlights self adjust upon start up, but they still see too low on the road.

 

Post 24 and on...

By the sound of it - this may be your fix. Good luck!

https://www.jaguarforums.com/m_43066..._/tm.htm#44766