Left headlight





Right headlight(installed in June 2015 brand new)



Good day,have almost the same problem.After 1 year I mention that both headlights start to crack. In Jaguar service they say it because of some mechanical damage. But I don't have any. So my insurance cover me one headlight with was in worst condition,but after 5 month the new one start to Crack...Can anybody explain why it is happening ?!

 

 

Being in the process of bringing a Jag XF back to life from a wreck and seeing the layout and mounting positions of these now broken headlight tabs, I must say that they are an absolutely flawed design. To expect a thin brittle piece of plastic, split in the middle, to withstand any form of stress is ridiculous. They should have been made out of metal and been made to be replaceable. I ended up fabricating some new tabs from 16 gauge steel and prepped the headlight to receive them with liberal amounts of epoxy and a flat head screw to give a mechanical attachment as well. So far so good. Although it does not look at good at the original it does the job and will be ten times as durable.

Speaking of part quality, I am quite amazed at the cheap level of parts quality on the front end and bumper. All of the chrome is nothing but cheap plastic junk produced in China and will notoriously break no matter how gently one is to disassemble. I can already see noticeable shine deterioration and puckering in only a three year old car. Ridiculously thin plastic tabs mounted at oddball angles truly invite breakage. Quite surprising for a car selling for over $50K. I have seen much better build quality on cars half their price.

 

As I mentioned previously, the dealer got Jaguar's approval to replace both of my original headlight enclosures due to the mounting clip cracking/breaking, a few years ago. But, apparently, while doing some work on my car since then, one of the dealer techs (only place I've ever taken my car) must've broken yet another clip, and then taken it upon himself to drill a hole into the sheet metal to install a screw to remedy the issue. If I'd seen it sooner, or knew which dealership it was, I would've raised hell about them breaking it and trying to cover it up like this. But I have no idea when or where it happened, at this point, so there's not much I can do. It's a ridiculous design, to be sure.