Hello all...

First post here. I am seeking guidance on my headlights. I am in the US and have a LH drive vehicle. There is a "shield", "blinder" that covers part of the top portion of the headlight. The visibility on regular beams is horrible. Actually kind of dangerous as the lighted area is really short on the driver's side. I thought I had seen a post about a switch, but now can't find it. Thanks in advance for replies, here or to email.

 

Deltaflash, do you know the history of your car? I only ask as what you are describing is only applied to cars that are built for outside North America. I have a spare headlight assembly and what is below was not present (as would be expected since it is a NAS headlight assembly.

From the service manual:

The bi-xenon headlamp uses a projector module. The projector module comprises an ellipsoidal lens and a reflector. The
projector reflector collects the light produced by the xenon bulb and projects the light into a focal plane containing a shield.
The contour of the shield is projected onto the road by the lens.

A tourist lever mechanism is located on the right hand side of the projector module. This mechanism moves a flap to blank off
a portion of the beam spread to enable the vehicle to be driven in opposite drive hand markets without applying blanking
decals to the headlamp lens. The beam is changed by partial removal of the wheel arch splash shield and removing the access
cover at the rear of the lamp assembly and moving a small lever located near the bulb holder, at the side of the projector.

Not sure if this will help or not. What it kinda sounds like is you have a problem with a reflector inside the headlight itself that changes where the headlight is looking. Older cars have 2 different bulbs for low and high beam. Our cars, the headlight shifts the internals of the headlight and re-aims where the focal point is (ie, moves it up for high beam and down for low beam). That or some of the internals of the headlight are broke and this is causing the headlight to aim unnaturally low. A quick check of this would be to simply park 20-30 feet back from a wall on a level surface. You can then stand next to the car and note a spot on your leg that would be the center of the headlight vertically. You can then walk to the wall and the center of the headlight beam should be really close to that spot (should be about 1" down if properly aimed).

 

Thanks Thermo-

From what I can see, the vehicle was built in Castle Browmich, and shipped to the US. Im not sure how to tell what country it was made for from the vin, and doing several vin checks I can't see that either. It definitely, from what you posted sounds like I have a model made for OUS. It definitely has a shield on the driver's side. There is an adjustment in the settings for headlight beams: Left side or Right side drive. If I switch to left side, my drivers beam would be unobstructed, but then I would have the problem on the left...

Am I correct that switching the driver's side to "up" would eliminate the shield and give full beams on both sides?

I called my dealer and they literally have no idea what Im talking about.

 

Deltaflash, beacause you bought your car in the US and it was built in the UK but immediately sent to the US, it was "built for NAS" (ie, north america). As is stated in my last post, if you remove the wheel well liner on the side in question, you should be able to see a lever on the back side of the headlight assembly if you have the shield like you are saying. Flipping this lever would fix your issue.

Something just struck me and maybe this is what you are seeing. Reading the manual, it talks about the headlight having a shield that will flip out of the way if you have the AFS headlights (ie, when going under 20 mph, then you turn the steering wheel, the road gets lit up on the side of the car). Could this be the shield that you are seeing? If not, I would be interested in seeing a picture of what you are talking about.

 

The driver headlight pattern, when driving straight looks like a stairstep, the lowest step being on the left and getting longer as you move toward center. I will try and get a photo.

 

Here are some examples of the headlight pattern. There are no oncoming cars, and the lights are on low beam.

 

Could it be that the driver's light need to be aligned. I had a similar problem when I had my headlights changed and it was a simple screw adjustment.

 

Sometimes the simplest answer is the right answer, and the one I never seem to think of. I think that is the best starting point. Thanks. Ill let you guys what comes of it.

 

You can tell if the headlights are US spec because they are the only market that have the orange side markers fitted. All other LHD markets have clear reflectors instead.

You have the LED headlamps, and from memory I don't recall seeing the little flick down metal strip that was in the xenon lamps. (I may be misremembering, but looking back at my photos I can't see it.) The dedicated cornering lamps are independent LEDs and not mechanical.

From your photos the right hand side (your passenger side) looks to be adjusted about right. The left side (your driver side) looks to be adjusted low, but not due to mechanical failure (see 'just in case' below). The sharp cut off on LED lamps makes it appear worse than it really is - a small adjustment upwards would make a big difference to that light throw. The beams are meant to be asymmetric. You should see a stepped pattern which is lower on your left side, then has a gentle slope towards the middle where the two beams meet, and a kick up on the right hand side. A bit like this: https://blog.theretrofitsource.com/h...2395795178.jpg. In reality you get a bit of blurring where the two meet.

(If you had an AFS failure that will also lower the throw to the minimum, but it will give you a visible warning on your instrument cluster which you haven't mentioned.)

Definitely look to the adjustment before other causes as it seems the most likely cause and all you need is to park facing a blank wall and a long screwdriver to adjust. (I recall T30.) US spec headlights only have vertical adjustment (there is no horizontal alignment as with the ROW). They must have a different carrier inside. The manual says you need to adjust both screws equal amounts to maintain the correct alignment.



Just in case...
If when you turn the vertical adjustment screw the throw does not raise and stays the same, or looks to tilt in an extreme arc, then maybe the ball joint at the end of the screw has popped out leaving the assembly floating. I've seen that once with a replacement lamp I bought, but the default position when it is in that state is to project about 10 feet in front of the car and yours are much greater than that so it seems unlikely.

 

Thanks XDave. You guys are the best. I really appreciate everyone reaching to help. I took it to the dealer today, and they adjusted the headlights, admitting that the left was low. So they made it even with right, which is probably correct. I may take it out in a bit and check. Thanks to you guys, I may adjust it on my own if its not correct.

Again, Thanks so much.

 

I thought you had LED's and thanks Xdave for pointing that out. I had a similar problem after upgrading my 2014 to the LED lights. Just could not see that well and thought it was my eyes getting older. But I finally got my laser level stuff out and set up some masking tape on the wall of my garage and sure enough the headlights were low. I was pretty sure they were because I could drive with my brights on and no body would ever flash me?

After adjusting things were much better but even now I think I could have went a bit higher. Testing them on brights I do get flashed now and then but with so many huge pickups and SUVs that are way farther up in the air I think I am still a bit low.

Here is the thread where I showed how I aimed my headlights. It's down a ways and the thread does mix HID and LED headlights but they all aim about the same. Just glad Jaguar did give us adjusting points.

Aim Headlights
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