After a summer with my XK8 I have finally resolved my issue with the headlights. The lights are low to the ground to start with. Mine were aimed far too low. I got no real answers when trying to figure out how to adjust them. Finally found a pic when I googled it that was useful.

The installed bulbs were not that bright. Having experience with I knew Halogen bulbs were not going to give me what I wanted. When you do find a suitable halogen bulb, they only last about 2 years. I opted for LED bulbs (link below). They emit a very useable white light that makes things very crisp and easy to see if that paints a picture.

I raised the aim of the bulbs tonight by quite a bit. I use a standard of determining how fast can I go and still see 6 seconds in front of me. Originally that speed was about 45-50 mph. The low beams were so low that I almost didn't see a cyclist pull out in front of me on a city street while I was travelling at about 25 or 30 mph. After the adjustment I can drive at 35 mph safely using the 6 second lead time. I only got the car up to 70 for the high beam test. At 70 mph I had just shy of a 7 second lead time. That is more than safe for the driving that I do.


I did not take any pictures of this project. I did however take some pics on my Explorer when I had a new LED on one side and the original factory halogen bulb on the other side. I will attach that to demonstrate the difference in the quality of light. Be sure to note that the real life view is more pronounced that a photo.

LED bulb Info:




The bottom image is the LED bulb.

 

I looked at LED conversion for my low beams but could not see how you would ever get the existing bulb retention clip to fit over the base of the new LED bulb

 

Had the same issue fitting an LED bulb to my X-Type and ended up with HID bulbs (which didn't fit much better). More light, but not all that great.

 

Gentleman:

Those XK8's don't need the Low Beams changed-out as they should be HID Bulbs to start with! If not, you should get an HID Kit and replace those bulbs...then after bring he Low Beams up to today's standards, you can replace the High Beam Halogens with an LED Kit, which makes all the difference in the World while driving at night!

Billy Clyde.