Headlight Upgrade to Mk III
Style (Range Rover P38/4.0/4.6)
Introduction
Ruben Sesa's Conversion
Roy Nasser's Conversion
Mark Kingsbury's Conversion
More Information
Introduction
I have received a lot of inquiries on whether the 4.0/4.6/P38 models
can be upgraded to use the headlights from the Mk III. The photos on
this page are kindly supplied by two owners, Ruben Sesa and Roy Nasser,
who managed to do the conversion.
I have heard conflicting reports about how difficult the conversion is.
One owner on this
thread on the Range Rover
forum reported that his body shop was
unable to make the new headlight fit unless he was willing to cut into
the fender, headlight frame and
bumper. "Also, the headlamp has
to sit on the bumper for the hood to close down enough and when it
does, the contour of the fender to to lamp is out of whack."
However I have heard from at least 3 owhers who have done the job
successfully (or had it done at a body shop), and the final result is
certainly impressive. Two of the successful conversions are illustrated
on this page.
Ruben Sesa's Conversion
Ruben Sesa (FAT96RANGE)
managed to do the conversion all by himself, including the grille from
the new model! The finished result is
extremely professional looking. Ruben reports: "I didn't take to a shop
to get it done -- I did it by
myself. So if a shop does it should come out better. And they said it
couldn't be done!"
The pictures directly above and below were kindly supplied by Ruben.
Regarding the procedure to do the installation, Ruben reports: "I took
my front bumper & lights out, and
started cuting away at the radiator support. Then I had to cut the new
headlight housing, and also had to cut into the front fenders which are
going to need bodywork."
The finished result looks pretty cool, and you can almost confuse
Ruben's Range Rover for a Mk III! We are hoping
he will also be able to provide us with some instructions on how to
accomplish the conversion.
Roy Nasser's Conversion
Roy Nasser of Brazil is
another owner who managed the conversion,
having it done by a local body shop. He
reports: "The
only cutting in my case was a non-support section of metal, that
was basically a vertical stop for the old lights. These lights are
deeper and need that cut.
The lights dont rest on the bumper - at
all - there is even a gap between the bumper and the lights."
A certain amount of rewiring is needed for the new bi-xenon lights: "It
was pretty easy....
opening up the lights you will see the bi-xenon solenoid, as well as a
small PCB with 3 wires going to it... one of them is connected to the
ground of the headlight, one of them is connected to the xenon hid
transformer, and the other is what you connect to the highbeam, in
parallel to the smaller circle light (near the grill). This should be
easy for anyone to solve though... it was rather
simpler, although I thought it wouldnt be... tell your shop to fix it
up, if they cant figure it out 
go to another shop maybe!
"The turnlights have a very slight discrepancy. Electrically it is
perfect... xenon working, bi-xenon
working, everything working fine, no faults. Because the truck didnt
have headlight levelling this feature is
disabled."
After the conversion (photos above by Roy
Nasser), Roy says his lights are
working 100 percent like the 4.4, except for the headlight leveling
feature which was never provided on the 4.0/4.6/P38.
Mark
Kingsbury's Conversion
Mark Kingsbury reports completing a L322 headlamp conversion on a p38
and found he had to do the following:
- The
slam panel behind the headlamps needs trimming back approx 10mm
- I also
had to cut the back of the headlamp away at the lower 1/2 to get the
required drop into the front panel
- The
front panel itself needs cutting at the lower inner edge of the
headlamp both sides to allow the lamp to sit back into the front panel
- The
L322 grill is approx 40mm too wide to fit between the lamps once in
place and needs cutting down (easiest to cut both sides equally then
fibreglass and refinish the ends). You will also need to cut through
the top bar of the grill in the middle and flatten the grill out
and fibreglass this in place as there is too much of a bend in the
grill to fit to the front panel neatly.
- The
indicators fit quite easily but I cut the lower edge on the wings and
blended them into the shape of the lamps or you will to left with a
triangular shape on the lower edge facing foward
On
another note I have also fitted foglamps to a diesel auto (i know you
are not meant to ) but a air scoop on the lower of the bumper now feeds
the oil cooler !
If you
have more details on how to do this conversion, please
email me
so we can share it with other owners!!!
More Information
Adding Range Rover Sport power vents to a
P38/4.0/4.6
For more information on the headlight conversions, check out the
following threads on the Range Rover forums:
http://rangerovers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1271&highlight=headlights
http://rangerovers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=105&sid=6bfa0d7c1d742da3e1315744ef0e2ba1
http://www.totalkitcar.com/tkc_article_1157.php
-- an even more extensive conversion including the tail lamps and side
vents!
