Headlight Adjustment

So I absolutely love this truck and i love the headlights. My only complaint, is that with the low beams being on there is such a sharp cutoff with minimal scatter, that the low beams do not work on back country roads that well. They are fine on highways/city streets where they are fine but get out to the hilly back country roads and they only light up maybe 40-50 feet in front of you where the cutoff line sits. Yes I can turn the high beams on but I'd like to be able to adjust them up a few degree's to get a better field of view as I am not always able to use high beams due to other traffic/etc.

Well I opened up the hood tonight and I cannot find a single adjustment screw for the headlights. Am I missing something here? How does one adjust the headlights on this truck. Usually its just a bolt you adjust with.

Thanks

Steve

 

Never mind found thread on this that didn;t turn up in my few initial searches.

Correction that was how to setup the testing, and was using the adjustment screws on the 2nd gens. I need to find where these are on the 3rd gens, and the manual is not being helpful with that.

 

anyone?

 

There's a slot on the back of each headlight where a Phillips fits into and turns the adjustment screw. The Phillips head fits into the cog grooves of the adjustment screw.

 

really, why the hell can i not find this damn thing. I'm gonna have to spend a lot more time looking. I'm obviously not looking in the right spot on the light.

thanks

 

I just adjusted mine the other night. On the passenger side you have to undo the 2 screws for the washer fluid to pull it back a bit. The driver side is easily accessible. The screw is roughly 3 inches in and 2 inches down. There is only one on each side. I believe I used an 8mm to adjust it.

My truck is at the dealer otherwise I would take a picture.

This is a rough guess as to where they are located (green and black circles). Imagine these on the back of the headlight housing.

 

Hmm. I'll have to take a look when I get home. Thx


Regards

Steve

 

No problem so far for me with the headlights. Coming from a Jeep the Tacoma's lights are the cat's meow!!

 

Oh they are awesome, mine are just adjusted a bit to low for my liking. Going to set it up somewhere to see if they are in spec or if they are indeed low as I think they are. Regardless they need a slight adjustment up to be useable on the backroads around here if I am using low beams with traffic/etc.

 

Are you talking about this screw? The grey one that looks ratcheted. Pardon the pic. Awkward angle with my phone.



If that's the one. Sweet, it's a lot different then what I'm use to for adjusting headlights. Mind you I haven't adjusted a headlight Ina vehicle in probably 10 yrs as they all worked fine.

 

Here's the instructions.

 

That is the one. Turn it one way to see if its moving the correct one with the lights on.

 

Clockwise should move it up if I remember correctly. K thanks greatly appreciated.

Also thanks for the instructions! I'm probably within spec but it needs to be bumped up a bit. Worst that happens is a drop it back down. Now to find a parking garage with a wall I can do this on and mark the cutoff with tape/etc.


Regards

Steve

 

K, so I started to pop off the windshield washer fluid container bolts to facilitate getting to the adjustment screw. Then figured nope, I am gonna go for a drive first with a buddy to make sure I am not out to lunch on these being adjusted incorrectly or too low. I didn't tell him I thought they might be too low, he never noticed anything until we got on a road with no ambient light from city streets. As soon as we pulled off the roads he was even mentioned the low beams seem to be adjusted incorrectly, they had great projection but seemed to point 40-60 feet out in front of the truck at the ground, making it very easy to over drive the headlights, on low beam at 50kph(30mph roughly)

Anyways, I didn't even bother to adjust them, I am just going to bring it back into the dealer in the morning and have them adjust them properly, and if they are in spec (which i highly doubt they are) I will pay them bump them up a bit so I can see at night.

Next mod will be a light bar in the grill me thinks.

 

GOOD LORD That was more of a pain than it should have been. Am I the only one here that's bought 978340 10mm sockets and wrenches and can never find one?

Anyway, mine doesn't have a screw head. The adjustment bolt an 8mm - to save you the trouble of endlessly looking for your non existent 10mm. Passenger side, you definitely have to take out the 10mm bolts on the blinker fluid and move it out of the way a little. Luckily I had a 10mm deep well (tried like hell to get it down to the passenger adjustment bolt before I learned it wasn't 10mm by trying the drivers side, fuck). I actually ended up adjusting the driver side with my fingers. I tried to get the passenger side, but it wasn't going very well.

I was in a hurry, so after all that I need to go back in and bring them up a bit, because I feel like I can't see shit past 25ft.

I have no complaints about my truck, but damn that seemed way more frustrating than it should have been.

Bottom line: You need a 10mm socket/wrench for the washer fluid and an 8mm wrench for the adjustment.

I need a joint.

 

I used a ratcheting box wrench while putting pressure and turning it.

I made my own license plate mounts using an aluminum flat bar and 2 hours later I felt the same as you.

 

Sure wish I would have read this before my failed (and pointless) 10mm search & rescue mission.

 

I feel your guys pain. I ave large hands and working on cars/trucks/diving gear is a royal pain in the butt. It took me awhile to get the lights adjusted, but they are now where they should be and work great.

 

subd

 

Thanks guys. That was a piece of cake.