[paczowski123]

Hello all,

I recently purchased a new (to me) T4R TRD off Road Premium. I am the second owner and it has about 7K miles. I have noticed at night the headlights have a HORRIBLE cutoff and are super dim. There is no defined straight cutoff, in fact, there is a dark V right in the middle of the beam starting about 10 feet in front of the vehicle and extends indefinitely outwards. Surely this cannot be correct? I attached a picture for reference, but it does not do them justice as my Iphone brightened the image considerably. It is so bad, that if it were not for the LED fog lights, the vehicle would be unable to be driven at night safely.

Only thing I noticed is when I popped the headlight dust covers of, it looks like someone has tried to put H9 bulbs in place of the H11 and perhaps they are not positioned correctly, they both sitting at different positions inside the housing? Could this be the issue in you all's opinion? I did not fool with it much as I discovered it late last night after getting home and noticing the dim headlights. But being the bulb is round I was worried something else may be wrong as there are no defined areas to where if the bulb was spun it would emit light differently inside the projector?

I am only asking this as a precaution before I fool with it being it is still under full warranty from my Toyota dealer, so do not want to screw anything up and have them blame me for it rather than letting them remedy the situation.

[osugsxr]

Originally Posted by paczowski123

Hello all,

I recently purchased a new (to me) T4R TRD off Road Premium. I am the second owner and it has about 7K miles. I have noticed at night the headlights have a HORRIBLE cutoff and are super dim. There is no defined straight cutoff, in fact, there is a dark V right in the middle of the beam starting about 10 feet in front of the vehicle and extends indefinitely outwards. Surely this cannot be correct? I attached a picture for reference, but it does not do them justice as my Iphone brightened the image considerably. It is so bad, that if it were not for the LED fog lights, the vehicle would be unable to be driven at night safely.

Only thing I noticed is when I popped the headlight dust covers of, it looks like someone has tried to put H9 bulbs in place of the H11 and perhaps they are not positioned correctly, they both sitting at different positions inside the housing? Could this be the issue in you all's opinion? I did not fool with it much as I discovered it late last night after getting home and noticing the dim headlights. But being the bulb is round I was worried something else may be wrong as there are no defined areas to where if the bulb was spun it would emit light differently inside the projector?

I am only asking this as a precaution before I fool with it being it is still under full warranty from my Toyota dealer, so do not want to screw anything up and have them blame me for it rather than letting them remedy the situation.

check position of lights and its simple to adjust the headlights. There is a star screw near the top of the headlight area. Can use a large phillips head to adjust the height of the cut off line.

[paczowski123]

Originally Posted by osugsxr

check position of lights and its simple to adjust the headlights. There is a star screw near the top of the headlight area. Can use a large phillips head to adjust the height of the cut off line.

Thanks! I did see the adjuster down in that hole, I just use a phillips to turn the toothed wheel? I did not notice any phillips head screw down in there.

[osugsxr]

Originally Posted by paczowski123

Thanks! I did see the adjuster down in that hole, I just use a phillips to turn the toothed wheel? I did not notice any phillips head screw down in there.

yes a large phillips head does work . Search for proper procedure on how to set cut off height.

[chrisridebike8]

what year 4runner? that looks like someone threw some LED bulbs in and has them oriented wrong.

[John in NC]

Only 7,000 miles I'd figure it to be a 2020-2022.

I'd be tempted to go back to stock as a baseline, or do the OEM LED retrofit if you can find some new take-out factory headlights.

There's a thread on here about it.
Here it is: 2021 4Runner OEM LED Headlights/Lights Performance and Retrofit

[bigdaddy2021]

Originally Posted by John in NC

Only 7,000 miles I'd figure it to be a 2020-2022.

I'd be tempted to go back to stock as a baseline, or do the OEM LED retrofit if you can find some new take-out factory headlights.

There's a thread on here about it.
Here it is: 2021 4Runner OEM LED Headlights/Lights Performance and Retrofit

we bought our 2019 with 8k miles on the clock, last year.

I'd say our 2019's headlights definitely leave something to be desired compared to our Honda Civic and newer F150.

Still not sure which path to take to improve night vision, though we did drive through Nevada and Utah on some very dark nights on our Moab trip, and it was "just ok".

[NoSoupForYou]

I have to ask, but are you sure the headlights are actually 'on' and you aren't driving around with just your fog lights on? Like have you gotten out and verified there is light coming through the projector lens of the upper housing?

[mbm112]

Headlights are definitely aimed way too low. Start by readjusting them and go from there.


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[paczowski123]

So I discovered they tried to put in the Hella H9 bulbs but did not trim the tab down to they were sitting in there all cock eyed, I have remedied the situation yesterday by trimming the oversized tab and locking them correctly into place and am waiting for another night (where I have time) to get it out and test. If they do not change I will go about the adjustment route. I just have no idea why they would have been adjusted all the way down in the first place, but who knows. It does seem the vehicle was briefly owned by someone familiar with the mods as it has some of the Carista features modified on it and LEDs in some of the turn signals.

My guess is perhaps they had some other form of bulbs like HID or similar and before trading in or whatever they did, they just crudely stuck these bulbs in it or had no idea what they were doing. I am hoping it was just the crooked bulbs, though, as adjusting headlights is a PITA.

[mattj150]

Originally Posted by paczowski123

So I discovered they tried to put in the Hella H9 bulbs but did not trim the tab down to they were sitting in there all cock eyed, I have remedied the situation yesterday by trimming the oversized tab and locking them correctly into place and am waiting for another night (where I have time) to get it out and test. If they do not change I will go about the adjustment route. I just have no idea why they would have been adjusted all the way down in the first place, but who knows. It does seem the vehicle was briefly owned by someone familiar with the mods as it has some of the Carista features modified on it and LEDs in some of the turn signals.

My guess is perhaps they had some other form of bulbs like HID or similar and before trading in or whatever they did, they just crudely stuck these bulbs in it or had no idea what they were doing. I am hoping it was just the crooked bulbs, though, as adjusting headlights is a PITA.

Adjusting the headlights isn't actually that bad! You just need a larger phillips head screwdriver and you can reach down and adjust the gears. The first time I did it was on a roadtrip because people kept flashing me at night.

[2021nightshade4x4]

If the cutoff still isn’t to your satisfaction after adjusting, I’ve been seeing people selling practically brand new Bi-LED takeoffs for about $350. Just check your local Facebook Marketplace.


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[WOLFN8TR]

I have some Diode Dynamics LED’s in the Lows and Highs. These work really good in the stock headlights. The DTR lights have no flickering. Light output is way better than stock! I originally ran these in my Cheverolet Silverado 2500HD stock headlights and they worked great in them as well.

Here’s some photos of the low beams.

[MAST4R]

I love the old-school nature of my 4R EXCEPT for the headlights. Worthless and dangerous, they are.

I changed the headlights with the best available regular/legal bulbs I could find and that helped a little.

Then I added SS3 LED Fog Light Kit for 2014-2022 Toyota 4Runner

in white which helped a great deal but still left the issue of distance.

Finally, I added the top under the front grill small light bars that match perfectly the fogs. I am closing on 500 offroad runs (on 3 vehicles total), never needed a bar. But I bought these specifically for out-of-town on pavement driving and they made a huge difference. They are supposed to be street legal.

I aim them lower than I could just to make sure they bother nobody and in fact nobody has flashed me, yet.

No longer living on a prayer when driving at night.

[2021nightshade4x4]

The cutoffs now look amazing


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