Horrible Headlight Cutoff/Brightness

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paczowski123

New member
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.
 

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paczowski123 said:
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.
Click to expand...


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.
 
osugsxr said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
paczowski123 said:
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.
Click to expand...

yes a large phillips head does work . Search for proper procedure on how to set cut off height.
 
John in NC said:
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
Click to expand...

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


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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.
 
Last edited:
paczowski123 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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.

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d8b9bf5829a844fe4526d1dfa0faa6a7.jpg


882d956cbd03d6f2a569ea9f5c75dfe0.jpg
 
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.
 
Could we old LED, I had two sets from a decent vendor here that both sets slowly aged and brightness output went from great to... barely any light at all in intensity.

Went back to a factory bulbs although a HO type instead. To bad as I like LEDs, but my experience in mine for headlights at least they arent worth the hype.
 
MAST4R said:
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.
Click to expand...


I have a 2013 4R that I bought used.
Surprisingly, it has the brightest headlights I have ever seen on any vehicle ever. Cutoff is dramatic and both the low and high beam go on forever.

Assuming they are LED, haven't checked physically, but definitely will. I want to get these same bulbs in other vehicles. When I do I'll post the info here.
 
when i got my 2021 ORP everyone was flashing me non stop. I finally realized the previous owner adjusted the headlights with the cutoff over anyones roof line. :doh:
 
seatia said:
I have a 2013 4R that I bought used.
Surprisingly, it has the brightest headlights I have ever seen on any vehicle ever. Cutoff is dramatic and both the low and high beam go on forever.

Assuming they are LED, haven't checked physically, but definitely will. I want to get these same bulbs in other vehicles. When I do I'll post the info here.
Click to expand...
Great headlight performance is due more to good headlight design that better bulbs. For instance, if you have poor optical design - as some T4R's have - no matter what bulb you slap in there, the light still has to go through those lousy optics.

Also important is the fact that some bulbs work better in some headlights than others. I've personally seen some aftermarket bulbs work great in one particular application and terribly in others.
 
Well I can confirm that the issue was the bulbs not being fully seated in the sockets. I am not sure how them not being fully seated (they were only out maybe 1MM) caused it but after trimming down the tabs on the H9 bulbs and getting them locked into place the lights now look fantastic. I will be upgrading them to either full HID or LED, but for now they are doing great with the H9’s
 
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