I have an '08 IS 350 with HID headlights and it seems like they're aimed considerably lower than I would like them to be. I clearly don't want to cause a safety issue for oncoming drivers, but on the other hand if I'm doing 80 on the highway I need to see what's in front of me.

I haven't measured to see how far they illuminate but I would estimate that it's less than 90 feet. I live about an hour from the nearest dealer and when I called them, they said that they would be happy to check them for me but they also said that they would probably not be able to make any adjustments.

So my question is... is the adjustment mechanical or electronic and can it be a DIY kind of deal? Is there any official guide from Lexus that would give me an idea if they're aimed correctly or how far they _should_ project?

 

my dealer did it for me in like 5 mins, it seems really easy, they used a flat head screwdriver and twisted to adjusted the lights and done. I dont' knwo why they won't do it for you.

 

the owners manual has a guide to aiming your headlights. its pretty common for these cars to come stock with the headlights aimed a bit low. adjusting vertical aim is pretty easy, but you may also have to adjust the horizontal aim as well. vertical aim is a simple diy that only requires a philips head screwdriver. you will not blind people as long as you are careful not to aim the headlights too high. also, the driver's side headlight will aim lower than the passenger side. this is normal to keep you from blinding oncoming traffic.

 

There's a complex pain in the *** way to adjust the headlights themselves.

Or you can just adjust one nut on the rear of the car that controls the leveling system and is easy to do.

(I'd recommend the second one :P)

there's a thread on it here-
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...=256618&page=8

 

Yeah I notice that they aim low like the scion tc.

 

The driver side light is low.

The passenger side is normal.

If both are low (or you feel that they're too low), bring it to the dealer for adjustments.

 

I asked the dealer do the headlight aim adjustment for me. When their mechanic started to work on my car, they called me into the workspace and let me watch the light aim, I showed them how high the aim I want to be. They adjusted them per my request. To my surprise, the mechanic only adjusted the vertical screw. I told him you also need to adjust the horizontal one but he said the technical manual doesn't say the horizontal one and there is no factory spec of how wide the light pattern should be, only how high is stated.

Anyway I asked him to adjust the horizontal screw. Actually while he was adjusting the vertical screw, I watched personally and I didn't found any light pattern change due to the horizontal changing of the lens. It's quite a odd design of Lexus that to ask people adjust vertical screw and horizontal screw when you only need to raise or lower the headlight.

 

A little off topic, but when I put my new D4S bulbs in from Xenon Depot, my headlights don't turn as they did before (adaptive front lighting system thing). And yeah I checked to see if it was enabled and it is. I think I pushed the motor in (if anyone know what I'm talking about...when you put in the bulbs the thing moves left and right a bit). But yeah I adjusted the low beams with the vertical screw and also made my fogs higher too (same vertical screw is attached to the fog assembly).

 

I did it this way, and it is really easy. One nut adjust as you like and you're done. I would suggest this way also.

 

Awesome, thanks for all the help everyone. I'll probably try to adjust this myself. My dealer is nothing less than top notch, but on subjects like these they are very "by the book" in regards to what involves safety.

They wouldn't disable my DRLs either. :/

 

hollings, where are you located? i am in little rock and know a few people at parker lexus. not sure if you bought in LR or in tulsa.