Hello everyone. I have the HID's on my 2010 IS350 (the ones that auto level when they turn on and turn with your car) and last night I was coming from visiting friends that live a rural part of California toward the Sacramento area where there is a lot of farmland, not a lot of lighting and the road markers are non-existent. With the normal setting I could not see more than maybe 10 feet ahead of me and had to keep switching to the brights. I was having trouble seeing when approaching upcoming curves in the road, and when I got on the highway and hit curvey areas where the markers in the road are faded I had to keep switching to brights or keeping a watch of the cars in front of me, as I was having trouble seeing the upcoming curves because I was having trouble seeing more than 10 feet ahead. Once I got into the more normal areas of the highway where the markers and lighting improved I no longer had any issues.

I've driven this road many times in my Sienna minivan and do occasionally on the more isolated rural roads have to switch to brights, but hitting the highway the normal lights are sufficient. I was wondering if maybe my lights are not set high enough. If not, how hard is it to adjust them to the proper height? And what is the proper height?

 

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...djustment.html

 

Thanks. You are awesome!

 

Generally you want your high cut off line to be 2" below the center of the headlight when your car is 25' away. Here is a video (for different car, but same concept).

 

Yeah, my headlights are way off. It was scary driving on that dark stretch of highway and I couldn't use my brights to much due to traffic. I'll try and get this corrected this week

 

Do the adjustments with the full tank of gas (or almost full) and tires properly inflated.

 

on my old IS i found one of the self leveling motors to be stuck in the downward position. hope that's not the case for you!
the way you can tell the motors are working right is that they do their self leveling check upon startup. for me one of them didn't move!

usually driving on rural roads necessitate high beams as the low beams are designed to be...low, and not glaring to on coming traffic. dark roads tend to accentuate the fact that the low beam can only go so far. you can adjust the headlight beam angle but don't go too crazy or you will blind others.

 

The auto level works, you can see them self level on turning on. I get what your saying about rural dark roads, but I was on a highway here in the Bay area (680) where it gets very curvy and the road markers have faded. I've driven this part of the highway a few times in my Toyota Sienna, and I can easily see the upcoming curves, as the headlights sufficiently light up far enough ahead. In my IS, I can't see the upcoming curves unless I put on brights, and it's scary as crap as you see the curve in road suddenly show up, so I end up having to drive slow until I get through that area where the markers can be seen better

 

I installed Morimoto LED fog lights and they are beneficial in many of these situations!

With a motorcycle battery shooting off the deck into the darkness. This seems hopeful!
Morimoto XB Lexus Fogs at night....


That said, my HID's cover well enough to drive at speed in rural unlit areas without use of fogs or HB.
PS when adjusting, bring a thick heavy dark towel and cover one light so you can see exactly what the other is doing. It makes it a lot easier.

 

Unfortunately those fog lights are sold out . I still haven't had a chance to adjust my HID's, I'll be doing it next week

 

If for whatever reason you or another reader ends up replacing bulbs, I found a little trick to gain more hand space for working the left HID bulb out. Once you unbolt the washer tank fill neck, open the lid and remove the holder. Then reach down and unscrew the high beam bulb cover. The net result is you can squash the accordion fill tube down and out of the way so your hand fits in to do the connector and bulb swap.

Like so:


Here the HB grey cap is in place, but it does make a little extra room for the tube by removing it.

 

You can actually pull the whole neck out from the bottom. See pic below. It just slips over the o-ring on the lower tank. I found it easier when messing with my OEM headlights. With it removed I can actually adjust my VipMotoz headlight on the driver side. Passenger side I have to remove the lower air box, and snorkel.

 

A headless chicken! lol
Good to know. I'll keep that in mind for the next round!