The headlight leveling system broke on my 2008 is350 around a year ago. Since I drove mostly in the day, I chose to not fix it and with the help of people here to removed the AFS fuse to get rid of the red panic light on the dash. These days I'm driving at night more and noticed the low beams seem aimed mostly at the 15 feet in front of the car. The back of a car just two car lengths ahead is dark and I don't see my lights on them at all.

Could this be related to the broken headlight leveling system and the removed AFS fuse, or is this likely something separate? I'm okay spending the money to fix it, but I don't want to fix the wrong thing and can live without the leveling feature if the headlights working okay without it.

 

I had AFS on my old GS400. I'm not sure if you can still manually adjust the height. Something to look into for the second gen ISx50 with AFS.

When buying a new car I tend to stay away from fancy gadgets like AFS, and Navigation setups. They usually are the first ones that fail after some time. Once they break it's a fortune to replace. Especially if the car is already high milage, and not worth the change or fix. Though most modern luxury car come with it standard. There is not much you can do.

 

There are adjustable dials for the headlights on the headlights themselves. Also an AFS sensor down below.

 

Can you tell me more about where the adjustable dials are located and what they look like?

When the AFS leveler worked, I remember starting the car and seeing the headlights rotate up and then down to a level position. That doesn't happen now, so it looks like the headlights are stuck in the most 'downward' position. High beams are the same and light up the pavement right in front of the vehicle much more.

After reading several older threads, I'm still stuck. Some sources say there's one adjustment screw, some say two that needs to be adjusted in sync. I can't find even one. My mechanic looked and said he can't find any, either. Is something unusual with the 2008 is350 with AFS and most documents don't work on it?

 

emmm..it can't be that hard to spot the up and down adjustment screw. Time for a new mechanic? Check post #138 in this thread: Headlight Adjustment Success! - Page 10 - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion

 

That helps! Yesterday, I was looking for things in front of the filler tube based on some pdf docs making it look closer. Wish me luck today.

If the broken AFS system left the headlight in a far downward position, hopefully I can manually adjust them back to a correct direction. If not, it looks like the only option will be to replace the AFS assembly (DORMAN 926222).

 

@bryan11 Post back when you have an update Please. I also have this issue with my 07 250. I was unable to manually adjust using the dials & shop quoted me 1400 to replace AFS Sensor & AFS Leveler.. seemed too high and have not shopped around for more quotes since I also drive mostly during the day & have an extra car to drive at night if I need to.

 

I found the two adjustment points for each headlight today and made a minor change today. Here are a few photos showing what I did.


2008 Lexus is350 - Both engine covers here need to be removed. Note the location of the washer fluid fill location just above the headlight.

I used a plastic pry tool meant for auto trim work to pull up the center of the round clips, then pull up the rest of each clip. A flat screwdriver was needed to loosen one plastic 'screw' that was unlike the clips. That let me remove the front, left, and right engine covers.

Remember where that washer fluid filler tube is located as the next photo is looking right toward the driver side quarter panel.


The two headlight aim adjustment screws are (1) and (2) here. For (1), I used a standard #2 Phillips screwdriver held almost vertically and turned the screw/gear three full rotations clockwise. For (2), a longer #2 Phillips screwdriver was inserted in the hole until it each a screw/gear similar to (1). I attempted to turn (2) three full rotations, but it kept feeling like it was slipping and not moving the gear.

The two adjustment points are at very similar locations on the left headlight and I was able to adjust both screws/gears three full turns.

Tonight I'll take a drive and see how the headlights look.

 

Just be careful adjusting them, as long as dial is actually adjusting them. If you go too far in one direction, it'll jump off and they won't be fixable unless you physically take apart the headlight. The average person here will never need to play with their headlight adjustment unless they were in an accident (damaging headlights/afs sensor underneath), or replacing the headlights (cracked, or swapping to different model years/aftermarket).

 

Initial results are very good. Headlights are now lighting up more of the road and are feeling more like what one would expect. The driver side light still seems a bit far downward, but hopefully more adjustments of the one screw that worked will be sufficient to get things correct. I'll plan on more adjustments soon and will try to take some photos of how they are now and after more tuning.

 

Could I adjust these at night with the lights on?

 

Yes. It sounds easiest to remove the engine covers and all the clips during the day, then at night use a strong flashlight or headlamp to help find the adjustment screw locations.

 

You ideally should be doing it at night, too high and you'll be blinding others, too low and you won't see anything. Follow this guide on leveling them properly (you absolutely should have 25ft of space from the car to a wall): https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/for...hid-headlights

But again, as I mentioned earlier, unless people here have damaged AFS sensors/headlights, you should never need to touch the headlight level.

 

Tonight I made what is hopefully the final adjustments to the headlights. Trying different angles on the screw at (2) in the earlier photo where it didn't seem to previously turn, I was able to find the adjustment and turn it the same as I'd turned (1) so they're in sync. After that, I wanted to increase the range a bit more and to turned the two adjustment screws on each side three more full turns. It looks like that's about right now and nobody flashed their brights at me on the way home.

The photo below is after all adjustments, but keep in mind the camera 'optimized' the photo to make the lights much brighter than they are in reality. The dead-end barrier is barely lit up in reality and the pavement isn't that white, but the photo does illustrate the headlight aim.

 

Do the fog lights have adjustments? on my 2is350, I only know they are on because I see a little of the light on both sides, but nothing toward the front bumper.

So #1 is for up and down, and #2 is left, right?
For #2, clockwise is IN or OUT?