Headlight Adjustment Is250

[Gramera flash]

Can anyone point me in the right direction as how to adjust headlight, preferably with photos.

Thanks

[johnatg]

I was just about to ask the same question!

I've been doing a bit of research on this recently, as I want to raise the lights a smidgen to increase the range - the main beam hits the road too close to the car, so you feel you're driving into a black hole at speed on a dark night.

This despite the fact that dealer and MoT station insist that the lights are correctly adjusted.

There was a thread on here a few years ago, but replies were links to workshop manual pages and now seem to be broken.

I've got the workshop manual - and the instructions are here:

http://tinyurl.com/nfwmc82

This says to get to the corner of the wing where it meets the headlight (having removed the front and side covers and the 'fender protective cover - the strip at the side of the top of the wing) and turn the adjustment screw - one for horizontal and one for vertical. The illustration seems to show a cross head driver and another version of the workshop manual (which claims to cover both IS250 and IS200) shows and specifies a phillips head driver.

However, when you get there, there is absolutely no sign of any adjustment screws or anything you can turn with a screwdriver. See the following pictures (some of which I have lightened somewhat to try and show the dark recesses)

http://tinyurl.com/pahysgh

http://tinyurl.com/lf7v85r

http://tinyurl.com/oslz8wf

http://tinyurl.com/p7mz8w2

So - what do you turn to adjust the lights?

BTW - The black plastic thing which looks like a bracket is actually part of the headlight casing - and my lights are conventional, not HID.

[Exdee]

Very easy to do. I've done it various times.

Link

Bear in mind, the more you increase the height, the more foreground lighting you will loose so don't go crazy otherwise you won't be able to see the potholes and blind oncoming traffic too!

[johnatg]

Ah....many thanks for that - I was looking too far forward.

Found the vertical adjusting screws easily enough now - but for the life of me I can't see the horizontal ones - are they buried deeper under the wings? (Just for fiuture reference - hopefully all I need right now is vertical adjustment).

I've done it as far as I can - not sure it gets dark enough just now to tell if there's a real improvement - I'll give it a whirl late on tonight!

Thanks again!

[Exdee]

I only did vertical. I was under the impression horizontal was not possible.

I don't fancy taking the engine covers off but I am tempted to have a look to see if I can find it!

[Gramera flash]

Many thanks to Exdee and johnatg for your input, will give it a go.

[johnatg]

I went out to see if I had made any difference last night. Big improvement, although it doesn't get dark enough (at 11pm) to tell for sure. But I think it will do for now - maybe revisit this in September or so when I might be out a bit more in the dark!

I turned the adjusters 25 'teeth' in a clockwise direction (looking forwards - ie from the side of the adjuster with the small hex head).

No-one retaliated and from the beam pattern on dip on the road and hedgerows I don't think I'll be dazzling anyone!

[Exdee]

I found the horizontal adjustment. It is there next to the vertical one, deeper towards the wing and very difficult to photograph. I think the adjustment is connected to what can be best described as 'the AFS mechanism' so if ones car does not have AFS then I suspect it won't have horizontal adjustment either.