Gen 5 4runner repairs -- aiming the headlights

I have gone from 265 to 285 tires, I also have had it lifted (1 inch in the rear, 2.5 inches in the front).

I am now getting flashed by people on the road, which is not surprising. It is very easy to adjust the headlights, just lift the hood and find two holes, one on the right, one on the left pretty much right above the headlights. If you look down the hole you are looking edge- on on a gear like thing. You use a big philips screwdrive (I used a #2). It works perfectly and it is easy as pie.

I turned the screwdriver clockwise to lower the lights. My 4runner is a 2023 model. I am told older models may go the other way, but just look and see if the edge of the light is going up or down.

How much

I have my vehicle parked 25 feet (300 inches) from my target. A quick calculation says 300/112 is about 3, so I need to drop 3*1.5 i.e. 4.5 inches, just to fix the angle. Working the exact trig I get 4.03 inches, so call it 4 inches. Add the 2 inches for the lift and I figure I need to lower the headlight edge 6 inches when the lights are on a target 25 feet from the headlights.

I park the vehicle 25 feet from a wall in my garage (since it is dark in my garage, this allows me to do this when the sun is up. I turn the headlights on and use tape to mark the upper edge of the beam pattern. I put a second piece of tape 6 inches below and get busy with the screwdrive. It takes a lot of cranking to drop 6 inches. It took me almost 50 "twists of my wrist" to get what I wanted. Note that these twists are not full rotations of the screwdriver. Who knows what they are, just look at the light and marks on the wall.

Note that it doesn't matter if the vehicle is level or not since you are working from before and after marks.

• Video: aiming headlights