2009 d40 headlight adjust output out of whack

[filth7948]

Got an issue with my headlamps on my 2009 stx navara. Basically when i toggle the head lamp adjustment switch (located near right knee) the lights srent even. rhs shines alot higher. Have looked under bonnet and actually lamp unit seems wobbly. does anyone know if they is a fix for this? seems like full head light unit would need to come out??? any help would be appreciated...

 

[4BYFOR]

Got an issue with my headlamps on my 2009 stx navara. Basically when i toggle the head lamp adjustment switch (located near right knee) the lights srent even. rhs shines alot higher. Have looked under bonnet and actually lamp unit seems wobbly. does anyone know if they is a fix for this? seems like full head light unit would need to come out??? any help would be appreciated...

There is an adjuster knob on the headlight where the electric motor is it's a plastic Phillips screw you can adjust them

 

[Old.Tony]

I'd try the adjuster, but there's plastic in there and I was looking at mine today while wiring up the light bar and wondered to myself "how long before that fatigues and cracks?". Perhaps yours has?

Out it comes, give it a good check and clean.

 

[SimoNav]

I am just digging up this as I think I might have recently stuffed up. I was playing with my headlights and got inquisitive. I found the adjuster but didn't know what it did.

(This pic is from another thread)

When I pulled that lug off there was a small white joystick type part in the lug that protruded into the headlight cover. When I realised what it was I pushed it back in and secured the pug. Now the light is about 30cm higher than the other when facing a wall.

To fix this, should I pull the lug off again and try and reattach it? Or do you think it's ok to just manually adjust like discussed in this thread? Has anyone ever pulled it off and reattached it before?

 

[Old.Tony]

If I'd done that - and it's probably a personality quirk, maybe I'm OCD about some things - I'd continue bashing my head against the wall until either the wall gave way or I figured out how to put it back together the way it was before.

I haven't fiddled with my headlights. I've adjusted them, when I got my lift we rose 43mm at the front and 85mm at the rear and it felt like my headlights were there for my tyre's benefit not mine, so I did adjust my headlights up so that I could have a reasonable height low beam whether I had the van hitched or not (and with the WDH set up properly, I don't need to change things).

 

[SimoNav]

Just in case anyone find this and is in a similar predicament, how I fixed it...

The blue lug is designed to pop inside a white opening inside the headlight. The blue lug moves in an out of the adjuster as you change the headlight angle switch and in doing so moves the opening back and forth. If you don't get the blue lug to pop back in, it simply pushes the headlight forward when you put it back in and it will be out of alignment.

To get it back in, first lube up the blue lug with WD40 or Lanolin. Then manually, using an allen key, wind the adjuster so that the blue lug is at its maximum length, it might take a while and you can feel when you can't turn it anymore. Then push the adjuster back into the back of the headlight and hope that you feel a pop, push hard and turn it at the end to lock as this will push it in further. You should then encounter resistance when you turn and unlock and try and pull the adjuster back out, if you have done it right. Put everything back together and manually adjust the headlight back to the correct position with the allen key.

Note: if you don't get it to pop back in, your lights will still move up and down with the switch commands but as the lug is not holding the headlight in place via the white opening the headlight will be loose and bounce around. It will also be higher after you put the adjuster back in. You can fix the height issue by manually adjusting it but there is still an issue there and you have only bandaided it.

 

[GunMentalGrey]

Well, after the adjuster didn't work, I'll be trying this next. My drivers side light is aiming to high. In adjusting it there was a. Bit of a pop sound, so maybe it has popped out.

Once again, thank you internet searches and navara forum!

 

[mike jones]

I did all of the above after a headlight becoming wobbly.
I stuffed up the final adjustment, and to try to stop people making the same time wasting mistake:
1) with no load in the truck, set the headlights to the highest position (with the dashboard switch).
2) adjust using Allen keys
Then when you are carrying a load, the back of the truck sits lower, so the headlights aim higher, so click the switch and they aim lower - as they're supposed to.
I did the Allen key adjustment with the lights at their lowest setting (preoccupied and not thinking through). So now with a load in the truck I can either blind oncomming cars or get a really good view of the treetops!
Obvs easy enough to readjust, but an unnecessary time waste!