Adjusting main beam alignment

[PCrighton]

I had to replace the headlamps (the plastic appeared "fogged" and was not creating a good pattern for the UK MOT). The car passed the MOT on headlamp aim with new lamps fitted that I had setup to aim downwards a little bit, but the main beam is way too low (I think they only check the dipped beam) - I can see spots on the road not too far in front of the car and there is not the same view down the road.

At the rear of the lamp are two adjusters - they both seemed to make the dipped beam aim go up and down. There is a third one at the front that adjusted the fog lamp aim.

My question is how to adjust the main beam aim independently so that I can leave the dipped beam at the correct aim to pass the MOT but raise the aim of the main beam to get a good view down the road.

[Hilux2400]

I have a 996 and have wrestled with a similar problem.

For the two adjusters that are grouped, one does vertical and the other does horizontal alignment. The single adjuster to the front does the foglight.

From what I can see the "vertical" screw adjusts both the dipped beam and full beam at the same time. At present I have the dipped beam as high as it will go without causing dazzle, but the main beam still seems low. This means that the lights on full beam are not very good. I find this deficiency surprising as when both the full and dipped are on there is over 100 watts of light from the combined source. By comparison my Toyota Yaris projects just 55 watts on full beam, with standard bulbs, and the lights are fantastic.

After much fiddling the conclusion I have come to it that the synchronisation between the full and dipped beam light units is wrong and the full beam needs to be turned up a notch from the dipped beam. To do this I need to take the units apart.

H

[Jinster]

I believe the base plates on which the headlights are mounted have adjustable "thumb screws", too. I would imagine this would allow you to adjust the aim of the entire headlight up or down. But I have never tried. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

[Hilux2400]

You post has prompted me to have another look at the inside of the unit. I don't think it would be an easy job to alter the angle between the high and low beam reflectors.