Pulled over for lights!?

Hello everyone! Hopefully everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and black Friday!

About 2 weeks ago, I got pulled over by a cop early in the morning around 5am. He said my lights are on “high beam” I told him that I got it off the dealership like that and he just said to lower it cause it flashes the traffic in front of me. ( he was actually coming from the back, and followed me about a mile before pulling me over which I think is very weird) anyway, I adjusted my light 2.5 inches down cause I have 2.5 inches lift. Anyone did any adjustments too? Just don't want to get pulled over again for the same thing lol

 

Well it sucks to get blinded by someone who has lights either TO BRIGHT or TO HIGH. Glad he stopped you.

 

First off, the chances he "actually" pulled you over for your lights is bull. He was looking for drunk drivers and was hpping he found one when he pulled you over. Cops make up dumb reasons for pulling people over, in the hopes of finding more.

Anywho, you can adjust the lights with ease. There's a screw that you can turn to do it. Most of us do it, even without a lift. The factory aims them a bit too high and people flash us thinking we're hitting them with high beams when we aren't.

 

@jeepster09 I am glad too!

 

As long as he was telling the truth, I'm happy there's someone out there fighting against the high beam scourge - my eyes were assaulted by three vehicles just leaving HEB today!

Retroreflective tape has done nothing for me so if I felt petty enough I'd add a lightbar or mirror.

Anyways, I ended up not doing the "proper" adjustment method and just adjusted to stay below most sedan's rear windows and mirrors in traffic plus some margin for bouncing and varying road angle.

I believe when stock, the headlights were pretty much on the edge of legality with the vehicle perfectly level so a lift without adjustment to compensate would not be a good thing.

Drove a 2018 RAV4 last week and it's LED high beams are the same intensity as the low beams, just aimed higher so I feel for anyone who might be shorter, lower than the RAV on a hill, etc.

When I put a lift on my previous vehicle, I asked 4WP to adjust the headlights but then they just turned them down as far as they possibly could, so thanks I guess... Had to fix it anyway.

 

@Borracho Loco That’s what I thought too! Crazy thing cause he was 3 lanes away from me and when I made my right turn just decided to flash his lights lol anyway, it’s cool. I adjusted it 2.5 inches down, just wondering if others adjusted more or less. Thank you!

 

So you raised the front 2.5 inches and drove around without aiming it down? You probably blinded more than one cop and he was the first one to do something about it. These lights are exceedingly blinding with the small surface area of the lens and emitter under the beam cut off, an oncoming driver that was more used to night condition will no doubt notice it.

 

@icebear he was pretty chill. I think the part that gets me is that he took that long following me and seemed like having second thoughts but it’s all good. I adjusted it already and gonna lower it down a little bit more maybe. Just wanted to make sure I don’t blind anyone and at the same time still maximize the RIGHT range of my headlights. Thank you all!

 

@FourBelugas I didn’t. Got it off the dealership like that.

 

Who knows. I've seen many members in this forum so sensitive to LED lights. That cop could have been a J@#$ A**too. Afterall they are just humans.

For OP -
This video shows one way how to adjust the headlight levels. I would just adjust on a level road the way I like it. If I don't like I would adjust it again and repeat a road test. When I'm satisfied, I will put back the plastic cover and finish the job.

https://youtu.be/1gluV0sa5bw?feature=shared

 

@kmeeg this helps! Thank you!

 

Jeep owners are huge contributors to led blinding. It seems most of them are either too stupid to aim them correctly or get off blinding people.

 

Don't forget the brodozer Carolina squat-ers.

 

Real men don't drive squatted trucks.

 

FWIW- I lifted mine about 2" and could tell I was blinding people the night I took it for a test drive after lifting it. Lowered the lights about 2". No more getting flashed and lighting up the interiors of the cars in front of me. They are *just* on the verge of being too low for my taste but fine overall.

 

He followed you a mile because as stated he was looking for drunk drivers. The lights was an excuse to talk to you to see if you were drunk because you weren't driving like a drunk person.

 

I tend to think that the headlights come more or less adjusted correctly from the factory. There are definitely exceptions. Where I feel things go sideways is when people level the factory nose down attitude of the 4Runner. Usually a lift is involved as well. Consequently the headlight are now WAY off and blinding other drivers. Anytime suspension mods are added, there are two things that NEED to be done: Front end alignment and headlight adjustment. Unfortunately the latter rarely gets done.

 

He followed you for so long 'cause he was runnin your plate number for warrants...

TX cops do it all the time...

 

Another thing Texas cops do (at least in my area), they use the "I couldn't read your license plate clearly" excuse. That's why I got bright-ass LED lights for my license plate. You can see it very clearly 50ft away, in the rain.

The chief of police for my town lives in my HOA and he told me "Yeah, my officers do that. Here's how we'll never get YOU...." I haven't been pulled over in years.

 

Due to lamp height, (= ground to optical center mark on the headlight lens - there is tiny dots or circle, crosshair some kind of indicator on the lens near right in front of projector lens) lamp need to be aimed 0.57° down this is equal to cutoff to be 3" down at distance of 25' from the wall Since projector uses inside is VOR cutoff specified optics, use right side of cutoff See image for reference. Many lamp are aimed straight ignoring lamp mount height difference. For headlamp height lower than 35", no need of aim down, but since 4runner lamp height already is above 39.5" at stock, lamp need proper aim down per this protocol.

 

I'm not smart enough to know what the optimal height is. 25' from a wall at level ground should be what beam cutoff height?

 

Stock as far as headlights/ lift go. Coming home Thanksgiving night had 1 opposing car flash hi beams. gave it right back to them, That was 1 out of I bet over 50 vehicles on 2 lane road & hiway. My 2018 I had Eibach fronts set @0.85" for leveling & did the swap from H9 t0 H11 or vice versa can't remember. Never adjusted not got flashed from on coming drivers for just shy of 5yr ownership. Guess it depends on on coming driver's vision.

 

Borrocho, Yeah, in TX it is a violation to have ANYTHING covering your plate. So, if you have a license plate frame, like from a dealer or a sports team, on your plate you are in TECHNICAL violation of the law. And that is even though the numbers are not covered at all.

So a cop has "probable cause" to pull you over. This was done by gov abbutt and his lickspittle danny "Nuthouse" patrick to get around your Fourth Amendment right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures

 

Measure height of your lamp first. Cutoff height at 25' distanced wall must be -3" from whatever lamp height you measured. For example, If your lamp center mark is 40" off from the ground, then cutoff must be 37" from the ground at 25' wall. Headlamp is is not assessed by optimal or not, lamp aim has only one correct height based on lamp mount height. In 4runner case, specified 3" down@25'. Any lamp height over 54" ( if lifted high for example), shall not be driven on public road, Regulation limit is 54"

 

I received a ticket for "dazzling lights" many years ago, basically i had 3 fog lights on the front of my car and apparently it was only legal to have them on if i was off road or on road with no lights or if i was an emergency vehicle.

 

ONLY 1 pair of fog light is allowed to be uncovered and uses as fog lamp on road. If you have 3 sets? of fog(6 fog lamp total?) , cover 2 sets up, then that's OK to drive on road. Of course, lamp must be designed to SAE Fog standard tho. I say this because there are massive amount of fog lamp marketed as SAE fog, but are terribly glaring bad quality lamps ( just abusing label of SAE, false claiming most of the time), especially LED pod style ones

 

1pr and 1 additional. Total of 3 individual lights. and SAE was not a thing back then, so it fell under a different law.

Good to know the laws have change and are more specific.

 

Here I am worried about mine. They most likely need adjustment.

 

Measure and check only way to know if aimed correctly or not. Is this retrofitted projector? or Aftermarket lamp? blurry blue separation at cutoff is so harsh, actual cutoff will be slightly higher than what many will think based on white light upper edge impression.
See image below, this cutoff must be 3" below lamp height.

 

This is horrible color-bleeding over the cutoff line. No way this bad would be from a stock headlights. That blue band above the white band still blinds people, so it should be aimed waaay down, or even better whole setup tossed out and replaced with OEM.