Odd headlight shading

[dlundblad]

Is this normal?

The low beam projector style lights on our new 4Runner have a shaded area on the driver side as seen in this photo. High beams are fine, but they’re traditional bulbs too.

I told the salesman about it the day after we took delivery and he said he’d get back with me and that it could be a 4Runner thing. Still waiting.

 

[1 SX]

I always thought it was so not to blind other drivers? On most of my factory projection headlight setups, the drivers side was always slightly lower then the passenger side 9 times out of 10.

 

[Kira]

I'd expect the left side (those more in the oncoming drivers' eyes) to be clipped / shaded even more.

 

[dlundblad]

I can understand not blinding oncoming cars however the shading isn’t uniform and is spotty.

 

[RhondaHonda]

I can understand not blinding oncoming cars however the shading isn’t uniform and is spotty.

You are talking about the darker spot on the left just below where it cuts off to dark, right? If so I agree that’s odd.

 

[dlundblad]

You are talking about the darker spot on the left just below where it cuts off to dark, right? If so I agree that’s odd.

Yes

 

[dlundblad]

 

[meep]

Dirt in the assembly? Otherwise, and even in that state, they look great. I think if it were me, I’d want it on record (service ticket?) just so that if it for some reason gets worse, it’s documented. My only fear would be if it were a flaw in the reflector, which got worse over time.

 

[OVERKILL]

Normal projector beam pattern to avoid blinding oncoming drivers.

The IIHS doesn't appear to have headlight ratings for this vehicle, but for an X5, you can see that the driver-side beam is cut back lower than the passenger side:

On your vehicle, the shorter cut-off might be presenting some artifacts near the cut-off point (the blotches you are calling out in your image) which don't present with the further reach on the passenger side.