Main beam lower than dipped beam, 2004 Td5 Disco

Hi folks,

Was driving along last night with darkness coming a bit earlier now and turned on my headlights. These are the later Disco Td5 (2004) lights with two reflectors each side for main and dipped beams. On main beam the nearside beam was aimed down onto the road nearer to the vehicle than the dipped beam! I parked in front of my garage door and sure enough the nearside main beam is below the dipped beam. On the driver's side they are both about the same height but angled differently as I assume they should be. The dipped beam lights are as they should be, they're not aimed up into the sky.

There is only one height adjuster and one horizontal adjuster on the lamp unit that I can see so I can't adjust the main beam separately from the dipped beam; or have I missed something?

Has something failed inside the lamp unit?

Anyone had this problem?

Had it on a motorbike.

Turned out the bulb was fitted incorrectly.

Hope yours is as simple!

On the facelift Disco the larger outer lenses are for the dipped beam headlights, the slightly smaller ones are the main beam. The lights do not change over as they would do on twin filament single bulb lights, they both come on together; main and dipped beams.

Assuming that the light units have not been disturbed, the only thing I can think of which would give the symptom of suddenly one dipping high and one dipping low would be that one of the main beam bulbs has blown, yeah, daft as it seems but there's a bit of an optical illusion going on then.

There are two adjustment holes, one for vertical and the other for horizontal alignment but they work on the dipped beams only, the main beams are set during manufacture and can't be adjusted.

Thanks Gordy, Brian.

I have two unused headlamp bulbs, I'll put them in on the faulty side and see if anything changes. I didn't realise the adjusters only move the dipped beam reflectors but it makes sense now I think about it. My only other thought was whether the headlight height adjustment motor (positions 0 - 3) was operating incorrectly on the faulty side but the dipped beam seems to be moving as it should; does the motor move the main beam or only the dipped one?

Hopefully time to look into this tomorrow..