2025 Lariat "Advanced headlights unavailable" and lights at the ground

[Mp3sgt]

I have recently started to encounter a problem where the vehicle starts and a dialog box comes up in the gauge cluster advising that advanced headlight features are unavailable. This also causes my headlights to face the ground along with no high beam availability. This has occurred 3 times in the past 3 weeks. A quick restart with door opening solves the issue. Any ideas? I theorize that Ford had issues with these units with this issue may be why 2026 comes with the XL/XLT style reflector headlights. So far, this is the only software/tech issue that I have encountered.

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[ColeTrainsRR]

seems like a really dumb safety issue. imagine youre out at night and can't go anywhere because your headlights aim down... Default should be normal level...

 

[ChronciallyChronic]

I have recently started to encounter a problem where the vehicle starts and a dialog box comes up in the gauge cluster advising that advanced headlight features are unavailable. This also causes my headlights to face the ground along with no high beam availability. This has occurred 3 times in the past 3 weeks. A quick restart with door opening solves the issue. Any ideas? I theorize that Ford had issues with these units with this issue may be why 2026 comes with the XL/XLT style reflector headlights. So far, this is the only software/tech issue that I have encountered.

I have had this happen a couple of times. Both times the issue occurred I was parked with the front of the truck within less than 5 inches of a wall of vines in a parking lot. In both cases the issue resolved after placing the truck in an area with greater front clearance and running 3-4 restart cycles. How does the auto level process work. Are the truck's systems "looking" at the lighting pattern to determine proper alignment/calibration or is it done another way?

 

[Jason B]

I have had this happen a couple of times. Both times the issue occurred I was parked with the front of the truck within less than 5 inches of a wall of vines in a parking lot. In both cases the issue resolved after placing the truck in an area with greater front clearance and running 3-4 restart cycles. How does the auto level process work. Are the truck's systems "looking" at the lighting pattern to determine proper alignment/calibration or is it done another way?

Good question.
Another is, since new model Lariats have changed to reflector LED, do Lariats still have self-leveling head lamps?

 

[CACTUSGREYFX4]

Mine has don't it a half dozen times in 2 years of ownership, like you did turn off truck open door and restart and it fixes it. I just think the computer didn't start right as all vehicles nowadays are mini computers.

 

[Mp3sgt]

2 instances were in parking lots with a slight decline and the other was parked completely level at home. All 3 there was nothing close to the front of the truck, closest wall or item being 100+ ft. I agree that one would make the fixture spring into a default usable angle but guess not. Really solidifies the reasoning of not using the "high performance" LED units for 26 and beyond.

 

[hand-filer]

The Raptor still has projector LED's so I think it's purely a cost cutting measure that they were removed from the Lariat.
This is what Ford does; they remove the good features year over year to cheapen the product and increase their profit margins.
I'm glad I have the projector LED's. They are superior to the reflector LED's in my Lincoln and almost as good as the projector HID's in my Mustang.

 

[OxygenMask]

Mine did it once, leaving a store. Bunch of lighting related error messages I mostly couldn't read because I was driving. I stopped, restarted the truck and it was fine.

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