There’s two round plastic caps on top of each headlamp covering up the adjustment access points. Try at your own risk though

 

I have tried looking and could not find the adjustment screw.

Borrowing pictures from an ebay sales posting: 2019 2020 2021 Volvo S60 V60 HEADLIGHT LAMP LED LH LEFT DRIVER SIDE OEM | eBay

When you look from the top down into the engine bay, this ivory colored hex screw head may be hidden under a panel. A flashlight may help to look for the adjustment screw. Per what @adaone mentioned, you may need to remove that cover to find it. In the SPA xc90, there is an access hole through the cover so you don't absolutely need to remove the cover.

From this rear view, you can see that it is attached to a bevel gear that probably adjusts the pitch (i.e. up-down) alignment. There's another one on the bottom left edge of the photo; that may be harder to access, and is probably for the yaw (i.e. left-right) alignment.

 

You need a 6mm socket. Turn them clockwise to raise, counter to lower. Watch as you adjust; you don’t need to turn much to make a noticeable improvement. Inner most white screws are for vertical; outer most are for horizontal alignment (probably leave these alone).

I just adjusted mine a few days ago and it really improved the coverage and distance, without blinding oncoming traffic.

 

Hi! Any reference how much I need to turn the screw? One round, less, more? Just trying this as well, as I have the same problem with the factoy set up.

 

Don't they auto adjust?

 

If it's equipped with active bending lights, yes. But only left to right with turning of the steering wheel. For standard beam height, you can manually adjust each light up and down. To my knowledge, the manual adjustment is for any SPA/CMA platform with LED headlamps.

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All the headlights auto adjust height based on suspension level sensors to account for loading. You can see them do "the dance" when you start up the car in the dark with the headlights on. I have the base LED headlights.

Service adjustment on the lights is there to set the "base" position of the beam correctly.

 

I didn't think about this on either of ours. The 17 without air suspension and the 21 with both do that upon startup. The 17's driver's side headlamp light projection was dangerously low. This was evident when driving through dark mountain roads with elk crossing like they're playing frogger haha. I adjusted it manually slightly upwards. The 2021 was noticeably better from the factory and I have not adjusted it.

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In addition Volvo made some running changes to the beam pattern to improve performance on the IIHS testing. You may well be seeing the benefits of those improvements! (if you got the bendy lights which they now made standard, to get the top IIHS safety rating)

 

Do people really just turn them up and hope they don't blind people!?!? I mean, sure....you can crank them up and get 2x the coverage, but they aren't legal. Why would you think they are not adjusted correctly from the factory? It's done by an automated computer/robot. If you are going to adjust them you have to mark on the wall, measure distance, adjust and then remeasure.....its a little involved to do it properly. Just turning them up randomly is a terrible idea.

 

Do people really just turn them up and hope they don't blind people!?!? I mean, sure....you can crank them up and get 2x the coverage, but they aren't legal. Why would you think they are not adjusted correctly from the factory? It's done by an automated computer/robot. If you are going to adjust them you have to mark on the wall, measure distance, adjust and then remeasure.....its a little involved to do it properly. Just turning them up randomly is a terrible idea.

The 2017's were completely different than the former 2020 and my current 2021 from the factory. All have the same set up: LED's, active bending, fog lamps, etc. Side by side in the garage and while driving, totally different. There was a large dead/dark area on the driver's side, causing near blindness in the oncoming lane. This was particularly dangerous on mountain roads with zero artificial light. I adjusted the driver's side to reflect the 2021 as close as possible.

I know, I'm probably making this s**t up too [emoji849]

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I don't know which model you have but check out the headlight ratings on IIHS, Volvo made improvements to get better IIHS ratings. You can look at the ratings, the driver's side beam throw was majorly improved, in 2017 look at the base LEDs compared to the bendy ones, the low beam throw looked pretty poor by their graphic. The updates by 2020 look like they addressed exactly what you stated. I haven't looked at the other models but probably a similar story, the S60 is. IIHS was going to lock out models with headlights less than "acceptable" ratings for all trims from the "Top Safety Pick" award so all the mfrs that care hopped to and made bendy lights standard and revised their beam patterns to pass the test.

Don't see why you gotta get angry, he correctly pointed out that raising the beam height isn't the right way to improve what IIHS termed a "marginal" headlight. Perhaps you were "that guy" blinding the other drivers, we'll never know ;-)

 

Not angry. Just sarcastic since the majority of my problems with three Volvo's were apparently made up according to him [emoji2369]. Derailed this enough though. Back to the topic [emoji6]

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People think each of these models have similar headlight performance and it’s not even remotely the case. A little bit of that is due to the right height of the vehicle making SUVs a little more challenging to aim as opposed to sedans. I recently had an XC 60 loaner car and in a pitch black environment I was absolutely shocked how different the lighting pattern is over my S 60. My car has significantly broader throw that seems to border on maybe 25% wider. I also found it interesting that when switching to highbeams on the XC 60/2 the highbeam LEDs come out immediately in the second half are delayed by a few seconds and gradually increase in illumination. It almost makes me wonder if this is intentional for flash to pass features or if you accidentally turn your highbeams on incoming traffic only gets 50% of the output if you flip them back to low beam in a few seconds. Why at 60 doesn’t exhibit that behavior at all. The fog lights of the sedan are also significantly higher output than the XC 60

 

This is how my light pattern looks after adjusting them a few days ago (did it myself). I think the beam is quite ok, but due to bending function (I assume) there are quite many shadows in the pattern, which is not good. Especially in reality you can see those shadows easily.

 

Here's a measurement of a European market V60 (MY2020 D3, to be precise) headlights from a reputable car and technology magazine Tekniikan Maailma. Measured to five lux limit on the road level. This year a V60 T8 produced exactly the same results.

Translation:
Volvo Hella, ref. 30, LED/LED
Adaptive led headlights, led cornering lights, led daylight running lights
– Adaptive led headlights
--- led headlights, ref. 25, LED/LED

From another thread on this forum, which I can't find right now, I take it that the European models have more LEDs than the North American ones, which definitely has an effect on the amount of light put on the road.