As I said, I hate the headlights. Seems like when I put on the brights, THAT is normal. Regular headlights are dim and don't seem to illuminate far enough down the road. Anyone else feel this way? Anyone change the bulbs to brighter ones? Thanks, Dave

 

Lots of people seem to change the headlights on the Max, but I for the sake of MY vision, I don't see the need. Compared to other cars i have owned and do own, the Max has great headlights and even better high beams.

I think most people who change them do so for the appearance of the lights, not for their own vision.

 

OP not sure what maxima trim do you have but I love the output of my factory led headlights, they are super bright.They are brighter than my G37 HID's.If you have halogens in your maxima then I suggest you replace them with some good quality led bulbs.
​

 

What trim do you have? the platinum LED are super bright.

 

didn't have factory leds, been using an LED kit for the past 2 years with no issues

 

OP, agreed. I have the halogens. They are too dim, and on hilly roads the field of illumination is vertically too narrow, with a sharp cutoff above and below. I can live with them, but they are honestly the worst headlights I've ever had in a car.

 

My headlights are just fine. 17 sr

 

 

I have 17 SL with halogens and I have no problem. Now I do have a HUGE problem when most cars with LED's approach me in the opposite lane. Looks like they are all on high beam. I believe the factories must tweak them a little higher off the vertical than normal due to typical poorer performance compared to HIDs. It is great for LED drivers and not so good for oncoming traffic. Trucks with LED's are even worse in my humble opinion. I read a couple of articles a while back by the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) of America stating this same thing although the data did not indicate which cars had the worst LED lumen output.

 

^^^

 

Gotta get some HID's, once i changed my halogens, they have been what they should had given us from the start. check out those Enlight Automotive hid's

 

What kit?

 

SV Trim

 

are the projector lenses on the S, SV, and SL clear like the SR and Platinum?

i hate the opaque lenses.
i replaced my dad’s 7th gen with headlight assemblies that has clear lenses, installed a good led kit (“12000 Lm” total), then wham-o!
bright af, so i lowered it to about the average bumper height upto 100ft.

 

I have a 16 s. Mine are fine. Up hill down hill, sideways. Way better than my 13 Passat, 06 TL and 08 F150

 

 

I have S trim..want to have LED low and high beams. Will LED kit work without changing the reflectors?

 

I think you will be disappointed without changing out the reflectors. What does the group say?

 

I swapped my halogens, from an SL model with reflectors, to GTR Ultra series LEDS. A little expensive but well worth it IMO. Throw is amazing, at least twice as far compared to stock with super crisp cutoff. I find they work really well with the stock reflector housing

 

My old '13 had standard bulbs, massive difference once you go LED and especially active LEDs.

 

What is an active LED?

 

2013 Maxima here, my headlight are super dim now due to headlight assembly focal prism degrading. Tried new bulbs but that didn't help. Turns out, a lot of Altima owners have this issue with their headlights going dim. Only solution is to purchase replacement headlight assemblies. The quality control in Nissan engineering sucks.

 

I had to replace my dad's 2010 full headlight assembly because, like yourself @Freddy007 , no matter which bulb (100w halogen, hid, led) is installed that it always resulted with dim output.
my best guess is that the reflector inside the projector subassembly has "burnt out."

and as for my old 2013 altima s, the glass projector was just sh**. i replaced them with clear lens. a drastic difference in the output (luminescence).

 

They are clear. I have 74 year old eyes and I love the brightness and coverage of the halogens in my 17 SL.