Hi everyone!
I just bought my 09 Maxima SV about a week ago. It has 89500 miles on it. It drives well with a hint of vibration and rattling (but hey its a used car). I am not very happy with the stock HID headlights (4300k) though. It is rather yellow than white, and most importantly, it is not very bright. I talked to my mechanic about replacing the bulbs to 6000k, but he kinda scared me that replacing the bulbs to 6000k might melt the lenses in the headlights and will cost me over a grand to fix the mess. Is this true? I mean there is no reason of him lying about this. I really do not know what to do. I want my headlights to have a brighter bluish white color with no risks of breaking anything. Can anyone with great knowledge of 7th gen Maxima give me some great advice?

 

Dependent on the quality of the bulb, the general rule of thumb is 4300K will offer the brightest luminosity. The higher you go up in kelvin temperature, the more luminosity you are sacrificing. My guess is your HID bulbs are nearing the end of its life since your car is now 5-6 years, so if you replace your bulbs, you will notice an immediate improvement anyway.

Stick to 4300-5000K if you want to have the maximum brightness. TheRetrofitSource should provide ample information of each bulb they have including kelvin temperature, lifespan, and lumens.

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/components/bulbs.html

 

Are you sure it is an HID setup you have? The reason I ask is because my 2012 SV came with H11 incandescent bulbs in it. And you can run a 4300K up to a 10000K color if you want and it will not melt your lenses. There are many threads on HID setups just do a little research. I put a 5000K HID kit in mine and have not had a single problem with the kit. Good luck and let us know what you find out.

 

that's a crock of s***. running a higher kelvin will most deff not melt ur lenses. first off they are made of glass. if you really want to get max output, get either new 5000k or 6000k bulbs (they have to be Phillips) since others will burn out too fast, and if you really want to go ***** to the wall, you can bake your headlights, pop them open, and replace with new clear lenses. those make a world of difference. or scenario 3, you keep the stock lenses, replace the bulbs, that will give them the nice bright white/bluish hue, and put 55w hid bulbs in your fogs. you will never regret doing that. they end up being brighter than your stock headlights and look amazing.


whoever your mechanic is, must not know anything about lights. the only way you could melt your housings is if you put in 55w bulbs and ballasts. those heat up a lot more than the 35w.

 

Depending on how much night time driving you do, the bulbs might be on their way out. Once they reach their lifespan in hours, they begin to dim considerably before they die.

TRS has quality bulbs for a great price. If you want them to be whiter, I suggest 5000K.
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/com...d2s-bulbs.html

 

Thanks all! I just put an order of a pair of philips oem d2s's on Amazon. I know you guys put a link of retrofit source, but the ones I found on Amazon was way cheaper so I couldn't resist . Here is the link. Tell me if this was the way to go!
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Xenon-...2&keywords=d2s

 

That's only one bulb for $40. Hope you ordered two but even at that point they would be a couple more bucks than TRS.

Philips is quality though. OEM bulbs are always better quality wise.

 

I replaces mine origin hid`s to 8k, and its 2years past-nothing, still shines as hell with little electro bluish colour, and bought them from ebay ~$70,-

 

Perhaps this is a little off topic, but has anyone tried to tune their projectors, or even better yet, tried to replace the projectors with something else?

S

 

I'd love to do a bi-xenon conversion with TRS' black series clear lens.

 

Not off-topic! Several people have replaced their lenses with the TRS Black Series Clear Lenses as Chris said, along with a custom curve shield allowing for a super sharp cut-off with a wider range. I, personally, think the Maxima has some decent projectors, and probably the only thing I would change are the lenses since I like the defined cut off.

Check out hidplanet if you have not already.

 

Same here. I'm not a fan of the separate reflector high beam. However I'm not entirely sure what would fit. Ultimately I'd like to do a set of TRS FX-R's.

I think the projectors are alright, but there is room for improvement. I'm used to the FX-R 3.0's in my 5.5 gen. There is a large difference between the two. Thanks for the feedback!

S

 

No need to swap projectors to get bi-xenon projectors.

 

Talking about just adding a solenoid for the shield?

 

New curved shields with solenoids. Should outperform FX-Rs.

 

Perhaps I should find a 2nd set of headlights, send them to ya to build?

 

PM me when you get a chance

 

Let me do my homework and track down some parts, when I get ready I'll reach out to you.

S