I saw people with posts "upgrading" their headlights and couldn't understand why they would do that. We have a Toyota with factory HID lights and they're incredible. Low beam HID gives an enormous field of clear vision and the high beams reach very far and are very clear and bright. We used our headlights for the first time last night (2015 3.5 SL) with the HID lights. What a disappointment! If I didn't know the car had HID lights (xenon, the same as our Toyota) I would never have guessed it did. The lights were minimal at best - not much better than halogens if that. They didn't reach very far and were nowhere near as bright and clear as the HID lights on our Toyota. As to the high beams, I'm not sure why Nissan even put them on the car as there was minimal difference between low beam and high beam - essentially useless IMO. In fact, the low beam HIDs on the Toyota are better - far better - than the high beams on the Altima. I now understand why people are upgrading.
After seeing how poor the HID lights were on the Altima, tonight I had the chance to compare them with HID lights from our 2010 Toyota and halogens from a friend's 2000 accord. Compared to the HIDs from Toyota, the HIDs from the Altima look like someone holding a flashlight. They aren't as bright and don't go as far as the halogens on the accord either. The halogens on the accord make a huge difference when they are on high beam, but the HIDs on the Altima show minimal improvement. In fact, the low beam on the halogens is far better than the high beam on the Altima. It's hard to believe they are HIDs. I'm in my mid 50s and have had quite a few cars over the years, but I think these are the poorest headlights I've ever had. IF you are in the market for an Altima, I don't know what the regular headlights look like, but I would not even consider getting the HIDs on the 3.5. I would suggest you have the dealership change them out before taking the car.
I have a 15 3.5SL With HID. The best thing to do to these headlights is a clear lens and get the projector tuned with proper bulb placement. Had mine done at lightwerkz and it's double the brightness if not more. Better than tsx projectors. Our bowls in our projectors are nice and wide and pretty big. The projectors have a lot of potential just needs the right person working on it. I changed my bulbs to osram cbi. The only difference is color output. The reason why I changed then is because I am getting the led fog light kit from theretrofitsource once it's made for the altima.
I like the idea of the clear lens, but lightwerkz is in NJ and I'm in the Chicago area. What did this cost you and does anyone know of any shops in my area that does this work?
The clear lens helps cutoff and a little better output, but the bug difference was the bulb tuning with the projector that made the output amazing. I think total cost was $340 including the lens, de install off car, all projector tuning and then reinstall on car and aim projectors.
Hey did you pay $340 with CBI and do you have a persons that you would recommend. I'm interested in going to do the project but I need to convince my self that it's worth the $$$. You have pics?
I will take pictures once it stops raining out. It's not a bad price considering they disassembled the front bumper, took off the lights, opened up the lights, changed the lens, modified the bulb placement and sharpened the cutoff, re sealed the headlights, installed them back on the car, put the car bac together and aimed the headlights. How is that expensive? Price included the cleat lens too.
From what I hear these ballasts output more like 38 watts instead of 35 watts so it yellows the color more. At least that's what the retrofit source tells me.
38 watts wont make them lose 1000 K temp like the 50Ws does but its just a bit less. Its will be around a 200-300 K drop but lumens increase by the same amount
Like others, I had a previous car with HID lows, and they seemed brighter than the Altima's. I have a feeling though, that a good bulb is going to be 90% of what you can accomplish on an OEM setup. Have Osram Nightbreakers on order so we shall see.
The stock halogen projectors on the Altima is pretty bad compared to many other vehicles. The main issue here is the most fuzziest lens I have ever seen. This hinders the output to what you see now. Your best bet is to get the Black series clear lens upgrade and spacing of the bulb around 1mm for the best results. The clear lens will allow more light out Assuming that you have the 3.5 SL with stock HID then its the same projectors in the Maxima since your ordering Osram Nightbreakers. It's definitely still not optically clear and its the same lens needed.