Hey guys,

I have a 2011x sedan. The headlight output was downright dangerous when I just bought the car recently.

Upgraded to osram nightbreakers, which helped I'd say about 10% but it's still not great.

What can I do to increase the output and make it better to see at night? My lenses aren't foggy/worn but I do plan to replace them anyways.

Could it be a worn out projector housing? If so, what can I replace it with in the aftermarket?

Thanks!

 

Does your car have the original D2S HIDs or did somebody change the lamps? High beams in the stock lamp depend on a moving baffle inside the projector. But unless something is really screwed up I can't imagine why you would be having trouble with brightness.

 

Afaik original d2s hids. Lights are not bright at night at all, especially if it's raining or wet outside. It's a bit dangerous.

I just want to increase my brightness/output so I can see a bit better.

 

Do your headlights seem "dimmer" than other cars? Any way you can compare to some other vehicle - or even another infiniti? Like aim at a wall with yours and another car? It's just not a common complaint around here as far as I know. Unless you have some aftermarket headlamps or something weird going on. You don't have a tinted windshield do you?

 

To echo a few things...

1) HID lighting is reliable and robust. Unless you have the incorrect bulbs installed- both temperature AND wattage- lumen output should remain constant at ≈3000-4000lm. OEM bulbs are rated at ≈4300K at 35 watts. These provide a white light with a subtle shade of yellow which is considered the ideal spectrum for our eyes. I do not know the Kelvin of the Osram Nightbreakers you've installed but any K rating above ≈6500K provides a bluish/ purplish "color" that our eyes are not adept at utilizing (especially in wet conditions). In fact, most bulbs over 6500K can be considered illegal in many jurisdictions due to the limited usable light. These bulbs are typically marked "OFF ROAD USE ONLY" though tell that to all the crazy kids on the roads with crazy blue and purple lights...

Also, make sure your replacements are 35 and not 55 watts. And I have to toss this out there: Osram bulbs from a REPUTABLE seller? Please don't reply eBay or Amazon...

2) Headlamp alignment- any chance your headlamps need to be realigned? Ie. Is the beam pointing down to the ground or straight forward? The factory manual has a section on how to check and adjust alignment.

3) Headlamp lenses. I know you mentioned your lenses are not "foggy/ worn" but, respectfully, I find it hard to believe that a 15-year-old car does not have some level of oxidation on the plastic lenses unless the car never saw the sunshine at all. Any distortion to those plastic covers will greatly affect output. Thankfully, for you sedan owners, the lenses can be replaced with new covers- us Coupe folks are SOL on that one...

4) If the ignitor and/ or the ballast were failing the bulb would not fire at all. When the bulbs near EOL the light slowly turns darker pink or just goes out. Being that both sides are affected rules out those components IMO. As a test, after a cold start, turn the headlights ON. There should be a slight "flicker" and the bulbs should get brighter (as they heat up) all in less than 2-3sec.

Perhaps a picture or two of your lights ON (as best you can with night shots) might offer some additional direction. As 13_Skyline_Sedan mentioned, the lighting on these cars- and HID's in general- is not a common issue.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply.

After a closer look, it looks like one side has an aftermarket ballast which I never noticed when changing out the bulbs.

The osrams I bought were from a seller on Amazon yes.

However, after closer inspection yesterday, the side with the aftermarket ballast seems 'dimmer' than the other. Unless it's aimed completely wrong.

Also, yes the plastic lenses are oxidized but definitely nowhere near as bad as I've seen/dealt with before.

As stated, I will be replacing with aftermarket set. However, I only want to open up my headlights once so I figured if there was 'anything else's that could be done while I was in there, I'd ask first.

Thanks for the help. I will reply back after replacing with new lenses.

I also have an OEM ballast from an old unused set of broken apart headlamps. I'm going to swap out the ballast in hopes it helps.

I have been having some issues upon initial start that one headlight bulb wont light up. Upon a restart, it's fine. Loose connection maybe?

 

Hello:

This may seem obvious, but given that the factory lights were very brilliant and clear - I have a 2009 Sedan 6MT and can attest to that - can you go back to stock and quit using the aftermarket stuff?

Good luck,


Rick