How are the LED headlights during night driving?

My experience is that they are extremely bright, so much so that I barely see much of a difference when I turn the brights on. But then, I'm jumping from a Toyota Tacoma with regular old headlights and had known headlight problems. I fear that I've become what I detest the most in night driving: one of those oncoming cars that blinds me.

How bright they are depends greatly on the brand, the aim, and whether your headlights are projector or reflector. Some brands are as much as 7x brighter when used in reflectors, which of course will blind people. In projectors even the brightest ones only quadruple the light, and it's easier to bump the aim down a notch without losing the benefits. We have Diode Dynamics SL1's in our '13 Altima projectors, they're nominally 2.5x brighter than halogens but we never get anyone flashing us.

the Rogue's LED headlights are very good IMO. Good distance and spread with a good cutoff

telecastermds said:

the Rogue's LED headlights are very good IMO. Good distance and spread with a good cutoff

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If you mean the gen3 Rogues ('21-up), I completely agree. I recently drove a rental to Dallas and back, with the return leg completely in the dark. Visibility was great in every way.

They are very good. I have a newer MDX and they are extremely comparable to them. I feel the brights are a little lackluster, but normal headlights are plenty bright.

IIHS gave them a "good" rating 2023 Nissan Rogue 4-door - Headlights

WhoWhereHello said:

They are very good. I have a newer MDX and they are extremely comparable to them. I feel the brights are a little lackluster, but normal headlights are plenty bright.

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LED high beams aren't really a good idea anyway. Headlight housings are all vented, and because LED bulbs dump their heat outside the housing, they don't produce enough heat inside the housing to chase out moisture. If you have halogen high beams you can chase away a film of moisture by running the high beams for an hour or two, but when both beams are LED's, you're kind of stuck.

On my 2023 Altima the led lights a way more right than the halogens on my 2020


Danny

Tried several in muliple vehicles all with reflector housing... 2023 Fahren termitor are very nice reasonably priced upgrade. I haven't tried any of the several hundred dollar ones though.

2016AltimaS said:

I installed Leds on my 2016 Altima. AT first it seemed to be too much of a split in the beam. They have fans on them for the heat. As far as the brightness, I believe they are slightly brighter. However, Nissan has issues with the housing itself. The chrome burns away on the housing making the headlights dimmer. Both of my headlight housings have been replaced with aftermarket headlight housings. They do not seem to have the reach in the adjustment of the aim as the OEM housings. You can see the beam split in these photos.

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Absolutely right about the housings, and no kind of bulb will improve things if the chrome inside is shot. However, because they dump their heat outside the housing with a fan and produce much less heat inside, LED's will make the chrome on any good housing last much longer, probably forever. So they're a step in the right direction on a problematic gen5 Altie or any other car with chrome-destroying tendencies.

I just came from a 2022 Pathfinder SL, for which the LED headlights were fantastic. When I switched to the 'high beams', the entire road was lit up in front of me. Sold the Pathfinder and now have the Rogue.
I took home the 2023 Rogue on Monday (5/22/23) - haven't been out at night yet. I will report back once I do get out there after dark!

My wife and I had the car out last night after dark and came home on a parkway with no street lights. That is unusual here in downstate New York.
I can tell you these LED headlights truly 'lit up' the entire road! Add to that the automatic high beam feature - we were sitting pretty for the drive home!

WhoWhereHello said:

They are very good. I have a newer MDX and they are extremely comparable to them. I feel the brights are a little lackluster, but normal headlights are plenty bright.

IIHS gave them a "good" rating 2023 Nissan Rogue 4-door - Headlights

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And just as importantly they are good on ALL trim levels.

On many other vehicles, like say a Subaru Crosstrek, you don't get good headlights until you go to the top trim, with the other trims rating "poor". I have a base S-trim, and love the fact that you really don't sacrifice anything at all from a performance aspect over the top trims... in fact, functionality the S is slightly better, with slightly improved ride, 0-60, handling, payload, etc. thanks to reduced weight, so the only sacrifice ends up being luxury and not functionality.

2016AltimaS said:

I installed Leds on my 2016 Altima. AT first it seemed to be too much of a split in the beam. They have fans on them for the heat. As far as the brightness, I believe they are slightly brighter. However, Nissan has issues with the housing itself. The chrome burns away on the housing making the headlights dimmer. Both of my headlight housings have been replaced with aftermarket headlight housings. They do not seem to have the reach in the adjustment of the aim as the OEM housings. You can see the beam split in these photos.

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I want to be clear about what the LEDS are like. It could be the ones that I got but, one of them burned out in a years time. I bought them on EBay . They were from China. No brand anyway, Still if I want to see well at night when i am not driving under street lights, I have to still turn on my bright lights.

2016AltimaS said:

I want to be clear about what the LEDS are like. It could be the ones that I got but, one of them burned out in a years time. I bought them on EBay . They were from China. No brand anyway, Still if I want to see well at night when i am not driving under street lights, I have to still turn on my bright lights.

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LED's are one item where you pretty much get what you pay for. Cheap ones all have the same problem, poor thermal engineering. Good ones all have lots of aluminum, sophisticated heat sinking, and bearingless fans built for the long haul. None of that is cheap. I recommend Diode Dynamics to my customers for halogen swaps. I have one customer who's already past 3 years on a set of SL1's, and they've been in my wife's '13 Altie for 17 months with no issues. Designed well and made in USA.