Having issues with low-beam brightness on my 07 MDX bought in 2007 new. Has 160K miles.. No major issues all these years apart from sensors, some electric and stuff..
For the past few months, having trouble with low-beam brightness.. I have been replacing with the same OEM light bulbs. Had the headlight restored twice but still not enough brightness...
What do you guys suggest.. Can I fit LED and does it really help ?? . I did buy LED lights last year from amazon with installation. When the installer arrived, he told me I had the wrong bulbs and couldn;t install. He also told me, LED doesn't really help so no point in paying extra for LED.. Is that true??
Also I'm planning to do a non-OEM replacements as headlight restoration isn't working great..
I just restored my cloudy headlights in less than 10 mins. Mine was cloudy on the outside though, is yours on the inside? Sounds like it might be on the inside? maybe they arent sealing properly and stuff is getting inside? On the outside of mine I used plasti-x + a friends buffer and polishing pads. I masked off the headlight, then buffed each light for 5 minutes each. The headlights are now clear and look new - give it a try first.
If you are experiencing a significant decrease in brightness with the same original new bulbs, that's likely the igniter or ballast that you have a problem with. I would get a specialist's opinion before replacing them as they are not cheap at all.
Agreed. When xenon bulbs reach the end of their life they turn pink, but it takes years for the gas to degrade and get to that point. If the bulb isn't bright enough, it isn't getting the power it needs so the ballast is probably the culprit here. I am not sure how difficult or expensive it is to replace the OEM ballast but that's where I'd focus my research if I were you.
Unfortunately there's not a simple plug-and-play solution for replacing an MDX headlight bulb with something else. Even if you somehow managed to squeeze an LED bulb into the projector, the optics would be way off. Light would be scattered everywhere and would hardly illuminate anything, let alone the road.
If you consider yourself hands-on or a DIYer, maybe snag a set of bi-xenon or bi-LED projectors to install in the reflector bowl of the high beam bulb. I have retrofitted xenon projectors in my previous Volvo (which originally had halogen headlights) and it made a world of difference. Xenon set-ups are more complicated than LEDs but offer marginally better lighting performance. But in order to go this route it would have to be a retrofit which requires moderate to severe modification, and you would want to do it right to not dazzle other drivers. TRS is a good source for parts and youtube tutorials on how to install something like this.
Having a similar issue, believe my problem is in the aim, i just dont have the solid cutoff i see on the upper portion of other peoples lights, and what i precieve as poor output.
If a car pulls up behind me, i see a shadow of my mdx in front of me.
OP, is your root problem, the actual housing getting cloudy? if so, your only option is to get it buffed/restored or replace. There's no point in upgrading the headlight electrical components if it's still shining through a cloudy housing.