You have LED headlights which are incredibly bright when compared to the standard halogen lights. My '22 CRV had halogen lights but my '24 Odyssey has LED lights and the Odyssey is significantly brighter. Unfortunately, this may be more of a problem with you rather than the CRV. Have you tried to turn the brights on if you're having an issue seeing?

 

My 2025 Honda CR-V Hybrid Struggles in the Rain

Lately, I’ve noticed a troubling issue with my 2025 Honda CR-V Hybrid: the headlights are incredibly dim. It’s a problem that I didn’t think much of at first, but as fall weather approaches, it became impossible to ignore—especially when it rains.

The issue is most noticeable during bad weather, where my visibility is reduced to the point that I feel unsafe driving in the rain. The road ahead is barely visible, and navigating dark, rainy streets with poor lighting makes me anxious about potential hazards.

Welcome to the CRVOC forum. Many fine folks here from around the globe.

Click on your avatar in the upper right hand corner, —> Account Settings, —> Vehicle Details. Complete for your vehicle, then hit Save. In this manner, that vital piece of information automatically appears whenever you post.

With 6 generations of the V on the road today, knowing the year & trim level of the vehicle in question helps those asking & those willing to respond.

As this is a 2025 model, you should still be under the original warranty. Take it back to the dealership from which you purchased it. Try to do so when you know you may be experiencing the same weather conditions. This may necessitate someone driving your vehicle with you as a passenger.

The dealership may perform a code reading to see if your problem has thrown a code. If so, base your decision about keeping your vehicle on the results of codes shown. Might be something as simple as a sensor not properly seated, or something more serious.

One final thought, if you will. Please don't take this in the wrong manner. Do you have the same vision problem in poor weather? If it is dark & rainy, can you stand in your doorway & look at your neighbor's house across the street? Is the "view" the same as it is when dark but not rainy?

If you are of a certain age [as I & other forum members are] that remembers viewing the original "I Love Lucy" shows, you might have a vision problem. A trip to your optometrist might be in order if you haven't had one in a while.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

Our 2024 hybrid light pattern is not as good as the 2020 hybrid that we had. Couple this with the lack of fog lights do make it hard to see in poor weather. Not sure what Honda was thinking leaving the fogs off with a $40k car, this is still a standard feature in the rest of the world, at least the fogs will fill in the area from the front of the card to the bright sections with the headlights. tempted to just install a set from Amason. Also, 5000K lights are good in dry weather, but when the roads are wet, they dont work as well as halogens with a lower color temperature around 3500k.

 

I agree with you since the LED HLs are reflector style and not the projector style which is better but also a bit more expensive. My previous Mazda CX-9 had projector style (with active bending feature) that was much better. Only other tip i can advise is to ensure your HLs are clean and apply a layer of the Rain-X so water beads instead of staying on the lens

 

Lights above 5000K suck in the rain/snow, in general. Especially LED reflectors. Welcome to everyone wanting kewl blue lights instead of lights that actually do a darned thing.

 

Agree, the CR-V LED headlights are weak. I believe they made it standard across the board at least for the U.S. market (if not worldwide), so the trim level or ICE/Hybrid doesn't matter. Just because they are LED doesn't automatically make them any better than halogen.

Low beam is marginal but high beam is quite bad if you are going up and down rolling hills on a country road. The upward angle doesn't cover very high so depending on the size and slope of the hill, even high beam will leave quite a bit of darkness from the uncovered angles even though the distance isn't very far.

Unfortunately there is no easy way to improve or upgrade designed-in LED headlights.

 

I haven’t found that to be true at all. I live in the hills in AR and find my headlights to be quite bright. Sometimes people flash their brights thinking my brights are on.

 

So... normally I didn't like using Auto High Beams, but because low beam performance is less than ideal for some of us, I decided to use Auto High Beam a try. I have to say, this technology has improved a lot in the last 10 years. Enabling this has helped augment the low beam in rural highway situations. It's superb anticipating oncoming traffic. Not so much with cross traffic approaching intersections... then I still have to intervene and turn off high beams manually to avoid the wrath of other drivers.

As far as improving on the high beam in hilly situations... I don't have any ideas yet.

 

The headlight is bad in rain and the windshield wipers makes it worst because of the streak. Only have 4k on my 2025 hybrid crv sport l. As a Uber driver, I can’t really work when it’s dark and raining. So sad 😭. Definitely changes my perception of Honda for the worst.

 

The wipers are an easy fix. Clean the windshield or put new blades on.

 

While the wipers are a bit odd in how they operate, both of my Hondas clean the windshield just fine.

 

In the dark, park with your lights on, go in front of the car, and see if the lights are actually dim. They might be plenty bright but need to be aimed correctly. If they point low they are lighting a part of the road that does not help you. If you are willing to aim them yourself locate the aiming screws (owner's manual?) and the tool needed. Pull up in front of a blank wall or garage door. Open the hood, see where the top cut off line of the light is, and raise each one so the line is a couple of inches higher and equal or the left slightly lower than the right (for countries that drive on the right). Go for a drive. See if the road is illuminated better. If cars flash their high beams at you, reverse the process, lower the line about an inch, and try again. If they don't flash, raise the lights another inch.

Fog lights are mis-named. They are actually for lighting the road edge to help one stay in their lane.

 

I don't think its the headlights aiming issue. When it's not rainy, these headlights are very bright. When the road are wet I can't see and it's super dangerous. Here is a video I made driving in the rain. Is this what you see on your crv?

 

I don't think its the headlights aiming issue. When it's not rainy, these headlights are very bright. When the road are wet I can't see and it's super dangerous. Here is a video I made driving in the rain. Is this what you see on your crv?

Simple physics, and it does not help as the eyes age either.

Why It's Hard to Drive at Night After It Rains - Kinetic River

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Try a video on a dark road without reflective lighting from street lights and other cars. If you make trial runs with the headlights off, please announce that clearly: Lights off. Lights on. Actually the view that shows on the video looks OK to me. When a white car on the left of you makes a left hand turn and your headlight beam is on that white car it looks like your headlights might be aimed low.

At 1:45 on the video the cars turning left in front of you show up well. Look at the white car on your left at 1:54; your headlight beam looks low.

If there is a glare on your windshield get a bottle of windshield (or auto glass) stripper from an auto parts store. It'll remove film that a glass cleaner won't touch. Sometimes new cars have a preservative wax from the factory that the prep guy at the dealership did not completely remove.

 

If anything they're aimed too high from the factory to cheat the IIHS ratings. I brought mine down a bit and it helps to illuminate better wheras before they just faded into oblivion. Can't go too low obviously but worth a try.

 

Completely agree and I have the same issue with mine. I can see other car's headlights on the road in the dark and rain, but can't see my own. It is difficult to see my own lane on the highway when it's raining. It's difficult to address considering we can't simply change the light bulbs. Has anyone had a chance to ask a dealer?

 

My 2024 hybrid touring headlights are incredible.

 

I am right there with you. I have been trying to get off the roads by 5:30pm now in the Florida winter because I too do not feel safe driving the vehicle. Thank goodness I am yet to experience a long drive in rain. Owned many Hondas before with no such issues but have only had this one for 2mths and I am not happy.

 

Express this to your dealership. They will check the aim of the lights for you and make sure they’re aimed properly. Might need to lower them slightly.

 

I'll post a photo when I get a chance, but I think the problem is the light distribution pattern from the headlights. On level ground with the car about 10' from a blank wall or garage door at night and look at the light distribution pattern on the wall. It looks to me like a bright line across and then considerably less light below that.

Aiming the headlights a bit low will bring more light down to where we see the road better, and there is a sweet spot where sufficient light is shining ahead to safely light up the road. I don't know how much that is...maybe someone can count the screwdriver turns or the number of flats on the adjuster nut to get the light just right. We also need photos of adjusting with a #2 Phillips screwdriver or a (12 mm?) wrench.

I don't think the spec aiming point, while legal and maybe optimal for distance viewing, is what we want for best all around night vision. I expect the dealerships to be clueless on this until we educate them.

 

I joined this forum because of this very issue- the headlights on my 2025 CR-V are so dim in comparison to my '17 Mazda CX-5! The poor headlight performance and lack of foglights is really troubling this winter in the dark, often rainy or foggy PNW. I especially notice when making a turn into a dark driveway or parking spot, to the point that I almost have to pause mid-turn to allow the light to somewhat catch up and illuminate the area. I am terrified of hitting a pedestrian crossing the street because I know I won't be able to see them until the last second. Seems a serious deficiency without a remedy, enough that I may look at going back to Mazda when the new CX-5 comes out.

 

Several of us have noted this. It works to lower the headlight beam.

Park on a flat level surface facing a blank wall or garage door in the dark with the headlights on. Open the hood. Above each light you'll see a spot you can put a #2 Phillips screwdriver in to turn the adjuster, or use the 10mm hex head that is part of the adjuster. Park about 10' from the wall, lower the beam about 2" on the wall, and go for a drive. See if you can still see the road well out in front while also get a better view of the road closer to you. Re-adjust as needed.

The dealer will aim the beams to the Honda spec which, while legal, is not effective; it is too high as we've seen.

 

Thanks so much- I will definitely be giving this a try! Anything that will help. While the front illumination is far from ideal, the real trouble (at least for me) is turning. I guess I got spoiled by the projector beams on my Mazda and before that an Audi- they really make a difference.

 

I think my headlights are already pointed a bit down, haven't had issues with them, wouldn't mind fogs though.