My old 2007 GMC has never had the best headlights.Driving from Lethbridge to Calgary last night I was really cussing them. Old original factory headlights and I cannot see worth a darn. They are so lame that I deem them unsafe.I have tried different bulbs in them over the years but no real joy there either. One side is a repro unit from a major collision repair in 2012. It is so yellow and dull that I can see a huge difference in the 2.Anyhow, enough of that....I am looking for ideas on some decent aftermarket lighting, including the headlight housings themselves. I really like the lights on the newer vehicles, they look great.I just want to see in safety without blinding oncoming traffic.Back in the days of my youth we would just replace the sealed beams with Cibies, Bosch or Wipacs. Can't do that today.Anyone done a complete upgrade kit to their headlights? I'd like to go with LED, so I don't have to put in heavy duty drivers and such. I don't know a lot about them.I gotta fix this thing, it's terrible.

Bob, I had great luck with an HID kit from The RetroFit Source. I disassembled the plastic headlight assemblies on my 2002 Grand Prix and converted them to HIDs, WOW what a difference.You can see the projectors inside the OEM housing here:TRS sells a kit specifically for 07 GMs, and they also have plug-n-play Alpharex Pro lights.All of these options are kinda pricey but well worth it IMO, especially if you tow at night.

First and foremost, measure the voltage AT THE BULB!If your GM is as bad as Fords headlights one the the best upgrades you can do is bypass the OEM wiring with a relay kit.OEM wiring is barely up to the task, often they will use 18 ga wire to the headlights and when you add up the wire length by the time the voltage reaches the headlights the bulb is only getting about 11V!You can buy or built your own headlight relay kit, I have made my own using $2.00 30A Bosch relays and 10 ga wire (relay kit goes under hood near battery and you can get replacement harness repair parts to make it plug and play setup.. Plug the input of the relays into one of the headlight connections and the outputs of the relays to your headlights.. connect relay kit to 12V power and ground and now you have full battery voltage.. Basically about 25% improvement in brightness.I would recommend avoiding LED replacement bulbs in any OEM style or aftermarket housing, quality is spotty at best, some have fans that will eventually fail, some the drivers make a lot of Radio interference and worst of all, LEDs cannot fully simulate the position of the filament making getting a good pattern that doesn't blind on coming traffic difficult to impossible.Not to mention typically those LED retrofits use LEDs in blueish color temps of 6,000K-6,500K which results in harsh shadows and depending on your eyesight may make your vision even more difficult.Try building headlight relay kit first, if that doesn't work well, add on an aux driving lights or fog lights (that is what I did for my 97 Ford BEFORE I figured out the headlight bulbs were not getting full battery voltage), those lights were like using a candle)..

BurbMan wrote:Bob, I had great luck with an HID kit from The RetroFit Source. I disassembled the plastic headlight assemblies on my 2002 Grand Prix and converted them to HIDs, WOW what a difference.You can see the projectors inside the OEM housing here:TRS sells a kit specifically for 07 GMs, and they also have plug-n-play Alpharex Pro lights.All of these options are kinda pricey but well worth it IMO, especially if you tow at night.Thanks for the links, Excellent site. I really like what they have to offer.Unfortunately, mine is a 2007 Classic, different from the 2007-13.. I changed the application to reflect that and they don't have the headlights for mine. Darn!!! Lots of bulbs though, great selection.Looks great on your Grand Prix!

Gdetrailer wrote:First and foremost, measure the voltage AT THE BULB!If your GM is as bad as Fords headlights one the the best upgrades you can do is bypass the OEM wiring with a relay kit.OEM wiring is barely up to the task, often they will use 18 ga wire to the headlights and when you add up the wire length by the time the voltage reaches the headlights the bulb is only getting about 11V!You can buy or built your own headlight relay kit, I have made my own using $2.00 30A Bosch relays and 10 ga wire (relay kit goes under hood near battery and you can get replacement harness repair parts to make it plug and play setup.. Plug the input of the relays into one of the headlight connections and the outputs of the relays to your headlights.. connect relay kit to 12V power and ground and now you have full battery voltage.. Basically about 25% improvement in brightness.I would recommend avoiding LED replacement bulbs in any OEM style or aftermarket housing, quality is spotty at best, some have fans that will eventually fail, some the drivers make a lot of Radio interference and worst of all, LEDs cannot fully simulate the position of the filament making getting a good pattern that doesn't blind on coming traffic difficult to impossible.Not to mention typically those LED retrofits use LEDs in blueish color temps of 6,000K-6,500K which results in harsh shadows and depending on your eyesight may make your vision even more difficult.Try building headlight relay kit first, if that doesn't work well, add on an aux driving lights or fog lights (that is what I did for my 97 Ford BEFORE I figured out the headlight bulbs were not getting full battery voltage), those lights were like using a candle)..That's a great tip, thanks. I never thought about checking the voltage at the lights. I do recall looking at the size of the wiring once, thinking to myself it looked a little on the lame side. I used to put relays, do the wiring and put aircraft landing lights on my old vehicles. Boy did those ever poke a hole into the night! Illegal though, got busted a couple times so I stopped using them......

Crummy headlights - Can't see, need upgrade | Good Sam Community

road-runner
Explorer III
Jan 23, 2021
Gdetrailer wrote:

Generally for headlights the manufacturer uses a resistor in series with low beam filament, dropping the voltage and brightness for that function.
Wow, sounds like poor design to me. I'm surprised they don't use a PWM circuit instead of having to get rid of all the heat from that resistor. There's no guaranteed airstream to cool the resistor as with old-school heater fan resistors.
DrewE
Explorer II
Jan 23, 2021
Many DRLs use the high beam filament rather than the low beam one (again, at reduced power). This actually makes good sense; the goal of a DRL is for other drivers to see you, so using the filament where the beam isn't specifically shaped avoid shining in other driver's eyes is helpful. It's also true in many cases that low beams are used more than high beams in normal driving, so putting the extra wear and tear on the high beam filaments doesn't shorten the bulb's lifespan as much--although the shorter lifespan in either case is minimal due to the lower power operation.
Mike_LeClair
Explorer
Jan 23, 2021
Hey Bob! I have used Daniel Stern Lighting for my older trucks. He builds very robust, complete light harnesses for just about any vehicle (North American). The harnesses are complete and the instructions are, well, in English. You can look him up on line.

I am learning as I follow this thread. Are the Sylvania ZXE bulbs also built on the low voltage high watt burn out fast model? I was thinking about buying a foursome for my 06 Sierra 3500. Maybe not so much anymore?

I replaced the drivers side housing off of Amazon and was pretty impressed with the fit, finish and design of the off shore product. Fits and works perfectly.

Cheers!
Mike
Gdetrailer
Explorer III
Jan 23, 2021
Mike LeClair wrote:
Hey Bob! I have used Daniel Stern Lighting for my older trucks. He builds very robust, complete light harnesses for just about any vehicle (North American). The harnesses are complete and the instructions are, well, in English. You can look him up on line.

I am learning as I follow this thread. Are the Sylvania ZXE bulbs also built on the low voltage high watt burn out fast model? I was thinking about buying a foursome for my 06 Sierra 3500. Maybe not so much anymore?

I replaced the drivers side housing off of Amazon and was pretty impressed with the fit, finish and design of the off shore product. Fits and works perfectly.

Cheers!
Mike

Yes, ZXE are "Silverstars" based 12.5V 60W-65W bulbs, as such 250 hrs max life..

ZXE are nothing more than blue color tinted high wattage bulbs to LOOK like HID, The blue tint filters out some of the red hues which means it LOOK less yellow..

Doesn't mean it gets you "better vision".

Those ZXE are trying to imitate typical HID color temps which most folks choose 5,000K and up.. Gives them the "cool" trendy look without the price of HID. They are marketed to the young kids who have not enough money in the pocket to afford real HID.. Read the they marketing hype from Sylvania..

These are all about "looks", not about actual "improvement" in seeing distance.

In fact, adding any color "filtering" takes away brightness which is why they had to increase the wattage..

Something else to consider, using higher wattage bulbs than what the fixture and plug were designed for can result in the fixture deforming and the plug melting..

Save your money and buy the plain "basic" halogen bulb and let the "kiddies" waste their money on these for the trendy look..
klutchdust
Explorer II
Jan 23, 2021
Headlight revolution.com

Upgraded on my 2009 Ford Class C, amazing results....

Plug and Play less worry excellent customer service....
ktmrfs
Explorer II
Jan 23, 2021
Mike LeClair wrote:
Hey Bob! I have used Daniel Stern Lighting for my older trucks. He builds very robust, complete light harnesses for just about any vehicle (North American). The harnesses are complete and the instructions are, well, in English. You can look him up on line.

I am learning as I follow this thread. Are the Sylvania ZXE bulbs also built on the low voltage high watt burn out fast model? I was thinking about buying a foursome for my 06 Sierra 3500. Maybe not so much anymore?

I replaced the drivers side housing off of Amazon and was pretty impressed with the fit, finish and design of the off shore product. Fits and works perfectly.

Cheers!
Mike

If the truck uses 9004/9005 bulbs, IMHO the best update is to replace the 9004/9005 with 9011/9012 HIR bulbs. Same watts, higher lumen output, about the same life as a std 9004/9005 but more expensive. you will need to slightly modify the 9011/9012 plastic base to let it fit in the 9004/9005 shell.

a search on 9011/9012 will get you to sites to show the simple mod to the base

I've done that on several vehicles using 9004/9005 bulbs and they are much brighter.
Gdetrailer
Explorer III
Jan 23, 2021
ktmrfs wrote:
Mike LeClair wrote:
Hey Bob! I have used Daniel Stern Lighting for my older trucks. He builds very robust, complete light harnesses for just about any vehicle (North American). The harnesses are complete and the instructions are, well, in English. You can look him up on line.

I am learning as I follow this thread. Are the Sylvania ZXE bulbs also built on the low voltage high watt burn out fast model? I was thinking about buying a foursome for my 06 Sierra 3500. Maybe not so much anymore?

I replaced the drivers side housing off of Amazon and was pretty impressed with the fit, finish and design of the off shore product. Fits and works perfectly.

Cheers!
Mike

If the truck uses 9004/9005 bulbs, IMHO the best update is to replace the 9004/9005 with 9011/9012 HIR bulbs. Same watts, higher lumen output, about the same life as a std 9004/9005 but more expensive. you will need to slightly modify the 9011/9012 plastic base to let it fit in the 9004/9005 shell.

a search on 9011/9012 will get you to sites to show the simple mod to the base

I've done that on several vehicles using 9004/9005 bulbs and they are much brighter.

I can see where that might work, however, one needs to realize that in doing so, you may end up with not having as good of focused light.

Incandescent headlights depend on having the bulb filament placed in a very specific spot in the reflector. If the filament is placed slightly off from that location the result is a out of focused beam.

Filament placement and size is critical and if not placed correctly WILL cause more light scatter blinding oncoming traffic in the process.

It is for that reason why LED retrofits tend to be difficult and often results in poor high beams or poor low beams and blinding oncoming traffic in the process.

Different bulb numbers are there for a reason, it isn't done for the light bulb manufacturer to make more money with more part numbers. There are real specs that the bulb manufacturers must adhere to and it is for a good reason.
ktmrfs
Explorer II
Jan 23, 2021
Gdetrailer wrote:
ktmrfs wrote:
Mike LeClair wrote:
Hey Bob! I have used Daniel Stern Lighting for my older trucks. He builds very robust, complete light harnesses for just about any vehicle (North American). The harnesses are complete and the instructions are, well, in English. You can look him up on line.

I am learning as I follow this thread. Are the Sylvania ZXE bulbs also built on the low voltage high watt burn out fast model? I was thinking about buying a foursome for my 06 Sierra 3500. Maybe not so much anymore?

I replaced the drivers side housing off of Amazon and was pretty impressed with the fit, finish and design of the off shore product. Fits and works perfectly.

Cheers!
Mike

If the truck uses 9004/9005 bulbs, IMHO the best update is to replace the 9004/9005 with 9011/9012 HIR bulbs. Same watts, higher lumen output, about the same life as a std 9004/9005 but more expensive. you will need to slightly modify the 9011/9012 plastic base to let it fit in the 9004/9005 shell.

a search on 9011/9012 will get you to sites to show the simple mod to the base

I've done that on several vehicles using 9004/9005 bulbs and they are much brighter.

I can see where that might work, however, one needs to realize that in doing so, you may end up with not having as good of focused light.

Incandescent headlights depend on having the bulb filament placed in a very specific spot in the reflector. If the filament is placed slightly off from that location the result is a out of focused beam.

Filament placement and size is critical and if not placed correctly WILL cause more light scatter blinding oncoming traffic in the process.

It is for that reason why LED retrofits tend to be difficult and often results in poor high beams or poor low beams and blinding oncoming traffic in the process.

Different bulb numbers are there for a reason, it isn't done for the light bulb manufacturer to make more money with more part numbers. There are real specs that the bulb manufacturers must adhere to and it is for a good reason.

yes, wrong bulb can be a bad thing to do. Howewver, filament location size and structure etc. for the 9011/12 are the same as the corresponding 9005/6 They were developed as a higher lumen output replacement for 9005/6 and now they are somewhat common on many new vehicles, including many GM models.

I think they are also slightly higher wattage, like 5 watts more draw.
road-runner
Explorer III
Jan 24, 2021
ktmrfs wrote:

If the truck uses 9004/9005 bulbs, IMHO the best update is to replace the 9004/9005 with 9011/9012 HIR bulbs.
Maybe I'm the only one who had a disaster doing this in my lo-beam projector lights. The larger glass envelope of the HIR light placed the heat source a little closer to the plastic reflector, and melted a hole in the plastic reflector. I ended up shoehorning some generic HID reflector assemblies into the the headlight case and the end result came out ok, but was a lot of extra work I wasn't looking for.
Mike_LeClair
Explorer
Jan 24, 2021
Thanks all for your input on the ZXE bulbs. I figured as much, was just hoping, like Bob, to find a frugal way to get some more light out of my driving candles.

Cheers and Many Thanks, as always!

Mike