SierraRover

Shredzy is right. I posted some info on my experiences with the Morimoto kit a couple of pages back in this thread. A complete swap-out to a new headlight housing (2016+) would be difficult because the wiring is different -- and it would be very expensive. By the way, I sold my 2014 - loved the truck, but in the end the vibrations got the better of me. The headlights were a pain for quite a while until I added the Morimoto HID kit, and it worked very well indeed. But those vibrations... This is my last post. I am now driving a 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee!

Agree. A reason in favor of leases over purchase. GM has had a lot of recalls. They decided this issue wasn't worth fixing the right way. Shame on them, but they are so fat and sassy that they don't care if you or I buy (or lease) a Ford next time. But everyone reading this forum, who has this problem, should consider writing to the NTSB (or Transport Canada) on their web pages to register a safety complaint, and maybe consider writing to GM. Just for the principle of the thing. In the mean time, a good HID kit is a practical solution for owners. And not that hard to install.

The Vosla bulbs have a life of around 250 hours. Less if the voltage supply is higher than 13 volts. And don't forget that your bulbs are on all the time the engine is running. I agree that you shouldn't have to pay for a HID kit. GM really let down their customers on this one. I added the Morimoto HID kit to give myself better visibility of the road -- which it does very well. And incidentally to have bulbs that last longer -- around 2500 hours.

I installed the Morimoto HID kit from Retro Fit Source this weekend. https://www.theretrofitsource.com/2014-sierra-morimoto-elite.html It is great – the headlights light up the road now. They are 100% better than the OEM lights. I am waiting for a dark, rainy night so I can go for a ride on a country road. I will see the dark-clothed people that walk along the roadside, and laugh at the night. The Morimoto components appear to be top quality and the bulbs are rated for 2500 hours. We'll see how it holds up. The main challenge: The hardest part of the installation is figuring out where to place and anchor everything inside the front of your Sierra. Two things are not as depicted in the instructions: 1. The Capacitor does not have a separate line to Ground, although the drawing shows that it does. I don’t think this matters. 2. The connectors from the ballasts to the OEM power inputs (the line that went to the old OEM bulb) does not have the connector cap on it – just bare wires with end pins. That is necessary because the hole in the backing caps is 22mm, and too small for the caps to pass through if connected. So you have to install the caps yourself after pushing the pins into place. No problem – just connect the red wire to the positive side, and black to black, matching the line being connected into. One interesting feature: According to the instructions, you only hook up one of the OEM bulb input lines to the Morimoto harness. This one line is connected to your OEM headlight system and activates the new HID system. The other original bulb input line you leave unconnected. (I don’t know what would happen if you connected both of them! So I followed instructions and connected only one). The way I installed my system: It was hard to find locations for the relays and one of the ballasts where the Morimoto instructions said they should go, on the passenger side of the truck. The air box gets in the way a lot. I tried one configuration with the relays next to the radiator, but decided that wouldn’t be a good place because of heat. And I didn’t want to just hang the components with wire ties. I decided to flip the system to the other side of my Sierra. There is plenty of room on the driver’s side, above the tray behind the headlight, and it was just a matter of reversing the instructions for the other side. The Morimoto relays and main part of the harness are designed to be relatively close to the battery, which is on the passenger side. Because I flipped the system from Morimoto’s drawing, I had to add lengths of 12 gauge wire for power and for ground to run power from the battery over to the driver’s side set up (since this is where the relays are now). But it works great and I have good access to all of the components if trouble-shooting or servicing is required, and they are well mounted on the sides of the engine compartment. Criticism (neither of these is a show-stopper): 1. The Morimoto instruction booklet .pdf is clearly written but prints very light. Use a "black and white" setting on your laser printer and high dpi resolution and it comes out a little darker and easier to read. 2. The short extension wire provided in the kit is needed because the Sierra is wider than the average car (this is, after all, a generic set of components that can be make to fit any vehicle). There would be a few more options on where to mount components if the extension wire were a couple of feet longer. The Future: I will keep a spare regular 9012 bulb in my glove box in case the ballasts or relays on the Morimoto kit go T/U. That gives the ability to re-insert an OEM-style bulb in the driver’s side headlight and re-connect the original wire to it, and limp home with at least one headlight, if I have to. (As folks who have worked on Sierra headlights know, the driver's side headlight bulb is easy to reach but the passenger side headlight bulb cannot be reached without removing the air box). Picture: The photo shows, from left to right, the capacitor, the ballast, the relays, and the igniter in the large open space that is above the tray and behind the driver's side headlight. The relays and ballast are pop-riveted to the side of the engine compartment. All of this is on the opposite side from what Morimoto recommends, but I found there was much more room for these components on the driver's side compared to the passenger side. (Since taking the picture, I have secured the capacitor so that it does not move around and hit anything else). On the far right side is the cable run (in the plastic flex tube) that takes the connector wire over to the passenger side ballast and light, as well as carrying the power and ground wires over to their connection points by the battery. I opted for using the plastic flex tube to carry to wires to prevent wire chafing.

Do you mean, the updated bulb according to the GM TSB? No, the bulb specified in the TSB is the Vosla 28432. GM may have found a substitute bulb that is similar but cheaper than the Vosla, to which is assigned the same internal GM part number. That might be that Philips bulb in your picture.

The lawsuit is Armando J. Becerra, Guillermo Ruela, et al. v. General Motors LLC, et al. It apparently is still alive and winding its way through the legal system. The last action taken was in January 2017. A list of all of the activities is at: https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/2p2c3awdq/california-southern-district-court/becerra-et-al-v-general-motors-llc-et-al/

Morimoto kit on order from The Retrofit Source! https://www.theretrofitsource.com/all-products/2014-sierra-morimoto-elite.html?carDisplay=2015%2BGMC%2BSierra&preselect=51812%2C50527%2C47338%2C48753%2C48136&preselect_restrict=1 The reviews on the web page were the clincher, along with the fact the kit is tailored for the 2014-2015 Sierra. Will report back to this forum how well it all works and how hard/easy it is to install!

Can you provide data on which kit you used? Your post mentions the 35W kit -- is there a SKU or a specific model? I am sorely tempted to do the same thing! (And I think I'll type up an invoice and send it to GMC's finance office for the cost) (Just kidding).

I've adopted the same solution. I think it is an improvement, and better than the Vosla bulbs (people should still get the TSB done, though, because it ups the voltage to the headlights). The truck does not seem to mind the extra 10 Watts draw on those two circuits -- especially since that flash to the Body Control Module (the TSB) ups the voltage.

I agree with Shredzy -- the standard bulbs are very poor; the TSB is a tad better but still mediocre. I got the brush off from GM too, to both a letter and a phone call to the CEO's office. For those with the time and money to do it, going with the LED or HID upgrade, ether self-installed or installed at a shop, is worth a try. GM itself does not seem to want to do this, and it looks like the dealers either won't or can't do the work. As for the headlight burnout scenario, yep, the bulbs specified in the TSB (Vosla's) have a very short life -- so it is a good idea to keep an extra bulb in the truck at all times. The driver's side bulb is easy to replace; the passenger's side bulb takes some tools and some time (the airbox has to be removed). But still a good idea to take an extra bulb along with you. Instead of the Vosla 55 Watt bulbs, you can substitute Philips 9011 HIR bulbs ($18 at Home Depot or on the web) as long as you clip the tabs to make it fit. Cheaper and may be a little bit brighter. I love my 2014 GMC Sierra but am very cautious when driving it at night -- it is downright dangerous on a dark, wet country road. All you can do is file a complaint with the NHTSB (or the Canadian equivalent at Transport Canada) and hope that the class-action suit wins eventually. My next truck? It may be a GMC, or maybe a Chevy, or even a Ford -- but it gets a test drive at night before I sign the dotted line.

Car Complaint.com article on the suit against GM in California: http://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2016/gmc-sierra-headlights-dim-gm-class-action-lawsuit.shtml?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160821-gmc-lawsuit

Those HID bulbs look pretty good. I'm interested in finding out if there are any problems, now or down the road. But I think this is a lot closer to what GMC should have put in these trucks in the first place!

There are a number of commercial companies out there selling kits with LEDs or HID bulbs. I've stayed away from them because, based on things I read on the interwebs, they don't seem to always work as intended. Some folks may have made them work, but I don't want to spend a lot of money and find out they don't work -- and I've voided my warranty. GMC could readily design a solution to our problem, along one of two lines: 1). Install HID bulbs in the existing headlight unit, which would also require installation of a ballast for each HID bulb and a new wiring harness. 2) Design a new headlight unit that is exactly the same size/shape as the existing one, but has two reflectors and two bulbs instead of the puny projector system. The existing wiring harness might work with this, or might need a modification for the high beam to work (since our high beam actually uses the same bulb as the low beam, and is controlled by a signal that opens a gate for the light to shine over a wider area). My guess is that a tailored system of HID bulbs, ballasts, and wiring harness could be built by GMC for under $100, and new headlight units using reflectors and standard halogen bulbs could be built for under $200. Personally, I'd pay for either one out of my own pocket, if I knew the results were going to be top "professional grade" quality.

The Russell Law Firm 7557 Rambler Rd., Suite 810 Dallas, TX 75231 Phone: 214-443-0800 Fax: 214-443-0898

The Vosla 28432 bulbs are rated for about 250 hours by Vosla and that turns out to be 12,500 miles at an average speed of 50 mph, which would be a high average mph. See http://www.vosla-german-lighting.com/upload/products/pdf/de/28432.pdf That is one of the down sides of TSB #PIT5374, The other downside is that the lights aren't very much brighter than the originals. I appreciate the information on how to get onboard with the class-action suit. I sent them an email late today.