Adjusting 2014 GMC Sierra 1500 headlamps - sideways, not up/down

[lrymal]

Well........... this seems to be the most popular topic for me, but I have yet to get any help. We have such a great truck, and I know the lighting on the 2014 GMC Sierra has generated many topics and messages. But, my #1 issue is doing a lateral adjustment of the lighting. Up/down adjustments are simple. Easy.

My problem is that I live in a very dark and rural area, with hilly and twisty roads. The left side lighting is DEAD. It is just as if I were in an old car or old truck and the left headlamp burned out. The left on-coming lane hardly has any illumination. If I could just do a lateral adjustment of the left headlamp, I know the issue could be solved.

 

I have looked behind the lamp assembly and I just cannot find any adjuster. Surely, someone has a service manual that explains how to do lateral lamp adjustments for headlights on the 2014 GMC Sierra.

[ChrisNJ]

No question that the '14 Sierra's headlight are the worst they've been since the 90's trucks, I know because I've owned them all. My first drive of my 14 was a shocker and I had to slow down on rural roads at night they are that bad (to me). I am very surprised this is not a recall yet. I have told my dealer, and of course there is nothing they can do about until GM tells them there is something to do.

I am fairly confident there is no side-to-side adjustment of the headlights.

One thing I would do if I were you, since you have a nice brush guard on already, would be to add some high quality driving lights to it and relay them to work with the lows on automatically. Personally I would also add some nice pencil beams for when on high too. I don't like brush guards, so I haven't gone that route yet.

I put an HID bulb kit in the stock projectors and it helped a lot with the brightness, but the adjustments are all wrong still, and I can't fix it. With the HID bulbs, on high, the beam pattern points to the sky (up 10degrees), so I light up the trees and call in planes to land. On low they are good, at least I can see. I compromised the low adjustment down a little, and the high angle is a little better, but still pointing up 5-10 degrees.

Best of luck.

ps: the 2007 to 2013 trucks lights were great, and the first GM trucks I did not have to add aftermarket lights too.

pss: if these new trucks weren't so darn good, I would have sent my '14 packing for a 13 just over the light issue, I hate them that bad. However, everything about these new 14's are soooo much better than before, I wait either for GM of the aftermarket to fix these hell'ish lights.

[lrymal]

ps: the 2007 to 2013 trucks lights were great, and the first GM trucks I did not have to add aftermarket lights too.

pss: if these new trucks weren't so darn good, I would have sent my '14 packing for a 13 just over the light issue, I hate them that bad. However, everything about these new 14's are soooo much better than before, I wait either for GM of the aftermarket to fix these hell'ish lights.

Oh, I so agree with you. And my guard has mounting holes for LED lamps. I've held off due to the cost, and I want it to look good, to not look like a "rymal-rig" (that's me!). There's some grill solutions for mounting, and there is a message of a member showing how he did a behind grill mounting. I don't have the link.

 

Another dead zone are the sides. If in the dark, and you are turning a sharp left, you are utterly in the dark. If the road is unfamiliar, you may end up in a culvert. City folks just don't understand due to all their street lighting. This is one truck that honestly needs corner directional lighting.

[Spurshot]

Remember, you need some kind of "low beam" solution that doesn't blind oncoming traffic but lets you see peripherally. Any 18 year old hat rotator with $200 and an ebay account can put enough lighting power on their truck to make oncoming traffic think a 747 is landing on the road.