SouthPawCO's 2015 Silverado LTZ DC Build

SouthPawCO · August 14, 2016

You might have some regret not doing that harness while it was all apart. The capacitor is a crucial link to the HID installs on these K2xx trucks.

I still used a capactior/anti-flicker/error canceler but I skipped out on the additional relay harness. The harness I got was designed to not use the drivers side factory plug any more but instead ties it to the passenger side. The only way I could have made it work would be with four relay harness' (two for low and two for high). Is that how you are setup? I have no problem adding it later if it causes issues.

SouthPawCO · August 17, 2016

Well an update on the HID system from Kensun:

Originally they were working fine the first day. The next couple of days they started flickering, cutting in and out and not turning on. I could flick the headlight switch off/on and they would eventually work. Following the next few days the driver side low beam quit working completely. Monday, I put the relay harness in.

Well I put the relay harness in and only the passenger side would work 100%. The driver side was about 50%. It would flash, turn on, then turn off, flicker, etc. I tried every combo you could imagine; with relay harness, without, with capacitors, without, stock signal to ballast, capacitor on one side only, capacitor between stock signal and ballast, etc and the driver side would not work reliably. I got my test light out and when testing the ballast on the driver side, it would barely light up the test light no matter where it was getting power from (relay harness or stock signal). The relay harness itself, showed good 12V power everywhere. Yesterday, neither passenger or driver side would come at all. I pulled them out and put the halogen bulbs back in last night. I do not blame this on the Kensun kit at all. The DRL system on the K2's are brutal on HID ballasts. I/my truck probably killed both ballasts trying to get them to work. FWIW, the high beams and fogs work flawlessly.

Well I called Kensuns tech support, which surprisingly was very helpful and knowledgeable, they said I would need a relay harness with resistors like this. They sent me one (free of charge) for the hassle which is great customer service but after reading up on that style of harness, I opted to not install it as those resistors are going to get extremely HOT. I was not willing to go through all the trouble and liability of that harness just for some HIDs.

About this time I started looking at LED's for the low beams or other options. The few days that the HID did work, they were great. Then switching back to the halogen bulbs SUCKED! The difference was literally unreal. The previous week I had been browsing fastheadlights website and long story short put the saying "buy once, cry once" and pulled the trigger on their full FXR/HID kit. I chose this company for a few reasons. One they are small business and I like dealing with the little guys, two, they offered the only full plug and play kit with the FXR projector and three, Phil was AWESOME at answering all my questions and getting me exactly what I wanted. Fastheadlights really has their sh*t together when it comes to GM trucks and lighting. Some times you have to pay to play and I feel confident knowing I got a full kit that was built for my truck and is going to be reliable.

cbrsilv15 · August 20, 2016

TRS is the way to go. I picked up my set for $90 shipped. Lol. The relay harness is super easy to install too. I have no issues with the capacitor link.

SouthPawCO · August 20, 2016

TRS is the way to go. I picked up my set for $90 shipped. Lol. The relay harness is super easy to install too. I have no issues with the capacitor link.

I agree. No matter what I tried, the low beams would not work right. Can't wait for them to come in!

Robert Russell · August 24, 2016

Loving your build man!! Keep up the good work

From Wyo looking to do similar things to mine soon!

SouthPawCO · August 25, 2016

Loving your build man!! Keep up the good work

From Wyo looking to do similar things to mine soon!

Thank you!

Well a little update, the FXR kit has shipped. I ordered 6500K bulbs because I wanted a bluer look then the 5500K. They do not stock those (in case you are wanting the same thing) and had to order them in so it took longer. Along with all this, I recently sold my last bike (2010 Yamaha R1) with the intentions of giving up riding for awhile. Well to make a long story short, a friend of mine needed some cash and I ended scoring a 2006 ZX14 for dirt cheap. It needs a few things but for what I paid, I couldn't go wrong. This will be the ninth or tenth motorcycle I have owned since I have been riding the streets and my first 1400!

She needs a few things here and there but overall great shape. Riding season is coming to an end here in CO so it will make for a fun winter project.

SouthPawCO · September 1, 2016

On Monday, I tackled the FXR Retro fit. I am going to give my honest and complete thoughts about this kit. This is my opinion on them and hopefully someone will be able use this if they decide to do retofit theirs. I consider myself more mechanically inclined than the average Joe as I grew up working on cars with my dad since he was a mechanic by trade. I have always done my own work on my vehicles so take that for what it is worth.

PROS about the kit:
- The FXR projector performance vs stock is literally night and day. The FXR's throw the light nice and evenly and make it really enjoyable to drive at night.
- The Morimoto kit has been 100% reliable in both DRL mode and low beams.
- Between the new projectors and the HID kit, brightness is amazing.
- For the 'most' part this was a plug and play kit. Read the con section to see why.
- Everything came included needed to complete the install.
- The FXR replacement directions were spot on. They did fail to mention that the headlights should be removed for this install. May seem minor or obvious but I am sure it will come up.
CONS about the kit:
- The way the HID kit was sent to me, it is not plug and play for the Silverado's. This really disappointed me as the cheapie one I bought from amazon was plug and play for the H11 bulb.
- The directions for the HID kit are VERY basic/generic. I have done multiple HID conversions but this one was really confusing to me.
  - The problem stemmed from getting the passenger side stock signal connected to the HID kit without having to drill another hole for the plug. The kit does NOT come with an H11 style plug and it required me dissembling/swapping plugs to make it an H11 style plug from another piece of the harness. This has been addressed with fastheadlights and they should be correcting this by installing this plug for you prior to sending you the kit. If ordering, I would remind them so you don't have to worry about it.
- Getting the FXR inside the LTZ housing was a total bitch. It took me quite sometime to get them to fit inside so plan on a lot of cussing and frustration.
- For some reason, the drivers side headlight required me to use a longer sheet metal screw than the one provided with the kit. I tried all of there tips/tricks but it was not long enough. Once I used a longer screw, everything fit just fine. I had a lot of trouble getting the FXR into this particular headlight to begin with and to the point were it chipped a piece of the housing in the back (does not affect light or is not visible - see attached picture).
- The 6500K bulbs burn completely white with no blue tint what so ever. I was hoping to get a nice crisp white light with a tint of blue to it. Not a huge deal but was con for me. Your wants/needs may be different.
- My holes that I previously drilled for my cheapie HID kit did not work with the FXR/Mori kit. The existing holes I drilled was off from the FXR/Mori kit because the new projector mounts the bulb against the dust cover where my previous kit had lots of room to play with. If you do have an HID kit already installed, double check your dust caps to see if it is going to fit.
- The D2H bulb combined with the FXR is a tight fit with the dust cover on. My dust caps already had a hole drilled in them from a previous HID kit and it isn't going to work because it isn't centered for the FXR. I am either going to have to replace my dust caps, get extended ones, or try to repair my old ones. Not really a con on the kit just an FYI.
Tips for install:
- As stated earlier, definitely remove the headlights from the truck. It might be able to be done on the truck but it was hard enough with them out so I cannot imagine what it would be like with them in.
- For the Silverado's, you have the option of using the Bi-Xenon feature on the FXR as well as your factory high beams. The Mori kit includes some splitter cables that allow you too hook up the two red wires underneath the FXR to the splitter and tee that off to connect your factory high beams. This way when you turn on your high beams, your new FXR low beams will be high beams with the shutter activated and your factory high beams will still come on as well. I found this out after talking to Josh @ fastheadlights but this would have been really nice to know before hand as I would have hooked it all while it was apart. You also have the option of just hooking up your factory high beam socket to the FXR and deleting your factory high beams.
- I do not think there is an easy getting the FXR inside the housing. What helped me was inserting the FXR tipped down to align the two bottom bolts and then tilting it slightly one way to sneak it in. You are going to have to play with it, fight with it and cuss at it to get it in there but it will fit. If you are going with the three bolt method, do not even worry about the top bracket as you will not need it.
- For safe measures, I would put a bead of silicone around each grommet. I have been fighting moisture in my lenses since I bought the truck new and still fighting it since my last HID install. It won't hurt anything and it's cheap insurance.
- If you have a friend that can help, it is worth the dinner/beer cost.
- Plan for extra time and it can be a long process. Take your time, slow down and be patient.

Pull the grille/bumper cover off using the video above.

This was looking at my high beam cover. As you can see, the grommet doesn't quite seal. That is why I recommend putting silicone right off the bat so you don't have this problem.

FXR on the left vs stock projector on the right.

FXR on the left, stock on the right.

These are the two bolts that I was referencing on aligning first when trying to install it. You can see on the outside of the headlight ring, the marred up plastic from fighting it in there.

Also note the two red wires I was talking about for the FXR bi-xenon shutter.

Here is the picture of the splitter cable. As you can see, one side connects to factory high beam socket and the others connect to the FXR.

If you look between the bolts, you can see the chip. I talked to fastheadlights and they are not sure why this happened. After this chip happened, the FXR fit like a glove.

Photos of them installed. This is when they are warming up which is the color I would have wanted them to stay but a full temp, they are all white.

Lense cutoff after they were adjusted.

Fogs and low beams on.

Conclusion:

After the install, I spoke to Josh for about an hour explaining what I ran into. He was very helpful and understanding and noted that the issues that I had. After telling him about the HID kit for the sliverado's that is when he said they will start making that change to accommodate the plug prior to sending it out for shipment to save the headache. I started the install about 5:30-6pm and finished about 12am. Looking at this post it may seem like there is a lot more cons than pros at a glance. I am happy with it and the only issue I have now is the mangled dust caps and moisture that has been there since I bought it new.

When modifying stuff from the factory, there is always risk/gamble. Be aware of that and do it at your own risk. If you have the extra funds, they will take your current headlights in and install them for you. It was a bit of a learning curve for me and I think fastheadlights learned a few things from it as well. Hopefully someone can use this to help them if they decide to do theirs.

slj2008 · September 2, 2016

looking good

ls13sierra15 · September 2, 2016

Looks good man! Any pics of that plug you had to modify?

SouthPawCO · September 2, 2016

Looks good man! Any pics of that plug you had to modify?

Thanks!

I forgot to snap some. I am sure if you ask fastheadlights they will send you a picture of it though.

cbrsilv15 · September 3, 2016

Looks amazing! I'm jealous.

SouthPawCO · September 10, 2016

I tore it apart on Tuesday (again) to install the High Beam splitters for bi-xenon feature on the FXR and factory high beams. I tried installing it with the headlights on the truck but I have had the grille off so many times, it takes me 20 minutes to pull everything. It can probably be snaked through with the headlights on but it helped a lot having the lights off.

Bi-XENON FEATURE: The FXR's have a built in shutter that switches the low beams to high beams. The FXR acts just like the factory Sierra projectors as it is designed to use one bulb for high/low beam.

SPLITTERS: Included in the moriomoto kit, is a set of splitter cables. The cables allows you to plug into your factory high beam signal and split it two ways to power your factory high beam bulbs and the FXR shutter.

BENEFIT: This mod allows you to have (4) High beams on at one time. (2) from the factory and (2) from the FXR. It's a pretty cool mod and if you are doing the retro fit on the Silverado, it is worth the extra five minutes to put on. You could also delete the factory high beams and just use the FXR's if you wanted.

Picture of the splitter cable. As you can see it is a three way plug. The single end goes into your factory high beam plug and the other two go to your FXR and factory high beam bulb.

Included in the FXR box is this plug. The FXR has two red wires stuffed at the bottom of it. If you look through my previous install pictures, you can see it there. All you have to do is install the supplied rubber grommets onto the wires and feed them through this plug housing. Make sure they are installed correctly. If they are install backwards, you will be able to pull the wire out of the socket freely. It also helps to use some needle nose pliers to see the pin inside the housing and get them to lock.

Connect one side of the splitter cables to the FXR.

Next, feed the splitter cable through the headlight to the bottom high beam.

This confused me a bit here. The factory plug has a blue wire and black wire. I am assuming the blue wire is the hot and black is ground. If you check the splitter cable, they are opposite of this. The factory plug can only install on the splitter cable one way to lock in position. This is the correct way.

You are then with one plug left which I plugged into my HID kit on the high beams.

All put back together and ready to be installed.

Greco · October 18, 2016

What a beautiful truck. That exhaust sounds amazing. I think I'm gonna try to run the same set up. May use a borla, but I'm gonna show the local muffler shop your set up and tell them that's what I want. If I can keep the price around 500, the "boss" should be ok with it.

Thanks for posting your build, brother

SouthPawCO · December 12, 2016

Haven't done too much to the truck the last few months. Saturday I took apart the front end to fix my light bar that quit working (re-did the wiring and sealed everything up) and finally 'fixed' my headlight projectors. FastHeadlights says you do not need to extend the dust caps with the new D2S bulbs, but you do. I had to extend mine because the back of the FXR was hitting the dust cap. Since it was touching the dust cap, it would not allow me to adjust them down and they were pointed extremely high.

I would suggest extending them while it is all apart and siliconing the drilled holes to make sure no moisture ends up in there. Now that they are extended and the FXR's have enough room to move, the cutoff line is nice and straight and aimed correctly. I checked my fog lights and there is no damage from the HID's (35W) that I put in there. I know some people were wondering if it would cause heat issues but so far so good and I run them all the time.

j3st3r · December 12, 2016

How are the HID's working for your high beams? I have HID's for my low beams and led's for my high beams and am not real pleased with the the throw of the led's. They are bright as all get out close up, just not so much for distance. I know the headlight police frown upon putting HID's in a reflector but I live in a very rural place so I'm not worried about blinding anyone or the warm up time of an HID. Just wondering about the light throw in a reflector.