2016 silverado 1500 headlight bulb upgrade

swampa · August 21, 2016

I live in deer country too. I love the factory led fog lights for their width. I usually go low beam with fogs in the areas that have a bigger deer population. It does take awhile to get used to projectors due to their sharp cutoff compared to a factory reflector. Lately I've been more concerned about hitting a black bear with how their population is growing where I live.

i dont see much of a difference at all using the led fog lights , they only help a little bit , but still not nearly enough for me to be comfortable , i looked online for days and cant find anything at all ,i even called all the parts stores in my area and they dont even have a listing for the 2016 silverado 1500 headlights yet . the whole purpose of me posting this was to get help finding upgraded bulbs without having to change the whole headlight assembly in the process any help or tips would be greatly appreciated

swampa · August 21, 2016

i dont see much of a difference at all using the led fog lights , they only help a little bit , but still not nearly enough for me to be comfortable , i looked online for days and cant find anything at all ,i even called all the parts stores in my area and they dont even have a listing for the 2016 silverado 1500 headlights yet . the whole purpose of me posting this was to get help finding upgraded bulbs without having to change the whole headlight assembly in the process any help or tips would be greatly appreciated

cbrsilv15 · August 21, 2016

You have the D5s bulbs. Consider those upgraded already. Lol. You won't find a replacement better. The only way to upgrade the stock HID bulb is to use a CBI HID bulb. I don't think they are produced in that D5s size. Not sure what else to say if you don't think those are good, Pretty much the best out there....

swampa · August 21, 2016

You have the D5s bulbs. Consider those upgraded already. Lol. You won't find a replacement better. The only way to upgrade the stock HID bulb is to use a CBI HID bulb. I don't think they are produced in that D5s size. Not sure what else to say if you don't think those are good, Pretty much the best out there....

but they are not an upgrade because they arent any brighter then the stock bulbs that were in my colorado ,and definately dont even come close to the output of the silverstar ZXE's that i put in the colorado so how can you say they are better ? maybe better technology but as far as output and lighting up the road well ,the silverado headlights fall short , dont get me wrong i love the silverado , only 2 mpg diff between the colorado's V6 and the silverado's V8 ,the sound system is awesome ,and the ride is much more quiet and smooth , rides more like a full size car than a truck , the poor headlights for the area i live in is my only complaint that i would like to rectify if i can

cbrsilv15 · August 21, 2016

I'd pay a visit to your optometrist then if you can't see the difference between a halogen and HID IMO.

Jeff5347 · August 21, 2016

but they are not an upgrade because they arent any brighter then the stock bulbs that were in my colorado ,and definately dont even come close to the output of the silverstar ZXE's that i put in the colorado so how can you say they are better ? maybe better technology but as far as output and lighting up the road well ,the silverado headlights fall short , dont get me wrong i love the silverado , only 2 mpg diff between the colorado's V6 and the silverado's V8 ,the sound system is awesome ,and the ride is much more quiet and smooth , rides more like a full size car than a truck , the poor headlights for the area i live in is my only complaint that i would like to rectify if i can

Hey man, good to see another Masshole here. I don't have 2016 but was reading you changed out stock lifting on your Colorado for the zxe's. Are they a major difference vs the originals. I had been contemplating his, LEDs ect but really didn't want to dent the wallet. I just want a whiter color and more brightness. If the zxe's do this that might be my best bet to go for

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swampa · August 21, 2016

Hey man, good to see another Masshole here. I don't have 2016 but was reading you changed out stock lifting on your Colorado for the zxe's. Are they a major difference vs the originals. I had been contemplating his, LEDs ect but really didn't want to dent the wallet. I just want a whiter color and more brightness. If the zxe's do this that might be my best bet to go for

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yes absolutely , the ZXE'S were night and day over the stock bulbs in my colorado was worth the 100 bucks for all 4 bulbs , i also replaced the bulbs in my girlfriends 2015 equinox with ZXE'S and let me tell you her headlights were brighter than the colorado's , and are much brighter than the silverado's stock bulbs , in the colorado the ZXE'S shot out another 30 feet further and lit up the sides of the road much better over stock bulbs, i put my gf's 2015 equinox next to my 2016 Z71 silverado 1500 at night about 15 feet apart both aimed at a 8 ft high brick wall and turned the headlights on and you could see the difference in brightness on the wall between the 2 the ZXE'S in my gf's equinox and the stock bulbs in the silverado ,the equinox's were much brighter and they are just reflector halogens and not hid's

swampa · August 21, 2016

I'd pay a visit to your optometrist then if you can't see the difference between a halogen and HID IMO.

my vision is well above arerage i have 20 /10 vision , that means what the average person can see at 10 feet i can see the same at 20 feet , dont need my eyes checked , it would probably be different if i lived in a lit up city the headlights would be sufficient but unfortunately i dont , i live in a dark area with little to no streetlights and the factory headlights aren't cutting it , sorry to disappoint you but that is the case , and i know what hid 's are i had them in my 2013 buick regal turbo premium 2 and they werent that bright either

swampa · August 21, 2016

You have the D5s bulbs. Consider those upgraded already. Lol. You won't find a replacement better. The only way to upgrade the stock HID bulb is to use a CBI HID bulb. I don't think they are produced in that D5s size. Not sure what else to say if you don't think those are good, Pretty much the best out there....

regaurdless of what type of bulbs the 16 silverado has , they dont light up the road well enough ,i guess i got used to the brightness of the ZXE'S in the colorado and my gf's equinox ,they shot out much further and lit up the sides of the road much better than the stock bulbs in silverado even with the led fog lights on it doesn't help much , thats all i know and would like to upgrade the bulbs to something a lil brighter if i can without having to change both headlight assemblies

1300c · August 21, 2016

i dont see much of a difference at all using the led fog lights , they only help a little bit , but still not nearly enough for me to be comfortable , i looked online for days and cant find anything at all ,i even called all the parts stores in my area and they dont even have a listing for the 2016 silverado 1500 headlights yet . the whole purpose of me posting this was to get help finding upgraded bulbs without having to change the whole headlight assembly in the process any help or tips would be greatly appreciated

I answered your question earlier. Either get the GM morimoto kit for your projectors, or spend more and get them with potted denso ballasts. Your d5s bulb can be changed to a d2s bulb. You'll have to mount the ballast externally since your d5s bulb has a 25w ballast mounted to the rear of the bulb assembly.

cbrsilv15 · August 21, 2016

Sounds like you should just get a light bar then for the dark country roads then.

swampa · August 21, 2016

I answered your question earlier. Either get the GM morimoto kit for your projectors, or spend more and get them with potted denso ballasts. Your d5s bulb can be changed to a d2s bulb. You'll have to mount the ballast externally since your d5s bulb has a 25w ballast mounted to the rear of the bulb assembly.

yeah and where would i find these bulbs and ballasts you are talking about and how much are we talking here in funds for the parts and what level of difficulty in upgrading , i'm disabled with nerve damage in both hands so anything more than a simple bulb change will be difficult for me ? , i cant find any bulbs online at all for 2016 Z71 silverado 1500

camcamaro1991 · August 21, 2016

Always start with RPO codes to verify, guessing is just blind luck... <- see what I did there?

Why not take it to the dealer and have them check & adjust, looked at lots of threads you are literally the only person complaining about poor performance of factory 2016+ HID lights. It might just be as easy as adjusting the lamp level, factory HID's cut the light it does take a little to get used to.

1300c · August 21, 2016

yeah and where would i find these bulbs and ballasts you are talking about and how much are we talking here in funds for the parts and what level of difficulty in upgrading , i'm disabled with nerve damage in both hands so anything more than a simple bulb change will be difficult for me ? , i cant find any bulbs online at all for 2016 Z71 silverado 1500

They can be found at theretrofitsource.com or fastheadlights.com (fast chimes in on this forum from time to time.) Since you have a disability I would advise having them installed by someone you trust as it involves some wiring, and if you have dexterity issues with your fingers it could prove difficult. You probably would be best off calling, and speaking with their tech department because I've never seen anyone switch from a d5s to d2s (more powerful bulb.) They are located in Georgia so you won't have to worry about talking to someone from a different country. Their gm kit cost $150.00. However if you want it bulletproof I would suggest purchasing some of their oem products that will last the lifetime of your truck. I hope this helps.

Actually after typing all this I remembered that fastheadlights.com mentioned on their Facebook page that they had an upgrade in the works for hid equipped 2016 gm trucks. I would check with them too.

snowbrewer88 · July 5, 2017

This is the most trolled/uninformed thread on gm-trucks.com. OP had a legit question about his headlights.

Half the people posting here have '14 or '15 silverados and don't even know the '16 HID headlights.

I'm in the same boat as OP and I've learned almost NOTHING after reading all 3 pages of posts.

If you have '14 or '15 silverados please stop posting in this thread. Go do something useful.

The 25w D5s are not enough light in dark areas especially on the sides. Kinda tunnel vision. Hopefully someone can find a good solution and post it here.

Cheers,

Danny G