Recommended LED bulbs?

[GMcD]

I have a 14 Silverado LT (non projector headlights) and want to add a modern look of the bright bulbs with the functionality of having better visibility at night. What are some good matching low beam/high beam/fog lights? If matching bulbs arent possible, what do y’all recommend? Thanks!

 

oh yeah, i love the color of the new silverado headlights and fogs. Whatever color that is , thats what i love!

 

edit: im now seeing i can buy a HID kit thats 80% plug and play? All this stuff is making my head hurt. Im not against led or hid, i just want the best option without spending a fortune and without doing alot of modifications.

[Spurshot]

There’s at least three or four ways to go.  

 

You could buy LED bulbs to go in your reflector type headlight housings.  The members that have posted about this have mixed opinions.  Some say they’re much improved, some think it doesn’t add visibility, some even think it reduced visibility.   Some say the LED bulbs cause glare to oncoming drivers.  There’s probably some truth to all of those depending on the specific bulbs.

 

Installing HID bulbs and ballasts in your reflector housings is just not a reasonable option, IMO. They will cause severe glare to oncoming traffic.  I’m aware of no OEM vehicle that uses a HID bulb in a reflector housing.  It’s because a reflector housing can’t control the light scatter.  Don’t go there. 

 

If you want HID, you need a projector.  You can retrofit real HID projectors into your housings or you can install housings that have halogen projectors and use a HID bulb/ballast/harness kit in the halogen projectors or even replace those halogen projectors with HID projectors. 

 

Theses are projectors.  The black one is the 2014-15 Sierra SLT halogen projector.  The other is a OEM Lexus RX-350 HID projector. 

[Huetatos]

Just like to add onto that, halogen projectors are not designed for HIDs. They don't have the correct lens built for the HIDs and you should do a full retrofit before using HIDs. Some have other opinions but I firmly believe you shouldn't use HIDs in halogen projectors.

 

Also, there are a co uple HID reflector headlights but those are specifically designed for HIDs. Some cars are like the DC5 headlamps in hondas, or 00-03 Acura CL and some others that I can't think of.

[GMcD]

Sounds like LED is the way for me as i dont want to do alot of work. What are some good LED bulbs that people are having good results with?

[Biggyboy]

Do not buy cheap LED bulbs that have the fans on them.

they produce EMF enough to knock out you FM radio signal.

i just purchased a 2015 Silverado that the previous owner had installed low beam and fog light 

LEDs. Soon as the lights are on the radio goes to crap. Some stations totally disappear.

I tied putting ferrite around the wires between the bulb and the driver and I front of the drives.

no luck didn’t do a thing to help. I ended up pulling the LEDs out and putting in halogens.

radio works great now. Plus the LEDs were so bright and obnoxious to oncoming cars.

I didn’t want to be one of those guys that everyone hates.

 

Glen

[Huetatos]

There really isn't much you can do in a halogen reflector. My suggestion is maybe just get some sylvania ultras and be done with that. It'll get you that closer to white look. Otherwise just pony up for a retrofit.

[dcarl]

I'll chime in too... My truck is a 15' Sierra SLT.  It only took me a couple months driving with the stock lights to start looking for more light.  I started with a HID kit from TRS for the Sierra but using the stock projectors and the output was much better than stock, but after having driven my 01' Denali that I retrofitted with HID projectors from TRS, the Sierra's light output and quality just wasn't satisfactory.  I finally broke down and did the retrofit on the Sierra using hardware from FastHeadlights and TRS, and never been happier.  It's a fair of work but the results are well worth it.  As far as I know, 

 

There's nothing like being able to see at night with a close to 180 degree wide beam pattern that lights up the sides of the road too.  

[brholtz02]

The glare comes from the bottom of the HID bulb as it reflects off the housing.  What you need is an D2R kit, which I wasn't able to find for my 2014 Silverado, the "R" bulbs have a shield on the bottom of the bulb.  Or you could make your own, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XFYbJn68U0.