Halogen to LED

mount615 · December 11, 2019

I'm sure this has been addressed many times before but I'm tired of searching without being able to find a clear answer. I have a 2015 Silverado with the basic halogen headlights. Is there a direct fit LED replacement bulb available or do I have to do something more in order to get more visibility at night? I know there are aftermarket housings and all that jazz, but I would prefer to be able to just upgrade the bulbs if at all possible. My last vehicles offered much more visibility (Camaro SS and Jeep Cherokee) so these headlights seem extremely dim to me. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I generally try to find answers to my questions before resorting to asking, buuuut I seem to have LED (see what I did there) myself down a rabbit hole and cant find my way out

LRod · December 11, 2019

I'm sure this has been addressed many times before but I'm tired of searching without being able to find a clear answer. I have a 2015 Silverado with the basic halogen headlights. Is there a direct fit LED replacement bulb available or do I have to do something more in order to get more visibility at night? I know there are aftermarket housings and all that jazz, but I would prefer to be able to just upgrade the bulbs if at all possible. My last vehicles offered much more visibility (Camaro SS and Jeep Cherokee) so these headlights seem extremely dim to me. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I generally try to find answers to my questions before resorting to asking, buuuut I seem to have LED (see what I did there) myself down a rabbit hole and cant find my way out

I thought the 2015's have HID bulbs and not just regular halogen? My 19' LD has them and thought the 15' had them as well. I might be wrong though! If you have HID, they are super bright as is. Mine are blinding! I just googled "2015 Silverado headlights" and there are tons of LED replacement stuff for your truck.

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mount615 · December 11, 2019

The OEM bulb is an H11 LL. Its extremely yellow and dim. I sure hope it isn't an HID lol I've googled too and I guess I just wanted to make sure if I spent the money on the bulbs it wouldn't be a waste

LRod · December 11, 2019

Yep I was wrong, Lol!! Sorry!! Different than mine.

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O_J_Simpson · December 11, 2019

Just go OEM 2016 lamps.

wforrest08 · December 11, 2019

I bought the Diode Dynamics lows/highs/fogs for my 015 but haven’t installed them yet. Supposed to be a direct replacement and built for the halogen housings. From the research I did the reflectors are different between the projection & halogen housing & if you put LEDs designed for the projectors the light output sucks and you’ll blind oncoming traffic.

I’ve used Diode Dynamics stuff in previous vehicles & my 015 back up/reverse/cargos & have been happy with them.

g2full · December 11, 2019

Go to your local Auto parts store and have them give you the bulb numbers for lows, high, and fogs.

Go to amazon and order LED replacements. I did it on mine and what a world of difference. Really no need to change them all out like I did, but I didn't want them to not match.

EDIT - Just be a decent person and re aim your headlights slightly down so you don't go blinding everyone else on the roads

Snowcamo · December 11, 2019

Go to your local Auto parts store and have them give you the bulb numbers for lows, high, and fogs.

Go to amazon and order LED replacements. I did it on mine and what a world of difference. Really no need to change them all out like I did, but I didn't want them to not match.

EDIT - Just be a decent person and re aim your headlights slightly down so you don't go blinding everyone else on the roads

Do you have a part# or link for the low beams? Thanks

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g2full · December 11, 2019

54 minutes ago, Snowcamo said:

Do you have a part# or link for the low beams? Thanks

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You'll need the bulb numbers first. Then there is all sorts on amazon. For my truck it was 9005 for the high beam, and h11 for low I believe. But you'll want to double check those just in case I'm not remembering correctly.

Snowcamo · December 11, 2019

Ok cool deal. I have been needing to upgrade my semi non existent low beams. I was hoping to finally find someone with leds and some run time to tell if its worth it. Most say they arent ment for halogen fixtures. Something about scatter. Idk. My front bumper doesnt have fogs so I am trying to figure what i can do othewise.

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amxguy1970 · December 11, 2019

2 hours ago, g2full said:

Go to your local Auto parts store and have them give you the bulb numbers for lows, high, and fogs.

Go to amazon and order LED replacements. I did it on mine and what a world of difference. Really no need to change them all out like I did, but I didn't want them to not match.

EDIT - Just be a decent person and re aim your headlights slightly down so you don't go blinding everyone else on the roads

Adjusting your headlights down does squat when you put in LED or HID bulbs in a halogen housing, they will still blind traffic. The bulb is many times brighter and creates a ton of scatter, it is blatantly obvious when someone has them in their car/truck.

30 minutes ago, Snowcamo said:

Ok cool deal. I have been needing to upgrade my semi non existent low beams. I was hoping to finally find someone with leds and some run time to tell if its worth it. Most say they arent ment for halogen fixtures. Something about scatter. Idk. My front bumper doesnt have fogs so I am trying to figure what i can do othewise.

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They aren't at all made for reflector housings. Do it right, replace them with the proper housings or at the very least projector housings from an LTZ with the cut off. LED and HID's are many times brighter then stock which is why it blinds on coming and traffic you are behind. Even those that list ok for reflector housings aren't. Each reflector housing is different, all the mirrors are angled differently and a standard "reflector housing safe" LED won't have the same adjusted coverage. Those that say safe are either a little shield over the bulb in the HID or wrongly spaced LED diodes that created uneven and splotchy coverage. If you can't afford it save up and do it right, you can get a ticket for it too as those bulbs are DOT approved for the correct housings.

I thought throwing HID's or LED's in reflector housings would have died shortly after the original fast and furious came out.

Tyler

g2full · December 11, 2019

1 minute ago, amxguy1970 said:

Adjusting your headlights down does squat when you put in LED or HID bulbs in a halogen housing, they will still blind traffic. The bulb is many times brighter and creates a ton of scatter, it is blatantly obvious when someone has them in their car/truck.

They aren't at all made for reflector housings. Do it right, replace them with the proper housings or at the very least projector housings from an LTZ with the cut off. LED and HID's are many times brighter then stock which is why it blinds on coming and traffic you are behind. Even those that list ok for reflector housings aren't. Each reflector housing is different, all the mirrors are angled differently and a standard "reflector housing safe" LED won't have the same adjusted coverage. Those that say safe are either a little shield over the bulb in the HID or wrongly spaced LED diodes that created uneven and splotchy coverage. If you can't afford it save up and do it right, you can get a ticket for it too as those bulbs are DOT approved for the correct housings.

I thought throwing HID's or LED's in reflector housings would have died shortly after the original fast and furious came out.

Tyler

Yes it's still obvious when someone has changed out their lights for LED's/HID's without the proper housings. But.. angling them down slightly does help you not be a complete asshat to other vehicles. The pattern my lights have now is the same pattern that they had when I had standard halogen bulbs in, just brighter. I've only been flashed once in the year I've had them in the truck. Also, I've never had vehicles in front of me visibly complain or purposely get over because of my headlights. Come to think of it I got flashed more in my 04 with Silverstar Ultra halogen bulbs compared to the 15 with LED's.

Ticket... yeah that can happen too. However, plenty of us could get those too for other modifications that we've done to our vehicles.

g2full · December 11, 2019

42 minutes ago, Snowcamo said:

Ok cool deal. I have been needing to upgrade my semi non existent low beams. I was hoping to finally find someone with leds and some run time to tell if its worth it. Most say they arent ment for halogen fixtures. Something about scatter. Idk. My front bumper doesnt have fogs so I am trying to figure what i can do othewise.

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The fogs in my 15 compared to the ones in my 04 are junk. In my 04 you could tell a huge difference when the fogs were on vs when not. With this truck I just get more periphrial lighting (new term?) than when them off. No distance or beam noticeable under the fog line.

Obviously, as amxguy said... just throwing LED's in isn't the "proper" way to do it. But you also wouldn't be the only one to do it that way.

Snowcamo · December 11, 2019

The fogs in my 15 compared to the ones in my 04 are junk. In my 04 you could tell a huge difference when the fogs were on vs when not. With this truck I just get more periphrial lighting (new term?) than when them off. No distance or beam noticeable under the fog line.

Obviously, as amxguy said... just throwing LED's in isn't the "proper" way to do it. But you also wouldn't be the only one to do it that way.

Ok so you still have the cutoff line at the top of the beam?

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