Headlights and Tires on '04 Suburban

Elwood 2000 · October 3, 2005

I have tinkered with the headlight adjustment on my Suburban several times and the dims seem to only throw light about 15 yards at best. The brights are perfect, almost too good! I have raised them, lowered them, about ready to shine them in my face to hopefully improve results!

The brightness is fine, they just don't throw light very far. My 2000 Silverado dim lights throw light almost twice as far.

I guess I am just lost. Any suggestions? I think I would like the Zenarc system, but don't want to spend $600+ for that kind of an upgrade.

I seriously have reservations about driving over 50 mph on a clear night because of the very short distance of light they provide. Rainy nights are downright scary.

Anyone??

Also, do the Goodyear tires get noisier with miles or is it just me? I have put 12k on the Suburban since I bought it and they seem to be getting louder with age. Am I nuts?

Machine · October 3, 2005

I have tinkered with the headlight adjustment on my Suburban several times and the dims seem to only throw light about 15 yards at best. The brights are perfect, almost too good! I have raised them, lowered them, about ready to shine them in my face to hopefully improve results!

The brightness is fine, they just don't throw light very far. My 2000 Silverado dim lights throw light almost twice as far.

I guess I am just lost. Any suggestions? I think I would like the Zenarc system, but don't want to spend $600+ for that kind of an upgrade.

I seriously have reservations about driving over 50 mph on a clear night because of the very short distance of light they provide. Rainy nights are downright scary.

Anyone??

Also, do the Goodyear tires get noisier with miles or is it just me? I have put 12k on the Suburban since I bought it and they seem to be getting louder with age. Am I nuts?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey there –

Unfortunately, no matter what bulb you decide to run on your Sub, you will still get only a marginal improvement. I originally ran the Silverstars in my ’04 to try and fix the problem – they looked cool but I still felt things could be improved upon. I finally made the jump to HID’s and liked them so much that I bought another set for my ’05. Nothing, NOTHING comes close to these headlights. The clarity, brightness, and distance these things produce made the $419 (per set) one of the best mods I could buy. I know $420 is a big amount $ to spend on headlights, but the additional safety and performance these things offer should make it something to consider – especially if you travel a lot at night on dark roads.

Regarding the Goodyears, I kept them on my 04 and they do seem to get louder as the miles add on. The tread life seems to be holding up pretty good, though.

BlueTahoe · October 3, 2005

Can't be much help on the headlight as I think the lights on my 03 are great but I have the t-bars raised some so that may help.

As far as tire noise. I had an explorer a few years ago and had ongoing tire noise issues. Mine was a wear issue on the front end. If I rotated the tires the noise would go away and then come back as the front tires started to cup. You might want to try rotating and/or checking the alignment. On mine it was hard to see the irregular wear but if I rotated them it would quiet down for 1-2k miles. Just an idea.

Elwood 2000 · October 4, 2005

Thanks for the replies. Machine, what brand of HID lights do you have? Is the install pretty simple? A web page maybe?

Thanks!

Machine · October 4, 2005

Thanks for the replies. Machine, what brand of HID lights do you have? Is the install pretty simple? A web page maybe?

Thanks!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here you go:

Xenon X2020 HID’s from Sylvania. They are a totally enclosed, plug and play HID unit. You literally unplug and remove your existing headlamp unit and replace it with the new one. The ballasts and HID bulbs are all part of the replacement. It takes less than 30 minutes to replace and properly aim them.

I bought my sets from: Here

$414.00 per set.

My Mercedes has factory HID and the units I installed in my Sub's are as bright and effective as those.