Halogen & LED Headlight Bulb Upgrades

FieldMarshal · February 14, 2014

I adjusted each headlight adjustment screw 1 turn counter-clockwise which raises the light beam.

I am happy to say that it made a huge difference. The high beam was better as well.

I will probably try 1/2 turn more and leave it.

I had the opposite adjustment. With no load my lights were pointing to the stars, two full rotations clockwise and it really made a vast improvement. No more shining my high beams into the neighbor's 2nd floor rooms. It seems to me that there is no standard in assembly for aiming the projectors.

TJay74 · February 14, 2014

If your truck is stock with no leveling kit, the headlights are aimed down so that once load is put in the bed the lights should be level. If you have leveled your truck then your lights should be pretty close, might need some minor adjustment to be perfect.

LTZ2014 · February 15, 2014

Ok after studying this thread I have a few questions. There isn't a lot of talk for us silverado owners. I have a LTZ and want to have the brightest bulb with a white color. I am looking on kbcarstuff and came up with this I will need the H11 bulb for low beam and the 9012 for high beam (rather than the stock 9005) assuming the 9012 is brighter and will still fit in the silverado with minor plastic trimming. Hopefully I'm on the right track I'm also going to get LED fogs from VLEDs.

Imcrazy · February 15, 2014

I think the adjustment maybe key I think the lights are aimed too low.

I take it silverados work better in this area because of the dual head light setup?

dkeven · February 16, 2014

Philips screwdriver adjustment, very easy to do. Google it for photos and videos showing exactly where to find it.

I believe this simple adjustment as you say adjusts the headlight aim only, I have found that to get the high beam where it is on the road and really useful it renders the low beam way to low and useless. If there was a way to independantly adjust the shutter height it would really be nce. Anyone really know if adjusting the shutter height is possible or is it fixed.

gone_fishing · February 16, 2014

Has anyone looked into replacing the Sierra's factory 9012 (HIR-2, 55watt) bulb with a 9011 (HIR-1, 65watt) bulb? The 9011 has quite a bit more lumens then the 9012. The 9012 is considered a low beam bulb while the 9011 is a high beam. Don't know if it might be too bright for on coming traffic when in low beam.

wildturkey · February 18, 2014

Ok I took my car back to the auto place where I bought my putco 9005's that I had installed had then swapped out for putco 9012 nitro blue much better light output probably the same as stock headlights. Match led driving lights better white no more yellow. 9005 which is almost identical except the bulb is shorter and it most project light at a different spot than 9012. I saw one of each in with the lights on 9012 focuses different than 9005's. I also had putco 5202 fog lights installed as we'll took out my led's and it looks more white than blue. All in all I'm happy with the light output and lights all match better.....

Edited February 18, 2014 by wildturkey

dkeven · February 18, 2014

Okay it was foggy tonight so I stopped on a straight back road and fiddled with the light aim, conclusion is if you adjust the high beams for max distance and to be on the road as opposed to up in the trees when you shutter to low beam they suck. Low beam appears way low. Adjustng the low beam to correct distance and height puts highs back up into the tree. Shutter needs to be adjustablle or live with sucky low beams to get good high beams. Left what I called a happy medium lows to close to the front of me and highs a little to high to be useful at distance. Dont see how hid is going to improve this as it appears a shutter adjustment issue more than anything.

Ezekiel2517 · February 19, 2014

this is very troubling. I hate these headlights. GM should have a recall over this mess. Someone is going to have a wreck because they could not see the road properly.

FieldMarshal · February 19, 2014

OK, recant my earlier statement about adjusting the lights downward. It has now worsened my ability to see further down the road. I missed a right turn last night, on a dark road because I couldn't even see it. It was misting and road were wet from snow melt. I adjusted them back to factory defaults. I guess I'm gonna have to live with these things. GM is going to have to come up with an alternative solution. Somebody will get hurt. These new trucks are dangerous.

GMC-AT · February 19, 2014

This is exactly what I found. I raised the lights some.. and my low beams with the fog lights are pretty good now. But my high beams are in the trees some. Since the fog lights can't be used with the hi beams.. I have found by using the low beams adjusted up a little with the fog lights on... is the best combo. I don't even use the hi beams anymore..

I do have the VLED fog light bulbs and Putco headlight bulbs.

Okay it was foggy tonight so I stopped on a straight back road and fiddled with the light aim, conclusion is if you adjust the high beams for max distance and to be on the road as opposed to up in the trees when you shutter to low beam they suck. Low beam appears way low. Adjustng the low beam to correct distance and height puts highs back up into the tree. Shutter needs to be adjustablle or live with sucky low beams to get good high beams. Left what I called a happy medium lows to close to the front of me and highs a little to high to be useful at distance. Dont see how hid is going to improve this as it appears a shutter adjustment issue more than anything.

Canary59 · February 20, 2014

I believe this simple adjustment as you say adjusts the headlight aim only, I have found that to get the high beam where it is on the road and really useful it renders the low beam way to low and useless. If there was a way to independantly adjust the shutter height it would really be nce. Anyone really know if adjusting the shutter height is possible or is it fixed.

this is what I have been thinking. Adjust the high beams to where they are acceptable and not in the trees. Then open up the shutter to where low beams are not to low. I have been playing with them a little, but been to busy to really dive into. My lights are also a little weak to the left but can't find any way to adjust them horizontally. Just seems to be to big of differential between high and low beam. If the shutter is adjustable this might make a huge improvement.

Silver space ship · February 20, 2014

I've got a silverado LT and was jealous of all you guys with the fancy looking headlights but after reading this post it sounds like as far as lighting goes my old school lights work better. I have no complaints about my lighting but would like a closer to HID color and if it ends up being brighter too that would be just fine. It seems like most of the talk is about the projector lights but does any one have any suggestions for the 2 bulb non projection?

EXSlider400 · March 5, 2014

I just added the 9012 Putco Mirror White pt# 239012MW. Unsure if a HIR but hope they are brighter than oem.

LTZ2014 · March 6, 2014

I have a 14 silverado LTZ and am about to pull the trigger on putco 9012 for my high beams and putco H11 for the lows. Are the H11 going to be as bright as stock? Any other bulbs that might be brighter for low beams? Even though the 9012 is a low beam bulb will it still work for my high beams and be brighter then a 9005?

Edited March 6, 2014 by LTZ2014