Sylvania SilverStar/ZEVO LED Exterior Lighting Upgrade

f5fstop · September 15, 2015

don't need resistors, find the electronic relay for your truck.

resistors for LED is soooo 2007.

you do not need to get LED to be brighter, the stronger reason is lower energy.

I got mad at the bright ones, put amber in the license plate...and front parking.

looks factory.

They should have a full housing tail lamp LED swap prebuilt by now for the newer trucks...have not searched.

the 88-98 has been out for some time selling like hotcakes..swap the whole assembly out for prebuilt led circuits, I am finishing off my 96 just this week with the tail lamps.

There is a chance for an error if you have the wrong year tail lamp circuit installed. The 1996 needs one that is not like 1988. Took me along time to figure that one out..as no one is giving advice.

anyway, the full led swap gets rid of the whole 10 year quagmire.

My truck is the entire parking circuit LED. No incandescent.

44 bulbs so far, interior, exterior.

The traditional headlamps, I have found some reasoning to stay old school. Keep the good incandescent bulbs for those.

I have replaced the back lights with Anzo LED assemblies, backup lights, cargo light, third mounted stop, license plate lamps, front turns all with LEDs. Sorry to say,the "so 2007" statement is incorrect for a 2015. The Anzo's came with their own resistor packs, and for the front LED replacements needed resistors to prevent hyper flash. NO other way around it, at least on my 2015 Silverado. There is no electronic relay or flasher module to be replaced. Can't speak for prior to 2008.

I first installed the Anzo assemblies, backup, cargo, license plate and rear center mounted stop lamp bulbs. And one of the Anzo resistors came lose, and the second I turned on that signal, the IP display noted a bulb was burned out in the right rear. Fixed connector all is well.

Installed the front bulbs and just out of curiosity, checked before adding the resistor to the one bulb I replaced, and sure enough, computer gave me a message in the IP display.

So installed the other three and a resistor to each LED and no problems at all.

Also went with white super bright bulbs for license plate, cargo and backup, red for center mounted brake bulbs and amber for front signals. All I read at all LED sites, as well as talking with other people, recommended going with a LED of the same color as the housing.

Again, on the newer Silverados the circuit for the signals come directly from the body control module; they do not come through a flasher module (aka relay), so, regardless of how old 2007 it is, to prevent the hyper flash, you need resistors for each LED turn bulb. Otherwise, the computer does not see the programmed draw on that circuit and assumes a bulb is burnt out or missing, and hyper flashes the system.

Here's a schematic of a modern Silverado turn signals...

Tried to post a schematic, but get an error that I cannot use "that image extension on this community." Not sure what it means. But the schematic showed the the turn signals are fed directly from the BCM.

Edited September 15, 2015 by f5fstop

Zane · September 16, 2015

Zane, thanks for the review and write up. Where did you purchase the ZEVO 194 LED's? I can't seem to find the exact ones for sale anywhere.

We picked them up directly from Sylvania. However, I found them for sale on amazon, right here.

truckofwinandawesome · September 16, 2015

I actually installed an earlier version of the ZEVO LED lamps (they were from Sylvania, they just didn't have the ZEVO branding yet) for My Little Aveo and the difference between the LEDs and the old incandescent bulbs were TREMENDOUS! I plan on doing the same modification to both the truck and our Suzuki very soon!

Sent to the Interwebs by a Phone Shaped Apple

bakerman · September 16, 2015

We picked them up directly from Sylvania. However, I found them for sale on amazon, right here.

Oh ok. I didn't realize they were the same ones, thanks man!

slj2008 · September 16, 2015

Zane: Thanks for the info. pick a set up from local parts store 194 blubs (not Cheap). its a nice bright lite ,not a yellow one. YOU will be happy with them. I have too more set on order.

BlackZ71Silverado · September 27, 2015

$159.00 WOW!

For that amount of money you can purchase real HID's for lows, fogs, full interior and marker LED's and have money left.

They really want a lot of money for that stuff, hope you really enjoy them for the price you paid.

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Erion109 · January 30, 2018

Any updates on the replacement LED tail light bulb?

Erion109 · January 30, 2018

On ‎9‎/‎26‎/‎2015 at 10:23 PM, BlackZ71Silverado said:

$159.00 WOW!

For that amount of money you can purchase real HID's for lows, fogs, full interior and marker LED's and have money left.

They really want a lot of money for that stuff, hope you really enjoy them for the price you paid.

Sent from my crappy iPhone 6

using Tapatalk

You could purchase "real" HIDs with ballast from some cheap, Chinese manufacturer; that will work for a very limited time before you have problems. Then you can't run down to the store and pick up a new bulb or ballast. You'll have to send your old one in for a warranty. In the meantime, you can deal with the PITA of swapping out to your old bulbs that came out. You can also spend all of your time getting hi-beamed by oncoming traffic because your light dispersion is ALL over the place. Up in trees, eyes of oncoming drivers, etc. A "real" HID is designed to be housed in a projector headlamp housing and not a bowl from an incandescent lamp. When you see "real" HIDs at full power, there is a distinct cut-off line when you pull close to a solid object (i.e. a wall). When you just put an HID bulb in an incandescent housing, you lose this cutoff and all of the focused light that you would normally get with a projector housing. If you want a real HID upgrade, check out theretrofitsource.com for some valuable information on the right way to perform a "real" HID upgrade. Otherwise, go buy a set of 55 watt HID bulbs and spend your nights pissing off everyone you share the road with (to include police officers, who will ticket you).