2017 Silverado LED tail light swap

Armo325 · October 29, 2017

Unlike the LTZ headlights, which I love, I don't really care for the styling on the LTZ tail lights. I do, however, like LEDs so I decided to do a swap. For those who haven't considered it, it's a pretty easy process and doesn't require many parts or a ton of skill. Both of those things are good news for me.

Here's the result.

New "bulb" and old bulb:

I prefer to solder all of my connections rather than using the provided wire splice clips. It takes a little longer this way but I like the assurance of a solid connection.

Resistors wired in:

Everything taped up and back in the OEM wire loom:

New LED inside the stock housing:

A couple VERY short clips of the LEDs in action:

Armo325 · December 31, 2017

I had had a few folks ask what I used for this swap, so here are a couple Amazon links:

Bulbs

Resistors

As you can see, you can get everything you need for $41.97 before tax and shipping. Not too bad if you're looking for an inexpensive mod.

Also, it has only been a couple months now but everything is holding up great and I'm still very happy with the look.

DEV1ST8R · February 5, 2018

Those bulbs are highly rated on Amazon - a lot higher than Sylvania Zevos and Philips Visions. Thinking about ordering some...

How are they holding up? Any issues? And would you say they’re about the same intensity as the stock incandescents?

bkesting · February 5, 2018

I just put in the Zevo 921s in for my reverse lights last night. Wow, what a difference!

Armo325 · February 5, 2018

11 hours ago, StealthZ71 said:

Those bulbs are highly rated on Amazon - a lot higher than Sylvania Zevos and Philips Visions. Thinking about ordering some...

How are they holding up? Any issues? And would you say they’re about the same intensity as the stock incandescents?

I bought/installed them last October so, unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of time to give you a good long-term review. That said, they have been great so far. Not a single issue. They’ve seen a temperature range from about 0 to 90 degrees since I got them. I’d say they’re maybe a tad brighter than the stock lights.

I really like the small “projector” lens on the end of the bulb that puts light straight out. This is anecdotal but I think this feature helps the bulbs perform better in a housing designed for incandescent bulbs.

Logan_343 · February 18, 2018

Very nice! I was planning to replace any non-LED bulbs with LED's. I have been looking at Diode Dynamics's lighting and haven't seen a single complaint from them yet. Your setup is pretty nice and very similar to what I want to do to mine.

DEV1ST8R · February 28, 2018

My only holdup on adding LED tail lights is that I'm apprehensive of having to use resistors... Are the resistors only active, and heating up, when the signals/flashers are on? And not in use when the tail lights or brake lights are on?

pgamboa · February 28, 2018

My only holdup on adding LED tail lights is that I'm apprehensive of having to use resistors... Are the resistors only active, and heating up, when the signals/flashers are on? And not in use when the tail lights or brake lights are on?

Correct. Only when turn signal is applied. The resistor gets wired in between the turn signal and ground circuit. The stop Lamp is separate.

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a_salazar08 · March 1, 2018

Thanks for the input! Seems simple enough...

Armo325 · March 2, 2018

On 2/28/2018 at 7:43 PM, a_salazar08 said:

Thanks for the input! Seems simple enough...

The trickiest part, in my opinion, was making sure I had the correct wires. The ground is easy since it's almost always black. The "turn signal control" wire is a different color in every light housing, both front and back, so it can be easy to mix it up with other wires - the brake light power, for example. All told, it really wasn't that bad once the wires were sorted out.

Docknow9 · March 11, 2018

I installed the plug and play resistors with LED bulbs on my 2015 Sierra SLT. They work fine during the day but when I drive at night with my headlights on my turn signals hyper flash. Can my BCU be programmed to stop the hyperflash?

Armo325 · March 11, 2018

9 hours ago, Docknow9 said:

I installed the plug and play resistors with LED bulbs on my 2015 Sierra SLT. They work fine during the day but when I drive at night with my headlights on my turn signals hyper flash. Can my BCU be programmed to stop the hyperflash?

I'm not a software engineer but I suspect the BCM can be programmed for something like that. That said, a dealership absolutely won't help you with anything non-OEM (or anything else, for that matter) so you'd be left figuring out how to program the BCM by other means.

There are some folks around here more knowledgeable on that than I am but I suspect the juice isn't worth the squeeze to figure that out.