ghlkal

These are still a little expensive, but when the price drops I'm considering getting these.

I see three suppliers (and they may actually be the same light)

Nighthawk
Phillips
Truck-Lite

Here's a link
Has anyone gone to LED headlights? I'd be interested in your thoughts.

1993C4LT1

Forum member speedycat has some led headlights on his Ruby. They are "jw speaker" brand. Those headlights you posted are priced good, IMO. Might buy them myself.


Edit: I just don't like the "ge" logo But I can look past that. Is that price for the pair, or one headlight?

gdl2165

I have the Truck-Lites in mine, absolutely love the light output, they're totally awesome. Those GE lights look to be the same design as the Truck-Lites, I have no clue whether they're the same manufacturer. Check Ebay, you can find the Truck-Lites there for $360 for the pair.

There are only two real issues I have.
1. I'm no longer able to use my fog lights. If I turn the fogs on, the high beams come on and the switch has no effect whatsoever. I switched back to the stock lights temporarily as a test and the fogs then work correctly so I'm positive this is an issue caused by the LED lights. It's really not a big issue for me as the stock fogs are really pretty useless anyway. I contacted Truck-Lite's tech support and they told me what I'd have to do to fix it is to ground the headlight relay separately. So far I haven't seen the need to fix it.
2. Don't drive in the snow with LED headlights. They put out no heat so the snow will just pack up on the lenses. Not a real issue for most Corvette drivers because these cars tend to stay garaged whenever the weather's bad. I have Truck-Lite LEDs in my 97 Jeep Wrangler as well and I have to rely on the fog lights on it whenever there's snow.
I think the early JW Speaker lights had a heating circuit in them for this very reason but I believe they've done away with that.

1993C4LT1

Well, if I can't use my fogs I'll pass. My fogs are very useful, I've got HID fogs

" By James White - September 10, 2014
Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought these for my 1991 Chevrolet Corvette. Installed these lights turned them on and thought they looked absolutely amazing. But when i tried to turn on my factory fog lights it made my high beams come on, and if i turned on just my parking lights the head lights would flicker very dim flashes. I called ge tech support and that was a waste of time they told me that there was something wrong with my car. the wiring has never been touched and it has worked for the last 23 years. I re installed my incandescent lights and everything work as it should. I suspect that because these leds do not draw as much power my electrical system doesn't know what to do with them. I didn't want to mess with Resistors to make them work. I gave them three stars because they didn't work for me. But if they worked correctly I would give them five because the looked great. Amazon was great they let me return them with out any problems"

TorchTarga94

The reason your fogs no longer work is because the fog light ground is through the high beam filament...obviously an LED has no filament. They are right, directly ground your headlights or even better run a relay harness to provide more juice to the lights as well as provide a direct ground. Simple fix. You have to do the same thing with HID headlights.

gdl2165

Something I've wondered, maybe you'll know the answer. Would it also work to just ground the fog lights directly? I've been hesitant to cut my stock wiring and I'd like to be sure something's going to work before I actually do it.

TorchTarga94

Yes it will but it might do something screwy with your instrument cluster. As in, the blue high beam indicator may constantly be on when you have the fogs on.

For what its worth, installing a headlight wiring harness requires no modification to the stock wiring, it is literally plug and play. No cutting/splicing. You can build your own or buy one.

gdl2165

I really appreciate your input, this is precisely why I didn't want to start hacking away at the stock wiring without knowing what I'm doing. Any clues on where to find instructions to build the harness or where to buy one? I tried a google search and all I'm coming up with is stock harnesses.

TorchTarga94

No worries.

Here is a harness you can buy. Not sure if the wiring is long enough for the C4 since our battery is further away from the lights than most and our lights flip. I also can't speak to the quality of it. Some say the relays are cheap, but as long as you keep them dry I see no problem with it.


The best option would be to build your own. Email Daniel Stern Lighting and get all the relays, connectors, etc.... through him, and then source the wiring itself locally.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ys/relays.html

Here is a great write up from a Jeep forum, same H4 plug as we use.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f20/m...inside-510221/

It is a lot simpler than it looks, don't let the schematic scare you. All you are really doing is drawing the power directly from the battery, and grounding the wires directly to the frame. You use one Headlight plug as the trigger source for the relay. Once you turn your headlight switch inside the car, it triggers the relay to pull power straight from the battery, instead of through the switch, and all the associated wiring etc... It is much safer and extends the life of all lighting components, while also improving light quality and output.


P.S.- Great find on the LED replacement lamps. I've known of the JW Speaker and truck lites, but these are much more affordable and should drop in the future.

gdl2165

Thanks, this is really appreciated. Here I thought I was replying to a thread to help someone out and ended up getting helped myself. I'll be contacting Daniel Stern Monday, looks like I'll have another project soon.

-=Jeff=-

Correct on the grounding. I too have some issues but with H4s. I will be rewiring them to work for something like LEDs when I get that far

Impala Balko

Do these lights have a high beam?

1993C4LT1

Yes, they do.

gdl2165

Yes and the Truck-Lite high beams are fantastic. The GE lights look to be the same design, the low beams are the upper 2/3 of the light, the high beams keep that lit and add in the bottom 1/3 which is aimed further down the road.

1993C4LT1

Any pics?

gdl2165

I posted pics in another lighting thread back when I first installed them. Didn't know about the fog light issue at that time. Hopefully this link will take you directly to my pics.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1586472458

A bit further up in that thread you can see some pics of the JW Speakers that speedycat installed.

rocco16

I have 100/80W H4's in mine that work perfectly. They can only be "wired" one way. What issues are you having with yours?

mako41

I installed a pair of JW Speaker LED headlights and absolutely love them. They put out more usable light than the HID's in my newer vehicles. Night and day difference from the OEM halogens! I can actually see at night now!

But I also have the same issue with the OEM fogs. What did you do to fix this. Can we run a ground from the OEM fogs without hacking into the headlight/foglight harness'? The question is where to place it? I have an '89, where is the headlight relay that Truck-Lite suggests grounding to fix this issue.

You don't need to run an entire auxiliary headlight harness as suggested by TorchTarga04 above with a separate ground and direct power from the battery. The LED's don't need the extra power and the extra harness is not necessary and complete overkill for non halogen headlights. We need to figure out where to run a fog specific ground, that's all.

Let me know your solution if you find one. Thanks

TorchTarga94

Correct, you don't need a harness for the LED lights, it is overkill from a power supply standpoint, but, it will solve the issue with the fogs not working and it is plug and play. I don't see a problem here? Its easy to do and completely reversible.

gdl2165

Agreed 100%. I'm going to do the relay harness just to fix the foglight issue. I'd rather do that than start hacking up the stock wiring in the hopes of fixing it without knowing for certain what will work and what won't.

On my 96 I understand the headlight relay is under the dash on the passenger side, not sure if the 89 relay is in the same position. Regardless, I think that method would still entail cutting the stock wiring harness and then running a ground to the relay. I like the idea of the plug-and-play relay harness much better than the thought of cutting my stock wiring.