Hello to all,
My 2001 red Corvette has dim headlights and I am planning to deal with this with the Radioflyer upgrade. However, seeing that this is such a common complaint I thought I would contact GM directly and get their take. Got a response and here it is verbatim.
Regards,
David Argent

Dear David,
Thank you for contacting the Chevrolet Customer Assistance Center. We appreciate the time you have taken to write us with regard to your concern about the headlamps of your 2001 Chevrolet Corvette.
We would like to apologize for the delayed response due to the current volume of emails we are receiving and more so for the inconvenience brought about by the issue with your vehicle.
Given the technical nature of your concern, we feel it best to refer you to one of our dealerships. We value their perspective and believe that they are in the best position to address your inquiry and review your concern in a complete and timely manner.
Before arrangements are made with the Customer Experience Manager at the Chevrolet dealership, we will need some additional information.
VIN
Mileage
Phone Number
Mailing Address
Preferred Dealer to Work With
If you would like to locate a dealership yourself, just have your ZIP Code handy and kindly navigate your web browser to the following link:
http://www.gm.com/vehicles/dealerLocator.html
For your reference, the Service Request number assigned to your case is 8-1550988237. Please refer to this number on any future correspondence about your case.
If you prefer to expedite the handling of your concern, please contact the Chevrolet Customer Assistance Center at 1-800-222-1020. Customer Relationship Specialists are available Monday through Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact Chevrolet.
Al
Chevrolet Customer Assistance
SR No: 8-1550988237
-----Original Message-----

From: David Argent
Sent: 8/24/2015 07:23:21 PM
To: gmprioritycare@gm.com
Subject: Corvette Headlights

Hi,
I am finding the headlights on my 2001 Corvette to be inadequate for safe night driving. Are there any improvements that you can recommend? Love the car in all other respects
Regards,
David Argent

 

Unless you have some sort of issue with the wiring harness specific to the headlamps, the OEM C5 low and high beam bulbs are no different than they are in other GM cars that use separate bulbs.

Some C5 owners report that the headlamp housings on their cars were not molded properly so when you adjust the low beam lights for proper alignment, the high beams will be either too high or too low. Unfortunately, the low beam and high beam cannot be adjusted independently.

You can use bulbs with a slightly higher wattage and a higher color temparature. Both Philips and Sylvania make such bulbs and they will provide better lighting.

An HID conversion like the ones that Radioflyer sells will be a huge improvement over stock, but it may be reasonable to try a pair of better bulbs like the Philips or Sylvania first.

 

Yours has been a common complaint for many years. I've never had any problems seeing with the stock lighting, but that's not to say it couldn't be better. My personal opinion is that GM is not going to recommend an alternative to you as it would be admitting that the stock lights are not adequate. But you can certainly ask the Chevrolet Customer Service Center.

The Radioflyer does offer some very nice upgrades to the lights and would be worth looking into. There are other kits out there, but the quality may or may not be there.

 

Very strange that the Corvette has such poor headlights, after all there is nothing different about the very conventional headlight design that has been used forever, yet they fail! Makes me wonder what happened?!

 

You buy a car that has the lights very low and you expect them to give the same performance as a truck?

The C5 lights are still quite adequate for posted speed limits (not the autobahn) and meet Fed requirements. If you want to upgrade that is your choice. Just don't end up blinding the oncoming traffic you might reap an unwanted reward.

 

They put a battery that leaks, directly over the BCM... the put a Balancer prone to failure, directly behind the steering rack... and you seem surprised about poor headlights?

 

My factory headlights work more than well enough for safe night driving.

I came from a celica and a 350z that both had projectors and HIDs, so they were certainly brighter, but these are fine.

 

Funny you mention truck. The corvette headlights are at the minimum legal lower mounting height for NHTSA regulations. This means they can be aimed closer to parallel on the road without glare to oncoming traffic. The downside is the 9006 bulb in a dated housing hardly has the punch to effectively illuminate the road at a distance. The angle at which light is reflected back to the driver's eye is also further off 90 degrees so the road appears to be not as well illuminated compared to a truck.

Compare to a 99-02 silverado using the same type headlight and bulb. The headlight is mounted about 12" higher than the c5 and has to be aimed lower to prevent glare to oncoming traffic. While the light is not projecting as far, it is also at an angle such that the road being illuminated is lit far better than compared to the corvette.

Having been in the headlight upgrade business since 2008, I have tried various solution on my personal vehicle ranging from brighter halogen bulbs to HID plug-in kits to custom Projector based systems.

One of my customers sent us this comparison between factory headlights and our Bi-xenon ACA headlights. It's one of the clearest demonstrations of the inferiority of the C5 headlights compared to what modern headlight technology offers:




For further reading on headlight options check out this thread which elaborates on our experience with various headlight upgrades

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...at-doesnt.html

 

I have to be brutally honest I'm not sure why you would contact General Motors as the C5 is so old there's really no reason for a GM dealer to really bother with you other than if you're willing to throw your car at them just so you can claim "my C5 has always been dealer serviced".

Addressing the Terrible Headlights of the C5 Corvette

^^^ This is a blog I recently came across from a few years ago that I have been thinking about and am considering doing to my own car. The owner modified 9011 HIR and 9012 HIR bulbs to fit the 9005 and 9006 housings. HIRs have come down in price (can be had for around $25 a bulb) and most of the initial issues they had have been (for the most part) sorted out, such as short life.

The only physical differences in HIR bulbs compared to the 9005 and 9006 bulbs are the tabs on the top part. The HIR bulbs have to be trimmed to fit into the C5 housings. Otherwise there is no need for wiring modification or addition of a ballast like with HID since HIRs do not draw any additional power.

I have noticed that aftermarket head lights are not something you want to cheap out on, so anything that can be done to retain the factory pop-ups is appealing for me (I could care less how dated they look). For sure you can get flush mount lamps that run $300 but you get what you pay for. Consequently, you can purchase a really quality setup like Radio Flyers' but you'll pay well over four figure.

 

HIR bulbs may be brighter, but they have the same issue as HID bulbs....you're still using the same housing/reflector so you're only putting more light in the same spot. A higher output bulb needs a better quality housing to effectively use the additional output.

Our Bi-xenon ACA headlights (shown below) retain the factory flip-up look with the same exact projector setup as the flush mount Stealth light cannons.....and we sell those for $650







Nearly 50 sets have been pre ordered by members of this forum and the next batch of 50 sets should be available at the end of September.


Projector headlights have been available since the early 80s and HID technology was first used in 91 by BMW. In my opinion, GM should have put this type of headlight (even the original ACA style with a D1S HID light source) in the corvette. With the corvette being their crown jewel, it deserved better and the technology was available. Instead they used headlight that even for the 97 were antiquated. Simply using a free-form reflector with a clear lens would have yielded substantially better results.

 

Radioflyer,

I have a set of ACA projectors identical to what is in the picture. Can I send those to you for your Bi-xenon mod?

 

Surprised they replied at all on a 14 year old car. My 325i lighting is years better, but I really don't drive my Z much in the dark. When I do it's just my daily commute.
Winter is the BMW, when I get to appreciate the good lighting system.

 

Certainly, we have an exchange program for you here:
http://shop.radioflyerinnovations.co...cation-016.htm

 

I totally agree with your statement about headlamp housings not being designed correctly. I have given up on this adjustment issue some time ago, after getting the low beams adjusted properly, I would then turn on the high beams only to find that they light up the tree tops. Absolute horrid design error from GM !!

 

I went with the 9011/9012 HIR bulbs and a 4-Hi harness to keep all bulbs on when using high beams. It made a big improvement over stock, and for the limited amount of night driving I do it works fine. Another option is the European OEM C5 lights. They have glass housings and can use up to 100 watt bulbs.

 

Steve, you must have an early version C5. My Passenger air bag is above my BCM.

 

I'm not so sure that it was so much a GM design error as it was a problem in the supplier of the housings not doing any real level of quality control for the molding process. I would have thought that there would be some level of testing to insure the light beams would be pointing correctly. Of course it's entirely possible that Chevrolet didn't bother to insure that the housings that were delivered met the specs.

I know some other C5 owners whose cars don't have a headlamp alignment issue with the OEM housings. It would be interesting to see just how many C5's for each model year had a problem like this.

 

I have no issues with my STOCK headlights, maybe you need better eyes?

 

In part, I think it's what you get used to.
I much prefer driving my C7 at night than any of my other vehicles.

The HID headlights are the (main) reason.

Sure, the C5 headlights are adequate (I run with the fog lights on as well),
but when compared to the brighter and farther reaching C7 HIDs, they seem lame.

Might also relate to working under flourescent lamps all day, then changing out most of the light bulbs in the house to "daylight" CFLs, so I've become rather accustomed to bright white, not yellowish, light.

 

Cant wait to get mine, this looks awesome!!! I have HIDs in the fogs and they almost outshine the OE lamps, cannot wait to being the lighting up to today's standards!

Also you will get NO WHERE with GM, only way to get anything done is to have enough complaints and incidents logged with NTSHA to trigger an investigation due to a legitimate safety concern that can be pinpointed to a manufacturing error.