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Usually I drive my Corvette in the daytime, but last week I drove it at night. I was surprised how weak the headlights are. I live in a rural area where there are no street lights so it is very dark. There are also lots of deer hiding around every corner.
I want to get brighter lights, but not blinding lights.
I have been searching the forums and youtube and they only seem to be interested in picking the brightest lights possible. It seems that the sylvania ultra halogens or various brands of white LED's, ~5800K, would work.
I don't want to spend more than $100 if possible.
I have the diode dynamics highs and lows in mine. They don't have resistors but tbey work like factory. No issues with the up and down at all. No flashes from oncoming traffic yet either. They aren't cheap but I really like them.
Either do HIR drop in bulbs or bite the bullet and do a full HID / LED projector retrofit.
Outside of a specific set of Hikari Ultra bulbs any drop in LED bulb will actually decrease your lighting performance. Yes, the foreground light "looks" brighter, but the actual light down the road in the useful areas is severely decreased which harms your distance vision as the average drop-in LED bulb is not design correctly to be placed in a halogen assembly. The HIR bulb I referenced is designed for a halogen assembly and will provide better light without the drawbacks.
A member of a forum I’m on has done extensive testing of a significant amount of headlamp bulbs including halogen and LED and the results were eye opening.
I know the experts say don't do LED, only do HIR or better, but I and many others have gotten much better lighting by switching to LED. I never get flashed and I can see 100 times better than the stock 9005 / 9006 bulbs.
Few in the LED users want to discuss the highly concentrated heat buildup from a diode resistor which uses a wiring adapter to support error free car lighting systems. They get hot enough to melt plastic so be aware not to put them next to housings or other wiring.
Or you get LED lights with built-in diodes that don’t last because the heat in the PCB shorts out the light very quickly. I know this because I’ve used error free lights in our Mercedes for 8 years.
I put in halogen style Philips Diamond vision 9005/9006 in our 02 and its much improved in color (5000 K) and field of vision. The color and brightness are pretty much identical to most of the standard LED replacements unless you spend more than double/triple price for a noisy set of LED’s with built in fans just to try and deal with all the additional heat.
Another point not brought up so far is most LED’s are not great for reflector style factory headlight housings like the C5 has. LED light isn’t easily focused for a Light pattern needed in a reflector style headlight.
If you dont believe me google best LED for a reflective headlight housing. They splash a very bright short field of light thats difficult to focus into a headlight pattern. Very efficient source just not well adapted to older halogen style housings.
Last edited by Hary Gahtoe; Sep 27, 2020 at 11:08 AM.
I had the same concern for value vs performance. I don't drive it at night much but I wanted better performance and to not spend too much. Here is what I did and I am very pleased as its easily a 100% improvement.
For less than $100 I bought the Silvana Silverstar ZXE's for low and high beams and I bought the High 4 kit.
- It's on par w/my 2019 truck w/projector low beams.
- I measured LUX before and after w/a light meter in steps up to 100ft (both the Z06 and my 2019 truck and on the same spot out in the country)
- I measured lens heat w/the 4 high kit.
In July I went on a 1300 road trip and burned light about 25% of the time. No issues at all so far.
These pictures do NOT give the difference justice. Its MUCH better and I really like the white color vs the original yellow.
Last edited by wydopnthrtl; Sep 27, 2020 at 07:56 AM.
2) Hi-4 harness: (Keeps low beams on with high beams) This is also part of all of our projector headlight kits. If you later decide to upgrade, we can discount the cost of the Hi-4 harness. https://sharplightinnovations.com/sh...-light-upgrade
Fog lights are like a puddle light. They’re designed for a short broad pattern not generally helpful in normal nighttime driving; however if you want a short wide beam it would be smarter to think about a fog lights intended purpose by using a dual color (yellow/ bright white) LED for a truly reasonable price that would still work in foggy low visibility driving
Last edited by Hary Gahtoe; Sep 27, 2020 at 09:33 PM.
I played around with different bulbs for a while but ended up dropping the $$ on RadioFlyer (now Sharp Light Innovations) Bi-Xenon ACA kit and it was honestly worth every penny. I do a lot of night driving in rural NC so it was very important to have lighting to see deer and other road hazards, and I have no idea how I drove the car 5 years with the stock units. Out of the halogens I ran, the Silverstar ZXE as someone mentioned above seemed to have the best light output overall. LED bulbs have a poor light pattern in the stock C5 housing, I doubt you finding any that gives you better down-road output. Would strongly recommend the Hi-4 harness as well if sticking with stock lenses.
[QUOTE=djmlax89;1602257335] LED bulbs have a poor light pattern in the stock C5 housing, I doubt you finding any that gives you better down-road output. [QUOTE]
[QUOTE=USAZR1;1602257858][QUOTE=djmlax89;1602257335] LED bulbs have a poor light pattern in the stock C5 housing, I doubt you finding any that gives you better down-road output.
Almost impossible to convince people of that.
Indeed. A proper headlight minimizes foreground light and pushes the light down the road. Drop-in LEDs do the opposite of this.
This is a photograph of a pair of LED headlamp options for an F-150. On the left is the Alpharex headlaight which is your cheap generic headlamp. On the right is the Morimoto headlight, which while not perfect (comapred to an OEM option) is a significantly better engineered option. The average person from the driver's seat would claim the left hand light is better because it's "so much brighter". Look where your eyes focus though, right in front of the truck losing all your down-road vision. The Morimoto is not nearly as bright in the foreground, but the pattern and distance is superior.
The cheap drop-in LED bulb is the left, an HIR bulb or a properly designed headlamp for HID / LED is the right.
The links I provided above have detailed testing of the Amazon drop-in bulbs relative to other options. Yes, the 9006 headlights in these cars are awful, but drop-in LEDs are not improvements.
Last edited by MikeyMcFly; Sep 29, 2020 at 02:36 PM.
I'm the opposite, majority of my driving is at night. and my street has no street lights
I went with projectors. the difference is literally night and day. I went with the stealth light cannons. the pics comparing low bean vs low beam.
light placement is major key if you want actual functional lighting.
Last edited by FourG63 97GST; Sep 29, 2020 at 11:13 AM.
We all agree the stock lights are crap. I switched out for LEDs for over a year. They are brighter. However, the light is badly scattered. The ACA Bi-xenon from sharp light innovations are a HUGE upgrade! They cost more than you wanted to spend, but they are 100% worth it. I know that you're not just looking for the brightest light you can find, and you don't want something that will blind others. That's what's so spectacular about the ACA lights. They have have a super sharp cutoff pattern. As such, you get a very wide and very long light pattern, but it doesn't blind other drivers. You really have to see it in person to truly understand the difference. I have a 3 year old luxury SUV with projector headlights, and LED DTRL, and the ACA headlights in my Corvette are better than the headlights on my SUV!
I'm the opposite, majority of my driving is at night. and my street has no street lights
I went with projectors. the difference is literally night and day. I went with the stealth light cannons. the pics comparing low bean vs low beam.
light placement is major key if you want actual functional lighting.
Looking brighter headlights for C5
