I just performed the Sylvania Silverstar conversion this evening and aside from being a bit underwhelmed, the height adjustments on my headlights seem way off kilter for some reason. Did I do something wrong? Does the manual contain info on how to adjust my headlights.?

 

its those long golden rods ( ) with the torx ends on them that adjusts the height. the shorter ones adjust the side-to-side.

 

First reseat the bulbs you might not have one all of the way in.
Very easy to do.

 

I agree with all the earlier posts.

Also do the 9005 conversion and run the "high beam" lights in the low sockets. Quick, easy and a big improvement.

 

Thanks for the replies. I did in fact do the 9005 high beam to low beam conversion. I only saw the torx adjuster for the side to side. I'll have to look a little longer for the up/down. I worked on getting the bulbs in for quite a while. The driver's side went in easier and felt firmer than the passenger side. Anyway, I'll give it another go.

So both torx rod adjusters are accessible beneath the little flat round panel on the inside of the headlight shrouds? Weird that I only saw the one...

 

Oddly enough, I found it to be just the opposite. They sure make getting to the short one a PIA, though...

I finally have the bulbs seated nicely and discovered a problem that I hadn't anticipated with the low beam conversion... I just couldn't seem to get the low beam seated correctly in the reflector housing no matter how I tried. I've got a knot on my forearm from shoving it back there too much (ouch!). In examining the stock bulb, I noticed that it has little raised bumps where the three mounting tabs are, to provide a tighter fit than the Silverstar 005's do. So I took some steel reinforced putty and recreated those little bumps near the tabs and let them set up before reinserting the bulb. That seemed to do the trick.

I wish I hadn't screwed with the adjusters, but the barn door was already open on that one, so I readjusted as best as I could in my garage, trying to match the right fixture with the left. Am I correct in that the low beam pattern on the right side is slightly different than the left? I sure hope so, because mine is, and I think I've got it as good as I'm going to get it. I'm looking forward to trying them again tonight.

One last question. I've never really noticed this before because I'm usually in the car when I operate the lights, but I've noticed that the passenger side pop-up doesn't operate as smoothly as the driver side. As it's closing, it seems to drop suddenly for the last couple of inches, rather than smoothly wind back down.

Is there an adjustment for this? Or should I just add it to the laundry list for my local dealer (I still have GMPP). TIA.

 

Sounds like the plastic gears in the motor assemblies are beginning to wear. They will one day fail!!! There shouldnt be any slop!! When does your warranty expire? If it is soom, I would make them fail and then have them replace them!!



Bill

 

Make them fail? That sounds somewhat nefarious... Wouldn't the fact that it's in the process of failing be enough for them to replace it under warranty?

 

Haa Haaaa!! You think the dealer or some aftermarket warranty company is going to replace something that is still working?? Theres nothing in any service manual, book, TSB or guide that says " If the corvette owner says that he has slop in his head light motors, just go ahead and replace them". They still work! In the eyes of GM, unless there is some sort of mechanical failure, your on your own! The only reason why I said that is; I know from experience that excessive lost motion in the gears, that normally indicates that you have gear wear. Gear wear, usually indicates that a failure is soon to follow. You just better hope that it is with in your warranty period. Sometimes, you just have to make things work in your favor!

 

Gotcha.

Hey, new question. Has anyone else had to realign their headlights after installing the Silverstars? I went for a drive last evening and was horrifed to see that the beam pattern is practically all concentrated about 10 feet in front of the car, high beams included. Something seems dreadfully wrong. My stock lights looked far better than these. I think I can get better coverage by raising both sides, but I'm a little perplexed that that would even be necessary. The bulbs are in and seated as far as possible. What's going on, here??

 

I found the same thing. After intalling the Silverstars my aim was waaay off. I checked the seating of the blubs numerous times and they were ok. I even switched the bulbs left to right and they were still off the same amount.

After aiming the lights, all was well.

 

Wow, I'm VERY relieved to hear that. Was it the same for you in that the aim was very low after installing the Silverstars?

 

Yes actually, they were aimed very low. It must be the way the bases are manufactured. I thought maybe it was just the set I bought.

 

Well, I managed to strip the torx inside of the height adjuster (what kind of metal are they using in there, lead?!!!!) but fortunately I was able to fit a socket over the outside of it and adjust it that way. I've raised both sides quite a bit and perhaps too high. I'll take it out onto my street tonight and really dial them in properly.

I thought it was weird that the adjustment rods on the driver's side appears to be plastic, whereas the adjustment rods on the passenger side are metal.

 

Lubricate everthing to do with adjusting with some dry spray lube...those torx insets are crap, I wound up doing the same as you with a socket on the outside of the adjuster........Aim, drive, aim,drive, pull up to a building to shine lights, aim, drive, aim,drive. What a fiasco but when you get it well worth the effort. Why the aim goes off baffles me.

 

Well, I'm finally done. After aiming tonight, I was perplexed to see that my high beams were actually lower than the normal beams on one side, but not the other. I wound up re-installing the lights while they were on so I could see what kind of pattern they were throwing on the garage wall. Once I got the high beams paired up, I adusted the low beams until I got them to throw a pattern as close to the other side as possible. Then I went out to the street and drove around, adjusted, drove around more, readjusted more, etc., until I got everything to look right. Whew. This was more of an ordeal than I thought. Glad it's over. Wish they were HIDs...

 

Yeah, it's a crazy process on the aiming.......prolly could do a cam change in the time farting around with the lights

 

My final post and follow up... Last evening, I took a drive out to some nearby dark, country roads (with no streetlights) to test out the Silverstars and I'm generally satisfied with the results. I may still need to slightly tweak the passenger side to have it aim out to the right slightly more. I noticed that when my high beams are on I'm getting a little more illumination on the far left side then I think I should be.

As a funny aside, I noticed that on the main highway, on my way to the isolated, dark roads, a motorcycle LEO was sitting on a side street, looking for speeders. Then, a mile or so down the interstate, before I turned off, I noticed another LEO directly behind me. He followed me around for awhile as I was testing my lights and was probably wondering WTF I was doing, but I eventually turned off on an even smaller road to turn around and head back home and that's where he broke off the tail. I was wondering if this guy was going to pull me over and if so, on what grounds because I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was very careful not to hit the brights if there was any oncoming traffic, etc.

In conclusion, thanks for all the help, gents. Much appreciated. I think I can live with the Silverstars for awhile.