Has anyone tossed the HID headlight and gone with the LED headlight conversion kit? It is too damn expensive to have another HID go south. I have a 2014 C7 with only 29,000 miles and the left HID headlight. I hardly drive at night, so there are very little hours on that failed HID bulb. It will cost $945.00 to change out two HID bulbs. LED headlights have a much longer expected life. Please advise if you have made the conversion. Thanks

 

Despite lumen claims of some LED bulbs, HID bulbs are still superior in lumen output and beam pattern.

 

I wouldn't say that. The housing they are installed in is what makes either bulb work well or not. Installing a LED bulb into a housing meant for a Xenon is not going to result in very good light output. I have had LED and Xenon lights in factory and non factory housings and the only decent light output came when the housings were matched.

 

Well, I bought a new pair of bulbs for ~$230 and took the nose off and swapped out the bulbs myself.

Rumor is going around that you can access the bulbs by pulling the front wheel and opening the fender liner. I haven't proven this and will investigate this access if I lose another bulb.

Elmer

 

One thing that shortens the life of the HID bulbs, is the non-defeatable Auto Headlight feature. My headlamps turn on everytime I start the car in my garage, and then turn off when I pull the car outside. These unnecessary ON/OFF cycles of the HID bulb eats up the life of the bulb. GM should have configured the BCM firmware to have the Auto Headlights be a default OFF, rather than the default ON.

 

Most housings/projectors today are designed for halogen or HID bulbs. This means when inserting a LED bulb into those housings, it is dependent on how well the LED bulb mimics the light point source of the original halogen or HID bulb. The reason this becomes an issue, is that halogen's point source is a filament, HID a globe in the bulb and these create continuous light 360 degrees. It is usually not possible to create a true 3500+ lumen led light source in such a small space. The true equivalent would be a single LED chip that could put out 3500+lumens, 360 degrees. Instead, it takes multiple chips to put out that amount of light, they typically have spaces between the chips, and the number of chips it takes are sometimes filling a bigger space than the original HID or halogen light source. Therefore it IS dependent on the bulb. Housings/projectors that are designed for LED's typically have the LED's built directly into them. The LED's are not in an interchangeable "bulb" format. Therefore, you are typically never inserting an LED bulb into a housing designed for LED's.

Anyway, the best thing I can recommend to the OP is to do your research, as there is so much misinformation out there. hidplanet is an excellent place to read up on this. The last thing you want to do is degrade your lighting.

One other thing to keep in mind is that if you go the LED bulb route, make sure you research which are quality bulbs. Lots of LEDs out there not manufactured with good designs, good quality control or good current management, which as a result, will have less lifespan than the HID bulbs you are trying to replace.

 

Easy peasey. Before starting I always turn the lights to parking on start, and turn off auto lights mode when entering the garage. Stops the problem.

 

I am too lazy for that.....I am working on a mod to change the auto headlights be a default OFF. Also, I think turning off the autoheadlights (with the headlight switch) turns off the daytime running lights. I would like to keep the daytime running light ON, while the autoheadlights are OFF. Not sure why GM linked these two functions together.

 

I agree with the others in this thread. Aftermarket LED headlight conversion kits are terrible. I did this on my motorcycle and switched back. What you see Audi doing with LED headlights is a very different design using a different type of LED and housing.

 

83,000 miles on my '15, bought in 2014 - lots of cycles during that time, not a single glitch......

Buddy of mine also has a '15 with comparable miles... zero problems. As I said, lots of cycles......

 

Even worse is mine turns the headlights on in the garage just from opening a door while the car is off. Makes it a pita when I'm working on stuff inside and they keep doing that.

 

 

^^^
Yup - I turned this feature off. It was default on when I bought the car.

 

Now why didn't I think of that
Thanks guys

 

I have a 2016 C7 and my headlights do not come on when opening the doors