dleibman

PEKlNGDUCKK

The issue is with the housing, not the bulb. The OEM housing does not direct light very well, you're only going to see marginal improvements after putting in brighter bulbs. Get a set of projector headlights (Radioflyer makes a good set) to see real improvements.

Having said that, the 9011/9012 modification takes about 30 seconds with simple tools, instruction videos are all over Youtube.

sstonebreaker

The projectors are the cat's ***. I have a set of Radio Flyer's stealth cannons on my C5 and they're worth every penny - WAY better than stock. I just wish he'd had the low profile popup style when I was in the market - I like the looks better than the fixed style.

Until you get some projector headlights, you might think about some LED bulbs. I put some on my son's toyota, which uses the same 9004/9005 headlight bulbs as the C5, and the improvement was like night and day.

dleibman

are they plug and play or do you have to change or add anything. will the wattage be to high to handle the wiring. new at this, sorry

Velocity_Vette

There are LED bulbs that fit directly into the C5 without any further modifications, but you'll find that LED bulbs can be rather high priced. You'll pay in the area of $70-$100 typically to change just the low beams to LED.

The 9011/9012 HIR conversion mentioned following your initial post is a good under-the-radar modification that is a solid cost alternative. While not as high output as LEDs, HIRs will light better than OEM and they're very similar to 9004/9005s sans a slightly larger mount tab that has to be trimmed. HIRs some years back used to be fairly cost prohibitive but they are so common now that they have come down in price. They're comparable in price to say Silverstar halogens.

PEKlNGDUCKK

They are plug and play after cutting the tab. I used my favorite search engine and found a couple of posts regarding this (there are hundreds), feel free to browse through for more information.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-low-beam.html
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...nd-9012-a.html
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...4-harness.html

I also used my favorite video search engine and found a tutorial, feel free to watch through. Again, the process is very simple.



The best cost/performance ratio is to modify the HIR 9011 bulbs into the stock Halogen housing. The alternative is to buy a set of real projector headlights and a set of LED bulbs or HIDs if you wanted a significant upgrade.

LED bulbs can be found for about $20-$30. Unfortunately, LED bulbs in Halogen housing have the same detrimental effects has HIDs in Halogen housing: they blind oncoming drivers. So I would highly advise against LED bulbs in stock housing.

dleibman

sstonebreaker

They're plug and play. And the wattage is the same or slightly lower than halogens, so no worries.
As far as blinding oncoming traffic, the LED's are way better than the HID's in stock headlight capsules, in my experience. The LED's are designed to fit the stock housings, so they scatter much less light into the eyes of oncoming traffic. I've never been flashed while driving my son's toyota, even on long straightaways when the oncoming driver had plenty of time to let me know the lights were bothering them. Some of the LED bulbs even .

PEKlNGDUCKK

HIDs are also designed to fit stock housings as the fitment is standard industry-wide (H11, 9001, 9011...etc) so the LED bulb's ability fit in the stock housings does not validate their use in stock housing. Also, never "been flashed while driving my son's toyota , even on long straightaways" is not an accurate metric to determine whether or not your lights are too bright.

I don't know how else to solidify my statements besides pointing out the obvious logic that LEDs bulbs, just like HIDs, are way too bright for the halogen housing to properly focus the light output. This results in blinding oncoming traffic. This is also why no vehicle from a factory uses an LED bulb for their low beam without having a projector setup.

Here's a Jalopnik article on the issue as well.

https://jalopnik.com/should-you-swap...eds-1728026383

LEDs in halogen housings have been discussed all over the internet, feel free to look around other car enthusiasts' forums as well.

monteholic

for any of the LED, HID ...
to put it simply...
if it is not DOT approved...it is illegal

sstonebreaker

sstonebreaker

The early LED bulbs were not properly focused. The newer bulbs create a much smaller point source that is designed for factory housings focal points. HID bulbs do not create a point source of light - the whole bulb glows, which is why stock housings can't handle them. The newer LED's on the other hand, have been approved by the DOT. See the link on my previous post. Click on the bottom product picture. It's the approval letter from the NHTSA for the LED bulbs.

sirdano

Wow finially an exact replacement. How is your light output with these? Any pictures. Thinking about changing my HIR to these

Any problems with the radio interferance I have read?

sstonebreaker

They're 10 times better than halogens. They do not project as far down the road as HID's, but they're way better than halogens. And they do not spray light everywhere. The low beams have a decent cutoff. Not as sharp as projector beams, but decent enough not to blind oncoming traffic. As to the radio interference, I've never noticed any. The radio in the toyota isn't the greatest, but I've never heard any buzzing or anything like that when the headlights are on.

The one thing you have to watch out for is reliability. Quality is really variable between different brands - the first set of LED's I bought burned out in 3 months. The second set, which came with a 3 year warranty, has been working fine for over 2 years.

My advice would be to not buy the cheapest lights and instead opt for a set with a warranty. Don't buy the most expensive set, either - these things are like fishing lures. Some of them are designed more to catch the fisherman than the fish, if you know what I mean. Buy a set that has a decent warranty. I've been real happy with .

ArmchairArchitect

Go with MOSTPLUS LEDs, read this thread:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...n-or-ebay.html

Route99

Good info for those wanting to upgrade their lights (that's everyone who drives their C5 after dark) and don't want to pull the trigger on a good set of projector lights.
Especially good to note the DOT certification. Thanks, sstonebreaker!
However, I will say that even after using the MostPlus, I was still very impressed when I switched to the RadioFlyer set up.

sstonebreaker

Same here. I thought $1200 was way steep when I bought them, but I NEEDED better night vision. But after using them for two years, they're worth every penny. Only thing I'd do different would be to go with the low profile popups instead of the light cannons simply because I like the popup look better.

They saved my car, these headlights. I was coming back to Fort Worth from Roswell NM one night and came around a curve and lit up a whole herd of feral pigs. I was able to stop in time to keep from hitting them. Had I still had the stock halogens, I believe my car would have been totaled.