Brightest D3S bulb for factory housing

[Darkstar72]

I am looking for some real world results with a high quality replacement low beam bulb for my 2017 Yukon Denali. I bought some HID $40 specials off Amazon that have a nice color but I’m not impressed at all with visibility when driving at night especially when it rains. I don’t mind putting out the coin for the best option as I don’t want to keep buying cheap crap.

Osram Nightbreakers? Osram Intense Cool Blue? LED options that won’t damage the factory ballasts? Let me know what you’re using and what works best…please. Thanks!

 

[Doubeleive]

I am looking for some real world results with a high quality replacement low beam bulb for my 2017 Yukon Denali. I bought some HID $40 specials off Amazon that have a nice color but I’m not impressed at all with visibility when driving at night especially when it rains. I don’t mind putting out the coin for the best option as I don’t want to keep buying cheap crap.

Osram Nightbreakers? Osram Intense Cool Blue? LED options that won’t damage the factory ballasts? Let me know what you’re using and what works best…please. Thanks!

you could upgrade to 50w ballast's and get a d3s conversion kit and have almost 50% more power, the oem ballast are only 25-30w which is why you have crap output
these ballast are VERY good quality I have been running them for 5 years with no issue's at all and I put them in the wifes truck as well
they originally came with a $400 light kit but the company stopped selling them and I found the source in china, they take around 3- weeks to arrive

2pcs Hylux 50W 2A50 Canbus Ballast HID Xenon Kit for Headlight Replacement Bulb | eBay

2 x Hylux 50W 2A50 ballast. Output Power: 50W. Car Xenon Headlight. Car LED Headlight. Automatic protection for output open circuit/short circuit in 0.5seconds. Anti-electromagnetic interference: S95/54/EC.

www.ebay.com

then you just need a d3s conversion kit, you really just need the harness but there are cheap kits out there with garbage ballast's that include a harness
if you bought aftermarket d3s bulbs they should hold up just fine with 50w ballast's
finding a d3s conversion cable is going to be the tricky part
you could maybe buy one like this and convert the trigger wire to the standard hid plug.

Amazon.com

you can get some incredible add-on fog light/driving light output with some diode dynamics SS3 "max" they are not cheap a set runs about $550 but they are worth it.
they are a true fog wide-angle light as shown below no fog, then with fogs
the upper shot is d5s 6k & 50w ballast's, then the lower shot is + the ss3 max

 

[CMoore711]

+1 to the Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro MAX! I actually have a brand new set for sale specific to the GMC Yukon:

For Sale: BNIB Diode Dynamics SS3 MAX Fog Light Kit '15-'20 Yukon & '07-'15 Silverado

I purchased these for my 2015 GMC Yukon XL Denali and since I no longer have that vehicle I no longer have a need for these fog lights. These are probably the brightest LED fog lights you can install on your vehicle. There are plenty of pictures throughout the forums of other owners with these...

www.tahoeyukonforum.com

I had previously installed OSRAM CBI bulbs in my '15 Yukon Denali XL. If you check out this thread here there are some comparison pictures in post #25 next to stock OEM HID bulbs:

2017 Yukon Denali Head Lights are terrible

Instead of doing a total projector replacement so I could go LED, I'm thinking that it might be easier to just replace what I have with a better bulb. Hopefully with some improvement from factory. I believe I have halogen bulbs (2018 Yukon Denali) but don't know exactly what I have and can...

www.tahoeyukonforum.com

I have OSRAM CBB D1S bulbs in my '13 Escalade ESV and honestly the CBB probably have the slightly brighter and same white type output, but from the front of the vehicle looking at the projector/bulb color they're a little more bluish; But the light output is still very white. It's odd. Take that with a grain of salt though because the HID projectors on the '13 Escalade (GMT 900) are leaps and bounds better than the HID projectors on the K2XX Yukon Denali's. The OEM HID projectors on the K2XX Denali's are just garbage.

The HID Ballasts that @Doubeleive posted above are top notch; I've had great experience with Hylux ballasts on previous vehicle HID set ups. You're biggest challenge will be mounting them and harness connections. Because the stock D3S HID Ballasts are mounted to be integrated into the headlight housing and an aftermarket HID Ballast will not fit in the OEM location.

I have a brand new set of custom projector retrofit headlights that were never installed that I might be willing to part with. If you're interested PM me.

 

[Doubeleive]

+1 to the Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro MAX! I actually have a brand new set for sale specific to the GMC Yukon:

For Sale: BNIB Diode Dynamics SS3 MAX Fog Light Kit '15-'20 Yukon & '07-'15 Silverado

I purchased these for my 2015 GMC Yukon XL Denali and since I no longer have that vehicle I no longer have a need for these fog lights. These are probably the brightest LED fog lights you can install on your vehicle. There are plenty of pictures throughout the forums of other owners with these...

www.tahoeyukonforum.com

I had previously installed OSRAM CBI bulbs in my '15 Yukon Denali XL. If you check out this thread here there are some comparison pictures in post #25 next to stock OEM HID bulbs:

2017 Yukon Denali Head Lights are terrible

Instead of doing a total projector replacement so I could go LED, I'm thinking that it might be easier to just replace what I have with a better bulb. Hopefully with some improvement from factory. I believe I have halogen bulbs (2018 Yukon Denali) but don't know exactly what I have and can...

www.tahoeyukonforum.com

I have OSRAM CBB D1S bulbs in my '13 Escalade ESV and honestly the CBB probably have the slightly brighter and same white type output, but from the front of the vehicle looking at the projector/bulb color they're a little more bluish; But the light output is still very white. It's odd. Take that with a grain of salt though because the HID projectors on the '13 Escalade (GMT 900) are leaps and bounds better than the HID projectors on the K2XX Yukon Denali's. The OEM HID projectors on the K2XX Denali's are just garbage.

The HID Ballasts that @Doubeleive posted above are top notch; I've had great experience with Hylux ballasts on previous vehicle HID set ups. You're biggest challenge will be mounting them and harness connections. Because the stock D3S HID Ballasts are mounted to be integrated into the headlight housing and an aftermarket HID Ballast will not fit in the OEM location.

I have a brand new set of custom projector retrofit headlights that were never installed that I might be willing to part with. If you're interested PM me.

I mounted my ballast to the bottom of the upper radiator support with zip ties, you just have to pull the plastic shroud off, with the shroud on everything is out of sight out of mind and is well protected from the elements nice dry spot. also as mentioned above the ballast will be external so you will have to either get a plastic cap for the light housing oir make a small hole and use a rubber grommet for the wires to feed in/out.

 

[vf1000ride]

I've never tried the 55w ballast route but I have a direct plug and play 35W LED D3 bulbs in mine and so far pretty happy with them. They plug into the ballast just like an HID bulb so they just drop right into the housing. Put them in back in January so not a long term test yet for durability but so far so good and brighter than the Osram cool blue I had tried previously.

DDM Tuning

 

[K2 Kaiju]

I used some amz LED DS3s and they are marginally better, but still lacking vs every other HID set-up I have ever owned. Seriously, WTF GM? I have found a good set of LEDs in the fogs helps out tremendously - like about the same output as the low beams, so I always use both. LEDs in the high beams work excellent. I just dont understand why the low beam HID suck so hard...

 

[Darkstar72]

I decided to bite the bullet and just fork out the money for a set of Osram Nightbreaker HIDs as every review I can find on them shows they are the brightest in testing with other HID and LED options. I don't really care about the color temp rating at this point as long as I can see where the hell I'm going. I'm not happy with the price tag that comes with it, but I don't want to dread driving at night anymore in the rain. I will try to get some before and after photos this weekend when I get them installed.

I think upgrading to a 55W ballast would be a huge help, but that is a lot more involved then I care to get over headlights. The $40 HID kit I installed in my 2011 Suburban had better performance than this factory GM HID set up and that was still only with a 35W ballast as well.

 

[Darkstar72]

I got the new bulbs installed on Saturday afternoon, but haven't driven with them at night. Just a quick test shining them on the garage door does seem brighter than the $40 Mars Auto bulbs I picked up off Amazon. Of course when I tried to take pictures on my phone to show how dimly they light up the road the nighttime setting for my iPhone kicked in which leaves the aperature open longer so of course the headlight photos make them look amazing.

I also want to know what the hell where these engineers thinking making that locking ring on the bulb only accessible for the hands of a 6 year old. I hope these Osrams last at least 5 years because that is one simple job I can't stand doing.

 

[Doubeleive]

I got the new bulbs installed on Saturday afternoon, but haven't driven with them at night. Just a quick test shining them on the garage door does seem brighter than the $40 Mars Auto bulbs I picked up off Amazon. Of course when I tried to take pictures on my phone to show how dimly they light up the road the nighttime setting for my iPhone kicked in which leaves the aperature open longer so of course the headlight photos make them look amazing.

I also want to know what the hell where these engineers thinking making that locking ring on the bulb only accessible for the hands of a 6 year old. I hope these Osrams last at least 5 years because that is one simple job I can't stand doing.

GM doesn't want you to change the bulbs, they want you to bring it in for them to make $200 changing it for you.

 

[Darkstar72]

Finally went for a drive at night with the new Osram NightBreakers and they do appear brighter, but nothing that is mind blowing. I guess I will just have to live with it for now as I'm tired of messing around with headlights as I got other irons in the fire.