I am finding my headlights are not very effective. Anyone having a similar Issue? Garage (not chev dealership) saying swapping out for new ones wont make much of a difference. Any thoughts or guidance?

 

*Moving to Lighting & Electrical*

I assume that you have the standard HID (high intensity discharge) projector lighting and not the upgrade to LED projectors. In a quick search online I did not see any information on changing from HID to LED, but maybe you can look a little longer/deeper into that option. It won't be cheap, but LED projector lighting is phenomenal.

HID lighting is no slouch though, but there are some things that can affect its light output.

#1 concern I have seen is improper bulb alignment most often seen when cheap aftermarket bulbs are used. The beam pattern for a projector headlamp should have a sharp cutoff with a dip in the cutoff on the left side (in North America anyway) and a fairly dense hotspot of light just to the right of the dip in the cutoff. If there is no hotspot or the hotspot is being clipped by the cutoff, this will drastically reduce the light output from the headlamp. Stock (Osram Xenarc D3S in your case) or high quality replacement bulbs are all that I recommend if replacement is warranted.

#2 thing that I have run into in the past on projectors (both halogen bulb projectors and HID projectors) is the reflective coating on the bowl portion of the projector assembly. What i have seen on a few different model GM & Ford vehicles is the chrome surface coating inside the reflector bowl flaking off reducing output. I diagnose this with a bore scope through the bulb mounting hole.

Checking your headlamp alignment is the last thing I would say could be at fault here, but please only adjust if grossly out of whack. Nothing is worse than inconsiderate driver's who made adjustments to their headlights only to blind oncoming traffic. Attached is a PDF of the adjustment procedure for a 2022 Traverse that should be similar as far as the procedure (not necessarily the location of the adjustment features) and the setup that is necessary to accurately aim the headlamps on these vehicles.

Some notes:

• The eBay/Amazon special bulbs for $30 are to be avoided at all costs as they will just cause headaches down the road (bulb life, output alignment to reflector, etc.). Osram is the original equipment bulb manufacturer and makes very reliable equipment. Phillips also makes some high quality, reliable bulbs in this design.
• Higher color temperature bulbs (stock are rated at 4300K) can make it appear as though the lights are brighter, but this is due to the increased glare of the 'bluer' light output. This increased glare can cause issues for some drivers in inclement weather as well as issues to oncoming traffic, especially if the lights are not adjusted properly.
• Stock ballasts provide 35w of power to the bulbs. It may be possible to use aftermarket ballasts (ex. Morimoto D1/D3 XB2.0 50w) to overdrive the stock bulbs for more light output, but I do not know if there are any aftermarket plug-n-play ballasts for your vehicle so some wiring may need done to make this change. I also do not know how this will affect the life and heat output of the bulb. I would assume this would reduce the life of the bulb as well as increase the heat output from the bulb itself inside the projector which could cause issues with the reflector coating over time.

If this is something that you really want to dig into, The Retrofit Source (link above) has some fantastic projector assemblies that are sure to increase the light output over stock, but this is a fairly involved process that requires the stock housings be cut open to swap in the aftermarket projector assemblies.

If you post some pictures of your current light output against a wall, it may help us diagnose your issue a bit faster.

Hope this helps!